FL Studio, better known to PC musicians as “Fruity Loops”, is now available in its version 7 upgrade. (This release was announced last month but wasn’t immediately available.) FL Studio’s lifetime upgrades mean that, unlike your operating system, the upgrade is free if you’re a previous owner. And FL Studio 7 also brings compatibility with Windows Vista — and XP, ME, 2k, 98, and 95. In addition to all the existing tricks, FL7 has new features like a beefed-up, built in audio editor-slicer-dicer and a new effects called the Love Philter that chains together eight filters for delay and sound-shaping effects.

FL may not be for everyone, as we saw in feedback, but for those who adjust to its way of working there’s not much quite like it. There’s a downloadable demo if you want to give it a spin on that new Vista install (or Boot Camp partition, depending on how you roll). New users have some confusing pricing options ranging from US$49 up, depending on which flavor you get; suffice to say you still get lifetime upgrades and the basic version could still be fun.

Hope to get some hands-on time with FL soon; I’ve had the itch ever since I saw Onyx jamming with his monster Ableton Live + FL Studio rig last month at the Backlit Lounge in SF.

Previously: NAMM FL “Fruity Loops” Studio 7 Preview: More Toys and Tools Than Ever

Cakewalk Kinetic is a groovebox / all-in-one looper and synth studio. I liked the first version: not necessarily the world’s most powerful software but nicely integrated, intuitive, and fun to play with. The target is definitely beginning users, particularly for DJs and electronica lovers, and if you’re a Windows user looking for a piece of entry level software, it’d be hard to go wrong with this app. Cakewalk also makes a full-fledged sequencer, Cakewalk Home Studio, but I find Kinetic more fun.

What interests me about this release is that this isn’t a bad toy to add to your studio even if you’ve got more high-powered software at your disposal, especially given the price: US$80 list, or for a limited time, $59 for Cakewalk customers ($39 for Kinetic 1 owners). Cakewalk has beefed up the soft synths in a big way. They’ve added presets from the Roland GrooveSynth line (101, 606, 808, 909, etc.), using the genuine sounds thanks to a deal with Roland. Better yet, they’ve included the superb PSYN II virtual analog synth from Project5 and SONAR. There’s also a drag-and-drop sampler, made more interesting with REX and OGG Vorbis file support, and a nice selection of effects. On its own, it might be limiting, but it has VST/DirectX plug-in support and ReWire, so it’s not hard to imagine plugging this into Ableton Live — ignore the simple groove interface for Live’s more capable rendition, and take advantage of the presets and analog synth Live lacks. And it’d be equally fun to add Kinetic to FL “Fruity Loops” Studio just to get synth overkill on the cheap. Don’t forget, Cakewalk also earns points for having serial number-only copy protection. They don’t seem to be going out of business because of that, either. (Cough, cough.)

Kinetic 2 Product Page

And, of course, QWERTY drum programming means this might be an enjoyable way to spend a plane flight.

In other news, means I need to update my book Real World Digital Audio, which includes a tutorial on the software as the app makes a pretty decent introduction to groovebox programming. I’ll make that update online; stay tuned. Incidentally, if it seems like I’m always being positive about software, here’s a hint: aside from the fact that I’m a software addict, I tend to skip over the stuff I don’t like. (Unless it makes me really mad, in which case you get a rant.)

This isn’t sheer novelty: for just 39 EUR, one cartridge gives you a whole suite of useful software, from sequencer to synths and grooveboxes.

There’s even a modern-style graphical sequencer that can be controlled with a mouse. Fans of vintage trackers are no doubt disappointed here, but the result reminds me a lot of the simplicity I loved about my first DOS sequencer, Cakewalk 4.0.

The big draw, though, will be the synths: a mono synth with “live tweakability”, a 303-style bassline synth, and a 909 style drum machine. The interfaces look gorgeous in the screenshots (on a C64, no less), and give you user-friendly access to the Commodore wavetables. There are presets included, or you can dig in and make your own sounds. If you’re running this on a real Commodore 64, you can take advantage of the C64′s legendary SID synthesizer, which sounds fantastic. (The SID isn’t really a fully-analog synth, but it does have analog outputs, so the original does tend to sound better than emulation — or so SID advocates tell me, anyway.)

