Opening Fruity Loops in Sonar

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Paul881

Paul881

Look Mom, I can play!
How do I get to open up FL in Sonar, it should appear in Tools (I think) Is it something to do with the Initialisation file?

If I do this, will I be able to record in Sonar from my keyboard playing synths in FL? There are some great sounding synths in FL and I want to record with them into Sonar.
 
How do I get to open up FL in Sonar, it should appear in Tools (I think) Is it something to do with the Initialisation file?
Click to expand...
I didn't think that was possible. You could always insert is as a DXi if you have a wrapper....
 
Paul881 said:
How do I get to open up FL in Sonar, it should appear in Tools (I think) Is it something to do with the Initialisation file?.....
Click to expand...

I don't think that is possible, either. :(
 
A wrapper is the answer I guess. But I just found out that I can open FL in Wavelab as a VST:)
 
FxPansion VST/DX adapter (aka: wrapper) will do this. When you run the adapter it ask you to point to all the directories that contain VST/i's then it catalogs them as DX/i's with Windose. When you open Sonar open synthrack you will see a VSTi section, Fruity stereo and Fruity Multi out will be there.

When you click on the orange Fruity fruit, Fruity opens up as if it was stand alone. Set up your sequencing and synths and lay it out your song in the Playlist editor.

When you want to get back to Sonar just hit the standard "X" close button. Don't worry you won't loose anything (though I always save a Fruity version just in case). When you hit play in Sonar, Fruity will play in song mode also. In sync.

If you want to control a Fruity Channel in Sonar just insert a midi track in Sonar then select a midi channel number for that track. If you want to controll the 3rd "sound" channel down in the list in Fruity then choose Channel 3 in Sonar. You can also control levels/pan and other Fruity stuff from Sonar (but I don't know how to do that yet).

In Fruity you can assign different channels to seperate FX channels (16 max) and then assign each of those to a seperate OUT. You can then have those 16 outs assigned to seperate Sonar "in" channels so you can mix them in Sonar.

Personally I build in Fruity till the computer max's out then I batch render out of the 16 FX channels and open up the 16 or so wav files in Sonar and continue from there.

Sonar/Fruity is a killer combo. Fruity has some silly signal routing logic such as using the FX channels (inserts if you will) as OUTs and the fact that the Channel volume is pre fx. But I believe they are working this out. The new Fruity 4 will be called Fruity Studio and will be more robust.

Good luck
jack
 
Jack, thats a great reply thank you. I am just getting to grips with FL and to my mind, it is a great program and with Sonar, as you say, it really is a Killler application:)

So let me get this straight; if I want to create a drum loop in FL, using the sounds of the drums I have in FL, I can open up FL within Sonar, choose my instruments (kit), make my loop and then play it as normal. If I want to record the loop as a midi and/or as an audio track in sonar, this is handled in the same way as as recording a synth?

I love some of the synth sounds in FL, presumably with a wrapper, I can trigger these from my midi controller and record to a Sonar track? In which case, FL is really acting as a keyboard synth module?

Without a wrapper, another way would be to trigger FL from my midi keyboard into my laptop FL program via USB, connect the audio out from the laptop sound card (M-audio Quattro) and then feed this as an audio in to my desk top running Sonar and record it like that? Not as elegant but it would seem a valid workaround.
 
Wonderful:D I downloaded the fxpansion wrapper demo for 3.3 this afternoon, installed it, fired up Sonar, selected FLoops as a Dxi in the track fx, set it to record on an audio track and hey presto! One FLoop audio recording.:D :D Don't you just love technology:rolleyes:
 
Paul,

Try just working in Fruity stand alone to flush out and construct the song. When you feel you got enough to start adding audio with Sonar then open Sonar, set up Fruity in the synth rack. When you open up Fruity from within Sonar open the FLP file you made when using Fruity as a stand alone. Bingo you are now ready to take the next step.

At this point I would not record the Fruity output into Sonar until you are done with the song or you max out your computer. This way you can easily make changes in your song without re-rendering. Remember you have to lay the loops out in Fruity in the Play List as a song to get the loops to play in sync in Sonar.

When it comes time to actually record Fruity into Sonar, do it one of three ways. 1) Record 1 stereo track from Fruity. 2) Link midi channels in Sonar to the channels in Fruity, then assign one Sonar audio track for each Sonar midi track for it's input. or 3) Use the Fruity Multiout procedure I mentioned before.

I think of it this way: use Fruity for every thing virtual (soft synths/samplers, drum programming, FX trickery) and use Sonar as the Audio interface and of course Sonar for final mixdown. I even use Fruity as my click track in when recording audio into Sonar.

Regarding the 2 computer record technique I think you will run into timing problems with your different tracks. $60.00 for the Fxpansion wrapper and you have alot of power at your finger tips.

good luck
jack
 
Thanks again, Jack for your interesting post-back. Looks like I have a lot to learn (as ever!). I'll be getting to grips with your suggestions over the comingh weeks. Where did you learn all this stuff, is there a decent forum for FL folk?
 
Well, I popped by yesterday and saw this thread to which I was going to contribute. By the time I'd got around to registering on here and came back, Jack seems to have said most of what I was
going to say, plus much more - thanks, man. Sonar and Fruity is a great combination.

