Automation

Almost any control movement in FruityLoops can be recorded, so it turns/slides exactly the way you want it next time when you play the song. You can then refine recorded events using the Event Editor.

Also, if you own an external MIDI controller, you can use it to tweak the automated controls in FruityLoops.

Now, in FruityLoops 3.12 or later, you can also let special internal controller plugins (they can be either effects or generators) move the controls for you programmatically. These plugins can, for example, follow special features of a sound (like volume envelope, as in the Fruity Peak Controller) and map them to the value of a control of your choice, or provide automatic LFO for controls where otherwise that would be impossible etc.

To check if any control can be recorded or linked to an external MIDI controller, position the cursor over it and check what is displayed in the hint field of the Main panel. Look for these icons:

- This icon shows the control is automatable (events can be recorded and then edited with an Event Editor)

- This icon shows the control can be remotely controlled by a MIDI controller.

So there are four ways to add "live tweaks" to your project:

Live Recording

Event Editor

Live Recording Using MIDI Controller

Internal Controller Plugins

 

Note to FruityLoops 2.x users: Automation in FruityLoops 3 has changed. Now there isn't any more a single global automation track, but all events are saved locally to patterns. This way now you can have up to 999 automation tracks (each pattern acts as automation track) and trigger them at any position of the song, enabling you to create complex effects, such as PCF (Pattern Controlled Filter).

However, compatibility with FruityLoops 2.x projects is fully retained - when you open such a file, the global automation data will be copied to a pattern labeled Main Automation (note that it's ONLY LABELED that way, it is the same type of pattern as the others). This pattern is triggered once in the beginning of the song, so it runs throughout the song as if it was a global automation track.

You can continue working as if you had a global automation track just like in FruityLoops 2 - trigger the pattern you want to use as a global automation track in the beginning of the song (you should draw A SINGLE DOT in the first bar of the Playlist, not a line of dots, see Playlist) and don't forget to select that pattern before live recording or performing operations in the Event Editor, otherwise you will record events to another pattern.