Prophet64 SID Products

You could use this whole setup as a self-contained studio, with sequencer and synths, but via a third-party MIDI interface in development, you can use the combination as a MIDI-capable C64 groovebox. The Prophet64 Cartridge MIDI interface promises to add additional features, too, like load/save capability, on top of MIDI triggering, song select, and sync. There’s also the promise of PS/2 mouse compatibility, in place of having to get an Atari/Amiga mouse. The developer just got a cart in the mail, so I expect more progress soon.

So, let’s add this up: for under $100, you can put together a quite functional music studio, including the computer. I know there are very smart people working on making new computers for the developing world, but for those of us here in the real world, you can save a beautiful machine that would become highly toxic waste and use it in your studio right now.

For a similar project, check this out:

MIDIbox SID — a DIY project that converts the SID synth chip into a powerful MIDI-controlled hardware synthesizer

If you’d rather run in an emulator on your PC/Mac, there are also free versions of the software available for download.

Free Sonic Refill for Reason

I’m sure there has to be a good sound for a Thursday in there somewhere. And thanks to Reason’s Combinator, they’re all ready to play. Mostly, I’m excited by Malstràm patches. Mmmm, granular.

Got a favorite ReFill for Reason? (Or one of your own?) Let us know. I’m off to try out the new Props’ Drum Kits, myself.

The Artists: (Above) Joey P. and RamBro have countless hit records by Grammy-winning artists on their resume, and they’re not shy about how much they love working with soft synth workstations Reason and Project5.

When Reason first appeared on the scene, it was pretty amazing. All those soft synths and samples – plus processors, patch cords, and a sequencer, all in one application. Don’t even get me started on how cool the retro Roland-style drum machine is! I still remember the night my “Dynamic Duo” partner, Dale “RamBro” Ramsey, and I first loaded the software and explored feature after feature.

Over the years, Reason has been updated with more instruments and options, but one thing has remained the same: It’s still a “closed system.” In other words, you can’t add other plug-ins or virtual instruments, it won’t record digital audio, the sequencer is MIDI-only, and there’s no recording/jamming paradigm that resembles Project5′s “Groove Matrix.” Plus, it doesn’t support “ACIDized” file formats (although it does speak REX files), and so on. That’s not a knock on Reason; it does what it does well. (Ed: ACIDized files are the loop format used by Sony’s ACID and employed by many loop libraries. REX is Propellerhead’s own format, as created with their ReCycle software.)

But it doesn’t do quite enough for me, so I got serious about using Cakewalk’s Project5 on my PC laptop. Its totally open system supports plug-ins, reads ACIDized file formats, allows recording digital audio, and supports various ways to record from pattern-oriented MIDI, to linear digital audio, to live jamming and experimentation with the groove matrix. Plus, Project5′s ability to manipulate acid files allows me to use all my favorite grooves from Smart Loops, like the indispensable Dry Studio Kit.

However, since I’d developed a lot of sounds for Reason over the years, I wasn’t ready to just throw all those resources down the drain. Luckily, I didn’t have to, because the engineers at Propellerhead added one very cool feature designed to let Reason play well with others: ReWire. This is basically a protocol that lets me route outputs from one program into the mixer of another program. So, for example, I can “ReWire” Reason into Project5′s mixer, which lets me use the two together as one cohesive, synergistic program. Ed: ReWire is a technology developed by the Props for Reason; it’s supported by many other apps including, on Windows, Cakewalk SONAR, Ableton Live, Cycling ’74 Max/MSP, FL Studio, and others.

When you add Reason’s roster of instruments to Project5′s collection — like Dimension (which has become my go-to instrument for most projects) and Cyclone DXi2, you have a real powerhouse. Want to really get into the groove? Take a tip from RamBro and MIDI-up your Akai MPC or M-Audio’s Trigger Finger and access the “virtual pads” with your hardware controller.

If you’re new to ReWire, there’s some great background info authored by music-tech guru Craig Anderton at Cakewalk.com. This explains the protocol basics and gives a little history of how ReWire works. But let’s get specific about using Project5 and Reason; it’s not hard, and the results are worth it.

