Thread: Post Fruity Loops Stuff Here

actually,
on the drum side of things
just nick Oneironaut's
cause they rock

Oneironaut - mate, you've got the "human" feel to drum programming locked tight
even the little idle double snare hits that real life drummers do by accident cause the drumstick rebounds off the skin

god fecking damn

Wow, thanks for all your help Ynot. I know what you mean about the off pitch notes. The notes were actualy right, I checked it over. Instead of just using that normal sinth, I was messing around with the settings, and it turns out, that the sinth basicly got a little out of tune. I didn't think it was really noticable until I listened through it a couple times. I would change it, but like I've said before, I only have the demo version of fruity loops. The demo version doesn't allow you to save, just export your song. Like I said before thank you a lot for all the help.

I will try to mix up the beats too, I know what you mean about Oneironaut's beat how they seem real life like. I noticed the little double hits too, that is amazing! I play percussion and I do that all the time.

And Ynot, I'm not sure wich melody you mean, there is kind of 2. I'll list the two off though:
The beggining melody, the dada dada dada dada da da, was a Sytrus in FL. It is under "Plucked" and it is the second one down, I think it's just called "Double".
The ending melody, the one with the echo, was an other Sytrus. It's under "arp" and it is called "Chirp" or "Chip."

wow, thats a long post...

Thanx fellaz! Glad you enjoyed it.

I'm a beat-head, so I usually put most of the work into my drums, obviously.
The trick that works best for me with FL drumming is to mess around with two snares, choosing a snare with a little bit of a deeper tone, and lowered volume, to make the double snares. That way it doesn't sound like the exact same snare twice and lowers the intensity of the second hit. But I'm still experimenting so I try not to set any real "techniques" and just kinda let things flow differently for each song.

Flinte - I like the Creating AI track a lot. The melody is great and I think the instrumental tones mix together very well. The only thing, personally, that I would alter is the tom-tom sound that comes in after midway through the song. Even if you keep it in, maybe you wanna think about adding some pitch changes with it. Only reason I say that is that I think it kinda dominates the track from that point on, but that is just my opinion.

Good work, yo. I think that is your best one, so far.

And Lance, I'll be checking out your work soon!

wow, once again, thank you for all the feedback! I will try to make some new beats for my next song, so they won't sound as boring. Unfortunatly, this song was before I got advice from you you guys, so it doesn't have a great beat.
This song is a song I made using windows noises for most of it. You have probably heard the original (which is way better than mine) called Windows Noises, that's where I got the idea for this song.

Windows

Here is the original: Windows Noises

Note:Please listen to this after mine. That way mine won't sound as bad, hahaha.

Flinte,
Don't put yourself down
we all have to start somewhere

Try listening to some old Jazz, Funk & Soul tunes
for ideas on rhythm and beat constructs

Also, check out Sound-on-Sound
they have masses of articles
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb98/arti...cles/rythm.html

Thats a great idea Ynot. I love jazz and I'll listen for some beats. By the way, do you have any more songs that you've made? Your first one was great!

Originally posted by Flinte
Thats a great idea Ynot. I love jazz and I'll listen for some beats. By the way, do you have any more songs that you've made? Your first one was great!

http://www.snoopy.force9.co.uk/ynot/

I'll try and upload some more as well

Man, those are amazing! Keep them coming!

You got some good stuff, Ynot. I like Invasion 2040 the most.

Well, I guess it was good timing for me to feel like coming back to Dreamviews. I've used Fruity Loops (or FL Studio) for a while and made a bunch of songs with it.

Anyway, for feedback, I'd say that almost all of the songs that have been posted on here are just lacking power. Not all of them, but that's a common issue. Andnd what I mean by that is just a vibe you get from the song, that indicates power. Kinda hard to describe. For an example of when you did pull it off fine, listen again to that Trapped Inside the Endless Factory song. Around 1:50 it kicks in some power.

Other than that, there's a LOT of repitition, which gets annoying. It's alright to have repitition, but to a certain extent. Try to come up with like a pattern that uses intro, verse, chorus, and outro. These should all be relatively similar, but still sound different in some way. And they don't have to be actual verses and chorus, they can be used once, it doesn't really matter.

And another problem I've noticed is the amount of drops in these songs. Where the music is upbeat or gaining a bit of power, and then a crash cymbal flies off with some other things and the music is suddenly quieter, and it builds up again, like a second intro. That's fine, but there's a few songs that do this too much, and by too much I mean more than once. When a song is constantly dropping, it doesn't ever gain the power that it could be.

On the flip side, I am noticing a lot of improvement as the songs come in. So I wouldn't take this advice too harshly. Beginners are beginners, and there isn't much else to it. You get better through experience. Just keep working at it.

