You can do a lot of things with them, although often there are more efficient ways of doing them these days. But you can theoretically set up a whole GM drum kit with them - have a bunch of layers, each with only a single key range and a different sample for each, and you have your own FPC. Personally, I use them most for either actual layers and to use the notes etc. from an instrument to trigger the various controllers with FL. That's particularly cool in conjunction with ZGE. You can do things like have different notes set different colours or whatever. It's kind of alluded to in the video without going all in.

@@steevmsteevmhadn't thought about using it to make a drum kit. Recently been using an Alesis Strike and trying to find some ways to use different plugins for each pad. This seems like the way! Thanks!

Thanks for the kind words!

I'm sorry, I don't understand what you are asking. The whole premise of the video is that you are using velocity to control *something else* (i.e. "another parameter"). So what are you trying to do? What parameter are you unable to control?

@steevmsteevm Imagine I have a 3x osc, I need to vary the pitch but not the volume, in your example changing the velocity affects the volume as it is linked to the Layer

@@Echoe5 That's because by default many synths link velocity to volume. You can obviously unlink it if your synth lets you; but it also raises the question why you don't just use pitch bend or whatever if that's all you want to control. Linking velocity to something like filter cut off and resonance is a great way to make static drum samples come to life, for example. When the hit is less strong (low velocity), you also remove some of the top end making it slightly duller - just like a real drum being hit less strongly. Similarly linking velocity to filter cut of is a popular trick on synths, but not every synth allows you to map velocity to cut off. I hope that clears things up.

You'll want to use MIDI Out to send the MIDI to your external hardware. You want to set a port for the TD17's output in FL's MIDI settings, and then make sure that the MIDI Out plugin is set to transmit on that MIDI port. So if you set the TD17's Output to be Port 3 in FL Studio, you need to set the MIDI Out plugin to port 3. This is around 2:40 in the video. While I'm doing this with my Mopho, it should be pretty much the same . You presumably will have a MIDI output that is named TD-17 or something very similar as the TD-17 has USB.

@@steevmsteevm thank you very much for the reply 😁

What should I do u want my reverb as present but I want my main channel should be compressed first then go to reverb send If I apply send it will send my signal compressed to rever

Yes, it's pre fader (but you get a volume knob to determine the send amount), but you can choose where you want the send to be in the chain. Where exactly you want to put it depends on what you are using the various effects in your chain for. I'd definitely put the send after any compression if you are doing this on vocals, - the compression is there to level out the signal and make sure that the vocals are consistent throughout. You don't want your reverb to have big spikes on plosives or where you got excited and then disappear when you moved away from the mic. So it makes sense to level (compress) first, then send. As for EQ: you might well have 2 EQs on the channel: 1 to remove any low frequency rumble or room resonance at the start of the chain and before any compression, then one at the end of the chain to get the vocals sitting nicely in the mix. The send might want to be between the two of them - remove the rumble and resonances, but ignore the EQ at the end of the chain that is there to get that channel to sit nicely in the mix. On the other hand, if you are using the reverb send for drums, trying to emulate "drums in a room", you might want to send pre compression, as you are using the compression to bring out aspects of the dry sound ("close mics"), whereas you want the room to sound like there is a drum kit in the room - and that drum kit doesn't have any compressors built in. So, as with many things, how you want to set things up is a case of: it depends. I think a good question to ask yourself would be: what is this effect doing? Is it cleaning up the sound? Is it helping this particular channel sit well in the mix? If the effect is cleaning up the sound (removing rumble, leveling it etc.), then the send *probably* comes after it. If it's very channel-specific, then maybe the send comes beforehand. But you might get good results putting the send right at the end of the chain too - you can always try it out and see!

It's one of those secret sauce synth the pros don't want you to know about!

@@steevmsteevm xD At that time was amazing, around year 2000... I remember I did a delay with ADSR, so you could lag the attack of each echo, as well, the decay, sustain and release. I've never seen a delay with ADSR in my whole life, but the result is really nice.

@@steevmsteevm btw... I was googling the frog DJ one and the company seems dead. There is a link in a foruim of KVR, but it leads to a phising website, which is the oficial web page. Probably they were hacked. I don't want to believe they did that plugin to steal personal info, but is a possibility too.

That depends on what you mean by "control velocity for a 3rd party plugin". Most will respond to velocity, but what you can link velocity to will depend on the synth. So you might not be able to link velocity to filter cutoff in a simple drum machine plugin, for example. I'd suggest you investigate what routing options you have in your plugins before overcomplicating things.