Getting Them to Work Together

First, open Project5. This is called the “ReWire host,” because it will “host” Reason as a “client.” (Note that Project5 can serve as a ReWire host or client.) Then right-click on an empty space in the Tracks pane, and select Insert Instruments > ReWire Devices > Reason (Fig. 1). A track opens up for Reason, but you still need to open up Reason. To do this, click on the Reason track’s “Show Instrument” button (Fig. 2) [in Project5]. Reason opens up.

Figure 1: Add Reason to your Project5 project by right-clicking an empty part of Project5′s Tracks pane. This creates a track for Reason as a ReWire client.

Figure 2: Open Reason from P5 using the Show Instrument button.

Now, Project5 isn’t just a host, it’s the perfect host: It wants to handle all of Reason’s audio and MIDI responsibilities, and you should let it! In Reason 3.0, go Edit > Preferences. Select the Control Surfaces and Keyboards page, and if anything says “Use with Reason,” uncheck it. On the Advanced MIDI page, have all fields show “No MIDI Input” (Fig. 3). Meanwhile, in P5 under Options > MIDI Devices, select the appropriate MIDI device — the one that’s listening to your keyboard’s MIDI out signal.

Figure 3: You’ll be routing MIDI via Project5, so configure Reason to ignore MIDI input from your external devices.

If you don’t have an instrument, mixer, etc. loaded into Reason, do so now. It’s easy to send MIDI data to Reason: Open Project5′s Inspector for the Reason track, and look under MIDI Input. In the MIDI “Send to” field, you’ll see all the devices loaded into Reason (Fig. 4). Select the one that should receive the MIDI data; you can switch around among the various instruments and play them.

Figure 4: Route MIDI data from Project5 to Reason by configuring P5′s handy “Send to” MIDI field on the Reason track.

Going Multitimbral

If you want to use several Reason instruments, note that you can’t create individual MIDI tracks in Project5 for each Reason instrument; all MIDI data feeds the single “send to” Reason track. No problem: just offload a track from Project5 to Reason’s sequencer. Under ReWire, the two sequencers sync up, start, and stop together, and recognize any loop point changes in either Project5 or Reason.

This is great, because I prefer to create in Project5′s MIDI environment rather than Reason’s, which is less efficient. So, what I do is send the Project5 track MIDI out to a Reason instrument, and start recording in the Clips pane to create a Pattern. Of course, during this time, I’ll be hearing the Reason instrument. I’ll then edit the part in the Pattern editor until it’s just the way I want, and save it (just in case I need to come back to it later).

Transferring the pattern to Reason is simple. In Reason’s sequencer, click on the Record button and keyboard icon for the track containing the instrument that should play back the pattern. Make sure Project5 is sending its track to the right Reason instrument. At Reason, “rewind” to where you want to begin recording, click on Reason’s record button, then click on Play. P5 will start playing back the sequence, and Reason will start recording it into the designated track.

Fig. 5 shows three tracks recorded into Reason from Project5: The Dr. REX and Subtractor parts were recorded first; currently the Malstrom part is being recorded. Note the little red “ticks” in the sequencer, which indicate the presence of MIDI data.

Figure 5: MIDI data is recorded into your Reason file, from Project5 (thanks to your MIDI routing configuration in P5).

By the way, from time to time ReWire will get temperamental and won’t record the data coming from Project5. Don’t worry. Just save your Reason setup and Project5 project, close Reason, close Project5, then reopen Project5 and call up Reason. This is like rebooting your computer, and things should work properly again.

And you don’t have to record in Project5 and then transfer the part over to Reason; you can also record directly into Reason’s sequencer if you like. Sometimes this is the right way to go when I have a Project5 song that’s just about done, all the patterns and parts are happening, and the piece plays through for several minutes. Suppose I find some great lead sound in Reason’s Malstrom. Okay, I just switch the focus on the Project5 Reason track, go into record mode in Reason, and record the part straight into a Reason sequencer track. Ed: Remember, in order to do this, turn MIDI input back on in your Reason preferences. (Edit > Preferences)

Reason Meets Digital Audio

Here’s another way to use Project5 and Reason. So far we’ve assumed you’ve done most of your work in Project5, and want to add instrument sounds in Reason. But what about the reverse: you have a tune you wrote in Reason, and want to add vocals or ACIDized loops? This is where Project5 fills in Reason’s gaps: As you play back the Reason project, go ahead and record digital audio in Project5, load loops into the GrooveMatrix, play Project5 instruments, and you’ll have the best of both worlds.

