INSTRUMENTS / GENERATORS

FPC

FPC (Fruity 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 that makes it easy to create, edit and swap drum kits on the fly. FPC supports 16 multi-layered patches for banks A and B. ( FPC video tutorials can be viewed here.)

Sounds and patterns: Two easy to use drop-down menus are the Download Manager to download new sound banks (sounds), and the Pattern Manager to select MIDI loops/patterns and dump them to the Piano roll.

The FPC interface consists of three main zones - Main Pad Properties (1), Layer Properties (2) and the Pad Matrix (3), as described below. The interface can be resized by right-clicking the right edge of the plugin and dragging to hide/show the layer controls.

Download Manager & Pattern Manager

1. Main Pad Properties

2. Layer Properties

3. Pads

Making & Saving FPC Kits

To make your own Sound Banks for FPC follow the general procedure below:

1. Clear FPC - From the Wrapper menu select 'Presets > Empty' before you start building your new Kit (that is, if you want to start from a clean slate). One of the many advantages of the 'Empty' preset is that the Pads are already assigned to the appropriate General MIDI keys. Just make sure you drop your samples on the appropriate pad.
2. Sample locations - Consider the following, depending on where the samples in the FPC Kit are located:
   • Samples in folders in the Browser - If you are loading the samples from the Browser, nothing extra needs to be done at this step.
   • Samples dragged from Slicex or Edison - If you are dragging samples from Slicex or Edison and dropping them on FPC, then you should first set the Project General Settings Data folder to the location where you want to save your 'dragged' samples (and so save the FPC Kit samples). If you don't set the Data folder the default save location will be in the FL Studio installation folder ..\Program Files\Image-Line\FL Studio\Data\Patches\Sliced beats. Make sure any Data folder location you choose is visible from the Browser's Extra search folders, otherwise FPC will not be able to locate the samples next time you load the Kit.
3. Load your samples - Drag the samples from the Browser and drop on the Pad/Layer you want.
4. Set-up your Kit - Make any changes to envelopes & velocity-splits etc., as required. NOTE: you can reassign the MIDI key using the Play Key/Octave setting. Left-click to open.
5. Save a FPC preset (.fst) file - Use the wrapper menu to save a .fst file (Save preset as) to the location where you want to save the FPC kit (preset).
6. Reload the kit to test - When the FPC preset is loaded, FPC will locate the samples in the Browser Extra search folders.

NOTE: It is important that all the samples used in the FPC Kit have unique names otherwise FPC will re-load the first sample with the same file name it finds in the Browser. E.g. don't use 'Kick1', 'Kick2' etc. It's highly likely samples with that name exist elsewhere. Use something unique and descriptive like 'Crunchy_Slicex_Kick1', 'Crunchy_Slicex_Kick1' etc.

Plugin Credits: Frederic Vanmol (Development programming & VST), Robert Conde (Original design).