Mixing Within FL

[mrwonderful]

Originally Posted by d1rdyd

A wise man once said don't blame the equipment blame the user.

Your one of those dudes who buys a 100,000$ car and gets smoked by a 30,000$ car with a few mods.

No im not I'm agreeing with your quote lol dude was bashing on FL not me. You already know I'm in several DAWs, Chain!

Anyways thanks everyone in the thread for the tips!

[OmegaP]

Originally Posted by mrwonderful

No im not I'm agreeing with your quote lol dude was bashing on FL not me. You already know I'm in several DAWs, Chain!

Anyways thanks everyone in the thread for the tips!

Who me? I wasn't bashing i was stating my opinion that it's better programs for strictly mixing down than Fl,i still make my tracks in Fl i just mix down in something else.

[d1rdyd]

My bad I thought dude was bashing FL Studio.. U know how people like to make threads dedicated to hating on FL lol. I Like to do my Final Editing sometimes in Ableton . I heard FL Studio was voted #1 again this year

[abechap024]

Don't mix with your eyes in FL studio...to reply to the comment "don't mix with fl studio stock plugs" I admit they look like crap, I used to never touch them....then I actually tried them and they work just fine. More than fine. The ugly stock fl comp is extremely versatile (sp) and sounds great. Tightens a snare bus like no other.

[mrwonderful]

Originally Posted by OmegaP

Who me? I wasn't bashing i was stating my opinion that it's better programs for strictly mixing down than Fl,i still make my tracks in Fl i just mix down in something else.

Yes, you.
How isn't FL "geared" towards mixing?

I know it's an opinion but I don't see why you'd say that.

[dubmunkey]

Every set of stems I get sent from fruity are really hot, ive heard that there is a limiter on the 2buss as default... If this is the case I'd take that off pronto

[psycho_monkey]

Originally Posted by dubmunkey

Every set of stems I get sent from fruity are really hot, ive heard that there is a limiter on the 2buss as default... If this is the case I'd take that off pronto

Often, it's just bad gainstaging on the part of beatmakers...they can't hear the kick so they turn it up...then they can't hear the bass so that goes up too...before you know it, it's all in the red!

[The Aristocrat]

Originally Posted by dubmunkey

Every set of stems I get sent from fruity are really hot, ive heard that there is a limiter on the 2buss as default... If this is the case I'd take that off pronto

I think that is a template, you can change it so that nothing is on the 2 buss, or have it so that a limiter comes by default. Not sure why anyone would want a limiter on by default but to each his own I suppose.

[dubmunkey]

Originally Posted by The Aristocrat

I think that is a template, you can change it so that nothing is on the 2 buss, or have it so that a limiter comes by default. Not sure why anyone would want a limiter on by default but to each his own I suppose.

This is it, I would ensure the default has it off

[dubmunkey]

Originally Posted by psycho_monkey

Often, it's just bad gainstaging on the part of beatmakers...they can't hear the kick so they turn it up...then they can't hear the bass so that goes up too...before you know it, it's all in the red!

Troo dat, i haven't used FL for years but can you have mono and stereo tracks in FS and export them in that format? Again all stems i ever get are in stereo!

[The Aristocrat]

Originally Posted by dubmunkey

Troo dat, i haven't used FL for years but can you have mono and stereo tracks in FS and export them in that format? Again all stems i ever get are in stereo!

I believe you can I think, in the mixer there is knob near the three band EQ. Stereo separation knob that you can turn all the way to the right to merge the two channels and make it mono then you can just export it.

[The Aristocrat]

Originally Posted by mrwonderful

Yes, you.
How isn't FL "geared" towards mixing?

I know it's an opinion but I don't see why you'd say that.

If I were to take a crack as to why he said that it would be along the lines of the weird routing system and the little attention it pays to commonplace routing practices. Not to say that it doesn't remove a lot of the complication because once you know how to use it it is very simple. But say for example you wish to switch daws, or want to go to a console or are coming from one. The FL routing system pays little if any attention to separately addressing busses, returns, inserts etc. They only have inserts and sends. Normally routing does not work the way it does in FL at all. Making something like parallel compression very counter - intuitive since you are using several "inserts" in FL to accomplish this while paying no attention to to the practices and or limitations of bussing, returns, auxilliary busses etc.

