FL Tutorials by NYPH

NYPH - Netbook Session

2011-02-03T01:37:00.000-03:00

Hi, it's been a long time, but I always keep the groove on!

Check this video I made with a friend recording me while i was playing live on my netbook with FL Studio.

Any comments are welcome!

Nyp - Cyclopedia 3

2010-11-15T21:06:00.000-03:00

After a few...months? I've decided to make somewhat public the unfinished loops and experiments I often make. Enjoy.

Everything will be hosted on Soundcloud for convenience matters :)

http://soundcloud.com/nyp/nyp-cyclopedia-3

Remember, unfinished! xD

Until next time!

Layer channels in FL Studio

2010-08-11T06:22:00.012-03:00

Layer channels in FL Studio are something incredible powerful and yet easy to master.
Ever wonder how to build complex sounds and manage them easely?
Picture this: you want a complex sound composed of several synths to be handled like just one instrument, let's say an orchestra of synth strings wich you want to be as rich as posible in colors and textures of sound, maybe some could be gated a little bit, maybe another synth could be taking care of the low frequencies and another distinct synth taking care of high frequencies, maybe independently changing it's cutoff a little bit to spice the whole layer.
You could perfectly make one of these in a complex synthesizer with multiple oscillators and multipattern capabilities, but for sake of argument I'll skip this option and go straight to the layer channel usage, but I'm not denying it's existance.
For the example above we could use three synths taking care of each part of the complex sound and link their execution via one layer channel, by doing this we can use the layer channel as if it was the sum of the other three synths with just one keyboard to play them. As you may wonder, this technique also applies to other sounds than pads, in fact, using a layer channel to map various wav samples is something I do often and I easely create custom drum patches.

Setting a Layer Channel

Once you got your synths in place and added the layer channel, select it and set aside its window so you can see it even if you change to see the channel window.

In the channel window select the channels you want to add to the layer channel by turning on their respective green lights, and then click the "set children" button inside the layer channel.

This will add the selected channels to the command of the layer, this means that from this point all the channels you just add will be played by the midi instructions you give to the layer (e.g. play a note).
You can play lots of synths as if they were just one, using just one keyboard!

What are those "Random" and "Crossfade" lights? and what about the "Fade" knob?

Random: Turning this button on will cause the layer to trigger any of the channels at random when playing a note.
Crossfade: Will crossfade between the channels in this order:
-to the left of the knob the top channels will sound
-to the right of the knob the lower channels will sound

Extra Functions

Click on the arrow to the left of "Layering" to show a new array of functions.

Split children: Despite the family-wrecking-name it does a great job, this function will split the children into the layer's keyboard keys independently. I personally use this a lot.
Picture this scene: you got a full array of drum samples to make a patch wich you could use in your music.
A very confortable way to test and arrange patterns is to make the channels children of a layer and split them to its keys, and you got yourself a nice drum machine in your midi controller.
Group children: All children of the layer will be added to an existing Channel Group or a new one if you like. (a text box will appear to write the name of a group, if it doesn't exist, a new one will be created).

Cons

You can't make a layer channel containing other layer channels inside, it won't work, they can't be linked in any way. You can only link layer channels with any other channels than layer channels.

A "Layers Layer" is not possible in FL Studio.

Conclusion

Layer Channels in FL Studio is something worth learning, it's easy, it's confortable, it's fast (doesn't eats cpu, it's just a sorting feature).
A must-know in my opinion, this feature will give you speed and creativity in your music productions.

See you next time, live musically!

How and when to effectively use Channel Groups <-Previous Tutorial

5 Ways to kick start your musical productions <-Previous Post

How and when to effectively use Channel Groups in FL Studio 9

2010-08-05T16:30:00.016-03:00

Hi there! in this course of tutorials we have already learned the basics of FL Studio in our step secuencer, main meters, and keyboard shortcuts tutorials, it's now the time to learn techniques on how to organize ourselves better in the environment of FL Studio, more precisely in the channel window via channel groups.

