Best way to control an FL Project with Ableton + Launchpad?

[Starguard]

So, I assume Fruity Loops is unequivocally hated here, but I've been using the program for so long that it's hard to justify giving in and starting from scratch with another. I'd like to move to a live setting so I've just now started to branch out with Ableton 8 and a Novation Launchpad. (Side note on the Launchpad: this thing is an absolute nightmare for the protonomal colorblind like myself.)

I've never used the ReWire functionality in FL Studio 9 before so I have a few questions.

Basically -- What's the best way to control my FL projects through Ableton?

Is there a way to control FL patterns through Ableton?

If not, should I load the loops as MP3 files in Ableton and run the mastering through FL? How do I do this? Again, I've never used ReWire before so a detailed explination would be amazing. I've looked online but all the tuts are antiquated.

If there is a better way that I am missing, let me know. I'm new to using physical interfaces so any help is much appreciated!

[nowaysj]

FL is quite a bit less than hated around here. In fact, it is dearly loved, and defended at great expense from baseless logic snob attacks.

You sound a bit confused, or maybe I'm confused, it's been known to happen.

How you want to go about this is preference, to a certain extent.

If you really like writing in fl, why not write in there, then render out loops of your components and drop them into live as clips?

Also note, that flstudio can be used as a vsti. Wait for it, wait for it, yeah that is the sound of your jaw dropping. You don't need to rewire it. When you install fruity, you'll get a fruity .dll that can be put in your vst directory (wherever that is). You can open fruity as an instrument right in live. Fruity has 16 stereo outs that you can send out to live's mixer channels.

Also note, that in the 9.5 beta fl's live functionality got an upgrade. Markers in the play list can now be played by a midi keyboard, and they can have various trigger/loop settings. You could easily set up a grip of 2 bar sections, markered off in fl's playlist and trigger them in the same way you'd trigger clips/scenes in live.

Just some thoughts for you. Lots of ways to go about this!

[Starguard]

I'm definitely the one who's confused here. Let's talk about this:

...why not write in [FL Studio 9], then render out loops of your components and drop them into live as clips?

Are you saying take each individual pattern and export it as an MP3 and load the MP3s into Live? This is what I've started trying to do but the effects (like delay, reverb, etc.) that play past the drumbeat's measure are lost.

Ideally, I would use Ableton solely as a bridge between my Launchpad and FL Studio 9.

Can you explain how I would send a channel from the installed FL VSTi to Ableton mixer? If not, do you know of a tutorial that could help? I'm still learning Ableton's interface and it's quite a bit different than FL Studio's.

I really appreciate the help!

EDIT: Let me be more specific: I'm trying to be able to control each pattern/loop/etc. on my Launchpad from a FL Studio 9 project in order to reconstruct the song live. Each pad would be used to trigger a loop, etc.

[meer]

FL does have a live mode, but it's pretty barebones. In the MIDI setting window, set the playlist live mode midi channel to whatever your launchpad is using. In the playlist, activate live mode and then the launchpad should trigger/loop patterns depending on which notes each pad sends out.

I would say export wavs into Live and then do all your effects there.

[nowaysj]

Regarding the loops, yeah delays that carry on after the bar cufoff is a bitch. On reason I had trouble working with live. Maybe a live guru will pop in and set us straight on how to do that.

I would export at LEAST 16 bit waves, no mp3's. I don't recommend using .mp3's in any aspect of production, if you can avoid it.

Do you know how to use multi out instruments in live? If not try this. I'm no live poweruser, so maybe someone more knowledgeable can help out.

But try this:

Add an instance of fruity MULTI vsti.

Click the little live icon to get the vsti editor up.

Click the little fruity to launch the full screen fruity vsti.

Now you see fruity. Their template is fucked up. Select all channels and delete them all.

In live, add an audio track.

In the input section select what will probably be 3 FL STudio VSTi (Multi) as the input.

Then under the audio input, select FL 2L/FL 2R

Now go into fruity's mixer, click Insert 1.

In the channel area where all the fx are, in the bottom is the OUT, select FL 2.

Now add a sampler channel and load up a sample, and route the sample's output to insert 1.