Also FL has 99 inputs and 4 send tracks. Something for example say Cubase has 128 physical inputs and outputs and has 64 sends, 256 busses and unlimited routing between audio channels. Again not to say FL is incapable in anyway of creating great mixes, however it just doesn't give the same breadth of field to the post production side of things as some other daws.

[mrwonderful]

Fl has 199 channels broham. It's not like in hip hop you ever use that many. I agree With sends but I believe you can workaround that with patcher .

[The Aristocrat]

Originally Posted by mrwonderful

Fl has 199 channels broham.

Really, are you sure? last time I checked FL had 99 mixer inserts but I could be wrong. Not sure if they changed it in a recent update or anything. My apologies if it is 199. Last time I checked it was 99.

It's not like in hip hop you ever use that many

I get what you mean but say for example you are doing all your mixing in FL and you are processing live instruments. Now say you plan to parallel process some of the signals in that drum set. Normally you can parallel process using just one channel by taking advantages of different busses and such. In FL since they don't have that you have to use the inserts instead and parallel processing occupies 4 inserts, just for one instrument. So if I had maybe 20 - 30 instruments and decide to parallel process just 5 of those instruments I could be looking at near 50 tracks and this is all before vocals.

Also if you are making a DAW the last thing you want to do is exclude a group of individuals. In hip hop many times people may not even use close to that amount so I understand where you are coming from, but what about the vast majority of people who are into any other genre. Not to be a nitpicker or anything but it is something they might want to look out for to make themselves on more of an even footing. Image Line already has so many people looking down on FL for silly reasons.

[OmegaP]

Originally Posted by The Aristocrat

If I were to take a crack as to why he said that it would be along the lines of the weird routing system and the little attention it pays to commonplace routing practices. Not to say that it doesn't remove a lot of the complication because once you know how to use it it is very simple. But say for example you wish to switch daws, or want to go to a console or are coming from one. The FL routing system pays little if any attention to separately addressing busses, returns, inserts etc. They only have inserts and sends. Normally routing does not work the way it does in FL at all. Making something like parallel compression very counter - intuitive since you are using several "inserts" in FL to accomplish this while paying no attention to to the practices and or limitations of bussing, returns, auxilliary busses etc.

Also FL has 99 inputs and 4 send tracks. Something for example say Cubase has 128 physical inputs and outputs and has 64 sends, 256 busses and unlimited routing between audio channels. Again not to say FL is incapable in anyway of creating great mixes, however it just doesn't give the same breadth of field to the post production side of things as some other daws.

Yes that pretty much covers it. Thanks for explaining it in better detail than i did.

[DAH]

Originally Posted by The Aristocrat

I get what you mean but say for example you are doing all your mixing in FL and you are processing live instruments. Now say you plan to parallel process some of the signals in that drum set. Normally you can parallel process using just one channel by taking advantages of different busses and such. In FL since they don't have that you have to use the inserts instead and parallel processing occupies 4 inserts, just for one instrument. So if I had maybe 20 - 30 instruments and decide to parallel process just 5 of those instruments I could be looking at near 50 tracks and this is all before vocals.

RTFM, parallel compression is done via 1 knob turn - wet\dry on the insert and using latency-free compressor.

[mrwonderful]

Originally Posted by The Aristocrat

Really, are you sure? last time I checked FL had 99 mixer inserts but I could be wrong. Not sure if they changed it in a recent update or anything. My apologies if it is 199. Last time I checked it was 99.



I get what you mean but say for example you are doing all your mixing in FL and you are processing live instruments. Now say you plan to parallel process some of the signals in that drum set. Normally you can parallel process using just one channel by taking advantages of different busses and such. In FL since they don't have that you have to use the inserts instead and parallel processing occupies 4 inserts, just for one instrument. So if I had maybe 20 - 30 instruments and decide to parallel process just 5 of those instruments I could be looking at near 50 tracks and this is all before vocals.

Also if you are making a DAW the last thing you want to do is exclude a group of individuals. In hip hop many times people may not even use close to that amount so I understand where you are coming from, but what about the vast majority of people who are into any other genre. Not to be a nitpicker or anything but it is something they might want to look out for to make themselves on more of an even footing. Image Line already has so many people looking down on FL for silly reasons.

Check out patcher. Personally I don't use it but a lot of electronic folks do.

It's simple to parallel compress with FL and with patcher I'm sure you could do it too more than 5 instruments.

