INSTRUMENT PLUGINS / EFFECT PLUGINS / CHANNEL SETTINGS

Fruity Wrapper

The Fruity Wrapper is a software interface between instrument / effect plugins and FL Studio. The control options (1, 3 & 4) are common to all plugins (FL native, VST & DX format), while the plugin options (2) only appear on Wrappers that are hosting VST & DX format plugins. The Wrapper provides compatibility with the VST and DX plugin standards (the screenshot below demonstrates the Fruity Wrapper hosting a fictitious 'Poi Poi' VSTi plugin). More information on plugin formats can be found here. For more information on installing and using 3rd party VST/DX plugins, click here.

There are two versions of the Fruity Wrapper, Effect & Generator. FL Studio will select the appropriate wrapper depending on the plugin type loaded. There are several control options:

1. Plugin Menu

2. Additional Settings Menu

Click on the screenshot Settings, Processing or Info tabs below to see the help for that tab.

See help for tab: Settings, [Processing], Info

NOTE: If you are troubleshooting plugins, see the section on 'Plugins behaving badly' for more tips.

Options

• Process inactive inputs and outputs - Some plugins mark one or more of their inputs/outputs as 'inactive' even though they are being used. By default, FL Studio doesn't process inactive inputs/outputs, so no sound is produced. This option ensures FL Studio processes 'inactive' outputs.
• Notify about rendering mode - This ensures that the plugin is informed when FL Studio is rendering. Some plugins will automatically switch to a higher quality output when rendering.
• Allow threaded processing - Switch to turn multi-core enhanced processing on/off. NOTE: A plugin will be multi-core threaded only if this, the Global Multithreaded options and the Wrapper menu - 'Allow threaded processing' options are on. The threaded processing option here is provided since it can be saved using the 'Settings' tab 'per plugin type'. This is useful to prevent plugins that are not multithread safe running in this mode in future, regardless of the other settings.
• Send loop position - Sends information about the song loop start and end positions to a VST plugin. This setting is calculated by the wrapper and is not available until FL has looped once.
• Use fixed size buffers - FL Studio shares data with plugins using variable sized chunks of data (buffers). Some plugins require fixed sized buffers (which is outside the VST standard but supported in FL Studio for your convenience). This option ensures only fixed sized buffers are used. The disadvantage is that fixed size buffering can introduce an extra delay, depending on the audio buffer size selected in the Audio settings (F10). This delay is doubled for effects plugins. However, in some cases this setting may fix unwanted rendering delays caused by certain plugins.

Connections

These options determine audio input and/or output routing for the plugin and are necessary only for multi-input or multi-output plugins such as a compressor that accepts side-chain inputs or a sampler with multiple outputs for separate effects processing.

• Auto map inputs - Auto map inputs only applies to plugins loaded in Mixer effects slots since instrument channels can't receive audio input.
  • 1. Sidechain the total number of mixer tracks, to your multi-input plugin's mixer track, that equals the number of audio inputs the plugin needs BEFORE using the 'Auto map inputs' function. If you don't sidechain the total number, some inputs will remain unassigned.
  • 2. Click the Auto map inputs button and the sidechained mixer tracks will be assigned to the multi-input plugin's available inputs. Auto map will assign the sidechained Mixer track with the lowest number to the first plugin input, and so on.

    If you need to reassign these mappings see the section below on 'Manual assignment of plugins loaded in effects slots'.

• Reset - Reset the inputs/outputs to the default state.
• Auto map outputs - Auto-assign plugin outputs to mixer tracks following the plugin's own Mixer track. The routing will incrementally map to Mixer-tracks following the plugins selected Mixer track. If you need to reassign these mappings see the section below on 'Manual assignment of plugins loaded in effects slots'.
• Manual assignment of inputs/outputs - Right-click the input/output fields to open the list of routing options. The routing details vary depending on whether the plugin is loaded in an instrument channel or in an effects slot:
  • Manual assignment of plugins loaded in channels - Right-click the input or output number fields to open a list then click on an item to select it. When plugins are loaded in Channels, the numbers for the inputs and outputs are Mixer-track offsets (relative to the Mixer track number set in the Channel Settings). For example, if the plugin is routed to Mixer track 10 and a plugin input is set to -2 and a plugin output set to 10, then the plugin will receive audio-input from track 8 (10 - 2) and output audio to track 20 (10 + 10).
  • Manual assignment of plugins loaded in effects slots - Right-click the input/output number fields to open a list then click on an item to select it. When plugins are loaded in the Mixer, the numbers are 'indexes' to the list of inputs or outputs that are routed to and from the Mixer track that the effect is in. NOTE: When routing Mixer tracks to the target Mixer track (the one holding the effect), right click the Track Send switch and use the 'Sidechain to this track' option. This mutes the audio being sent to the effect's track, while allowing the 'side-chain' signal to be processed on the input set to receive it. Failure to do this will result in a parallel audio signal, one entering through the effect's input and another passing through the effect stack as normal.

3. Preset Browser

4. Close plugin interface.

Plugin Credits: Frederic Vanmol, Didier Dambrin