I will add the following though - make sure you use v4.0 of the fxpansion adapter as that syncs up and the transports coincide better than v3.3.

There's a couple of Fruityloops forums for registered users on the main FruityLoops site which are useful - LoopTalk and Tech Support.

Another way of using this combo is to construct patterns in FruityLoops, then drag midi outs onto the channels and export as midi then import into Sonar. I do this for drafting up beats etc and then for finer control etc once in Sonar. It takes some fiddling with root notes etc to get them in on the right note though.

Steve T
 
It's good to see more Fruity users around these forums. Another forum to check out is the kvr-vst forum www.kvr-vst.com. Eveything you need to know about plugins is there. They have very active forums with a bunch of Fruity users.

Being that I live in Midwest United States I love hanging at the Fruity forums because there are a lot of European users. My opinion is that Europe is still where it's at for electronic and dance music. I have picked up so much on their music culture that I would have been totally oblivious to otherwise.

BTW, I started using Fruity Jan.1 2002. The learning curve is a bit steep but once you understand the logic used throught the program it becomes much easier. Best thing to do is spend a couple of evenings playing the different Songs that come with Fruity. Totally rip appart each one and figure out what is happening. You'll be saying "oh I get it" a lot.

good luck
jack
 
make sure you use v4.0 of the fxpansion adapter as that syncs up and the transports coincide better than v3.3
Click to expand...
Will you notice anything it if you run version 3? I don't feel like upgrading now, I'm takin a trip to Cuba and need to save money...
 
moskus,

Well, it depends how close you look ;-) I seem to remember the 4.0 betas and 3.3 were out by a few dozen ticks. Whether you notice that will depend on what you're doing. I remember doing some tests running the same beat at the same time in Sonar and in Fruity inside Sonar and you could hear it flamming. It's perfect in 4.0 though.

I can't quite remember now, but I seem to recall that hitting play in Sonar didn't play FruityLoops properly - maybe not though, if it works ok wait till you come back from Cuba..

Steve T
 
So I'll be upgrading! Damn it.... ;)

I just thought that there was something wrong with Fruity, but maybe there isn't. I'll have to check that out!

Thanks, Steve T!
 
This is a ridiculous thing to ask but.....I am getting along fine with FL opening in Sonar, a few things to wach like ensuring your tempo rates are both synced;) . But I cannot figure how I can playback songs using FL in Pattern mode! I can construct all the individual patterns, place them in the Pattern Playlist, no problem. But how do I get the song to play from the playlist, to play all the patterns continuously and not from the current loaded step sequencer?:o If I press play on the transport pane, it only plays whatever sequence is programmed in the current sequencer, whatever pattern number it might be.
 
Hi Paul,

I'm not quite sure what you're asking. If you want Fruity to play the playlist, you have to put it in song mode, otherwise it'll just loop the current pattern.

Or maybe you were saying that Sonar only plays a particular channel rather than the whole pattern. If so you need to set the (Sonar) channel to Fruity mix out rather than a particular channel (I think).

Tempos ought to sync up automatically - I think there's a slave option or something in Fruity options.

Hope that helps,

Steve T
 
Steve, thanks for your response, especially a fellow Brit, we don't get many here. I don't know why, but thats the way it is:(

Anyway, you were right first time, I was asking how you put it in to song mode instead of sequence mode.

I since found the song/pattern button and so everything works fine now. As ever, I should have RTFM (read the f****g manual) but its at another location (Home!).

I'll do some more research on sync'ing tempo's. Thanks again.
 
No problem, man. Actually in this case the 'FM' (!) isn't that great - I keep finding FruityLoops stuff that isn't in the help or manual. Kind of cool to find stuff, but you wish you'd known about it sooner, if you know what I mean.

Glad to keep the British end up :-) (still can't work out how to paste in icons yet, heh heh)

Steve T
 
Steve, icons are called Avatars here. If you go to your members page, HoRec lets you choose an Avatar to use according to your status, i.e. Newbie, Junior member, Senior member, Force of Nature etc. When you have bored everyone to death, still not got a life and have posted as many times as I have, you get to choose and post your own. Sad but true:)

I'm having problems still with syncing FL in Sonar. I can record okay but when I trim the clip and then Groove clip enable, the clip extends by a few measures and then won't play properly:( I made sure the slave box was ticked/checked in FL, and that the bpm in Sonar is the same as the FL tempo, so why it does this, I'm not sure. But I am only running the 3.3 demo of fxpansion, not the 4.0 version. This latest version It hasn't been posted yet ,as a demo. Any thoughts?
 
Thanks Paul - I ought to read the FAQ :rolleyes: Regarding your groove clips - hmmm...not sure - if you double-click the clip, what does the bpm get recognised as - maybe that's wrong.

Remember, you can always export as wav from FruityLoops, and there's an option to "acidize" and wrap.

I think you'll get better performance from version 4.0 of the adapter though. This has specific code to deal with FruityLoops which 3.3 doesn't have, as FruityLoops VSTi was released after version 3.3 (but before 4.0). I think there should be a demo for that very soon.

Steve T
 
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