Mixer automation in FL is quite impressive as well. Dunno if many people use it but I do often. Makes for an interesting mix, not sure if other programs offer this but I'm sure they do.

[The Aristocrat]

Originally Posted by DAH

RTFM, parallel compression is done via 1 knob turn - wet\dry on the insert and using latency-free compressor.

I think you missed where I said that.

Normally you can parallel process using just one channel

However I was referring to how it was done in FL Studio and not how it was normally done.

[The Aristocrat]

Originally Posted by mrwonderful

Check out patcher. Personally I don't use it but a lot of electronic folks do.

It's simple to parallel compress with FL and with patcher I'm sure you could do it too more than 5 instruments.

Mixer automation in FL is quite impressive as well. Dunno if many people use it but I do often. Makes for an interesting mix, not sure if other programs offer this but I'm sure they do.

Will check it out, never looked into it much but will look into it. Never tried mixing automation either but I am a big fan of the way FL handles automation, the automation clips make things very convenient.

[dirtyskillz]

Definitley will try and use the limiter more often as a reference.

[The Aristocrat]

Originally Posted by dirtyskillz

Definitley will try and use the limiter more often as a reference.

Why not just use the dB meter instead?

[smccarthy945]

I put a tremendous amount of time trying to learn to mix with FL Studio. Personally, I think FL is a great production tool but terrible for mastering. I compared Ableton side by side to FL Studio when mixing songs down and FL Studio never outputs the audio from the VSTs properly and the levels never hold or are consistent.

I don't care what anyone says but FL Studio does not mix down correctly. It is inconsistent and the levels never come out properly. Why do you think there are so many posts about people asking about mixing problems in FL. Do a search on Gearslutz and other forums and compare the # of posts of ppl having problems mixing down with FL versus other DAWs and the numbers are staggering.

I am not knocking FL because its an incredible production program and very unique. I just don't think it is built for mixing or mastering given the audio output issues specifically when you use 3rd party VSTs. Save yourself alot of time and aggravation and use another program for your mixdown such as Protools.

Most well known producers always make the jump from FL to another program for this reason. The same issues plague ACID PRO by Sony. Danger Mouse used to produce like crazy on Acid and had the same mixdown issues and moved to Pro Tools.

I am sure a ton of people will disagree with me, however, do the research and you will see there are many problems with FL mixdown.

[Hobbs_Won]

set the Mixer sampling to linear....and make sure the limiter is off the 2 buss....

FL mixes fine....

whatever tho

[Robert Toolgreen]

sorry I don't want to flame on ur thread, but I'm just wondering why would u want to mix ur own records or music?
By the things you mentioned " Blood over drive (which it will massively boost the low and high frequency) and gaining ur mix at the start like 4.2 db" these things shows that you know nothing of mixing or mastering.
when you mix you shouldn't touch the master track at all and your mix should be so great that the mastering engineer just give it a little Stereo imaging, small amount of multiband compression, some saturation and boost it 2 or 3 dbs if that's necessary.
no daws are Superior when it comes to mixing, other daws won't add more quality to your mixes they're all the same.
FL studio is great and have no problem for mixing, but if you're serious about ur music you should pass it down to a pro to mix ur song

[psycho_monkey]

Originally Posted by Robert Toolgreen

sorry I don't want to flame on ur thread, but I'm just wondering why would u want to mix ur own records or music?
By the things you mentioned " Blood over drive (which it will massively boost the low and high frequency) and gaining ur mix at the start like 4.2 db" these things shows that you know nothing of mixing or mastering.
when you mix you shouldn't touch the master track at all and your mix should be so great that the mastering engineer just give it a little Stereo imaging, small amount of multiband compression, some saturation and boost it 2 or 3 dbs if that's necessary.
no daws are Superior when it comes to mixing, other daws won't add more quality to your mixes they're all the same.
FL studio is great and have no problem for mixing, but if you're serious about ur music you should pass it down to a pro to mix ur song

Hmm....from someone who didn't know the difference between a preamp and a saturation plugin in his other thread, that's a bit rich! Maybe it's not yet time to hand out mixing advice....? At least when it comes to software...

Not everyone has the budget or need for a separate mix engineer - if you're doing things for fun, or to improve your techniques...why wouldn't you want to learn yourself?

