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Welcome to my second tutorial! This one will be about how to add effects to sounds/synths in fl. I'm not going to go over all the effects, just enough to get you started. And i'm going to assume you went through the first tutorial so i dont have to cover the basics again.

This tutorial wont cover all of the effects and how to use every aspect of them, no, this just shows how you add effects to sounds and use them..

Lets begin.

Ok, i want you to have a clean project so we can start this and not have anything bother us. Start by deleting the kick, clap, hat, snare from the step sequencer. When you have deleted everything from the step sequencer, Open a 3xOsc channel, if you dont remember how to do so, here's how you do it:


In this tutorial i'll show you how to make a very cool 3xOsc Saw sound by using Effects and the 3xOsc, we'll start with the 3xOsc.

I dont think i need to explain the 3xOsc synth again, but if you need to remind yourself what it is, go check out the other tutorial.

Set the 3xOsc synth like this, and make sure all the CRS are tuned correctly, this will sound horrible if not. You dont need to move the middle slider, just the top and bottom one. Tune them exactly to the position the middle one is.


When you've done that, try the little keyboard (piano) on the bottom of the synth and see how it sounds. it should have a very technoish sawy sound. But it lacks the key part of it all, the effects. now i'm going to show you how to add effects on stuff.

In the left corned of the 3xOsc synth is a little button, click it, and then click "assign free mixer channel"


This will open up the mixer, it is there where you add effects, you can also open the mixer by clicking this button:


Adding effects is really easy, it is getting them to sound correctly that is tricky, and how you add effects is by pressing a button with the "down" arrow symbol, moving the mouse over the "select" and then selecting the preferred effect like this:


You can select up to 8 Effects on each mixer track (for each synth). I want you to selecte these effects on the mixer track we're on (mixer track 2, the one the 3xOsc is assigned to) select the Flanger , Paramedic EQ 2, Reverb. It should look like something like this now:


Try doing something in the piano roll for the 3xOsc now.. i know.. not exactly very cool, but that is because we havent tuned the effects correctly. When you selected the effects, they should have opened, if you closed them or for some reason they didnt open, you can open (and close) them by clicking their names in the mixer.

Now that you have all the effects opened, i'm going to show you how you should tune them, (this wont exactly be fun, but in the end it's totally worth it)

And when you've done this, you can play around with all the effects, learning how to use them and making your own presets

Tune all the effects correctly, when you have done so, you can save the presets by clicking the little button in the left corners of the effect and select "save preset"


The reverb effect gives an Echo'ie effect to the sound, it can be used to make the sounds very good, add on the quality and make the song not sound to flat, but beware, it can also mess up your songs if used badly.
The paramedic Eq effect gives you the ability to controll the high and low frequencies of the sound, very important, can often boost the quality.
The flanger is a synth that is very hard to explain. I barely understand it myself. the only thing i ever use it for are for pad synths, and saw synth (3xOsc)

Now try something in the piano roll, doesnt this sound amazing? if not, then go back to the point of this tutorial where i told you to tune the 3xOsc correctly, one or two of the crs might be off.

If you cant think of anything fun to put into the piano roll, try this, it shows the coolness of this sound



All right then, now you know how to add effects to stuff in fl. Now go play around with the effects and the 3xOsc, and remember, you can add effects to any sound you'd like in fl, anything, not just synths..

My next tutorial will be about going even deeper into the 3xOsc, i hope to teach all i know about it..

If there was anything you didnt understand or would like to know, ask me

Happy music making

Edit: to the mod that made my tutorial threads a sticky (Batvink):
Thanks for making the tutorial threads a sticky

It wasn't me who stickied it, but I concur that it was a good idea

Out of curiosity which plugins did you buy with FL Studio? I just bought the SoundFont one so far.

