CHANNEL SETTINGS

Plugin Channel Settings (PLUGIN)

The Plugin Channel Settings page will appear only in channels that hold external plugin generators. This page in Channel Settings holds the plugin editor where you set its specific options (that are different for every generator). Usually, the editor is displayed inside the Channels Settings window, when you click the PLUGIN tab button. However, some generators have bigger interfaces that do not fit inside that area, so they will appear in a separate window. In this case, the PLUGIN tab button will launch the editor's window when clicked.

For more information on installing and using 3rd party VST/DX plugins, click here.

Supported Generator Standards

FL Studio supports VSTi and DXi plugins and its own Fruity Plugin format. 

DirectX Instruments (DXi, DXi2)

FL Studio supports DirectX plugin generators standard developed by Twelve Tone Systems (R) and Microsoft (R). DirectX plugins are registered on installation directly in Windows, so FL Studio will detect them no matter in what folder they were installed. However, in order DirectX plugin system to work, you need to have installed the latest DirectXMedia (it is now included in DirectX 8 run-time installation, which can be downloaded from www.microsoft.com).

VST2 Instruments (VSTi)

VST2 instruments are supported in FL Studio by using the special Fruity Wrapper plugin (generator version). VSTi plugins are DLL files that should be installed in the VST folder of FL Studio in order to use them (<FL Studio Folder>\Plugins\VST). You can also set up an additional VST folder from the Directories window. For more information, see Fruity Wrapper's help.

Buzz Generators

The Buzz generator plugins are an open plugin format for implementing instruments in Buzz (tracker software). FruityLoops supports Buzz effects through its Buzz Generator Adapter plugin.

Fruity Plugin Generator Standard

FL Studio has an open plugin generators standard. Fruity Plugins have their own editor interface and still events can be automated and edited using the Event Editor (just right-click a control in the editor).

Multiple Outputs Support

FL Studio supports VSTi plugins with multiple outputs. In the plug-in window, click the down-arrow menu (upper left corner under the red plug-in icon). If the plugin supports multiple output, you will see "enable multiple outputs", select it. Now the first output will be set to whatever FX channel is initially assigned to that plug-in, and each successive FX track will contain the additional outs. For example, a plugin with 4 outputs assigned to FX track 10, takes tracks 10, 11, 12 and 13.

Plugin Options

You can access a menu with useful commands and settings by clicking the button at the top of the Plugin Channel Settings panel OR for plugins which display their editor in a separate window, click the button on the left side of the editor's titlebar.

• Select - Contains a list of all synths selected as favorites. Selecting a plugin from this menu will add one instance of it to the Step Sequencer. Click More... to open the Select plugin window, which contains a list of all synth plugins available to FL Studio. Double-click a plugin name to create a new instance. Click the check box preceding each plugin to mark it as a favorite (all plugins preceded by a check mark will appear in the favorites list). NOTE: To see newly installed plugins, click Refresh in the bottom of the Select plugin window and select Fast Scan (it is recommended that you use Fast Scan instead of Scan & Verify, because the latter may crash FL Studio with some badly programmed plugins).
• Presets - Contains a submenu with a list of presets for the synth. In the bottom of the list you can see the Randomize and Hybridize commands. Randomize gives random values to the published (i.e. known to FL Studio) plugin settings. Hybridize is a switch. When enabled, selecting a preset will load a random 50% of the settings in a preset, so you can quickly mix different presets and create new sounds.
• Browse Presets - Opens the plugin's presets folder in the Browser panel. The Browser has better capability of displaying large number of presets.
• Save Preset as - Allows you to save custom presets for the plugin assigned to the plugin slot. Presets are saved as FST files. It is recommended that you save preset files in the default location FL Studio chooses, so they can be properly detected and added to the Presets menu.
• Last Tweaked Parameter - Displays the standard popup menu for the last parameter tweaked on the plugin's interface (applies only to automatable parameters). This option is useful for VSTi synths that have their own interface (as you can not open the FL Studio property menu by right-clicking a control in them).
• Browse Parameters - Opens the plugin's parameters folder in the Browser panel. The Browser will list all automatable properties defined by the plugin, even if they are not automated in the current project.

Note: Some generators support custom wave samples / oscillator shapes. In such generators, the Sampler Channels Settings page is visible, where you can set the wave file to be used as custom sample/shape.