Put some beats on the step sequencer, and hit play in fruity. You should now hear the sample playing out of that audio channel you added.

Okay, bro, I left a bunch of stuff out of here, and some of this is wrong, but I am falling asleep, like literally, just caught myself falling out of my chair. This actually may not be possible in live because of Live's shit ability to sync. But I can look at this tomorrow.

Feel free to show some initiative an do some google searches.

[Basic A]

Also note, that in the 9.5 beta fl's live functionality got an upgrade. Markers in the play list can now be played by a midi keyboard, and they can have various trigger/loop settings. You could easily set up a grip of 2 bar sections, markered off in fl's playlist and trigger them in the same way you'd trigger clips/scenes in live.

Yeah ... win.

[Starguard]

Regarding the loops, yeah delays that carry on after the bar cufoff is a bitch. On reason I had trouble working with live. Maybe a live guru will pop in and set us straight on how to do that.

I would export at LEAST 16 bit waves, no mp3's. I don't recommend using .mp3's in any aspect of production, if you can avoid it.

Do you know how to use multi out instruments in live? If not try this. I'm no live poweruser, so maybe someone more knowledgeable can help out.

But try this:

Add an instance of fruity MULTI vsti.

Click the little live icon to get the vsti editor up.

Click the little fruity to launch the full screen fruity vsti.

Now you see fruity. Their template is fucked up. Select all channels and delete them all.

In live, add an audio track.

In the input section select what will probably be 3 FL STudio VSTi (Multi) as the input.

Then under the audio input, select FL 2L/FL 2R

Now go into fruity's mixer, click Insert 1.

In the channel area where all the fx are, in the bottom is the OUT, select FL 2.

Now add a sampler channel and load up a sample, and route the sample's output to insert 1.

Put some beats on the step sequencer, and hit play in fruity. You should now hear the sample playing out of that audio channel you added.

Okay, bro, I left a bunch of stuff out of here, and some of this is wrong, but I am falling asleep, like literally, just caught myself falling out of my chair. This actually may not be possible in live because of Live's shit ability to sync. But I can look at this tomorrow.

Feel free to show some initiative an do some google searches.

"Big ups"? Is that what I'm supposed to say here? But seriously, thanks for this response. I'll go try this right now and edit my post with how it works out.

One thing first: I initially rendered all my loops from FL as highest-possible quality .WAV files and loaded them into Ableton. I noticed that samples were clipping and it sounded like there were latency issues. I've loaded up .MP3 files in order to lower read time and memory, but I am still running into clipping issues.

I'm guessing the problem lies with the Latency category in the preferences menu of Ableton 8.

What should I have Output Buffer Size and Driver Error Compensation set to? I have an idea of how they work, but I'm really not sure what I should have them set to.

(EDIT: I should mention that I don't think my system specs are an issue. I am running an i7-930, 6GB DDR3 & 10k RPM Raptor. Runs stable on load.)

Thanks again for the help nowaysj.


EDIT 2: I just followed your instructions and I can let something loop playing in Channel 1 and see it picked up on Ableton. Now how can I trigger this pattern to play from Ableton?

[Starguard]

So I followed this guide but I'm still stuck on how individual patterns are triggered by the launchpad.

I add a clip to the VSTi MIDI track but where do I define what this clip should be triggering?

Basically, I've successfully linked the mixers and now I'm stuck on how to trigger.

Again, thanks for the help!

[nowaysj]

Go to midi settings, set Playlist live mode midi channel to 1, then on the midi vst track in ableton, set that to transmit on 1. Each note on the piano roll is a pattern, so you can play patterns on they keyboard and pencil them in.

But note this is where I had profound problems. Live cannot sync with othere devices/software, for some reason. I expect that it is at the very core of their engine, so I don't think there will be an easy fix. They might actually write it from the ground up, because it is a pretty big issue.

BTW, I tried this technique in cubase and it works flawlessly. I assumed it worked in live, but I forgot that live has these sync problems.

Maybe rewire is an option then, maybe there are sync issues too with rewire?

But also keep in mind that flstudio just got a major live performance overhaul man. You can do stuff just like you can in live. It's basically the session view rotated 90 degrees.