Channel Groups

Channel groups is one of the most underrated and underestimated features in this DAW (digital audio workstation), mainly because the majority of the people are too messy with their projects and/or their projects never reach the complexity level needed to use this feature.
Even after looking at the demo projects that come with the DAW, people just don't use it. And I'll tell you a good reason why that is: you might be happily using the numbers on top of your qwerty keyboard to turn on and off(1 through 0) the channels in order to make some "live mixing" or just to quickly see how new combinations of channels sounded like, and then you start to group the channels and try to do the same within the groups and guess what, you can't do that. This happens because the order of the channels is the one in the "All" group, and it overrides any other order in the groups that you make. Pretty annoying isn't it? well, in this sense yes, and when you begin using channel grouping you should stop using that technique at all, because if you don't it will be very confusing and annoying.
Then, why should you learn to use channel groups? The reason is very simple: because it is the only way of working with larger projects (20/30 channels and above, or anything more than you can naturally, easily, and visibly handle).

How to use it

First of all, there's three categories of groups:
"All" group: it shows all the channels of the project, whether or not they are in a group. Useful to keep track of the whole project.

"Unsorted" group: it shows only the channels that are not in a group. Useful when locating group-less channels.

Your own groups: these are the groups that you make on your own criteria, i.e. "leads" "strings" "drums".

Now that you know the available groups, in order to make one of your own you must right click on the "channel display filter control"->"add filter group",

set the name of the new group and press enter,

this will create an empty group in wich you'll be able to add all the channels you want, and the way to do that is this: after the creation of the new group the other groups seem to be gone, but you can see the group that you want by clicking the "channel display filter control" and selecting it.

Once in the "All" group, select the channels to add (by left clicking the green light to the right of every channel, right clicking deselects the selected channel, aka "turns off the green light", but also selects individual channels, aka "the ones with the green light turned off"),

then go to "channel" on top of the main menu and then click "group selected" (alt+g).

This will bring a text box where you must write the exact name of the group where you want to add the selected channels.

The finished and newly created channel group called "drums"

A very simple procedure that will save you lots time in managing those huge projects full of channels everywhere.
There's another procedure to add channels to already created groups: simply select the group on the "channel display filter control" and add a channel as you would normally do. The new channel will belong to that specific group.
How do you move a channel from group to group? just select the desired channel and go to "channel" on top of the main menu and then click "group selected" (alt+g) and write the name of the desired group, this can be the "All" group or even the "Unsorted" group.

Conclusion

Even when you don't actively use groups, you are actually using them, because the "All" default group is a group after all. So, denying an important feature like this one will only be to confuse the hell out of you when you reach a decent complexity in your projects.
This feature is a must in later advanced projects, without it, effectively editing and managing of your channels will be compromised.

See you next time, live musically.

5 Ways to kick start your musical productions <-Previous Post
Philosophical reason to learn your favourite software shortcuts <-Previous Tutorial

5 Ways to kick start your musical productions

2010-08-03T15:08:00.009-03:00

Hi there, while I was on vacations several mails asking different things came to me, and one of the must recurrent questions was: "I want to make a song / career in music production, how can I achieve that?"
While there are many ways to a) make a song, and b) starting a carrer in music production, I'll be talking about the more-standard-low-profile-music-production-career that's on the web all around us today: the DAW(digital audio workstation) based producer. And I'll give you a few things to do for reaching the goal of making a song. Let's start.

1) I really recommend you to first of all, learn a solid basis of musical knowledge before anything else. Why? Because if you don't do it you'll be tweaking presets and downloading prefabs your whole life instead of creating new music, and delivering value to the scene you choose.

2) It all depends on your musical development level, your musical production skills, and the time you have been messing with both. The more time you mess with them, the more skillful you'll be. There are no magical recipes to achieve this, but reading, watching tutorials and get in tune with the scene you choose really helps.

3) Practice in your favourite program is a must. You can't wake up one morning with a song in your head and make it happen in 15 minutes if you don't know how to do it isn't it?

4) Get used to the environment you choose and learn the shortcuts you use most of the time, you'll be thankful later.

