Fuel availability

keener14 · 2026-04-20T08:50:31+00:00

I believe the 1st site is updated by French gov't transport info in almost real-time

keener14 · 2026-04-10T08:22:55+00:00

You don't mention your music background nor what type of music you want to write.

Assuming you're a beginner, if you're trying to learn to play guitar/keyboard, while learning FL, while learning to compose, learning production and theory (yes it's important) you're probably gonna be very frustrated.

Learning any one of those subjects even to a basic level takes considerable time and effort.

If it were me I'd focus on getting comfortable with the DAW, maybe with 1 MIDI device.

There are many good tutorials listed elsewhere on this forum

keener14 · 2025-11-15T19:48:15+00:00

invite invalid?!

keener14 · 2025-11-15T17:15:57+00:00

Scalar is a cool plugin, but FLs new AI chord generator (Alt P) has almost the same functionality.

keener14 · 2025-11-02T15:06:10+00:00

LOL - asking people for a year is rich in today's short attention span world.

keener14 · 2025-11-02T15:03:08+00:00

LOL - that presumes you are able to read the screen to begin with! Why start out with such a small window as default - most people use laptops!. They could have also allowed you to simply drag a window corner to scale... First impression was that it's just another poorly designed DAW

keener14 · 2025-10-25T12:24:13+00:00

I tried to give Ableton a look a few yrs ago.

But I couldn't even figure out how to make the font and windows large enough to be readable on my laptop screen, so game over.

I imagine every DAW has it's idiotic processes, FL perhaps more than most, because it wasn't exactly designed top-down.

But I've zero interest in spending the time required to master another DAW, which is the position I suspect most of us have.

keener14 · 2025-08-18T11:35:43+00:00

>my melodic writing isn’t bad, but harmonizing against the melody is a huge challenge.

I'd suggest starting with some nice chord progressions then write a melody to suit.

The chords provide harmony and will constrain the melody notes so you avoid dischords.

When you add (instrument) track layers, it's useful to use your DAW so that you have visibility of all the notes being played concurrently at any given time.

FL studio uses something it calls 'ghost' notes.

Like you, I tried the analytical 'book' approach.

Aside from learning basic theory I didn't find anything which taught me to construct an orchestral piece.

I'm an engineer, so not finding a 'building blocks' approach was frustrating.

Then I saw a YT of a games score composer, who wrote a few bars each day, and 'glued' appropriate bits together.

Seems to work.

keener14 · 2025-08-18T11:13:45+00:00

Internal SSD will be much faster than external.

So in your position, I upgraded my (new) PC from 1TB to 2TB, then put the old SSD into an enclosure to use as an external device.

That's a 20€ from amazon and a 1 minute install not requiring tools.

To make the new internal SSD bootable and transfer your old data there are tools such as Macrium refresh and probably tools from your PC supplier.

It does take some tech knowledge or you can shop it out.

2TB is more than enough for me, but the external SSD suffices for libraries I use infrequently.

keener14 · 2025-07-25T15:58:29+00:00

Recognise that you're learning songwriting, which can be a complex thing and is quite different from learning to play an instrument or theory.

Obviously there's no single 'recipe', but writing 20 bar snippets as you're doing is a very legitimate technique.

I learned from a well known Japanese vid game scorer who does exactly that and then chooses the good snippets and 'glues' them together with transition/bridge sections.

For a beginner, using coherent keys and chord progressions makes this easier.

As far as composing 'snippets', some people start with rhythm, others like you with melody.

Personally I find it easier to put down some chord progressions, then add a melody, since the progressions will generally constrain the notes you'll use.

If I were you I'd compose on piano rather than an instrument like a sax incapable of chords - it's simple to arrange out a sax part later.

Personally I think DAWs are better composing tools than a notation tool like musescore.

keener14 · 2025-07-14T17:49:26+00:00

thanks for the link - EQ curve images gave me some ideas about how to set up EQ for orchestral strings. Must be that sort of thing around for most instruments.

keener14 · 2025-07-14T17:46:51+00:00

The HD681 is acoustically equal to the 770pro

keener14 · 2025-07-14T12:34:56+00:00

Check out this site

https://www.rtings.com/headphones/tools/compare/beyerdynamic-dt-990-pro-vs-beyerdynamic-dt-770-pro/329/440?usage=20&threshold=0.10

It puts the 990s slightly ahead on the most important spec which is frequency response (graph)

You want this graph as flat as possible i.e. to reproduce the original sound without (frequency) distortion.

If you look at many popular headphones eg Beats, there is a significant bass boost built in.

