Intermediate Mixing Topics and Sound Design Plugin Effects

In this chapter, we’ll cover some of FL Studio’s latest plugins. For the ambitious and those eager to explore cutting-edge sound design, FL Studio offers an abundance of tools. This chapter explores advanced FL Studio plugin effects for those who feel they already have a decent grasp of FL Studio and want fine control over their sound design. These are advanced topics, so don’t feel bad if it goes a little over your head the first time you read about these topics.

In this chapter, you’ll learn how to create real-time pitch-shifting effects using Pitch Shifter. You’ll learn how to create metallic sounds and shift frequencies with Frequency Shifter. You’ll learn how to stretch audio waves to create complex audio effects with Fruity Granulizer. You’ll learn how to create delay effects with Multiband Delay. Finally, you’ll learn how to use Frequency Splitter, a tool designed...

Using Pitch Shifter

Pitch Shifter is a pitch-shifting effect. It contains two pitch shift algorithms, one for monophonic sounds such as vocals, and one for polyphonic sounds. It can be used for pitch correction and, in my opinion, creates a more natural-sounding result than the FL Studio plugin Newtone, which was discussed in Chapter 8.

Let’s get started using Pitch Shifter:

1. Load up an audio sample in the playlist and route it to the mixer.
2. Apply the Pitch Shifter effect to the mixer channel and play your sound. You’ll see Pitch Shifter load up, as shown in the following screenshot:

Figure 11.1 – Pitch Shifter

On the far-left side, you’ll see the tabs Music and Voice. Voice is for the monophonic pitch-shifting algorithm (single note at a time). You’ll usually want this if you’re applying pitch-shifting effects for vocals. If you have a polyphonic sound (more than one note at a time), then you’ll...

Using Frequency Shifter

Frequency Shifter is a special effect that shifts all frequencies of a sound by the same amount. It operates similarly to the FL Studio plugin Pitch Shifter, except that it doesn’t preserve the pitch key when shifting frequencies; instead Frequency Shifter increments by whatever exact value you tell it to use. It doesn’t force specific pitches the way Pitch Shifter does.

Frequency Shifter effects are much stronger on lower-frequency sounds than on higher-frequency sounds. Why? If you have a starting frequency of 100 Hz and shift by 400 Hz, the result is 500 Hz. If you have a starting frequency of 10,000 Hz and the shift is 400 Hz, the result is 10,400 Hz. The relative change is much smaller for the higher frequencies compared to the relative change for the lower frequencies. This is different from how other Pitch Shifters work as they multiply the frequencies by a value instead of just adding. How does this affect the sound? Audio affected...

Creating granular synthesis with Fruity Granulizer

Fruity Granulizer is an effect using granular synthesis. Granular synthesis splits source audio into small pieces called grains. These grains are then looped and played back based on the plugin settings.

Fruity Granulizer is a great effect for bass sound design and for transitions such as risers and falling sound effects.

Let’s get started using Fruity Granulizer:

1. Create a new pattern and add it to the playlist.
2. In the channel rack, insert the new instrument, Fruity Granulizer:

Figure 11.11 – Fruity Granulizer

3. Load a new sample into Fruity Granulizer such as by clicking in Click to Load Sample and navigating to an audio sample you want to use. Alternatively, you can drag and drop a sample from the browser into Fruity Granulizer:

Figure 11.12 – Fruity Granulizer loaded with sample

4. We need MIDI data to tell Fruity Granulizer when to play...

Creating delay effects with Multiband Delay

Multiband Delay is a sound design delay effect. It works by splitting up the audio into 16 frequency bands. For each frequency band, you can adjust the volume, delay, and panning.

The effect is more noticeable on some sounds than others. For example, the effect is noticeable on flat-sounding acoustic instruments. I recommend trying it with flat piano chords to hear the effect clearly.

Let’s get started using Multiband Delay:

1. Load up an audio sample or instrument in the playlist and route it to the mixer.
2. Apply the Multiband Delay effect to the mixer channel and play your sound. You’ll see Multiband Delay load up as shown in the following screenshot:

Figure 11.17 – Multiband Delay

The main idea behind Multiband Delay is that you can set delay, volume, and panning values for individual frequency bands. You can save your band settings in a BANK preset. If desired, you can then...

Multiband processing with Frequency Splitter

Frequency Splitter is an effect plugin that separates audio into low, mid, and high-frequency bands. Once the frequency bands are split, you can route them to different mixer tracks for additional processing.

Splitting audio into frequency bands has a wide range of applications. Some use cases are as follows:

• In its simplest form, it can be used to perform simple EQ.
• It allows you to perform bandpass sweeping effects.
• It allows you to isolate frequency bands to duck when sidechaining instead of sidechaining the entire sound. For example, reducing the bass frequencies when percussion comes in while still retaining the upper frequencies. More generally, you can apply different effects to low, mid, or high frequencies of a sound.
• It can be used to duck instrument frequencies when a vocal comes so that it can maintain focus on the vocal.
• In mastering, it can be used to isolate frequencies so that you can...

Summary

In this chapter, we learned how to use Pitch Shifter to apply pitching effects in real time. It’s a great effect to apply using automation.

We learned how to create frequency-shifting effects with Frequency Shifter. It can be a fun effect to give a simple sound some texture. We learned how to use Fruity Granulizer to break audio into grains, which can then be looped over. This can be useful when you want a sound to transition from one song passage into the next.

We learned about Multiband Delay to break up the audio into frequency bands and apply individual delay effects. This is useful when you want to create custom stereo width effects and play with the listener’s environment experience.

Finally, we learned about Multiband processing with Frequency Splitter. This allows us to isolate frequency bands, which we can then apply effects on. This is useful for techniques like sidechaining that affect only specific frequencies, or for having deeper control...