Now you can have the ultimate system all in one place. All the sounds and samples you need, plus a fully-professional recording studio. With a set-up like this, I can plug my MXL V-69 condenser mic into a Toft Audio Designs ATC-2 pre-amp/compressor and make a record that rivals anything I’ve ever done on a large-format SSL in a major studio. That’s power!

Optimizing Performance

Even though ReWire itself doesn’t stress out your computer, if you have a slower or older system, running two sophisticated digital audio programs at the same time may push your machine to the limit. If this happens, remember to use Project5′s Freeze and Bounce functions. Either one can convert the Reason sounds into a digital audio track, which means you can close Reason and not have it load down your computer’s CPU anymore (a digital audio track puts a much gentler hit on your CPU then a software synthesizer). Ed: Just to clarify — keep in mind that, thanks to ReWire, Reason can use Project5′s resources for the tasks normally associated with hosting. You’ll still eat up computing power by running instruments and effects in Reason, though, so Joey P’s advice is important, especially if you’re planning to use your setup to play live.

Conclusion

I will say that since making music with Project5 version 2, Reason doesn’t get quite as much exercise as it used to. But it still makes a great synth rack, and when you couple it with the Project5′s instruments, it seems there’s really no limit to what you can do.

Hitmaker Joey P. and his partner Dale “RamBro” Ramsey (“The Dynamic Duo”) have worked with a wide array of Grammy winning artists from the worlds of Pop, R&B, Rock, Rap, and Jazz, with numerous Top 10 and #1′s. The records they have worked on have sold over 75 million copies. Learn more at www.JoeyP.com and www.DaleRamsey.com.

Image-Line’s FL Studio is a huge underground “cult” hit for digital music making. It’s Windows-only, and it seems to get more love from the European press than the US writers for some reason (maybe because Image-Line is stingy with free press copies). But it’s got some great pattern-based features for those of you who like making quick-and-dirty dance music, as well as an elegant set of synths that could appeal to just about anyone.

Here’s what new in the long-awaited FL Studio 6:

New mixer: Bigger, resizable, and with more flexible routing (at long last)

More MIDI controller support including foot-pedal support (very cool, as FL already has some nifty options like out-of-the-box game controller support)

New sampler: DirectWave

New effects: “Morphing” graphic EQ, delay/filter bank, three-band stereo compressor/limiter, new reverb, new “Squeeze” bit reducer slash distortion slash filtering (I’ll, uh, have to see that in action to understand that), visualization, and envelope controller

Sytrus 2 synth in XXL edition (see previous report)

Lots of enhancements including plug-in delay compensation and a better browser

Sounds like a fantastic upgrade to an already-great value. It’s not going to tear me away from Ableton Live, Reason, and my other apps, but I definitely understand the appeal for its devoted fans.

FL Studio v6 Press Release

As I continue this Reasonable Friday, here’s a reader report on how to use Propellerhead Reason live in performance. He’s making use of the terrific Windows-only MIDI tool Peter Tools LiveSet — more on that in an upcoming story. And he’s taking his one-man band to an environmental-activist music festival outside Sydney in gorgeous environs (pictured).

Stevo writes us:

I have been working on organising Reason for use in a live situation . . . I am a solo artist producing entirely on a laptop. I have a controller keyboard, a [Behringer] BCF2000 controller that is locked to the main mixer, a Korg Kaoss 2 pad, and a copy of Peter Tools LiveSet. I am a loop-based type of artist, meaning I like to mess with ideas as loops and rarely program a song from begin to end, as this ends up doing my head in . . .

Here’s how I set up a track. I fill up the 14 tracks on the mixer with programmed sequences. Generally I look at a loop of about 32 bars as this gives a bit of room for changes, turnabouts, etc. I then use liveset (controlled by my master keyboard) and program 12 preset mixer settings that reflect a movement through the track. All the devices in the track are then Combinatored (you can set up numerous Combinators and centrally control through the midi busses). I use the kaoss pad to control the rotaries on the combinator. i then go and tweak each device in the Combinator programmer so when i play with the Kaoss Pad I get something interesting.

