FL Manual 14 Mixer/Effector Flashcards
FL STUDIO - Mixer
When one Track is routed to another there are two independent audio paths.
These are what?
- A regular audible send path that responds to the send volume level.
- -A sidechain path that is NOT audible on the destination Mixer Track UNLESS it is picked up by a plugin with a sidechain audio Input capability loaded on the destination Mixer Track
FL STUDIO - Mixer
You can change any ‘send’ into a ‘sidechain’ (only) link by doing what?
- Manually setting the volume to 0.
- -Remember the sidechain source Mixer Track will remain routed to the Master Mixer Track, so deselect its send to master switch if you don’t want the sidechain source Mixer Track to be audible.
FL STUDIO - Mixer
When recording how can you ensure which playlist track receives the audio?
-If you want to ensure recorded Audio Clips are placed where you want them, Right-click a Playlist Track you want to use and select Track mode > Audio Track > (choose Mixer Insert).
FL STUDIO - Mixer
Options - Disk Recording
Render to wave file
- (Alt+R)
- -Renders all Mixer Tracks armed for recording to a wave file (see Disk Recording).
FL STUDIO - Mixer
Options - Disk Recording
Auto-unarm
-Tracks armed for recording will be automatically unarmed when stop is pressed.
FL STUDIO - Mixer
Options - Disk Recording
Auto-create audio clips
- FL Studio inserts Audio Clips in the Playlist after recording.
- -NOTE: The first available Playlist track that can fit the recording will be used.
- –If you want to ensure recorded Audio Clips are placed where you want them, Right-click a Playlist Track you want to use and select Track mode > Audio Track > (choose Mixer Insert).
FL STUDIO - Mixer
Options - Disk Recording
Latency compensation
- This applies to external audio input latency caused by the ASIO Buffer length setting.
- -FL Studio will remove time equal to the input latency from the start of recorded Audio Clips, so they correctly align with the Playlist.
- –NOTES: 1. Internal mixer Audio does not need latency compensation so this option should be off. —-2. Depending on your system and ASIO drivers, you may still need to use the Playback tracking offset fine tune the clip placement.
FL STUDIO - Mixer
Options - Disk Recording
32-Bit float recording
- If enabled, audio recording Tracks are saved as 32-Bit wave files, otherwise the standard 16-Bit format is used.
- -‘32-Bit floating point recording’ is only necessary if your audio device is set to record at a bit-depth higher than 16-Bit (24-Bit for example).
- –32-Bit will preserve the full quality of all audio device quantization’s above 16-Bit.
- —NOTE: FL Studio receives audio from the audio device as a pre-digitized stream, the bit-depth set here has no effect on the recorded bit-depth (that is set in the audio device options).
- —-Saving a 16-Bit sample at 32-Bit will make the file significantly larger with no gain in quality.
FL STUDIO - Mixer
Options - Plugin Delay Compensation
Reset manual latency on all tracks
-Reset all manual latency values to zero.
FL STUDIO - Mixer
Options - Plugin Delay Compensation
Automatic
- Automatically applies PDC and updates the PDC settings when changes are detected.
- -This is the default mode for new projects.
- –If APDC fails you will need to manually adjust PDC delays on the offending Mixer Track/s.
- —NOTES: 1. PDC state is saved per-project. 2. There is a Wrapper > Settings > Latency option where you can set a manual latency offset for plugins that incorrectly report their latency. This is remembered per-plugin.
FL STUDIO - Mixer
Options - Link all parameters…
-Opens a link-dialog that is designed to link automatable software parameters to ‘tweaked’ hardware controllers and then automatically move to the next item in the ‘parameter list’ ready for the next link.
FL STUDIO - Mixer
Options - Open Audio Editor vs Open Audio Logger
-Both open Edison, but logger will have Edison set to ‘audio logging’ mode, that is, recording on FL Studio play and set to a 5 minute rolling audio-log.
FL STUDIO - Mixer Routing
Create submix..
Right click>Track Routing>Create Submix
- Modifies Mixer Track routing so that the Right-Clicked Mixer Track is inserted between the selected tracks and the Master.
- -Essentially a group Pre-Master Buss.
FL STUDIO - Mixer Routing
How to select Tracks routed to this track?
