I am trying to make a sweep sound in FL Studio.  I am not sure the correct terminology, but I hear it in almost every trance song I listen to.  It would be similar to when a television is on the static channel.  Then, take that and warp it, manipulate it, etc so that the sound changes.  It is mostly background, but it fills songs when there is not much else happening.  Does anyone have tips for this?  Do I use an automation clip with certain instruments and filter them down so they sound like ‘noise’?  Thanks in advance

Toolmania1

I forgot about the 3xOsc and the noise parameter on there.  I am not in front of my pc to try it.  But, I figured I would post this in case others had questions in the future.  If anyone else has other ideas, please share.  I am still learning and welcome hints/tips/advice. 

Peace,
Tim

I tried the 3xOsc last night with the noise parameter and that is not what I am looking for.  I also tried to automate a pan instrument.  While this always seems to sound good, this again is not what I am looking for.  There is more static or noise in the sound that what the pan automated produces.  The sound is always in the background but it fills up the song.  It usually starts/ ends at the changes in the songs ( a new instrument is introduced, tempo changes, key changes, etc. )

Thanks in advance for any tips,
Tim

Hey Tim,

Mostly sweeps are made either by White Noise in a VST or by using the Vengeance FX samples. You can make your own FX, but you need a pretty sound understanding of synthesis within VSTi's, tho some (like some gated White Noise FX you sometimes hear in some tracks) can quite easily be made with the Vanguard VST.

If you have any more questions feel free to ask

Ben

Ben,

Thanks man!  I messed around last night with the 3XOsc.  I was able to automate it with only the first Osc set to noise.  I turned down the volume on the other two oscs.  It sounded ok.  I played with the X filter a little also in the Res tab.  But, ya, I was figuring there was something else that sounded much better.  Where do you get vanguard and vengeance at?

Peace,
Tim

I'm new to FL Studio and I'm just starting to get into using sweeps. FL Studio comes with a sweep preset. At least for FL Studio 7 anyways. It's even in the trance song template.

You beat me to my question!  I'm also just starting to learn how to use FL.  I've been using the preset Sweep, but I can't figure out how to gate it and fade it in and out during lulls in my songs.  It's one of my favorite subtleties in songs and I really want to incorporate it into my own.  Any advice?

You can do an automation clip on just about anything in FL Studio.  For example, ( and I am not in front of my pc right now so it may be slightly different ) you can right click on the volume for the channel or the instrument.  Then choose, automation clip.  In the play list, the automation clip will appear.  Then, you move/add the little circles around to raise and lower the volume.  This will create a straight line.  If you keep the grace in an upward slant starting at bottom of the automation clip, you will fade in the volume.  If you start the line from the top to the bottom it will fade it out.  The automation clip should say something about the volume in the title.  If you have a lot of trouble with automation clips, go to youtube and search FL Studio and automation clips.  Another good web site is warbeats.com.  They have a lot of good tutorials.  I learned a lot about FL from that site. 

You will see that automation clips can fade in and out, pan left right, change velocities on the drums in the piano roll, use a peak controller and use the mixer to route it over to control another plug in, etc.  I am not trying to confuse you since you just started using FL.  But, down the road, you will see that all you need to do is right click on something and you can make an automation clip out of almost anything.  Then, use the graph and create your clip.  You automation clip should also turn a color in the channel settings too. 

thanks for the help toolmania!  what's the best FX for gating?  I tried using the love philter, but I don't know how to stretch the timing of the gate to match the beat.  Any suggestions?

Well, actually, I have not used the love filter a lot myself.  If you find out more about it, maybe you could post here also to help others out.

Ya, time stretching can be tricky.  I can time stretch an acapella, but I am not sure about gating.

Most of my automation clips right now include clicking on the 'X' in the x-y component of the filter.  Usually I do this in the channel settings in FL itself.  I am not sure if this is what you are talking about for gating or not.  This effect seems to cause the sound to seem like it is being funneled or muffled.  Then, the sound becomes clear as the automation clip reaches the peak I set it at.  Hope that helps :-)

Thanks for the help toolmania.  I didn't realize youtube had all of those tutorials.  Apparently the peak controller is a powerful gating tool.

Ya, I did not realize it either for a while.  If you dig, you can find almost any tutorial.  You have to watch, a lot of them are just guys goofing around and they do not really teach you anything.  It is kinda annoying.  But, there are some good ones, so it is worth fishing imo.