And for a few of my songs, if you're interested, I've got a bunch of oldies on a site:
http://www.geocities.com/vampyre_tunes/

The site is relatively outdated, but still has some decent stuff on it. I'd like to recommend Xombie and Letter in the Bottle. All of the Flash files on there are actual recordings, so they're probably not of as much interest.

And for a more recent song there's this:
Cemetery Walk (IO Mix)

It's a remix of another song I made, and it's meant to be a more orchestral version.

And lastly, I apologize for the length of this post. Good to be back though.

Vampyre -

Thanks for the input, man. And no need to appologize for the long post.

It might be better, though, to be a little more specific with your advice. Are you talking Solely to Flinte, or everyone? There are about 4-5 of us who have posted projects.
As far as some of your critiques, you have to understand dance music (which is what most of us have posted) and Hip-Hop, which a few of mine are.
In dance music, repetition and excessive drops are much more common. Repetition gives ample time to display symmetry and flow between dance steps without feeling rushed to change up your style 40 times in a single 8-beat count that has no concrete structure whatsoever. I agree that too much repetition is never good, but “Too much” repetition is only relevant to the style of music that you’re used to hearing.
Excessive drops are actually Crucial to dance music. They are your cues for pulling off “power moves” and “freezes” and a list of other tactics that dazzle the audience by timing a shocking dance move with the emphasis of a drop behind it. A dance song with One drop would mean you have to wait an entire song for One Drop to pull out one really flashy, distinguished move and have the suitable musical change to give it justice.
Just doesn’t work. Especially in a group packed with people wanting to dance to the same song.
As far as the popular intro, verse, bridge, chorus, repeat, outro structure of most mainstream music, it’s nowhere near necessary. This is especially true for club music. Though many electronica songs are structured in variations of those ways, (artists like Hybrid, The Crystal Method, Moby, etc etc) the majority of club/dance music is made with a beat that runs from beginning to end of song. The reason for this is so that the DJ’s can beatmatch and mix fluidly without having to worry about intros/outros that make it near Impossible to mix songs seamlessly while keeping the dance floor momentum going.
You gave good suggestions, though. It’s just that the guidelines for certain types of music always seem awkward to people that live mainly outside those genres. And again, it’s hard to determine exactly who you see as using too much or too little of anything, because you didn’t really specify, ya know?

And damn, your music makes me miss my guitar.

Anyway, Crits and comments: Also not to be taken harshly, I hope.

Aery Water – Nice tune, but it seems way too rushed. I think it would be perfect if it wasn’t played so hurriedly, though.

Bag of Dinks –The Solo was pretty cool.

Letter in the Bottle. – Love the rhythm to this one. Great choice of instruments too. My only real crit, which is seeming to be universal as I listen to more of your work is that the harmony leaves a little something to be desired. A lot of the different melodies, frankly, just clash with each other. The ambience is nice. The beat is nice, but the two lead instruments suffer from two things: 1) the melodies of each instrument don’t quite flow through the scales, and somewhat jump around sporadically with no harmonious procession through the notes in different areas. This is specifically more apparent during the vibraphone (is that a vibraphone? The lead instrument?) breakdown in the middle of the song. 2) The second ringish instrument that comes in, is that a different instrument than the initial vibraphonish one, or the same instrument, played at a different octave? If it’s the same, I’d think about switching it up a little.
Toward the end, when the wind/synths come in louder, I don’t think they harmonize with the percussions of the vibes very well. Don’t get me wrong; the instrumental sounds go well together, but harmony is crucial, no matter what instrument you play. When two notes (or more) harmonize, there is a shared vibration. It is easy to misinterpret the sound as One note being played, even when there are two or three.
You play the guitar, and I know you know chords. Each of the notes in your chords harmonizes with one another. That’s what makes them chords. If you were to substitute any of those notes, for a note right next to it, you would completely throw off the harmony of the chord, and it would sound like off-notes competing with each other. This is what seems to be your only really apparent flaw, if you ask me.

Mellow Shade – I really like this one. A little pitchy at times, but not too much I can say about it.

Xombie – Best one out of the lot. A little too much reverb for my tastes, but it’s a good tune.

Cemetary Walk - I like the feel of this one. As usual, it’s got a great ambience. The melody is still just a little pitchy for me, though.

Pretty decent stuff, though, all around. Welcome back, and keep it comin’.

Like the Sig, btw.

Well Oneironaut, I was directing the advice to generally everyone that has posted music here. Not that I think it's really necessary, just that it's some things to keep in mind for future songs, since you guys seem to be improving anyways.

And as for the whole dance/house music style thing with repitition, I wasn't thinking of it in that way. However, I'd still like to recommend some slight differences, because it gets very boring listening to the same song over and over. All I meant with the intro, verse, etc thing was that they're different, it's not just added sounds or something, they have a different, but similar melody / beat. Doesn't have to actually follow a pattern like that or even be more than two different melodies, just have more than one. Otherwise it just seems lazy.