-CTRL+Alt+L
FL STUDIO - Mixer Routing
How to select Tracks this one is routed to?
-Right click, Select, Tracks this one is routed to
FL STUDIO - Mixer Routing
Solo vs Alt Solo
- Solo (S) - Solos the output from the selected Track.
- -Alt Solo (Alt+S) - Solos the selected Track AND all other Mixer Tracks routed TO and FROM it
FL STUDIO - Effect slots 1 to 10
Effect mix does what?
- Adjust the wet/dry mix of each effect using the Effect Mix Level knob.
- -Fully left = 0% effect, fully right = 100% effect mix.
- –NOTES: 1. Effects usually have their own internal wet/dry mix so adjusting the Effect Mix level to 100% does not guarantee a 100% wet signal. 2. Normally leave this at 100% and control the Wet/Dry mix from within the plugin.
- —If the plugin introduces a processing delay, most do, then the processed ‘wet’ and unprocessed ‘dry’ signal can phase cancel as the wet slightly lags the dry signal. This is usually most apparent on high frequencies such as cymbals. Summary? Don’t touch that knob! Unless you know what you are doing and since you are reading this you probably don’t, so…
FL STUDIO - Effect slots 1 to 10
Why should you generally not be using the Effect mix knob external of the plugin?
- If the plugin introduces a processing delay, most do, then the processed ‘wet’ and unprocessed ‘dry’ signal can phase cancel as the wet slightly lags the dry signal.
- -This is usually most apparent on high frequencies such as cymbals.
- –Don’t touch that knob! Unless you know what you are doing and since you are reading this you probably don’t, so…
FL STUDIO - Effect slots 1 to 10
Reorder / move effects within a track
- Alternatively: Select the Effect slot menu and use the Move Up/Down commands.
- -Simply open the menu and press the ‘u’ or ‘d’ keys on your keyboard.
- –NOTE: The order of effects can have a dramatic impact on the sound so think carefully about the order in which effects are applied
FL STUDIO - Effect slots 1 to 10
Presets - Randomize
- Randomize gives random values to the published (i.e. known to FL Studio) effect settings.
- -When enabled, selecting a preset will load a random 50% of the settings, so you can quickly mix different presets and create new effects.
FL STUDIO - Effect slots 1 to 10
Presets - Hybridize
-Hybridize blends between the previous and next selected settings.
FL STUDIO - Effect slots 1 to 10
Browse parameters
-Allows you to see the list of automatable parameters in the browser.
FL STUDIO - Mixer Track Panel
What is Mixer Track Panel?
- Only one Mixer Track panel can be seen at a time.
- -It integrates a parametric equalizer, PDC (Plugin Delay Compensation) and hardware audio INPUT/OUTPUT controls.
FL STUDIO - Mixer Track Panel
Manual Plugin Delay Compensation
- (B) - PDC.
- -Left-click the icon on tracks to make manual adjustments to PDC, or use the drop-down menu on the Track Inspector panel.
- –The Track Icon will turn blue when manual PDC offsets are set.
- —Controls as discussed below.
- —-NOTE: Manual PDC can be used in conjunction with Automatic PDC. Manual values are treated as offsets to APDC.
FL STUDIO - Mixer Track Panel
Audio INPUT delay compensation
- (C)
- Use to fix cases where recorded audio, is out of sync with internal events. Normally, use positive values to move the audio to the left (earlier), since most external audio inputs are delayed, or negative values to shift recorded audio to the right (later) if it is ahead of internal events.
- -There is also a global control for changing recorded input alignment on the Audio Settings > Playback Tracking > Offset.
FL STUDIO - Mixer Track Panel
Plugin Delay Compensation - PDC is what?
- PDC is required when plugins (instrument or effects) have processing delays that put their audio out of sync with other audio in the project.
- -Most commonly effects introduce these unwanted delays and this causes the audio on their Mixer Track out of sync with other Mixer Tracks.
- –PDC works by adding this same delay to all other Mixer tracks, to bring them into sync again.
- —When several plugins introduce unwanted delay on several Mixer Tracks then multiple compensations are required so that all the tracks end up in sync when the audio reaches the Master Mixer track.