Glad to hear it helped and thanks for the nice comment!

It doesn't seem to be available any more :( I downloaded the plugin many, many years ago.

I need dj frog so bad. if anyone found it lmk plz

Your MIDI file probably has program change messages in it somewhere. This is pretty typical for multi-part MIDI files. It chooses appropriate patches from the General MIDI sound set for each of the parts (channels). These are things like pianos, e-pianos, bass, guitar, brass etc. You can see these in the Patch dropdown menu in MIDI Out. This makes sense for arranger keyboards used by hotel lobby entertainers. They just download a MIDI file, and each part is played by the intended instrument. I have never worked with imported MIDI files, but any automation should show up in the imported patterns as events. If you click on "Control" at the bottom left of the piano roll - to the left of where velocities are shown by default - you will see a list of all events in the pattern. If you see something like "MIDI Out - General MIDI patch", select that and use the delete tool to remove all the automation. The other possibility is that you have initialised controls sending program change messages. This is far less likely, unless you had Record enabled *and* you changed the patch while playing the track *and* the "Don't initialize controls automatically" option in the General Settings is off. If it is on, you need to remove all the initalised controls, as well as possibly delete any events you may have recorded. Right-click on the Patch dropdown in MIDI out, select Delete initial value, and remove any events as described above. Don't forget to change the setting in the General settings to stop this happening again in future. If that doesn't help, you will have to ask on the forums. "Where can I find the program change messages in imported MIDI files?" or something is surely a question the IL staff must know the answer to.

@steevmsteevm i appreciate the info i will try it out. Thank you so much

Yes, it's covered in the video around 12:58, and why I name all the instances. It's not just Fruity Send that has this problem btw, it's a bug in the programming to do with how sidechain tracks are indexed/selected. You get the same issues when using sidechain compressione etc. too. It can be very annoying.

I'm not getting any hits for a VST with that name.

If you're seeing the mote being displayed in the info area, then the MIDI messages are arriving fine. That means that whatever you are sending them to isn't responding (or you are not sending the notes to anything, because you've assigned a MIDI port that isn't in use). Bear in mind that some instruments have a range and that if you hit a key outside that range, nothing will happen.

Having velocity be more than just a volume switch is a great way of getting the performance to be more "alive" - a lot of synths give you this option, but not all of them. For met, the classic use case is a static snare sample, with the velocity linked to filter cutoff. The harder hits get more top end, the softer ones are duller in tone - just like a real kit. So yeah, it definitely makes sense as a performance element.

Thanks! I think it's a bit of a niche plugin tbh that most people don't even know exists. Whenever I bring it up in discussions, it often seems to be the first time they've ever heard of it.

Good to hear, thanks!

I hid it well :P

yw!

Right-click the knob in MIDI Out, select Configure, enter the CC number

@@steevmsteevm Yes but it does not work. Try it your self. VST need "Midi Learn" option.

The VST just needs to be able to react to the CC, be that via MIDI learn or due to the CC already being mapped to something in the VST. Check the manual of the VST to see what CCs come pre-mapped. If you want to control something that isn't pre-mapped, you obviously need to map it first.@@bzoch29

You can't use them as a VST directly. You need a VST editor or control panel of some sort that communicates with the device - either directly (typically VST editors created by the manufacturer) or via MIDI controls. Most modern synths have MIDI over USB. Older synths, rack gear and some newer synths use DIN-5 MIDI cable that will require a MIDI interface. Then you need a way to capture the audio. That means connecting the audio output to your audio interface. What cables you need for this depends on the device (though most synths use line ins/outs) and your audio interface (most support line and/or XLR). For FX, you'll also need an audio interface that has additional outputs in order to send the signal from the PC to the hardware. And of course you need to send the processed signal back. Again, this depends on what your hardware uses. Many rack FX use XLR rather than line, some use both. Guitar pedals use line etc. Remember that anything that is stereo will need two mono channels on your audio interface (one for Left, one for Right). There's no 1 answer to this. But if you have a synth you want to integrate with FL Studio, I'd definitely suggest you take a look at this video, which goes into some of these aspects in a lot more depth: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f2mphaaBdqyAipo Obviously I didn't go into the audio connections in great detail, as that is very setup-dependent. But you will hopefully understand the general idea; then you'll need to look at your gear, your audio interface, and figure out if you can hook things up with what you have or not.

