Using Live and FL

kgmonarch · Post by **kgmonarch** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 11:19 pm

I decided that I really, really wanted to be able to use VSTi's and DX/VST's with Live, and I made the big decision to buy FL Studio 4.5.1

I tried the demo first, and it worked fine with ReWire under Live, so I purchased the XXL version of FruityLoops (it's the Producer version, complete with Cytrus, Dreamstation, Wasp, DrumSynth, Beatslicer, SoundFont2 Player, SymSynth and DX10 synth). I have been working with the tutorials for a little while today and I'm finding it to be quite stable. I'm running all this off my Toshiba Satellite laptop (1.7Ghz, 1Gb RAM).

I'm really happy with it, and I'm kinda waffling on whether or not I should get Reason as well, since the demo also works quite well in tandem with FL, using Live as the Rewire host. Anyways, I just wanted to post this in case there are any FL users browsing this forum, wondering if Live works with FL, and I can speak for myself, that FL 4.5.1 and Live seem to be getting along quite nicely! Yay!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Jan 16, 2004 5:19 am

Yeah, FL and Live work awesome together, I gig weekly with the two, and have zero problems, also on a toshiba satelite. Reason and FL are like comparing apples and oranges--each does its own thing well. If you come from hardware, Reason might be a bit more useful as far as the whole "rack" concept and virtual cables. It's synths are also unique, and the samplers are pretty good for building your own samples. That said, its kind of a one-trick pony by itself--no vst, dx, or even audio in Reason, and no step sequencer or midi recording to talk about. FL has REason beat on all ow these counts, has a very flexible effects routing scheme, killer step seq. and piano roll editing, and as far as a combination with Live, is imho, much better. I haven't used reason even once since i got the FLRW beta going, but to each his own...

Ryan

beardedone · Post by **beardedone** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 7:55 pm

I still cannot understand how to use Rewire with FruitLoops or for that matter with any other host either - I also us Sonar or Tracktion. I would like to know how to link Fruity and Live. I have posted this on FruityLoops LoopTalk but anticipate the typical jeering RTFM answer I often see to this kind of query. Please note I did read the documentation but it does not help me.

I understand that Fruity is the Master controlling Live as a slave but I do not see how Fruity can control Live Scenes or clips. Does anyone have an example I can look at that shows how to link Fruity to a Live song? Or even with Sonar controlling a Live song.

Thanks,
Gordon

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Jan 24, 2004 1:34 pm

search the forums here for "fruity loops" or "FL". THere is a recent thread where I described how to make FL the slave to the master, Live. This makes more sense to me, but maybe you could get FL as master, but is there a reason why you need FL to be the master, it seems to me like Live is better at that, as FL audio handling is not its strong point (wheras midi, vsti, and step seq. are). There are definitely many a post about rewiring FL on the FL site, do some searching if your worried about the RTFM responses, the information is out there.

Ryan

beardedone · Post by **beardedone** » Sun Jan 25, 2004 4:39 am

Thanks It has been very frustrating so far.

beardedone · Post by **beardedone** » Sun Jan 25, 2004 3:44 pm

I can play Live from within Fruity but Live will not load effects in a premade song. How also do I control scenes etc from my keyboard or from within Fruity, It appears that Fruity will only play a static or previously prepared Live Set. If true I find this is a big limitation.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Jan 25, 2004 3:53 pm

try Live as master, it makes much more sense

beardedone · Post by **beardedone** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 7:31 pm

Thanks,

I will try that but I am missing something here. I don't find FLS as a client anywhere within the Live Menus. If I open Live first shouldn't there be an option to select FLS as a Rewire cleint similar to the mode in Sonar for example?

Gordon

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 8:16 pm

beardedone wrote:Thanks,

I will try that but I am missing something here. I don't find FLS as a client anywhere within the Live Menus. If I open Live first shouldn't there be an option to select FLS as a Rewire cleint similar to the mode in Sonar for example?

