GENERATORS

FPC

FPC (FL Pad Controller) is a software plugin similar to the hardware Akai MPC unit, coded & optimized for the FL Studio platform. FPC is a self-contained multi-layer/velocity drum machine which makes it easy to create, edit and swap drum kits, or parts of kits on the fly, in order to tune the sound of the drumloops in your project. FPC supports 16 multi-layered patches per drum kit bank. ( There are several FPC video tutorials here.)

Select MIDI patterns/loops with the top right menu, labelled 'Patterns' in the example left (Left-click to open the default list).

The interface is separated into three panels. You can display these using the tabs along the top of the window. In the first tab you can see the main pad properties that shows/sets the properties of the currently selected pad (explained below).

Download Manager

Main Pad Properties

The parameters affect the currently selected pad and appear in the first two tabs of the FPC interface.

• Pad selector - (Showing Pad 1/32) The arrows allow you to change the selected pad. Left-click the down arrow to open the following menu -

• Pads

  • Bank A / Bank B - Quick access all pads (sounds) from Bank A and B.

  Presets

  • Change name - Change the name of the FPC preset.
  • Load preset - Load FPC preset.
  • Save preset - Save FPC presets.
  • Save entire kit as pad presets - Saves each pad as a separate FPC pad preset, this allows you to share pads between kits.
  • Save all wav files - Exports all the wave files used in the preset.

  Notes

  • Save note layout - Saves the Pad to MIDI note relationships (layout).
  • Load note layout - Load Pad to MIDI note layout presets.
• Pad name box - Shows the pad name, which you can change by right-clicking the box and entering new name in the window that will pop up.
• Volume and Pan - Sets the pad volume (left), and stereo panning (right).
• Mute button - When active (green), mutes the current pad.
• Solo button - When active (red), mutes all other pads except the current pad (and any other solo pads).
• Scale volume button - Allows you to map input note velocities to pad volume. Normally, this option should be enabled, unless you want to handle velocity changes entirely with multiple velocity-sensitive layers (see Layer Properties below).
• Bank A/B - There are two banks x 16 pads are available per patch.

Pads View

The Pads view lets you quickly preview a pad, or set its key/cut groups.

The pad controls are ordered from left to right, and then bottom to top (i.e. pad 1 is bottom left, pad 16 is top right). To select and preview a pad, click the big preview button on each of the pad button on right (see the image left). To select without previewing, click the Pad Properties button. The Previous and Next buttons allow you to switch between several alternative versions of that pad. Each drum kit may (or may not) include several samples for each pad to switch between.

At the right, you can see a set of controls (following the same order), containing four boxes for each pad. Change the value by dragging up or down. The first row sets the key the pad is assigned to. The left box sets the key inside the octave, while the right sets the octave.

The second row sets the cut groups for the pad. The cut groups are identical in functionality to those found in the Misc Channel Settings section of regular Sampler channels (and other plugins). Using these groups you can 'kill' a pad which plays (like an open hi-hat) when another pad is triggered (like a closed hi-hat). To do this, set the pad to cut to a certain cut group (the box on left), then set the pad to be cut with the same cut group in the cut by group box (on the right).

Layer Properties View

Each pad in FPC can consist of multiple samples, layered in such a way that each sample responds to a specific note velocity range. This ability can be important for achieving realism with acoustic drum kits.

The Layer Properties view allows you to create and edit the layers of the currently selected pad.

Basic Operations

• Click the Create button (top left in the window) to add a new empty layer to the pad. To erase it, select it (hit the Select knob of the layer) and click the Delete button.
• Once added, you can load a sample to the layer by clicking the Browse button (the button on left in the Sample File controls below) and selecting a sample.
• You can reverse a sample's playback by enabling the Reverse option at the bottom.
• To reorder the channels, select a channel and use the Move Up/Down buttons on top of the interface.
• The Spread Even button spreads the velocity ranges evenly among the existing layers without overlap (see layer properties below).
• The Lock Layers button locks the layer ranges in a way to prevent velocity range overlap (one sample will play at a time for any given velocity).
• To preview how the pad will sound with different velocities with all layers applied to it, click the Full Pad Preview at the velocity value you want to preview.

Layer Properties

The controls on each layer are (from left to right):

• Select Knob - Click this button to mark the channel as selected. This is required for some operations, like browsing for a new sample, move up/down, delete, display in the big sample preview (in the bottom) and the reverse playback switch.
• Volume Knob - Sets the volume of the layer.
• Pan Knob - Sets the stereo panning for the layer.
• Layer Tune Knob - Allows you to offset the pitch up/down (faster/slower playback) from the original playback speed of the sample. The knob ranges from -1 to +1 octave pitch shift.
• Mini Sample Preview - Displays the loaded sample (if any). Click to preview the sample.
• Velocity Range - This control sets the active velocity range for the layer, i.e. for which velocity values the sample will play (for the rest it is muted). The velocity is mapped from left (minimum) to right (maximum). Drag the handles to define the active region. Overlapping of several samples in the same range is allowed, unless the Lock Layers button (see above) is enabled.

Envelopes

Left-click and drag node/curve points in order to change the Envelope shape. The Envelope editor provides a "classic" ADSR envelope & the power of unlimited spline segments (right-click the envelope area to add nodes).

• Enable/Disable Switch - To use an envelope/mapping, enable the LED at the bottom left side of the editor (see the hand-pointer on the screenshot above).
• Envelope Options menu () select from the following options -
• • Open state file / Save state file - Open and save envelope states. There are a number of pre-defined state files available.
  • Copy state / Paste state - Use to copy and paste envelopes, usually between operators.
  • Flip vertically - Invert the current envelope.
  • Analyze audio file - The envelope can emulate the volume envelope of an input sound file. Clicking this option opens a 'browse file' dialog.
• Freeze - Enable this switch to lock the envelope curve to its current setup. This feature is helpful after you finish with the changes to the spline structure of an envelope and want to protect it from accidental edits (it also hides the handles providing a clear view of the shape).
• Snap - Enable this option if you want the control points to snap to the nearest step in the timeline while dragging.
• Slide - Enable this option to preserve the relative distance between a dragged control point and all control points following it (this option is enabled by default).

Mixer View

The mixer view duplicates the properties found in the Main Pad Properties & adds the mixer track offset property. Since all pads are displayed at once in a single view, it is easier to adjust many pads at once.

Each mixer "strip" (column) corresponds to a single pad, ordered from left (pad 1) to right (pad16). The controls found on each strip are as follows (from top to bottom):

• Mixer Track Offset - This property allows you to send a specific pad to a different FL Studio mixer track than the one FPC is linked to. The parameter specifies a positive offset, for ex. if FPC is linked to track 10, then all pads are sent to track 10, however you can set offset 4 for pad16, so that it will be sent to track 14 instead. By default all pads are mixed in the default mixer track (the control displays "--").
• Stereo Panning / Volume / Mute / Solo - Those properties are identical to those found in the main pad properties section (however the volume is a slider for easier control).
• Pad Name - Displays the channel name. Again, like in the main pad properties, you can right-click this box and fill a new name for the pad in the window that appears.

Plugin Credits: Robert Conde