@@steevmsteevm there was a video where a guy was able play his hardware synth presets on the piano roll through the midi out vst. He didn't show what cable he used though.

@@ksager123 It'll be either USB or DIN-5 via a MIDI interface to send the patch change messages and notes; and then *probably* line/instrument cables connecting the synth to the audio interface so you can capture the sound on the PC. Some modern synths can function as their own audio interface and can send the audio via USB if you are using the synth as your audio interface (but you can only really use 1 interface on PC because of how ASIO works). So it depends on the synth and overall setup what exactly the connections are. What I do: Synths receive notes etc. from FL Studio via both USB and DIN-5 MIDI cables depending on whether they support USB or not (e.g. my JP-8080 and Mopho have no USB, so I use a MIDI interface and DIN-5 cables; my Summit and Behringer synths have MIDI-over-USB, so I use the USB connection with those). The synths send audio to my digital mixer. This also functions as a USB audio interface. It has both line and XLR inputs, but I'm only using line inputs for the synths - line out is pretty much standard for instruments.

@@steevmsteevm thanks

@@ksager123 yw

Yeah, I'm doing fine. Got a new job, bought a house in the mountains (well my wife is paying for most of it), so I've had a lot of other things going on in my life. Don't really have as much time to listen to the posts on the forum at the moment, and I haven't been that good at finishing off my own tracks either. C'est la vie, I guess! I've been enjoying listening to your new tracks, though I haven't commented on them all. Good to see you're back to creating stuff again. Thanks for the nice comment, and feel free to shoot me an email if you want.

wow, that is some great news you got there. See, dreams do come true. Yeah man, thanks a heap for the loyal listenings. I will write you an e-mail, that's a good idea. @@steevmsteevm

Thanks for the kind words!

Thanks for the kind words!

@@steevmsteevm I agree this video was extremely helpful. Thank you! 👍

@@neverendingquest8398 You're welcome!

With tonespace, I simply set an output port in the MIDI settings in FL Studio for whatever MIDI device the synth is on (roughly 3:00), then choose that port number as the output port in the plugin wrapper (5:34). Does that not work for you?

@@steevmsteevm Thanks for the answer. No, doesn't work with Cthulhu. Only for internal VST. Maybe I try ToneSpace, seems to have the same possibilities.

@@robert.melter Interesting. Haven't used Cthulhu (and to be honest, I only downloaded ToneSpace in order to make this video), so unfortunately I don't have any suggestions. In theory, if it works with plugins, it should work with hardware too. After all MIDI data is MIDI data. You might want to double check everything is set up right, in case you've set the input port instead of the output port or something.

The final version is here, if you want to hear more than just a snippet: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mHiYY2mPlqaNas0 (also on SC/spotify etc.)

Unfortunately, I've never found a way to do this in FL Studio directly. While there are lots of plugins that will send CC data, FL Studio isn't actually MIDI compliant and CCs output by plugins are completely ignored. This is similar to how CCs from physical hardware are completely ignored in FL Studio until you manually map them. I've never understood why it's implemented so badly when other hosts will immediately respond to CCs without any extra work, but that's life. MIDI is unfortunately an afterthought in FL Studio and despite asking for this to be fixed for decades, nothing has happened, and the IL staff seem to have trouble even understanding why it's a problem (they aren't musicians, and it really shows). Now, if you really, really need to get this functionality to work, you might be able to work around it. *I've never actually tried this though!* I'm also not sure whether it's worth the effort - that's for you to decide. What you can try is installing a MIDI loopback driver (e.g. loopMIDI, I think MIDI-OX also has virtual ports - use your favourite search engine to find more). This will allow you to create virtual MIDI ports that show up as MIDI devices in the MIDI settings in FL Studio. You can assign FL Studio port numbers to these virtual ports in the MIDI settings in FL Studio. You'll need an output that you send the MIDI CC to - this will be the output port number set in the MIDI plugin's wrapper. Then you want an input, which will takes the MIDI message received on the virutal output port, and send it back to FL Studio. This will be the MIDI input port on the plugin you want to receive the CCs. You will still need to manually map the CCs using link to controller - because, as stated above, FL Studio will otherwise completely ignore any incoming CCs. So even if you send, say CC64 (sustain pedal) to a piano plugin in FL Studio, it won't actually react to that CC unless you manually map CC64 to the plugin's MIDI CC64 input. You can find these CC inputs at the bottom of the list of parameters if you select "Browse parameters" from the wrapper menu. Right at the end, there's a whole list of all MIDI CCs. Right-click on the CC you want to use, select Link to controller, and then set Ctrl value to the value of the CC you want it to react to (i.e. the CC sent by your MIDI plugin). Side note: because FL Studio doesn't support MIDI, most native FL Studio plugins do not have any MIDI CC parameter inputs either. But you can map a CC to the parameters using Link to controller the same way, you just have to map it directly to a parameter rather than a CC. I cannot guarantee this will work, because I haven't tried it, but it *should* work in theory. Also be aware that you can often set up your own more complicated MIDI routing in these virtual drivers, essentially using them as their own MIDI patch bay. As you can see, working with MIDI in FL Studio it sub-standard at best. I've tried to link CCs output by a plugin to another plugin in Patcher in the past, but either I was doing something wrong, or it's not possible in Patcher either. If you do manage to get this working with virtual MIDI ports, it would be great if you could reply to let anyone else facing the same difficulties know how you solved it!

