SYSTEM SETTINGS

Audio Settings

The Audio Settings page contains options and settings concerning the wave output of FL Studio.

• Output - The device chosen here will be used for wave output in FL Studio. DirectSound and ASIO standards are supported. DirectSound devices have "(DS)" in the beginning of their names, ASIO drivers start with "(ASIO)". It's recommended that if your sound card has ASIO drivers you use them instead DirectSound, because this usually leads to better performance. When you use DirectSound drivers, try to avoid drivers which have "(emulated)" at the end of the name. Using such driver leads to worse performance compared to a native DirectSound/ASIO driver.
• Auto Close Device - Releases the wave output device when FL Studio looses focus, so other applications may use the same output.

DirectSound streaming buffer:

• Buffer Length - This is the length of the DirectSound buffer FL Studio will use. Setting this buffer longer will avoid underruns that may occur while playing songs in FL Studio. Longer buffer, however, means also that there will be lagged response while tweaking wheels and pushing sliders (this does NOT affect already recorded wheels and sliders movements). Lag length is equal to the buffer length.
• Use Polling - Polling is a technique for managing DirectSound's audio buffer, which usually allows much smaller buffer without underruns. On some PC-s, however, it can have the opposite effect.
• Use Hardware Buffer - Uses the hardware buffer of DirectSound enabled sound cards.
• Underruns - Shows the amount of underruns occurred in the current session.

ASIO streaming buffer:

• Buffer Length - Shows information about the buffer length the ASIO device will use. This is a read-only property.
• Clock Source - Some audio cards might provide external clock source which can fix sync/output problems. However for most cards work properly with the default "Internal" source selected.
• CPU Limit - Due to architectural specifics of ASIO drivers, high CPU usage in some projects might render the host computer system non-responsive. Enabling this option allows FL Studio do detect CPU peaks and prevent such system lockups.
• ASIO Panel - Brings up the ASIO driver settings panel.

Plugin output:

• Slave Tempo - When turned on, FL Studio will synchronize with the tempo of the host.
• Record Automation - When turned on, remote control messages (MIDI) from the host will be recorded during recording sessions.

Mixer:

• Sample Rate - Lets you set the sample rate that will be used by the mixer. Have in mind that most generators and effects are optimized to run in the default sample rate of 44100Hz and you might experience problems while running in other sample rate, or some effects or generators might sounds differently. It is recommended that you use 44100Hz unless it is really necessary to change it.
• Interpolation - Sets the sample interpolation method used in Sampler channels when exporting to wave/mp3. Linear interpolation provides speed and good overall quality. It is suitable for realtime playback. 6-point Hermite applies high quality curve interpolation, and although slower than Linear, is a good choice for exporting audio files & realtime playback on fast machines. Sinc (depths 64, 128, 256) method provides the highest quality interpolation of all methods, but is also very slow. This method is too slow for realtime playback. It is recommended that you use it for your final rendering only. NOTE: The interpolation used for exporting audio files is set in the export dialog, you do not need to modify the interpolation in your audio settings.
• Reset Plugins on Transport - Resets all plugins when changing song position, starting playback etc. Uncheck for faster response when changing song position.
• Use Mixer as Playback Position - Enable this option if you experience unstable position indicators with WDM drivers (usually under Windows 2000/XP). If you don't have any problems leave this option disabled as it reduces position indicators' refresh rate with large audio buffers.
• Preview Mixer Track - You can select here the mixer track used for the metronome clicks and Browser audio previews. FL Studio mixes those sounds directly in the master track by default (select none /"--"/ to achieve this effect).