The BCF controller gives me hands-on control of 2 send effects and mute/solo. I set up another Combinator that contains 2 different send effect arrangements. I again tweak the programmer settings for these effects and also control these via the Korg Kaoss Pad.
And then it is a matter of playing around. The end results are very hands-on and can be quite unexpected and unusual. The benfit of LiveSet is that with the press of a key you can power into a new arrangement.

I have a 3GHz Pentium 4 with 1 gig RAM and this arrangement pushes the processor to its limits. I find I can finally make the type of computer music I have been trying to make for the past 7 years. As far as recording goes you just copy and paste the loop to as long as you want, record arm all the tracks and off you go.

Check out my site beatrootrecordings.com.
Soon I will be adding some tunes created using this method. I have a gig at a festival at the beginning of November where I will test out this setup on a 10k system. Bear in mind that it takes a minute or 2 to load new tracks so you need to have something for the mix as well.

There you have it. My own setup for loops wouldn’t be Reason — I’d just ReWire Reason into Live, and I expect many of you are in a similar boat — but I’m really intrigued by LiveSet and love the Combinator.

So how are you working live with Reason, Ableton, or other programs? Let us know, via comments or by emailing me.

Onto the synth: US$179 buys you a unique additive synth, with 6-operator FM, RM, plucked, and subtractive synthesis. It’s completely sample-free: synthesis freaks alone need apply. Before you skip this one over, there are plenty of reasons this instrument should be on your radar screen . . .

Usually I dread the “yet another soft synth” phenomenon, but Image Line has packed some real power into this one: tons of filters, multipoint envelopes with “arpeggiator” envelopes, the ability to generate envelopes from audio files, and a harmonics editor. It’s got the XY modulation controller from FL Studio, too, which can be assigned to gamepads and joysticks (as well as X/Y controllers on keyboards like the Novation line).

Let me say that again, in case your eyes are glazing over: you can build multipoint envelopes from audio files. (Can’t think of another synth that does that, off hand.) You’ve got tons of operators and operator types. You can build wild, grooving arpeggiator envelopes and then control tons of modulation with a simple X/Y controller. Sounds great to me.

I’ve always admired FL Studio from afar, but didn’t need another host. But let me plug Sytrus into Project5 or Ableton Live? Now you’re talking. If only Image Line would go cross-platform so I could run it on my Macs, too . . . (highly unlikely)

Here’s the news: Propellerhead Software is now shipping a developer SDK so manufacturers can create support for their own hardware. Sure, 40 devices are supported out of the box, but there are a lot more than 40 pieces of hardware out there. There’s an application process, so you may not be able to use Remote for your new eyebrow-controlled camera system, but since I know hardware developers read this blog, I can only say — we’d love to have your device supported.

And for users, of course, this means you can now bug your favorite device’s manufacturer and not just the Props.

Jim Aikin, synth madman, sound guru, and my book’s tech editor (meaning he’s the only one keeping me accurate and sane), takes the Combinator under the microscope in a tutorial for O’Reilly. If you thought the Combinator was just a way of combining modules into combis (single instrumental patches), you’re missing a lot — this beast is an incredibly powerful all-around routing and performance tool. Interestingly, Jim spends most of the article focusing on routing modulation into the Combinator from its modules, which just goes to show just how deep this rabbit hole is — even that’s just the beginning. But he includes some helpful RNS files and is meticulous as always. If you’re a Reason power user, don’t miss this.

In fact, if you’re a Reason power user, drop me a line. I’m working on still more configurations for how to use the Combinator as a performance tool, and I’m up for all the ideas I can get. More soon . . .

While I continue getting deeper into Reason, here’s where to go for more info, tips and tricks:

Tutorial videos / what’s new videos [Propellerheads.se]

Reason 3.0 Video Master Class [Sonic State]

ReWire Help Articles [Propellerheads.se] (yeah, even I still occasionally have trouble with that! -PK)

What’s new in Reason 3 / What’s new in 3.03 Update [CDM]

My own Reason 3 Review for Macworld