If you only mute the channel in the mixer, the signal is still routed through Fruity Send. You could put Fruity Mute 2 *before* the Fruity Send to prevent the signal getting that far. But as you can tell, it gets convoluted. You can automate the on/off of the Fruity Send plugins themselves of course. But setting that up to work automagically also gets convoluted, especially as you route more and more stuff to the send channel. If you really need to, it's probably easiest to either just manually turn off the Fruity Send instances and/or turn off all FX on the channels that are routed to the same send channel. Most of the time, I find it's more useful to be able to balance everything being routed to the same send channel, rather than worrying about the dry/wet blend of an individual track. Once the balance on the send channel makes sense, you can just blend in the wet amount for the whole track by ear. At any rate, it's probably good to know what the limitations are, because that will allow you to make decisions based on what it is *you* want to achieve.

@@steevmsteevm So how about "easy fix"? :P First send signal to separate channel that has only fruity send! Would that work?

It'll quickly eat up channels if you're sending multiple instruments to that bus (and if you aren't then just put the effect on the same channel as the instrument?). I'd take a step back though, and ask the question: what problem are you trying to solve where you want to hear just the dry and wet of one instrument? Because, chances are, that's not really something you need to worry about much in the cases where you are using a send this way. If you're using your reverb to "put things in a space", then it's less about how one instrument sound through the reverb, and more about how that reverb (with all the elements going through it) meshes with the rest of the song as a whole. In that case, getting the blend of instruments on the reverb channel is more important ("the sound of the room") IMO - and you can listen to the entire wet signal (without the dry channels) to do that - which you can't do without using Fruity Send. This isn't the same situation as when you are using the reverb as part of the sound of "an instrument" - be that a synth lead or a guitar solo. If the effect is a key part of that sound, then I'd just put it on the instrument channel, rather than using a send. Typically you'll only want that one instrument to get that effect anyway, so Fruity Send isn't the best choice IMO. Which isn't to say, that it wouldn't be nice if there were an easier way of just listening to one instrument going through the send. But I don't personally feel like it's a problem for the aforementioned use case - at least, I haven't found this a big issue from a practical point of view. It's still worth being aware of so you can make the right choices as to which approach to take when.

I think you must have skipped that part then. I definitely did cover it. But you have to use Patcher or lock the MIDI port to the instrument in the rack.

This seems to have a Mac version: audioassault.mx/collections/plugins/products/fart-machine and it just came out!

I think the real test is always going to be: does it save you time? I found that I'd never stick to my templates and end up replacing things, which made them seem totally pointless as I was redoing most of the stuff from scratch for each track. In other words, I wasn't saving any time. I have added a couple of routings to external gear to my template in the meantime though. That saves me a little bit of hassle setting everything up if I want to use that external gear. I'm guessing that's similar to you having the mic set up and ready to go. I don't do that with guitars though. I've got 8 inputs linked to guitars on my interface because they're all connected to different bits of guitar gear, so it really depends on what setup I'm using which inputs I need. Having 8 inputs active in the mixer when I really only need 1 or 2 seems like a waste of mixer channels to me :D

That's the Local Off setting, which is covered part way through the video (the section with feedback loops IIRC). Check the manual for your keyboard, it should tell you where the setting is (might require some menu diving). Local Off stops the keyboard reacting directly to the keys on the keyboard (i.e. locally). Or just turn down the volume on the keyboard ;) But I'd encourage you to dive into the settings and read the manual, as there's quite likely a few other things you will discover if you do that!