5) A quick way to improve in music production: learn from the best. This means listen to your favourite music, learn to recognize what's in it that you like and try to perfectly emulate it in the program you have chosen.
Yes, by this I mean copy the specific thing you hear.
In this process you'll learn to distinguish new things in music, little details that before this procedure you had never heard or being aware of. Listen to the patterns, the secuence of sounds, when something comes in and when something comes out of the song. Why, when, and how much of a specific effect is being applied.
All this detailed reaserch of any song you like will elevate you to another level in music awareness, and the next song you'll analize will be easier, and the next one even easier, until the technics of bringing to life all those cool sounds begins to appear in your own music too.

All this may require several things: time(lots of it), effort(lots of it), will power(lots of it), money(not that much at all), samples(depends on your music genre), a community where you can send your firsts songs and get feedback (there's lots of them around, just choose), and patience(lots of it).

If you lack some of the points if been talking about don't worry, if you care enough for your music you'll find the way in the end to make the best of it. I'll be around to see if I can be of any help.

Thanks for your feedback, and...until next time, live musically.

Philosophical reason to learn your favorite software shortcuts<-Previous Post

Next Post-> How and when to effectively use Channel Groups in FL Studio 9

Philosophical reason to learn your favorite software shortcuts

2010-06-30T13:19:00.005-03:00

Keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are something every good producer knows as good as the palm of his or her hand, and there's a reason to it.
Time in economy is known as one of the more important assets that every person has. Your life will end some day, therefore your time is limited, therefore is very precious and should be administered with efficiency.
Now let's suppose you don't bother to learn a few shortcuts, and instead go all the way with the mouse cursor, the amount of time you'll lose traveling the whole screen again and again will add up(not to mention the unconfortable task to find the desired window), and even if it is just a half of a second you'll be doing this for a long long time, in my case more than 7 years in the practice of FL Studio. Got the point?
Enough talk, let's save some time for our lives:

The ABC of FL Studio

F5: View Playlist
F6: View Step Secuencer
F7: View Piano Roll
F8: View Browser
F9: View Mixer

These will be the more recurrent ones, so much that you can even erase the little inscriptions on your buttons.
Each of these shortcuts will bring a window to front, wich will have some sub-shortcuts itself, all these will be less recurrent, but a few are a must-know.

Playlist:
            Tools - Draw (P)(must-know!)
                    Paint (B)(must-know!)
                    Erase (D)
                    Slip (S)
                    Cut (C)
                    Select (E)(must-know!)
                    Zoom to selection (Z)
                    Add time marker (Alt+T)

Step Secuencer:
                    Graph editor (G)
                    Keyboard editor (K)


Piano Roll:
            Quick Tool Menu - Riff machine (Alt+E)
                            Quick legato (Ctrl+L)
                            Articulate (Alt+L)
                            Quick quantize (Ctrl+Q)(must-know!)
                            Quantize (Alt+Q)
                            Quick chop (Ctrl+U)
                            Chop (Alt+U)
                            Glue (Ctrl+G)
                            Arpeggiate (Alt+A)
                            Strum (Alt+S)
                            Flam (Alt+F)
                            Claw machine(Alt+W)
                            Limit (Alt+K)
                            Flip (Alt+Y)
                            Randomize (Alt+R)
                            Scale levels (Alt+X)
                            LFO (Alt+O)

            Tools Menu - Draw (P)(must-know!)
                        Paint (B)(must-know!)
                        Erase (D)
                        Mute (T)
                        Cut (C)
                        Select (E)(must-know!)
                        Zoom to selection (Z)
                        Playback (scrub) (Y)


Browser:
        Browser menu - Find (Alt+F): Find exact phrase(find samples and features the easy way!)(must-know!)
                        Smart find: (Ctrl+F): Allows the use of advanced search functions. EG: * and ?.
                        Find previous (F2): Usable when searching(must-know!)
                        Find next (F3): Usable when searching(must-know!)