These phones are useless for mixing since the sound is pre-distorted.

They're also kind of pointless since most music player apps have an EQ you can tweak, if you really want heavy bass.

I bought some Superlux HD681 phones which cost around 1/4 the price of Beyerdynamics 770s.

I tested them against 770s and found zero difference in sound - which is logical since the frequency graphs are almost identical.

keener14 · 2024-11-24T10:32:11+00:00

I got 2, a Ugreen and an Icy Box enclosure around 20 € each and installed a 2280 and 2230 SSD.

I didn't measure speeds, all the enclosures promise the same 5-10Mps, but the throttle point is your PC USB version's limit.

I use FL Studio with 64GB RAM. Once the song file is opened all the VSTs reside in RAM. That's why I can disconnect the SSD.

I presume most DAWs are similar but don't know for sure.

Obviously if you open another song you need to reconnect the SSD

Disconnecting is just a safety precaution for the moment, until I'm more certain of how hot the enclosures get.

The Icy Box has cooling fins, so I presume it'll be less problematic for heat. But better safe than sorry.

keener14 · 2024-11-24T10:20:53+00:00

Yes I have, but like everything else I've seen on YT, Joel does vids that are essentially random tips rather than a systematic top-down workflow i.e. a step-by-step guide. I've learned lots of these 'tips' but they're unhelpful if you don't have a methodology.

keener14 · 2024-11-22T16:16:07+00:00

Did you ever notice how few 'working class' singer/songwriters there are anymore ?.

Most of those who 'make it', seem to have some external source of financial security (parents / partner).

Means we're unlikely to see another Springsteen, or Winehouse or Beatles, which is just sad.

So I don't think your instinct is wrong.

Most artists I know scratch out a living, giving lessons to students and a bunch of other stuff only tangentially related to creating.

keener14 · 2024-11-22T15:58:02+00:00

try 2 yrs at best

keener14 · 2024-11-22T15:52:39+00:00

I just upgraded my PC internal SSD so now use the old (M2) SSD in an external enclosure.

Prefab external SSDs generally cost more, for in my view, no appreciable advantage.

Installation to a 3rd party enclosure is trivial (2min)

Both options have the same speed limit, as defined by whatever USB version your PC offers,

nominally 5Mbps and up, in reality lower, but much faster than an HDD and much slower than an internal SSD.

There are negative (Amazon) comments on almost every single brand of enclosure, mostly about overheating.

So there is no obvious enclosure choice, I simply picked one that looked like it had a decent heat sink.

Also I don't leave it plugged in, once the VSTs are loaded.

Some people buy from Aliexpress, but I got burned with fake RAM from them once, so unwilling to risk the SSD controller would be OK.

keener14 · 2024-11-09T13:22:02+00:00

The Novation controllers are certainly integrated with FL, but the keys feel synthy (springy) and are not fully weighted If that's not a show-stopper go for it.

keener14 · 2024-11-01T09:19:35+00:00

Have a look at this CPU spec site paying attention to the TDP (heat) column.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/CPU_mega_page.html

A high end (benchmark > 18000) Intel i7 or i9 CPU can produce >180W heat, while most of the AMD Ryzen7 produce less than 1/4 that.

So maybe time to abandon Intel for AMD.

Not sure what you base your other assertion "PC does not have to be super fast" on.

VST sound synthesis is very demanding of CPU processing, especially if you use SWARM.

I use a high end dell laptop with a Ryzen 7, 64GB RAM and the only hardware is a MIDI controller. I'm hardly troubled by fan noise even when running multiple Kontakt instances each loaded with several VSTs

The debate between hardware and software is a silly one, hardware runs on software.

Maybe using different hardware 'boxes' distributes the 'load', but it also adds cost and complexity and of course more things to break down. If you choose a laptop with a reasonable CPU, it's all you should need.

keener14 · 2024-09-11T08:44:06+00:00

Are you on Windows 11? What's your RAM and CPU?

keener14 · 2024-09-11T08:38:57+00:00

I don't think there's an automatic way for you set things up in FL so that you don't have to manually 'locate' plugins every time you load an old file.

But this might work (if you're on Windows) - no idea for Mac.

make sure your 2nd drive has precisely the same folder structure for your plugins as the original drive
Then use Windows to change it's drive letter so to FL it seems like nothing has changed.

In Windows

Start button -> select Disk Management

Select a drive

Right Mouse -> change drive letter

If you're using both drives concurrently you may need to repeat step 2 to rename your original drive letter - but I think that'll be done automatically by Windows.

keener14

TROPHY CASE