Thanks for the feedback! I saw your other comment (which I think you since removed) about sweeping in SPAN. I'm thinking you probably saw it, but I replied to another similar comment that you can't navigate the project with the sweep in place if you do it that way. So while it's useful functionality for a momentary check, there's a downside. Having a separate EQ that you can toggle on/off means you can actually track down the source of a particular issue while still zooming in on the frequency area.

@@steevmsteevm I removed my comment primarily because I saw that someone else had already brought up the SPAN sweeping function making my comment redundant. I think people should know the function is available because it's useful for spot checking frequencies, at least. I see your point though. It would be better if the function was toggle on/off.

@@steevmsteevm I'll also add that the function provides a quick and easy way to practice ear training.

@@thebarf9235 Absolutely! It's got its uses.

It's so you can see the note number. Do you really want to have to count the rows by hand to enter the key switch on key 17 or the drum on key 74? And don't forget the order is reversed, so the top note in the file is 131 or something (can't recall offhand). But I thought I mentioned this in the video.

@@steevmsteevm I think just copying from googlesheets into a blank notepad is much quicker, or simply saving as txt file from sheets as well works. I think those who are saying sheets isn't working just need to zoom into their piano roll and have the correct keylabel and board style set up. Thanks for your tutorials though I've learned more than one cool thing from you appreciate it.

@@VerilyRude Yeah, doesn't really matter how you get the txt file. Bear in mind that this was made for a user on the forums who had never ever used a spreadsheed before, so it's meant to be foolproof rather than "the best way". I didn't realise people would still be watching it 4 or 5 years later :D The real takeaway here is that having the note numbers in ascending order makes entering the key mapping much easier (same as the manual), as does having note numbers for orientation. And as an extra twist, the number of notes isn't the 128 in the MIDI standard.

Check the manual to see if you can set it to "MMC" mode for the transport buttons. It's probably set to something else. Another possibility is that you don't have "generic controller" selected in the MIDI settings in FL Studio and the commands are being interpreted as something else. But I'd suspect it being down to the controller not sending MMC.

Thanks a lot!! I was able to assign some buttons to those specific functions but still not able to use the actual play stop record on the MIDI. Either way I’m satisfied. Thank you!!

Glad to hear you find it useful.

Glad you found it helpful!

yw

The Ultranova VST that comes with it is pretty good, and makes the whole process really easy. I've used VSTs to control various other hardware synths, and the Ultranova one is a lot more polished than any of the others. It doesn't feel like an afterthought. You should give it a go!

That's weird. It would probably help if you could go into more detail as to how you have set everything up (making it clear what is set to what port, external hardware vs plugins etc.). I just did a very quick test and couldn't replicate this behaviour, and if I set both my external hardware synth and a plugin synth to the same port I can hear them both playing when I click on notes in the piano roll. That said, if your keyboard is triggering the synth in FL Studio, you don't need to use MIDI Out at all, so maybe you're overcomplicating the setup. Again, if you describe the setup in more detail (making clear what is hardware, what is software), it might be more clear what is going wrong. The only other thing I can think of is that you've set MIDI Out to send on a particular MIDI channel, and your synth isn't responding on that channel.

BRSO has been reworked quite a bit since I made this video, good to know!

Oh snap! This is way easier, thanks for sharing! After playing around with this, I learned you can export your custom piano roll key name maps and import them into other BRSO instances or into different channel colors (articulations). So if you rename your notes on the first color (articulation 1), open that BRSO instance and select the articulation 1. To the right of the articulation name, it will say [Stored in FLP]. Right-click the folder there and select "Save key names to file". For every note color you want to copy to, open that articulation in BRSO. Left click the folder and navigate to the .txt file you just saved to import it. This way it should be much faster to have your key names on as many different midi channels as you need.

@@basselfmusic Good info! BRSO is quite a handy tool and I definitely don't make the most of it. For me, it was about making Kontakt usable with drum kits - without having names on the notes, it's pretty much unworkable trying to figure out what note is what!

@@steevmsteevm Yeah, what you did is absolutely ideal for tjhat and i'm going to do it with mine when i get round to it for sure! Thanks again for the video!

@@MichaelDowComposer You're welcome, and thanks for the additional insights!