And I have no clue how you could ever give up your guitar, I'd be shipped off to war with a guitar in one hand, gun in the other. There's no way I'd ever separate for more than a week.

Anyway, here's a couple notes on the songs you mentioned::

Aery Waters - This is the first song I ever wrote...ever. It's just an arrangement of chords.

Bag of Dinks - Second metal-ish song I've ever made. First was Presence of Flame.

Letter in the Bottle - Second song that I made on the computer. First is Remember the Bongos.

Mellow Shade - This is actually improvised, I only had the idea in my head, and pretty much made it up while recording

Xombie - This was pretty much to see what kind of wave patterns create such massive vibration with the bass. And it worked out that you can play this song very loud and it won't vibrate you as much as some other songs would. At least I think so.

Cemetery Walk - I don't know what's with the pitchy issue you mentioned, but meh.

And lastly, I've updated the site to add two songs. One is a dance tune, and the other is a piano tune that I played. It's a shoddy recording and I messed up at a few parts, but I don't care to record it again for a while. You can get the idea from it anyway. And if you can't figure out which of the songs is the dance one, then you clearly are retarded.

"What Would I Do" -by Ophelia Blue

Alright well, as Ophie already knows, I've been screwing around with this song a little bit. (The one on this thread: http://www.dreamviews.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31529 )
First off, the shit is hard as hell to remix because she's playing without a metronome (which always sounds great, by the way, so don't go changing that on my account haha) but it makes it damn near Impossible to smoothly remix it into a song with symmetrical measures. But anyway, here's what I got so far. I'm constantly having to go back and rework the chords for the "What would I do without you..." part of the bridge (which I turned into verses and shortened the song lyrics, for lack of patience ) because that part is fuckin' HARD to match with Fruity Loops. I'll get it, though. Might have to break out the old keyboard and start working on my chords s'more. Haha.
I'll post again when I've gotten some more work put into it.

(By the way, it's changed just a little since the last time you heard it, Lisa, so be sure to check this one out.)
http://media.putfile.com/What-Would-I-Do-Remix-Test2

dude this sounds freaking awesome!!!!!

well I think you're doing a fantastic job working with the song, especially seeing how I speed up and slow down alot

I don't know how fruity loops works, but if there is some way I can record it in a different way to make it easier to match stuff up (even tempos, add or remove bars etc) let me know and I'll see what I can do man

HAHA I'm listening to it now, and it's so cool to hear my song as if it were being played at a dance club <3

(woah, I could have sworn this was posted in the other thread, and when I went back to comment on it, it was gone )

DUDE!! :bravo:

The two O's should team up and do more of these! It's awesome!!

Thanks, both of you! Always nice to have positive feedback.

Originally posted by OpheliaBlue

I don't know how fruity loops works, but if there is some way I can record it in a different way to make it easier to match stuff up (even tempos, add or remove bars etc) let me know and I'll see what I can do man

(woah, I could have sworn this was posted in the other thread, and when I went back to comment on it, it was gone )

You know, when I first started working on it, I was thinking about asking you to record your voice and piano separately, which would have made it a little easier, but I actually like the way it's coming along, so I don't think it will be necessary.
One thing that would help though is if you let me know the keys that correspond to the chords during the verses that I put into the mix. I know you gave me the names of the chords, but I haven't studied chords since I was a kid, and I'm having trouble finding out which keys make up those chords without having to pull my old keyboard out and find them with my fingers.

Oh, and it was on the other thread, but I wasn't too sure about cluttering up your thread with all this "in progress" stuff, and was going to post the final product there when I was finished....BUUUUUUUUUUUUT, if you don't mind it being there, we can definitely move it!

My first and second Fruity Loops projects... from very early versions, pure Fruit:

http://theveryfew.net/headache.mp3
http://theveryew.net/fern.mp3

My fav - posted it before here elsewhere... from FL Studio as I was learning Sytrus. Everything in this one is Sytrus, "hand-played" rather than programmed. Again, everything is native:

http://theveryfew.net/ocean.mp3

Originally posted by Oneironaut
One thing that would help though is if you let me know the keys that correspond to the chords during the verses that I put into the mix.

you got it friend, about to send a PM to you now

www.myspace.com/schematicsmusic

Listen to the first song that loads when you enter that page, called psycho drum circus, my newest song. I'm sure it will get you pumped.....


btw...I have to agree with the poster of above, a lot of these songs, while containing some very nice musical ideas, sound very dull and lifeless....but not in the good "Richie Hawtin" minimalist techno way if u know wat I mean.....

SolSkye, I'm listening to your track, very nice. The distortion on the first instrument seems a bit too harsh for me, considering the tone of the song. But overall, things gel together really well. I see u've played in DC before? That's cool, I've been going to school in DC for a long time now, where have you played?