[johnynotknow]

You can do paralell processing just like you would in any other daw with presend faders,though the routing i will agree is a little esoteric to fl but it performs just the same

To the person who said the volume isn't consistent with vsts.that's got nothing to do with how fl sums it's to do with the synth or sampler itself.maybe the oscillators aint retriggered which would cause the volume to flap cause the phase doesn't retrigger when you play consecutive notes or maybe the samples you're using are round robin meaning they alternate everytime you hit a key to simulate realism or dynamics. which most vsts lack.

Even some vst effects are non-linear like reverb for example and modulation effects which would cause the volume to fluctuate

If that's really a problem for you slap an edison at the end of your all your chains and bounce everything down as stems

In future though without being too insulting learn about digital audio before you start to point fingers


Johnynotknow

Sent from my HTC ChaCha A810e using Tapatalk

[3nterprise]

Eq all your sounds and put them in they're own spectrum the parametric eq shows u where the sweet spot is...take a listen and get ur dynamics right...I absolutely love fl studio but would not mix vocals in it...

[johnynotknow]

Originally Posted by 3nterprise

Eq all your sounds and put them in they're own spectrum the parametric eq shows u where the sweet spot is...take a listen and get ur dynamics right...I absolutely love fl studio but would not mix vocals in it...

Considering (according to my knowledge atleast)that fl's automation is or was one of the only daws to feature bezier curves and custom envelope shapes for automation.it's more than adequate for mixing vocals

It also has it's own version of melodyne (though in honesty it's shite in comparison)even so, melodyne works quite fluidly with fl and i've never had a qualm with it

that and the power of fls automation alone would make for a pretty broad style of vocal mixing aesthetics let alone things like that forward thinking patcher application and the ability to use the dynamic signal of one element to control another (peak controller,envelope shaper) which you can link to external vsts aswell as fruity's internal, the options are pretty limitless (bounce the results cause fl is a bit of a **** with zero crossings and retriggering automated elements).


Johnynotknow

[Robert Toolgreen]

Originally Posted by psycho_monkey

Hmm....from someone who didn't know the difference between a preamp and a saturation plugin in his other thread, that's a bit rich! Maybe it's not yet time to hand out mixing advice....? At least when it comes to software...

Not everyone has the budget or need for a separate mix engineer - if you're doing things for fun, or to improve your techniques...why wouldn't you want to learn yourself?

well maybe someone is trying to prove himself in every single thread. well I'm not much of a recording engineer type of guy to work with preamps mister and for a master mind like YOU as u say it this has nothing to do with mixing but when it comes to mixing yes I'm pretty good. I think instead of putting me down and showing of! why don't you say which parts of my reply to the gentleman (OP) was wrong? and quit acting childish. I've been mixing for about 20 years and yes I'm a mixing engineer don't need to prove my self but what u said looks like you have loads of anger son. take it easy

when you mentioned that there is no plugin that can do what preamp does or it's not possible I browsed in to google and find jack joseph quote on waves plugin forums:
well just saw jack joseph's reply on HLS
he mentioned that this plugin like the 112 redline Preamp works exactly like a preamp if you insert it in one of ur recording mixer channels and it has apdc on it self and the digital signal will pass true it. so don't know what u're trying to say? maybe you know better than jack

[Stackx]

Originally Posted by Robert Toolgreen

well maybe someone is trying to prove himself in every single thread. well I'm not much of a recording engineer type of guy to work with preamps mister and for a master mind like YOU as u say it this has nothing to do with mixing but when it comes to mixing yes I'm pretty good. I think instead of putting me down and showing of! why don't you say which parts of my reply to the gentleman (OP) was wrong? and quit acting childish. I've been mixing for about 20 years and yes I'm a mixing engineer don't need to prove my self but what u said looks like you have loads of anger son. take it easy

when you mentioned that there is no plugin that can do what preamp does or it's not possible I browsed in to google and find jack joseph quote on waves plugin forums:
well just saw jack joseph's reply on HLS
he mentioned that this plugin like the 112 redline Preamp works exactly like a preamp if you insert it in one of ur recording mixer channels and it has apdc on it self and the digital signal will pass true it. so don't know what u're trying to say? maybe you know better than jack

Lmfao.. That plugin in is to give saturation like a pre-amp or added to give a overdrive effect. NOT TO BE REPLACED WITH A REAL PREAMP. I'm sorry but if your a mix engineer (especially for 20 years) you know what a preamp is even if you don't own one.