Fruity Loops any good?

P

PeteAnon

New member
Ok, I'm just a dumb guitarist, so go easy on me. I just started this conversation in another thread about standalone drum machines, but it's really it's own topic.

I need good realistic sounding drums for my songs--I play rock, blues, and ballads. My current setup is that I track my guitar, vocals, etc., with a standalone digital multitracker (I play to a click track that's built in, for tempo), and then I import the waves from my standalone digital multitracker into n-track.

I downloaded the Fruity Loops demo, and in my opinion, the samples that come with the program sound electronic-- even the ones that are supposed to sound real (the acoustic kit). Here's some questions for those of you using Fruity Loops:

1 - Can (and how do) you get realistic sounding drums for rock using the program?

2 - Is it hard to indicate veloicty on individual drum hits, so that you can hit the same drum with different amounts of power?

3 - Are imported loops better than individual drum sample kits? If so, where do you get good loops?

4 - Anyone have songs on the internet that I can listen to, that you've done using fruity loops?


I'm really looking for a simple, easy to use interface, that sounds good. I like the loop creation interface on fruity loops. I don't like the complicated drum sound editor stuff where you change the wave, etc.-- that bores me to tears, and I have no idea how to use it.


Pete
 
Pete,

sorry I didnt answer this sooner, but im just a dumb guitarist too:D .................

1 - In my opinion, yes you can

2 - One of the big drawbacks of Fruity Loops is not being able to do that...you can however program maybe 2 or 3 different volume snares, for example, into your loop and use them randomly when creating a pattern, but then you are limited in the number of different samples you can use in a pattern.....

3 - Not sure about this question....I use Fruity Loops to create my own loops ...of course, the samples that come with it are trash and a few of us here should be able to hook you up with the better free sample locations on the net.....

4 - Check out Slackmaster2K's songs at his website....
http://www.thesoggybiscuit.com/~sm2k/

While I love Fruity Loops to no end, it has its limitations....If you need more flexibility than it offers, Acid 2.0 is another cheap option....it uses samples also that you can find for free all over the net....
 
http://www.2dcd.com/
check this one out first...only a few but my favorites


https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?s=&threadid=26385&highlight=samples
this thread has some good cymbal samples

http://www.bkstudios.net/
this is the website of BigKahuna...keep a lookout here for samples to come.....


a few more sites ...some of them are crappy...just threw this list together.....

http://hem.passagen.se/lej97/kalava/

http://www.fortunecity.com/roswell/randles/66/

http://web.iol.cz/mpc/sa/sites.htm

http://web.iol.cz/mpc/sa/

http://www.badassbeats.com/badass folder/badsamp.html

http://members.nbci.com/_XMCM/lindenware/samples.htm
 
Thanks, Gidge!

Wow, excellent stuff... thanks. I think I found my weekend project! Do you have the 2 dudes CD? I'll bet it's good...just a little pricey, though. I guess it's not pricey when compared with a drum machine.

Pete
 
Nope, all my samples are 100% free....Im still trying to find all the links where I have gotten my samples and Ill throw a few more your way soon.....I just came into a few $$$ my wife is actually letting me spend and Im thinking about the 2 Dudes CD.....
 
Check out the Fruity graph editor...

I like this-- I just put together a little funk/jazz thing using 2 dudes samples. Very nice... much better than the built in stuff.

But Gidge, you'll love this--you mentioned that FL doesn't support "velocity".... I've been playing around .... ;) check out the "graph editor". On the step sequencer, it's a little button in the upper right hand corner that looks like a bar graph. I'm using the FL 3.0 demo, by the way.

Select a channel, say your snare, and then press the graph editor button.

A little bar graph pops up, with a bar of the graph for each step. With this you can control:

Velocity! There's a volume option that allows you to set volume separately for any snare hit in the channel. It doesn't sound exactly like a change in velocity, but it adds volume dynamics and creates the impression of velocity.

Triplets! It took me a while to figure this out.... one thing that seemed like a major flaw in FL was an innability to play triplets. You can actually create hits completely out of time, if you want-- makes it sound much more real (human!). On the very same graph editor, choose "Shift". This allows you to time-shift any snare hit in the channel.

Here's how you do triplets-- highlight the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd sixteenth note of the first beat in the measure (on one channel, say the snare). Then, with the graph editor, shift the 2nd sixteenth note by 1/3 of a sixteenth note, and shift the 3rd sixteenth note by 2/3 a sixteenth note.

It's cool!

Pete
 
Damn, Im definitely going to start reading users manuals.....I am definitely going to try this out today to make sure you aint pulling my leg:D .............thanks for the info.....welcome to thr Fruity Loops fan club......
 
Thats cool...looks like Im going to have to get FL3....(my cheap ass still uses 2)....
 
Re: Thanks, Gidge!

PeteAnon said:
Wow, excellent stuff... thanks. I think I found my weekend project! Do you have the 2 dudes CD? I'll bet it's good...just a little pricey, though. I guess it's not pricey when compared with a drum machine.

Pete
Click to expand...

It's also not pricey when you download it from a music warez site.

FL3 is everywhere. ALL this stuff is. Most of the sites are in Eastern Europe where you just can't buy these programs anyway, so if those users ever want to use them they have to get them from each other.