FL STUDIO - Mixer Track Panel Automatic PDC (Orange icon)
- Use the Plugin delay compensation > Automatic option on the Mixer menu.
- -This will automatically update PDC settings as plugin delay is detected or changes, no further input is needed from you.
- –If APDC fails (usually because a plugin is not reporting its latency correctly), you can manually set PDC (Left-click the PDC icons on Mixer tracks or use the menu as shown at B above).
- —Manual PDC settings will be treated as offsets to Automatic PDC, unless Automatic PDC is off.
FL STUDIO - Mixer Track Panel
Delay Track/Generator
-The PDC (B) on Mixer Tracks affects Track PDC, the PDC icon on the INPUT field affects audio input latency, from external audio inputs.
FL STUDIO - Mixer Track Panel
Manual delay compensation (Blue icon)
-Use the drop-down menu to add offsets to the APDC. For plugins that consistently report incorrect or no latency, you can set a permanent offset in the Wrapper Setttings > Info > Latency field and it will be remembered per-plugin.
–For this, and the wrapper setting, positive values delay the selected track, negative values delay all other tracks in the following units:
Reset - Resets the PDC to ‘none’, the default ‘no delay’ condition.
Set in ms (milliseconds) - Set the PDC in ms, a value entry box will appear after selecting this setting.
Set in samples - Set the PDC in samples, a value entry box will appear after selecting this setting. This is the finest control over delay.
Set in beats - Set the PDC in beats, a value entry box will appear after selecting this setting.
Set from - This will list Mixer Tracks that have latency caused by plugins. Select a track to automatically adapt the current PDC value to the selected track without the need to manually enter values.
Continuous adjustments - Roll the mouse wheel over the time icon or latency display (Mouse Wheel) = 10 ms steps, (Ctrl+Mouse Wheel) = 1 ms steps, (Ctrl+Alt+Mouse Wheel) = 1 sample steps. Mouse Wheel works in three places: Track Input latency icon (FX panel), Track Output latency selector (FX panel), Track Output latency icon (Mixer Tracks).
FL STUDIO - Mixer Track Panel
NOTES: 1. Manual PDC can be used in conjunction with Automatic PDC. Manual values are treated as offsets to APDC.
The Delay Panel (B) is available on all Mixer Tracks. This will turn orange when a delay is detected on that Mixer track, either from instrument Channel/s routed to that track or from effect/s loaded on the track. You can also click the icon to make manual adjustments to PDC (Automatic PDC will still operate in addition to these changes). Manual PDC is required when plugins don’t report their processing latency correctly or at all. Enter positive values to add delay to the Mixer Track or negative values to add latency to all other tracks. If you need to set up PDC manually, a tutorial is provided in the next section.
FL STUDIO - Mixer Track Panel
NOTES:
Icons - The PDC icon will show orange for Mixer tracks with detected plugin latency OR where PDC has been manually set. Hovering your mouse over the PDC icon will show the detected latency in the Hint bar.
FL STUDIO - Mixer Track Panel
Realtime performance - When using PDC, FL Studio will no longer respond ‘instantly’ as the audio output is delayed to sync with the PDC latency.
APDC - Works for both Instrument and Effect plugins.
Routing - APDC also applies to inter-track routing, including multi input/output plugins, and sidechains.
APDC + PDC - Manual and Automatic PDC can be used together.
Delay sign - Positive manual latency values will delay the selected track, negative values delay all other tracks.
Automation - PDC/APDC is not (yet) applied to Automation feeding FX plugins. To fix this, you will need to move the automation in the Playlist.
FL STUDIO - Mixer Track Panel
Guide to Manual PDC - Instruments and Effects
Normally Automatic PDC should work. If not, Mixer Tracks containing Instrument and or FX plugin that introduce unwanted delay (delay-affected) will be out of sync with the other Mixer Tracks. Manual PDC is no more complex than delaying all ‘normal’ tracks by the same amount as the delay-affected track, bringing the two audio streams back in sync. To facilitate manual PDC, a highly accurate compensating delay is available through the Mixer Track Delay Panel (B). These will act as offsets to Automatic PDC if it is left on (recommended).