Hmm, just recently i bought EWQLSO silver edition, it's a library of orchestral samples, and it comes with an advanced sampler. I'm still waiting it to come in the mail, if it doesnt arrive tomorrow FedEx will recieve a rather nasty phonecall. And i'm very excited to get that, i've heard some songs made with it and it's really really good sounding. This will be a great replacement to using individual samples for each note (using a really annoying sampler that keeps reseting)

I've also bought the Z3ta+ synth, it can come in handy when you're making electronia songs, but i dont use it anymore, i just use the 3xOsc, wich can do anything the Z3ta+ can, you just need to know how to use it..

I also bought the Wasp synth.. i regret that. I bought it when i was a beginner using fl, i thought it was very easy and very nice, but now i know it's just a very very simple (worse) edition of the 3xOsc..

There might be some i'm forgetting, but i think this is all.

Well that's about it, i've also got a few trial versions of synths, none that i like.

But when you're thinking about what synths to get you need to think about what genre of music you want to make, like if you want to make orchestral music then buy a orchestra synth, if it's techno you want to make, get some synths that can produce good techno sounds, and so on.. What i said you've probably realised yourself i dont really know why i had to point that out, but it's very true, some synths are more for pads/basses/SawLeads and you just have to think about what you feel like you're missing, and would like to be able to do, but cant because of the lack of a certain synth or sounds.

and if you need any samples (drum sounds) you should check out http://www.uberschall.de



yeah, the soundfont player is probably the only vsti synth that's usefull you get from image line i havent bought it yet because i havent had the need to use soundfonts, maybe i'll check it out more later. In my opinion image-line overprice their stuff, for example the DirectWave plugin costs 99$$, 99$ for a stupid sampler. that's crazy. i know they have cheap synths like dx10, wasp xt, and those really old synths and there's no reason to use them..

Woah, thanks a lot Lucifer! The main part I want to learn about is the 3xOsc synth. I'll read it later today!

thanks i'll start making a tutorial very soon on how to work with the 3xOsc, it will show how every part of it is used. I'm currently in the proccess of making presets of it, by using various effects and correct tuning of the synth i hope to make stuff from bass - pads - Leads - Basicly all i know how to do with it then i'll attach the flstudio file with the tutorial so you can look through the presets and effects and see how it's made, so that way, i can teach you how to make those sounds with it, but not have to teach it all in a tutorial (that'd take ages)

Edit:


haha, i just realised how funny that sounds "thanks satan!"

That's not what I meant.

I read through your other tutorial, and it's helped me greatly!

Flanger is when you when several slightly detuned versions of the same sound are played at once. As the waveforms slowly allign and seperate it creates that sweeping sound.

heh, thanks i really never had any idea what it was, just that it could come in handy

Nice avatar, Juggernaut!

Wow, you too, Benji!

@Lucifer - How did the EQSL turn out? Can you use it as a plug-in for FLStudio? I was looking here and am really impressed with the sound quality in the music samples

It's amazing jeku, it's easy to use, and yes, you can use it as a plugin for fl. I've made lots of stuff with it, experimenting and learning, you can hear a few of the songs i used the synth at http://www.soundclick.com/peacemaker . Those arent the best songs i've made with it though in my oppinion, the good ones go to Cash curtis and his game, geisha house

It's a great synth and i'm sure if you're interested in making orchestral music, you wont be disappointed with this one!

8-o Jeku you changed your sig! Crazy!

Nice tutorial, very well written. Are you planning on making more? Anyhow, I've attached what I came up with (IE: your stuff) after reading both tutorials.

thanks and yes i will make some video tutorials i think i'm going to have it in chapters, and each chapter explains something new, and in the first chapter you'd like start a new song, and then work with that song throughout the video tutorials and in the latest chapter, you'd have a full song, i doubt i can have only one tutorial explaining everything.

the song you made after reading my tutorials is great

Edit: I just found out why camtasia wont let me record the microphone and what's happening on my pc at the same time, i think, so i guess i'll have to find another program to record the screen with..

I canot DEAL WITH THIS!!!!!
AHHH!!!!!
I'm going out of my mind with this exact stuff to get good sound LOL. I was never a music person, I guess we need a new guy on our team, unless the other can deal with this. xD