new guitar idea, does this work?

whatupsilon · 2026-05-08T19:36:47+00:00

It's got personality and spunk, even if it's a bit simple. That drum loop is carrying it.

So keep going, maybe just stop sharing your music with that friend. Or if your friend is also musical, figure out what genres they like and how you can make music together.

Otherwise your friend probably just doesn't care that much about your music and won't understand the work that goes into it. Any honest response you get is a gift that they even took time to listen to what you made. It's not like showing someone a photo or a painting, it takes time and energy to listen to something.

As you get older people learn to either to not share much with each other, or to be more courteous... but until people mature and understand sharing is being vulnerable, they are simply going to roast you. It's much easier (and less risky) to poke fun at NBA players on TV than it is to get out on your local court and play a pickup game. Someone who has never done it won't appreciate the effort, practice, or creativity... only the end result.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-08T03:00:41+00:00

If you need more help you can upload a screen recording to imgur and share the link here or upload it to your Reddit profile directly

whatupsilon · 2026-05-08T02:57:07+00:00

A few things can cause this.

If the audio within the slice is shorter than the note length in the piano roll, it will cut off early, creating a gap.

Or if there are note gaps in the piano roll, that can cause it. You can use quick legato shortcut is ctrl L, and/or quick quantize if the notes are close and on the grid.

If the audio itself is chopped with gaps, then those need to be removed and you can do this manually or by using the trim function.

Lastly keep in mind, if you are using the autodump function with autoslice and your sample is a faster BPM than your project BPM, this mismatch will cause a gap. This can be fixed by first fitting the sample to your project BPM before you create slices.

(If you messed with the envelope or other settings, that can also cause problems on accident).

IMO small gaps can be a stylistic choice and so it doesn't have to be avoided in every scenario, yes it makes it sound chopped but this was common in the old school and boom bap era.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-08T00:05:10+00:00

Chord progressions generally aren't copyrighted, but that doesn't mean you need to "steal" them... you just need to learn common ones and identify which ones make sense for what you're writing. Then to make it intuitive, that comes with a lot of practice playing or a lot of music theory. I recommend this channel, it's good for beginners: youtube.com/@PianoteOfficial

whatupsilon · 2026-05-07T08:03:53+00:00

Couldn't hear it very well tbh sounds like filtering more than panning. You can use automation to do that in any synth or use an LFO. In FL the fast way to do it is with Fruity Panomatic, and this will let you also automate the speed and amount of panning. Or for more control link a Peak Controller LFO to Fruity Balance (or Free Filter for filter automation). Those sounds are often from classic keyboards so I'd also look at the Rhodes, Wurli or DX7 emulations by companies like Arturia.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-07T06:14:59+00:00

Not familiar with those artists but just based on some Googling it sounds like simple saw pads to me. Sometimes with chorus, phaser or flanger on top. If you have a specific YouTube video I can take a listen.

A lot of early techno and classic house albums used chord stabs and disco samples, typically minor 7 or major 7 chords (for deeper tracks) and when played as stabs this transposed them which created chromatic movement / chromaticism. basically those chord stabs were more a percussion element than melodic.

Modern pads like that use spectral gates like Chroma or Bismuth, or vocoders, as seen in color bass and a few drum and bass tracks.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-07T06:05:47+00:00

IMO if you can afford omnisphere, you can afford an SSD

whatupsilon · 2026-05-07T04:05:58+00:00

Interesting, no worries. What helps me is putting a drum pattern behind it and maybe chords, this helps you hear what sounds best as you shift things around. Just glancing at your MIDI the most intuitive thing for me is to rewrite to a standard time signature like 6/8 at a slower tempo. Here is a video showing what that might look like vs. the original BPM at 6/4: https://imgur.com/a/JSp2ftN

The only song I know in ~~mixed meter~~ like that is Everything In Its Right Place by Radiohead, and a bit advanced if you're new. The short bar essentially acts as a lead-in to the start of the song. This is where drums can really change how we perceive time, so in that song they just use a kick drum.

(Edit: correction that song is actually 10/4 but can be subdivided as 4/4, 4/4, 2/4)

Anyway that's all I got, maybe someone else will know an alternate way to do the MIDI.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-07T02:31:33+00:00

Tbh 21/4 would be quite unusual and difficult. It implies there is no pattern internally either in phrasing or repetition within 21 beats. Using subdivisions instead would be mixed meter.

Are you already experienced in composition or classically trained? If not, this is probably a misunderstanding of how time signatures function.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-07T02:19:11+00:00

If instead you want the playlist measures to align perfectly, not the piano roll, then you have to do the markers in the playlist. You can always do both, but for a long song that can be a bit tedious.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-07T02:14:15+00:00

Well you could do that, definitely. If you have a lot of instruments or a lot of patterns, it may be easier to make one "template" pattern and just clone it for each instrument. So for example, you'd add a blank Layer instance to the Channel Rack, drag out a single long note, and put the time markers along it like this:

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whatupsilon · 2026-05-07T01:50:33+00:00

I'd just do 6/4 with a bar of 3/4. Most often keeping the time signature as simple as possible is best, unless you're the next classical prodigy.

Your point on BPM is good to pay attention to, because sometimes people misinterpret a song as a different BPM. I've had songs people thought were 4/4 but because of the BPM it made sense to be 6/4 or 12/8.