FL STUDIO - Mixer Track Panel
Step-by-step instructions to using Manual PDC:
Switch Automatic PDC on (Mixer Menu > Plugin delay compensation > Automatic) - This will make PDC management easier if things change in the project (and they usually do).
Delay-affected (slow) plugin/s - Route the delay-affected instrument to, or insert delay-affected plugin/s on an FX slot of any Mixer Track.
Determine the delay compensation - Normally this is shown in the hint bar when you hover over a plugin FX slot that contains a plugin causing (and reporting) a delay. However, since this is incorrect you will need to use trial-and-error to set the PDC. Use negative values to delay the selected Mixer Track when the plugin is early or positive values to delay all other Mixer Tracks, when the plugin is late.
Testing - In the case of an instrument, set a short, sharp sound and compare it with a similarly short-sharp sound on another Mixer track (with no FX). In the case of an effect set up two Mixer Tracks and route the same kick or hat sound through the delay affected track and a normal track without FX. Play the sounds together and adjust the PDC control until the sounds from the delay affected and normal Mixer tracks are in sync/phase (you can adjust down to the level of single samples).
NOTE: If you intend to use a delay-affected plugin on the Master Mixer Track (and you are not sending audio out of FL Studio via an individual Mixer Track output), then you do not need to compensate as all audio passes through the Master track and so all audio is equally delayed by the offending plugin.
FL STUDIO - Mixer
Audio Input/Output Routing
External routing - Audio sent to and received from your audio devices input and output jacks is set by the External audio IN / OUT selectors (as shown above). NOTE: that each Mixer track has its own input and output options. For example, if you have an audio device with 16 microphone inputs, then you have the option of setting 16 unique Mixer tracks to receive each of these audio device inputs. It is even possible to set two or more Mixer tracks to receive the same input or send to the same output. When ‘(none)’ is shown, this means no external audio device input or output is selected for the selected track. By default, the Master Mixer track ‘Output’ is the routed to the audio devices main outputs (usually the main/front Left/Right channels). However, by routing another Mixer track (other than the master) to other audio devices outputs (e.g. the rear channels of 5.1 surround-sound card), you can create a separate sub-mix for band headphone monitoring or studio monitoring.
Parallel internal / external routing - It is worth noting that the Mixer track External audio IN / OUT can function in parallel with the internal routing functions so that any track can receive external and internal audio sources simultaneously OR output to the Master Mixer track and any other available audio device output. Mixer routing is described in more detail below:
FL STUDIO - Mixer
Audio Input/Output Routing
How to Route Audio
Mixer tracks - can take an input audio signal from one or more internal Instrument Channels by setting the Mixer Track Selector to a given track OR one external source (External audio OUT). After processing the input they can pass the audio to another location, usually the Master track (M) but it can be another Mixer track (as shown by the cables) or directly to a audio device output (External audio OUT).
To send audio from one insert track to another - Select the source track you wish to send FROM and then Left-click the send control switch on the destination track you want to send TO. A send-level knob will appear on the destination track that can be used to change the level of signal passed to the destination. By default the SOURCE track will maintain routing to the Master track - If you don’t want to create a parallel path to the Master Mixer track, select the source track and disable the send switch on the master by Left-clicking it.
External Inputs - Most ASIO drivers provide inputs (External audio IN) for microphone, line-in, etc. You can route these inputs to any or all Mixer tracks. Note that the ASIO inputs will not replace but mix together with any input audio the track receives from other sources (instruments, other tracks, etc).
External Outputs - Most ASIO drivers provide outputs (External audio OUT). You can route any Mixer track to any ASIO output.
Surround sound 5.1 or 7.1 - You can set a group of Mixer tracks to output (External audio OUT) to the individual channels of a 5.1 surround system for surround-sound mixing. A Surround sound template is available in the File menu > New from template > Utility > Surround panner. After opening this template, select audio device outputs using the Output menu to match the pre-named Mixer tracks.
FL Studio as VST - Additional outputs also appear when using the FL Studio multi output VSTi connection.
FL STUDIO - Mixer
Limitations of routing:
If you are using the ‘Primary Sound Driver’ audio driver only one track at a time can output to the primary output (usually this is the Master Track). This limitation does not apply if you use an ASIO driver, then any Mixer track may be routed to any available output.
