Fruity Loops... Long...

[Lawrence Farr]

For the "up and coming" R&B and hip-hop producers out there... if you have not tried Fruity Loops then you really should. This goes for anyone doing any kind of sample based production or hybrid thereof.

 

Put the MPC down for a month. Get FL5 (or 6) and spend some $$$ on some *high quality* drum and instrument samples. Read the manual. Play with the built in midi sound modules.

 

Ignore the little grid squares in the pattern view, just use your midi controller of choice to play your tracks into it realtime like you would in any midi sequencer. Work from the piano roll. Play around with the built in quantizing grooves.

 

If you have any production / engineering talent you will be hearing tracks come out of this software app that are crisp, tight and downright professional. When your tracks come out of FL they should be exported as individual stereo audio files for use in your daw.

 

Yes... I said stereo... Kick, bass, Snares and almost everything else except maybe the odd percussion part. Why? So it can sound *exactly* the same as it did in FL. Exactly... if you want. With space and air and fatness. ... hmmm... could that be why your MPC dumps "lose" something?... when you start mixing those stereo tracks in your daw you'll hear what I mean.

 

BTW... do a REAL mix in FL with VST and DX plugs. A real mix. If it doesn't sound really good it's not quite ready. Print a CD and take it around an listen to it. When it's right, export your individual stereo tracks. Push up the faders when you export to get healthy (-6) levels, some of the parts in the mix will be down low, bring them up before rendering.

 

Note: Mix your tracks in FL (eq, compression, whatever) using your *best* plugins before rendering. Use the cpu hungry convo verb on your drums and comp your bass with a C4 *NOW*... you'll be starting in the daw *WAY* ahead cpu wise, starting with the music tracks 90+% ready for CD and NO PLUGS ENGAGED. You get to use them again on your acoustic tracks.

 

Render with effects and panning in place. If your hats are a little left render the stereo hats track with the panning in place.

 

Now put FL away and get to work in PT or whatever daw you use. It's shocking how good a small home studio's mix will sound with *professional* tracks behind good clean well recorded vocals and maybe other acoustic parts. Astounding.

 

Watch (and listen to) what happens.

 

I'm going to bed now and digest some turkey.

 

Lawrence