Fruity as VSTi

  • Thread starter Thread starter Slackmaster2K
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Slackmaster2K

Slackmaster2K

Gone
So I upgraded fruity and was playing with its new "run as VSTi" support. I'm really quite dissappointed. Maybe I'm missing something, but it only synchs right if you start playback from the beginning of the track. Otherwise it either starts playback from the beginning of the pattern or playlist (no matter where you start playback in your app), or it continues where it (not your app) left off...neither sync to the playback time of your application! I even tried getting them to sync via MTC and that didn't help. Using piano roll is somewhat doable, but that kind of defeats what I thought the purpose of using Fruity as a VSTi would be!

Any comments?

Slackmaster 2000
 
well, keep us posted on how it goes with that situation. are you doing mostly drum tracks in FL?
 
I do my drum tracks in fruity loops yeah. Right now what I do is create the drums in fruity as a playlist, then export the whole thing to a wave file. I then import this file into n-Track and work on the rest of the project. If I need to make changes to the drums, I just fire up fruity, edit, re-export, and n-Track automatically recognizes that the wave has changed and draws a new waveform. At the very end when I've got the drums worked out well, I export each drum to its own track and import the entire set so I can mix my project for real.

Now that's not ideal by any means - definately very slow :(

The benefits of using fruity loops as a VSTi is that I can program my drums using the fruity interface right from n-Track (I can even load up existing drum tracks, it's fully functional!). Any changes are instantaneous. And because they now sync up so nicely, this would also be a good way to add fruity sounds to existing projects, which is nearly impossible with fruity loops on its own (a program like Acid is better suited for that kind of thing).

The only problem I'm forseeing here is that I'll still want to export each drum to its own track, and remove or mute the fruity VSTi when I start mixing and I'm not sure that the exported tracks will line up perfectly with the existing tracks in n-Track, which would be a major hassle. Maybe I could implement the export process right in n-Track by routing the fruity VSTi to a new track and recording it (one drum at a time of course).

Anyways, I'll have to fiddle with it. My problem with the synching I mentioned in my original thread was that I was running n-Track 3.0.5. Upgrading to 3.1.4 solved this problem, but unfortunately I lost some performance in regular audio. I'm torn now between the two...I wish you could run two n-Track installations at once, but I'm pretty sure you can't.

Slackmaster 2000
 
How do you put VSTi in ntrack? I'v tried it several times and can't do it at all. WHat I do is go to "New VSTi" or something like that and whem I try to record something nothing comes up.

Sorry if I can't explain very well, I have no idea about using VSTis with ntrack.
 
You add the VSTi like you said, and then you add a MIDI track and have the MIDI track output to the VSTi (in the MIDI track properties).

With Fruity VSTi it's a little different though, because you don't have to add a MIDI track if you're just going to have Fruity "play along" with your existing project. If you want to automate Fruit via VSTi though, you need one or more MIDI tracks.

Slackmaster 2000
 
Do I have to click in the "Live" button to hear what I'm playing in real time?

Thanks for your reply, Slack.
 
Unfortunately I don't have a MIDI controller at all, but I suspect that you don't need to hit the live button. The live button allows effects to be processed on regular incoming audio. I'm not sure it applies to MIDI.

Slackmaster 2000
 
Ok, this fruity as VSTi thing has a LOT of potential. I recommend to anyone doing drums or adding fruity tracks to their projects to try running it as a VSTi, it's very cool and an absolute time saver!

Everything seems to be on time better than I thought it would too, especially with my end mixdown thing (mixing each drum to its own track when the drums are finished). I just mute all of my audio tracks in n-Track, mute all but one drum in the fruity VSTi, do a mixdown, and import the mixed down track...and repeat for each drum/instrument. Works!

My only complaint is that fruity goes full screen, and there's no way around it. Also, fruity doesn't reset nicely in n-Track, meaning that there's always some junk in the buffer when I start playback. I think I can resolve this by delaying the fruity start by several measures.

Slackmaster 2000
 
i agree, fruity as VSTi is cool....can't wait till i get it working with ACID 4
 
Split FX tracks...

Another thing that I find incredibly useful with fruity 3.5 (as opposed to earlier versions) is the Split FX tracks option. The way this works, for people like me who like to export their wave files (I still find it easier in the mix to work with wav files for everything) is that, during the wav export, you can check the box for "Split FX tracks." What this does is render a separate stereo wav file for every FX bus that is used. So you can assign each channel that you want to be on a separate audio path to a different FX bus in Fruity, then when you render, it's all separated for you. This is a lot better than the way I used to do it, muting channels each time to only export the desired channels, and exporting one at a time. For example, I can assign kicks to FX1, Snares to FX2, toms to FX3, cymbals to FX4, basses, synth beds, and leads to FX 5-7, and then throw on a reverb or delay on FX Sends 1 thru 4.

When I go to export with Split FX tracks set, all the *used* FX channels are rendered as separate stereo files, along with the sends, so in this case I would get seven stereo files, plus a stereo file for each used Send. (Even though most of the time I won't end up using those Send tracks--I usually prefer to set them up in my mixing prog--it's nice to have them as a reference.)

Damn, this program rocks.
 
Awesome tip charger!!! I'll try that! I'm still doing the mute thing and yeah, it's a pain!

Slackmaster 2000
 
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