Mixer:
        Main menu - Rename mixer track (F2)(must-know!)
                    Mixer track solo (S)(must-know!)
                    Open audio editor (Ctrl+E)
                    Open audio logger (Shift+E)
                    Link selected channels to selected mixer track (Ctrl+L)(must-know!)(must-know!)(must-know!) so recurrent...

All these shortcuts are present in FL Studio 9 XXL (the current version I'm using at the time of writing this article), for more future and necessary shortcuts come back here everytime FL Studio changes it's version.

Until next time, live musically!

FL Studio tutorial: chapter 2 - main meters and main menus <- Previous Tutorial

Next Tutorial-> How and when to effectively use Channel Groups in FL Studio 9

16bit wav samples from Sonic 3 - Genesis

2010-06-29T01:27:00.007-03:00

Hi there, how have you been? hope you're all doing fine!
I've been working on sampling some WAV files from Sonic 3 @ Genesis System.
These are WAV samples taken from the game by dumping the audio effects individually to separate files. They are the blips, noises, and sound effects of the game, and they hold within themselves, the pure spirit of the 16 bit era :)
I've also managed to make a simple FL Studio project to show what can be achieved with only some samples of the pack. Just for the record: the only samples that are not from the pack are the kick and the hihat. The kick is from another pack and I've included it in the .rar with the .flp project.
In order to be able to use the .flp you have to download the pack and open it in FL Studio 9 (not sure if it will work properly on earlier versions, it will not hurt you if you try and tell me), and all the red channels that are missing the samples have the name of the file in the pack that they need, just look for them with the "Load sample..." button(the little folder on the channel window).

Enough talk, TO THE FILES!

FLP project:
Fltutorialsbynyph.com - FLP DOWNLOAD

Sample pack:
Fltutorialsbynyph.com - Sonic 3 wav sample pack

MP3 audio:
Fltutorialsbynyph.com - 16bit samples demo by nyp

I hope some of you found it useful to experiment and learn a little bit of sampling by your own, and there's gonna be a chapter or more, dedicated to that subjet when I finish with the basic ABC of FL Studio in the tutorials.
I've received a lot of good feedback from all of you people, that really pushes me forward in this project, and I am really thankfull for all of you that take time of your lives to read, view, and hear what I have to say in this blog.
Think of this post as an early prize for your support.
Keep the good vibes coming, the music flowing and the tutorials teaching :)

Until next time!

Ignorance about a subject makes you uncapable of living your dreams <-Previous Post
Next Post-> Philosophical reason to learn your favorite software shortcuts

Ignorance about a subject makes you uncapable of living your dreams

2010-06-24T06:57:00.007-03:00

I've been there, not knowing what does that random button do, and closing the damn program after a few minutes of not making anything worthy of being listen to.
This course is about defeating that sense of being made out of musical crap, by realizing that ignorance about a subject (that matter to you) makes you uncapable of living your dreams. Your beautiful music production dreams.
You are here to change that, from day to day to day, by making yours all the knowledge that you'll need in this journey.
Face it, the goal is very difficult. But you must trust in my knowledge transmission skills as if there's no tomorrow. Because there's no twomorrow for your music production dreams if you don't commit to the task. The task of absorving all the condensed expertise I'm about to deliver to you, for free.
My only payment is feedback.
Well, that and any eventual donation that may happen, but you must really and deeply ask yourself if my efforts helped you to improve in any way, to be smarter in any way, to be a better you than before knowing this blog. If that's the case, and only that case, donate.
If not, keep this blog close to you and in time I'll write about something you didn't even thought about, but give us time, not only to me but to you too.
Have you ever come across an interesting blog and bookmarked it after reading a few entries that you liked, closed it and inmidiately forgot about it's existance? I know I do that almost everytime I surf the blogosphere, but maybe not today nor twomorrow I'll have to sort my bookmarks, and that's the time I visit once again that forgotten blog and find new posts or archive posts as interesting and inspiring as the ones that made me bookmark it in the first place.
We have a very long, but very enjoyable journey ahead of us. Let us start it.

Until we meet again!