FL Studio will disable routing options that would create a feedback loop (for example trying to route a track to itself).
Use the Send Level knobs to adjust the amount of signal sent from an insert track to the send tracks.
The specially named ‘Current’ track can only receive audio from the currently selected track. Its main purpose is to hold an Edison plugin, ready to record any selected tracks audio OR visualization plugins, such as WaveCandy.
FL STUDIO - Mixer
Recording External and Internal Audio
How do I record audio? - There are two methods that can be used individually or together:
Playlist - 1. Associate a Playlist lane with a Mixer track by Right-clicking the Playlist track header and selecting - Track mode > Audio track > Insert (link to the desired Mixer Track). 2. Arm a Mixer track by clicking on the disk recording icon (see screenshot above).
Edison - Place an instance of Edison in the Mixer track receiving audio and record into memory (see screenshot above). Edison is best when you are experimenting and plan to make multiple takes such as when ‘Loop Recording’. In this case region markers are automatically placed in the recording each time FL Studio loops back to the beginning of the project. Regions (loops) can then be dragged into the Playlist.
FL STUDIO - Mixer
Recording External and Internal Audio
How do I record multiple independent inputs (multi-track record)? - All Mixer tracks can be armed to record external and/or internal audio sources to disk (see Playlist Recording below). It’s possible to, simultaneously, record the full number of audio inputs on your audio device.
NOTE: Right-Click the Mixer Input menu to initiate an ‘Auto-map’. This will automatically map each input on your audio device to a unique Mixer Track Input, starting on the Mixer track where the Auto-map was initiated and working to the right. To prevent feedback, the Master Tack send (click here for an oversized and obsessive diagram) will be disabled on each Mixer Track, so you will see input activity on the Peak Meters, but won’t hear anything.
FL STUDIO - Mixer
Recording External and Internal Audio
How do I set the recording bit-depth
FL Studio receives audio from the audio device as a pre-digitized stream, the ‘32 bit float recording’ option set in the Mixer menu > Disk recording save option has no effect on the incoming recorded bit-depth (only the save format). Recording bit-depth is set in the audio device’s own options and is shown in the hint bar when selecting items from the mixer input menu. Windows:, right-click your volume control icon on the Windows task-bar, select ‘Recording devices’. Select your input device and ‘Set as default’ then select ‘Properties’, then ‘Advanced’ and choose 24 bit 44100 Hz option if available OR 16 bit 44100 Hz if not
FL STUDIO - Mixer
Recording External and Internal Audio
How do I record multiple independent inputs (multi-track record)?
All Mixer tracks can be armed to record external and/or internal audio sources to disk (see Playlist Recording below). It’s possible to, simultaneously, record the full number of audio inputs on your audio device.
NOTE: Right-Click the Mixer Input menu to initiate an ‘Auto-map’. This will automatically map each input on your audio device to a unique Mixer Track Input, starting on the Mixer track where the Auto-map was initiated and working to the right. To prevent feedback, the Master Tack send (click here for an oversized and obsessive diagram) will be disabled on each Mixer Track, so you will see input activity on the Peak Meters, but won’t hear anything.
FL STUDIO - Mixer
Recording External and Internal Audio
How do I record audio?
-There are two methods that can be used individually or together:
Playlist - 1. Associate a Playlist lane with a Mixer track by Right-clicking the Playlist track header and selecting - Track mode > Audio track > Insert (link to the desired Mixer Track). 2. Arm a Mixer track by clicking on the disk recording icon (see screenshot above).
Edison - Place an instance of Edison in the Mixer track receiving audio and record into memory (see screenshot above). Edison is best when you are experimenting and plan to make multiple takes such as when ‘Loop Recording’. In this case region markers are automatically placed in the recording each time FL Studio loops back to the beginning of the project. Regions (loops) can then be dragged into the Playlist.
FL STUDIO - Mixer
How to record External Audio through the mixer directly into playlist?
- SONG mode, arm main recording button, make sure Audio is checkmarked
- -On playlist track header, select track mode, Audio Track, and pick your mixer insert.
- –When recording without headphones, unlink the mixer track from master so there is no feedback loop.
- —Select Mic input from mixer input menu
- —-Click play to start recording, in order to record again without it blending, mute the made audio recording.