Originally posted by strifer
www.myspace.com/schematicsmusic

Listen to the first song that loads when you enter that page, called psycho drum circus, my newest song. *I'm sure it will get you pumped.....

Crap, man! Me like.

*turns up volume*

Here goes links to my 2 newest tracks, made with fruity loops.

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?acti...31A5ADD04A82EBC
Its Time for War

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?acti...05898767410AECB
Smurf Village Rave (Ph4t-M1x)

I have a bunch more if anybody likes them. Please do not steal credit for my songs, i already have a poor mans copyright.. lol i sent myself a cd thats dated in the mail, a while ago... but just dont jack my stuff and make money off it and there wont be a problem ok?

Btw: Oneironaught the way to make a single sound have reverb or flange or phaser effect, either use 3xOsc or tweak the sound by left clicking on it, and messing with the different effects. You can also link the effects on a single sound to follow a certain pattern. First you need to go to your master effects board(Mixer) and load a Peak Controller or an X-Y Controller. Simply go to the envelopes tab on any sound, and at the bottom youll see "Cut" and "Res" Knobs. Click on "Link to controller" and select The X-Y controller or Peak Controller you wish to link the sound to. Enable the peak controller or X-y controller and set it up to your wishes. You can also link a lot of different knobs, on the Ts404 and 3xOsc and regular samples, link them and it automatically warps the sound out to the Peak Controller or X-Y Controller. Neat thing about x-y's are you can link one thing to the X movement on the graph, and another thing to the Y movement on the graph, and then record the movement you make... It sounds complicated but is very easy once you just try to learn it.

Thanks, Shaggy! I'll definitely check into that. I've experimented with the X-Y controller before, but it was really nothing more than "Hmmmmm...I wonder what this does!" Haha.

Also, I'll check out your music as well as SolSkye's, when I get a minute.

[Edit: Damnit. Putfile.com seems to be having a little problem, and now I can't even get my damn files to play. I'mma have to get the bottom of this. Meanwhile, can someone try listening to "What Would I Do" and tell me if it's working for you?]

[Edit x2: Had a little time, so I ran through a few of the songs. Brief, but overall impressions are:

PJ.- I like the way “Headache” flows.

Shaggy - I like when the breakbeat kicks in at :49 on It’s Time for War. It takes a certain groove to get me excited about a straight-beat song, more of the jazzy house sound, so I guess I'm a bit biased, but when I heard that break kick in I was like "Hell yeah." I think you should have done a little more with that.

Schematic – the opening of Where the Wild Things are was really the only thing that jumped out at me as Awesome. I think if you would of used a little more of that melody throughout the song, along with anything other than a straight trance/house beat, that song would be the best one out of the lot.

SolSkye – Shit, I meant to reply earlier. I REALLY like that song. I do agree that the distortion in the beginning and end are just a little too harsh, though. I love the ring to it, but I think it’s just a little bit too grainy. Other than that, excellent work, man. ]

Originally posted by Oneironaut
PJ.- I like the way “Headache” flows.

Thank you! It's ironic (to me) that you pick my least favorite of the three posted - but one many others seem to like for one reason or another. That piece came out of a week-long migraine, and an attempt to capture bits of it. It was also early on... before I had good nearfields to mix with or very much experience with engineering or mastering.

I've listened through much of the stuff posted here, but not in a way that qualifies me to comment on it yet. It's great to hear what others are doing with my favorite electronic music tool. I've been an FL/FL Studio user (and payer) since before version 2.

For an entire (very active) world structured around this tool and type of music, do check out http://sectionz.com. My little piece of that world is here.

Thank you thats one of my favorite tracks ive made, but i like to hear somebody liking them, im always gonna love what i make, but i always wonder if anybody else identifies what im trying to do.

Originally posted by Oneironaut

Schematic – the opening of Where the Wild Things are was really the only thing that jumped out at me as Awesome. I think if you would of used a little more of that melody throughout the song, along with anything other than a straight trance/house beat, that song would be the best one out of the lot.

right on, thanks for replying, I guess ur more of a breaks person. That's cool, I love breaks and drum n bass, but making the 4 to the floor dance music just comes much more naturally too me (it's got those pure hypnotic tones, especially when combined with some good ethnic percussion), though I have my fair share of dnb songs that I'm proud of 8) .


Amethyst Star: Thanks for listening dude, glad you enjoyed it

shaggy_da_clown: I listened to its time for war...dunno man, seems very out of tune to me, a lot of the notes collide in a negative way, and the song is sounding like old school nintendo music. Also, the arrangment is kinda amatuer.... But, don't worry about what I say, take it in stride, I'm just giving you my perception of the tune, take it how you will.