FL Studio tutorial: chapter 2 - main meters and menus<-Previous Post

Next Post-> 16bit wav samples from Sonic 3 - Genesis

FL Studio tutorial: chapter 1 - soundflow / step secuencer

2010-06-16T21:51:00.009-03:00

Soundflow

Soundflow is the flow of the sound in a specific environment, from where it begins and where it goes, all the different stages that modify it in some way are going to be explained here.
Soundflow in FL Studio begins in the channel window, more specifically in the step secuencer or alternatively the piano roll.
The sound in FL Studio is produced by "channels", and these can be samplers, VST instruments or internal generators. Each channel can be assigned to a specific mixer track, from wich the sound will go to the main mixer track called Master and then to the soundcard output(after the main volume and main pitch steps), but if you don't route the channel to a mixer track the sound will directly go to the Master, leaving you without the possibility to add effects to that specific channel, but you can still generally add the effects along with all the other channels that weren't assigned to a mixer track.
At the end of the soundflow we got the main volume and main pitch sliders at the top of the main panel, you can manipulate the main volume at will while working on your project, but you must reset the slider to default position to render your work. For the main pitch you may do as you please.

Step secuencer

Audio data in FL studio is introduced via the step secuencer or alternatively the piano roll.
Both data inputs do the same work, but providing easy interfaces to aproach the music cration in different ways depending on what your needs are.
Step secuencer makes it really easy to create percussion loops, it's as simple as clicking some dots on the screen and then click play or (spacebar) to hear it. Of course, making music is actually more difficult than that, but the main procedure is the same.
To add some complexity to your loops you can click on the "Graph editor" icon (G) to show an array of properties that can add new dimentions of depth to really simple loops. Those properies are: note panning (Pan), note volume (Velocity), note release velocity (Release), cutoff (Filter cut), resonance (Filter res), pitch (Pitch) and shifting (Shift). Lets say you fill completely all the steps in a hi-hat sample, and let it play just like that. Pretty annoying in my opinion. Now open the "Graph editor" icon (g) and randomly modify the pitch sliders, nothing special, just enough to hear how the same steps sound very different with little effort.
If you think about it, messing with the pitch in this way is not very musical, in the sense that you can't make a note progression by modifying only this property, or at least it will be more difficult than using "Keyboard editor" (k).
"Keyboard editor" is a micro piano roll embedded in the step secuencer, more inmediate to use than the actual "Piano roll" and with a few characteristics to have in mind:
1)you can traspose the notes you draw in it by pressing and holding ctrl key.
2)notes can slide by pressing the slide button at the top of the "Keyboard editor".
3)making chords is not an option, for that is the actual "Piano roll"
You must remember the general law of VSTi and DX instruments: they don't natively support FL Studio slide feature. This is solved by the use of portamento in each VSTi and DX instruments individually.
The maximum lenght of a pattern made in the step secuencer is 64 steps, if you want more space...just make another pattern!

Until next time!

Next Tutorial-> FL Studio tutorial: chapter 2 - main meters and main menus

Introduction

2010-06-08T00:16:00.012-03:00

Hi, I'm NYPH, welcome to my tutorial blog. My main goal at making this blog will be giving help to the new and advanced users of FL Studio via quality video tutorials and posts, and by following a chapters scheme I'll try to introduce you to the more basic and not so basic features of this great editor and secuencer.
Not only this blog is about FL Studio tutorials, but also I'll post free samples, free mp3's, free .flp sources and free templates, so stay tuned for every new release.
Also you can give me some feedback after seeing my work so I can improve every day, since I'm not that skilled in video edition I can take any suggestion for getting better at my video editing skills, and also to my explaining skills, after all I'm not a professor of any kind and I'm not used to explain very much, but I have an eager to share my knowledge about what I do most: music, and music production.
I hope this blog serves to anyone who enters in it, since that's my goal in life since a few years: improving the state of consciousness, in this case, musical production consciousness.

This is a work in progress, be patient and you'll be gratified.

First Tutorial-> FL Studio tutorial: chapter 1 - soundflow / step secuencer