Gordon

hmmm...should work just fine with any version of Live 2 or 3, and FL 4.5 (most recent). Maybe this has been your problem trying to use FL as rewire master--you have a pre-rewire version of FL?? With the proper FL, you should be able to open live, and see "FL studio" as a "live in" option. From there you should be able to choose which of the 16 FL rewire channels you want to use. good luck.

Ryan

victor · Post by **victor** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 9:48 pm

(Don't forget to turn on "In/Out" in the "View" menu of Live)

Hey Ryan, I'm very encouraged by your posts about getting Live working with FL -- I've got everything working but for the life of me I can't get FL to see any MIDI input at all from my keyboard/controllers. I really want to "play along" with the Live set. Is this possible??

Thanks!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 9:55 pm

yes indeedy! Since you are on a pc, you can use the fabulous and free MIDI Ox/Yoke software (search the forums here for dl links and install/how to use info). Basically it creates up to 8 virtual midi ports on your computer--you can route your one hardware midi in port on your soundcard to up to 8 place, and even filter according to midi channel, etc. Once installed create as many virtual midi out port as you need in MIDI OX, then these will appear as midi ins in both Live and FL (use a different midi ox out port for each app). I use it to send my midi to Live, FL, and the free Bome's midi translator, which allows me to use a midi foot pedal to essentially hit the "delete" button on the keyboard, allowing my to delete clips I'm recording but manage to misplay--just delete and start over--absolutely essential for live performance using instruments with Live. Shameless plug: here's my duo performing live using FL and Live, no pre-recorded material or samples--all live: Mixed Bag:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/7/mixedbagmusic.htm

Ryan

victor · Post by **victor** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 10:37 pm

Here's the sad part...

I have OX/Yoke and I still couldn't rig it to work.

I made two outputs like you suggest,

Told OX to route the keyboard to NT:2 and the OX-Events to both, told Live to use NT:1, told FL to use NT:2

nothing...

(Your tune sounds great! I'm ready (!) to get his all working!)

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 2:19 pm

here's how I do it--open live, then ox, then fl. In ox, click the little blue circle icon that looks like a midi plug. This brings up the ox midi routing dialog box. Select your hardware midi input, then highlight each midi out port you need. Each time you left click a midi out port, it should show up of the port mapping box at the top right. If you expand these, you can see your hardware input listed under each yoke NT port--if you expand the hardware input, you can see the midi channels--delete whatever channels you don't need. Now, go back into Live, select the yoke NT channel you want to use as the midi in at the top of the preferences>midi dialog box. Then go to fruity, and select a different yoke NT virtual midi port as the remote control input in FL's midi settings dialog box. Then go to FL's options and make sure "Enable midi remote control" is checked. Then, to play a vsti, make sure you are not on the midi channel selected in for "omni channel preview" in the midi dialog box, and select the channel where you have your vsti--should work, hopefully.

Ryan

beardedone · Post by **beardedone** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 7:03 pm

Hey Ryan,

Thanks for replying

you have a pre-rewire version of FL??

No it the latest version I have 4.5.1 and am a registered Fruity user (Gordon Sauve). Sorry I am just not very quick with this stuff.

you should be able to open live, and see "FL studio" as a "live in" option

Yes but where? I cannot find it in Preferences or under Files or View. I am lsot.

Gordon

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 7:17 pm

open Live, then FL. In Live's session view, there are three rows of drop down menu boxes for each track: "In type" (choose FL studio), "In channel" (choose a FLRW channel). In FL, you need to make sure so route your audio into live via the fx dialog box--open up the FL Fx, and at the buttom right, open up the "out" drop down menu, and choose one of the 16 RW channels at the bottom right. This applies only to the FL fx channel you are currently looking at--if all of your FL channels are going to fx 1, and you route them out to the FLRW channel 1, then you should hear everything from FL in Live when you have FL studio channel 1/2 selected in Live. However, if you have FL channels routed to multiple different FL fx channels, then you need to route each of these to the appropriate FLRW out channel via the FL fx box.

Ryan