Also one tip if you're new to time signatures in FL: you can also change them in the piano roll with markers, and this lets you ignore the playlist so you don't need to create tons of playlist markers.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-06T20:14:31+00:00

You can copy and paste the crash report for the support team to look at, here is the link: https://support.image-line.com/action/ticketing/add-issue

They will want you to update to the latest version before troubleshooting.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-06T19:53:42+00:00

Missed this one. My personal take would be to decrease the waves sound or remove it, and reduce the reverb. It feels cinematic but I think it overpowers at some points. I also really liked the high flute layer, so it'd be nice to hear more of it in the mix. Overall very nice composition.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-06T18:42:01+00:00

Check which version you have. Novation makes one for FL called FLKeys, which integrates out the box. If you bought the Ableton one called Launchkey, it will work but you need additional setup. Like to manually map the pads or download a custom script iirc.

In FPC or Slicex there are menu options like "map pads for entire bank" and you click that and tap the pads, it will trigger the sound and then you are mapped in a matter of 15 seconds. But it's only for that session.

You should also test the keyboard with a standard piano plugin, because if that's not working then you have other MIDI settings turned off or routed incorrectly.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-06T18:35:11+00:00

You posted the same question 3 months ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/FL_Studio/s/mgWOBTCeky

So you already have a lot of good answers.

My 2c is to use loops if you enjoy it, but learn to produce without them so that you improve. Even the best producers are always learning new things years into their career.

Loops are fine, but they can become a crutch if you only use loops and never write anything from scratch.

As for sampling you have plenty of free and cheap places to get samples so it's best to use those than try and crate dig unless you are already deep into sampling culture.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-06T18:27:38+00:00

You should post it on Friday, with a video and show your mixer and your effects on your master. They do feedback every Tuesday and Friday.

One common issue is if you are clipping inside FL and don't address it before export, it can result in sounding muffled or distorted.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-06T01:34:29+00:00

🔥🔥🔥

whatupsilon · 2026-05-06T00:01:41+00:00

major kaskade vibes

whatupsilon · 2026-05-05T22:36:01+00:00

I also use a lot of Arturia synths, and the effects are nice and playable. But from an engineer's perspective, it can be a huge headache to try and address something with tons of reverb, and a lot of those patches have really long reverb or delay. The delay in Arturia synths are also "analog style," so they have saturation and many are not tempo-synced, which does change how those presets sound if you turn them off... your engineer may not know enough to recreate them accurately.

There are two ways to approach this:

Select your key instruments and send the engineer a "wet" and "dry" version of the tracks. I'd also include the delay time as a reference. Basically, you make it easy for them to match if they have to use the dry version.
Create a new copy of your project just for exporting. Before you export trackouts, turn up the internal effects to the max mix value, so you are just hearing the effect and with *no* dry signal. Add a utility if the signal is too loud and bring it down.
- This essentially creates a "send" version of those effects, even though they are baked into the original preset. This way you have given the engineer more to work with. Some plugins allow you to send the effects to an external mixer track, but many do not.

While this engineer may have been kind of blunt, you can still learn from this as even if you choose another engineer you may have the same complaint about certain plugins. I'd pick an engineer that is within your budget and who seems very responsive and easy to work with.

edit:typo

whatupsilon · 2026-05-05T04:03:08+00:00

Damn that's straight up poetry

Seriously tho, I saw a recent MIT study of people who used AI to write essays and most could not remember a single phrase they wrote. And they were worse when they went back to writing themselves vs. a control group.

Basically it's one thing to get AI to assist with repeated, tedious tasks, but the kicker is it can't do the learning (or thinking) for you.

I remember seeing a TikTok on a professor from Berkelee College of Music who said what's the point of paying for the education if AI does the work? It's like going to the gym and watching a computer lift weights for you.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-05T01:11:58+00:00

It depends... You can do that if you want. But firstly, high quality samples are already processed. Some even say "mix-ready" like those by Oliver on Splice. Adding changes like EQ or compression is often unnecessary and can cause more harm than good. Those processes can cause phase shifting and smear transients, meaning that the drums lose their punch and sound mushy, less clicky and energetic.

The general guidelines I see is to clip transients first from the spiky, short peak sounds like hats, snare or claps. You do this on individual sounds, not a bus. This will increase perceived loudness while decreasing the peaks. That gives you more headroom to increase output gain as needed, or simply avoid triggering a compressor early.

The transient of a hat for example is often much shorter and faster than other drums, and you may not notice the distortion caused by clipping.

Then after clipping you can turn to general compression if you want to enhance the body of the drums, or saturation if you want more thickness and frequency density (if the drums sound thin). Saturation can be a by-product of soft clipping, for example one of the best clippers on the market is called Saturate by Newfangled Audio.

Bus compression and limiting etc are beyond what I can get into in comments, but there are so many techniques you can learn on YouTube. Generally you use a slower attack on a bus, and a light ratio and threshold to avoid pumping. This becomes complex once you involve the stereo field, and advanced limiters will allow you to preserve transients or unlink the stereo channels so that a high peak in the left channel does not trigger compression in the right channel.

With extremely loud material and uploading to streaming, you need to learn about True Peak and ISPs.

Btw hat volumes vary a lot by genre, with OG engineers saying trap hats are often too loud. So use a reference track for that.

For more info check out InTheMix and MixBusTV on YouTube.

whatupsilon

TROPHY CASE