I'm making no moral judgements here - nor do I have the slightest intention of listening to any - but if you're bucks-down and can live without the CDs and the bound docs and extensive sonund libraries and the fancy box, that's the way you go.
 
Bongo, we have private messages for those discreet little hints you may wanna pass along.....
 
just wanted to subscribe to the thread..

hi everyone,
not much to say, just wanted to keep up with this post since i am constantly looking for drum stuff myself..
 
Re: just wanted to subscribe to the thread..

spacedye said:
hi everyone,
not much to say, just wanted to keep up with this post since i am constantly looking for drum stuff myself..
Click to expand...
Yeah, I have to get serious about setting up some real-sounding kit drum tracks. Now.

I still don't know what the least onerous program is to use if I'm going to be recording with either Cubase or Nuendo.

My two requirements are that it have a very mild, intuitive learning curve and that there be real sounding, NON-TECHNO drum samples readily available.

With EVERY drum software I have yet seen, there is NO indication or demo track suggesting that it is for anything but geeky-sounding techno "drum" tracks. It's like that for the designers no other music exists in the world except techno and its sub-species.

This seems monumentally stupid from a marketing standpoint, which is usually predicated on presenting the software as being as versatile as possible. I have never heard a single straight, mainstream kit drum duplication in any of these packages.

Certainly not from Fruity Loops.:mad:
 
drum tracks

I've posted this before, but it's on topic so I'll post it again--

bongolation, check out 2 songs on my mp3 page: "Good Luck John" and "Loopes des Fruites"... both are passable non-techno drum tracks that I programmed in a very short time (under 3 hours, for both combined)

http://www.mp3.com/peteanon

Pete
 
Re: drum tracks

PeteAnon said:
bongolation, check out 2 songs on my mp3 page
Click to expand...

Yep, that's what I want. Identically. Better not let Fruity Loops hear this, or they'll swallow their tongues in outrage. I never doubt that this could be done, but merely that anyone had ever done it.

Where did you get the samples and what did you have to do to get the paint out of the bucket and onto the wall?

Any good online tutorials for this?

Can these drum tracks be imported into Cubase or Nuendo or whatever?

Thanks.
 
Check out this whole thread for links to samples.....FL works with .wav files so most multitrackers, if not all, will let you import them.....
 
I'm really glad to see I'm not the only one using fruity loops for realistic drums. I'm so excited to try the triplets thing.

Gidge....I saw your list and I'm going to look at it in a minute, but I REALLY need great real sounding jazz brush samples. I used the ones in fruity loops for an idea, and the band that needed them tracked with those, but now I have to mix and it's not up to par. Any ideas?

here's my tip: I've searched far and wide for the "perfect" snare sample. (not refering to the ones I need above) I've gotten pretty close, by using a combination of 2 together. They sound pretty bad when singled out but as a blend......I'm happy.
 
Here's an example of a song that has a live rock drum vibe done with fruityloops. Dont forget to hit that kick drum everytime you hit a crash cymbol, as any drummer will tell you. The guitar was a 57 into a soundblaster. I mean straight into the mic in on the soundblaster. One of the best guitar sounds ive ever pulled. Total cost of this recording studio was $300.00. Thats one 57 and one soundblaster card. I have much better equipment now of course but I keep going back to this song and go, how the fuck did it sound so good.
I somehow also managed to get it louder than what a cd should be. Without clipping. Just freakn fluked it eh.


 
Hey Pete

Im in the same boat as you, in fact we both play the same instrument and our styles are identical.

I bought FL3, and felt the same way you did, the samples there are just not inteneded for "live" sounding drums for our style of music.

I love the way you can step the FL though

So heres what I did.

I have the Zoom123, (which is an awesome sounding drum machine for 140 bones)

I setup Cubase 32/5, setup up track 1 and found the drum sound I wanted in the Zoom, hit record and went through each drum pad, kick, snare, chh, ohh etc, waited about 5 seconds before each hit on the pad untill i went through all the pads.

Then I opened up WavLab, dropped the file in there, and was able to cut all the sounds individually and make each sound its own .wav file, then dropped them in FL3 and its flat out rocks!

I also have the NY City Drumworks CD's i bought last year, if youve never heard them, go to the website, the sounds are absoluetly incredible, real live drums, fills, triplets, double kick metal beats, you name it , its got it, they use alot of picallo snares for a nice crisp snare hit, it has about 6 different drummers with different kits and styles, its all youll ever need. Go check it. I can send you a couple of samples of NY City Drumworks, drop me an e-mail

by the way, this triplet you speak of in FL, went to Shift, is the bar when not on considered a full 16th? so 1/3 is moving the bar from bottom up?

Thanks
 
triplets

Eddie - regarding your triplets question... the Shift function shifts the drum hit-- just as you would expect. The level reflects the amount of time you add between the beat and the playing of the drum hit. So if you don't add any shift, then the drum hit plays right on the beat. If you add a little bit of shift, then it plays just after the beat. If you completely highlight a bar, then that drum hit plays a full sixteenth note later than the beat (or, right on top of the next sixteenth note.) When I say "1/3", I'm talking about highlighting 1/3 of the bar, thus shifting the drum hit 1/3 of a sixteenth note.

Pete
 
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