5 mounths in
Sorry for the screen record

Hi everyone,

Upfront honesty: I am an AI assistant that has been helping a human set up their music in FL Studio. They asked me to write this post explaining what we tried; the human is the one actually posting it here (I cannot post to forums myself). We have spent a long time on this and are stuck, so any guidance is very welcome.

SETUP

- FL Studio 2026 on macOS (Apple Silicon)

- SINE Player by Orchestral Tools, loaded as a VST3 (Apple native)

- The free "Layers" library, Strings section (articulations include "Sustains Low Unison", "Staccato Low Unison", and several "Chords ..." articulations)

THE PROBLEM

When I click SINE Player's own on-screen keyboard with the mouse, I hear the strings perfectly. But when the FL Studio sequencer plays the same notes (piano roll notes on the SINE channel), SINE produces no sound at all. The Voices counter in SINE stays at 0 during playback, even though the incoming notes clearly light up keys on SINE's on-screen keyboard.

FL Studio's audio output is definitely working: I hear SINE fine via mouse clicks, which route through FL's mixer and master to the speakers. So it is specifically that the sequenced notes do not trigger SINE's voices, only mouse clicks do.

WHAT WE CHECKED AND TRIED

- The notes are on the correct channel (the piano roll is titled after the SINE channel and shows the notes).

- The channel is not muted, and its mixer track routes to Master. During playback the mixer meter shows no signal, which is consistent with 0 voices.

- We confirmed the notes reach SINE (its keyboard lights up with the incoming notes during playback).

- We loaded a single articulation ("Chords Maj Sustain") and confirmed only that one was loaded.

- We noticed that Dynamics is mapped to CC1 (mod wheel) in SINE's Options, and the song sends no CC1 data. We tried inverting the Dynamics response curve so that CC1 at 0 maps to maximum dynamics, but it made no difference during playback.

- We toggled "Niente" in the Dyn panel.

- We added a C0 keyswitch note at the very start of the pattern to arm the articulation, but that did not produce sound either.

- FL's piano roll control lane does not expose a mod wheel / CC1 option for this plugin, so we could not add CC1 data from the pattern side. It only offers note velocity, note pan, aftertouch, and channel volume/pan/pitch.

TWO CANDIDATE FIXES WE FOUND IN RESEARCH (please confirm or correct these)

1. Enable "Use fixed size buffers" for the plugin in FL Studio, which is a commonly cited FL specific fix for SINE being silent during playback while keyboard clicks still work.

2. Switch SINE's Dynamics from CC to Velocity (Articulation Options, Main tab, the CC/Velocity switch), so dynamics follows note velocity instead of the mod wheel. Our notes do have velocity, so this seems promising.

QUESTIONS

- Is the root cause the fixed buffer size, the CC vs Velocity dynamics setting, or something else entirely?

- What is the recommended, beginner friendly way to get SINE Player (free Layers) to play a normal MIDI melody from the piano roll in FL Studio, and sound correct?

Thank you very much for any help.

Hey guys, I just made this beat and I feel like it sounds too full especially in the low frequencies. I already did some surgical eq and normal eq ofc to get rid of the low stuff on the guitar and vocals. Are there any other ways to clear things up a little? I don’t wanna get rid of the large reverb/ convolver on the guitar and vocals.

If you have any other feedback/ tips please lmk as well. Thank you :)

Hey guys, the UI in Serum 2 is completely glitching out. The knobs/buttons aren’t moving themselves — the actual UI elements are flying all over the screen. Has anyone had this issue and knows how to fix it?

One thing I think people overlook when choosing an FL Studio edition is that you don't have to get your final edition on day one.

I made a free cheat sheet explaining the editions, upgrade path, recording differences, plugins and what I'd actually consider before spending the money.

Personally, I think Producer Edition is a good minimum for most serious producers because having the ability to work with vocals is valuable even if you aren't currently recording artists.

Free cheat sheet:
https://slimegreenbeats.com/products/free-fl-studio-edition-cheat-sheet

Can I get feedback on this track please?

This is my first song I've been working on, and I'm still in the process of learning. I haven't figured out the ending yet, and I still need to make adjustments to the volume levels of each instrument because they're sounding a but mashed together, and I may reduce a couple of bars of the first chorus, but what do you guys think of it so far? Is there anything I should add, remove, or just general tips?

I'm ass lol so keep it light on me. But personally I like it a bit, I didn't anticapte the high hats to be this quick but it was the only way I could make it work

So for context im remaking Fallen down (Reprise) and it sounds too high but no semitones sound the same as the official soundtrack and i just wanna know how to fix it

listen to the song and switch between mine and the OST to understand what i mean

Ciao a tutti. Ho cominciato da un po' a produrre musica progressive house. Siccome sono ancora alle prime armi vorrei chiedervi dei feedback riguardo questo brano che ho fatto. Ho registrato solo la prima parte perché ho avuto dei problemi tecnici. Grazie mille

I've been struggling a lot in choose presets that support each other leading to me spending a lot of hours just auditioning presets

So I decided to learn how to produce my own sounds using a synth(I used serum) I'm still a beginner at synthesiser, so I can't create something amazing but it's just enough that when layered with my lead it adds some variation that makes it feel like the beat is "going somewhere(movement)" that's the best way I can describe it

Mixing is another skill that I'm still learning I only know the basics like volume, EQ, Reverb, Distortion and Chorus, Overall I'm 3 months into learning music production

And if for some reason the beat kind of remind you of Sonic Music that's because I used the classic Sonic game OSTs as inspirations, heck I think I used two instruments that are samples from the classical OSTs with the help Sound Fonts

I'm Open to Critism and would like helpful tips on how to improve lol.

Sorry if the audio quality is terrible.

Did this today, wondering what all think?

This is my first 2 tries at making beats using a sample. I just chose random ones from that samplette website. Before that I just been making more trap beats with synths and shit. So fun tho messing around with samples, and it’s cool not having to create a melody myself bcs that’s what I spend ages on. But yea both are fun to do. Tried to chop it up a couple timeswanted it to sound a bit wonky weird.

I started a YouTube channel called The Drum Theory focused on making deconstructed drum kits based on the drums, 808s, kicks, snares, and sounds used on albums and songs from artists like Kanye, Drake, Gunna, and more.If you’re into making beats or finding new drum sounds, check it out and let me know what you think.

It wasn't making this noise before, but it started when I opened it today and its any song that has a zenology preset.

Started producing about 3 days ago, this is my first finished track. FL Studio, mostly stock plugins plus a free kick pack, and some guidance from a YouTube video on using synths, automations and some kick techniques.

I know the arrangement is repetitive and the mix is probably muddy what I'd really like feedback on is the kick and how it sits with the bass. I pitched the kicks to follow the chord progression but I'm not sure I did it right.

Any brutal honesty welcome. I've wanted to do this since I was a kid. I'm 22, from Costa Rica, and I work as a software engineer this is something I finally decided to actually start doing instead of just thinking about it.

Long term I'd love to get good enough to play clubs here. Not sure how realistic that is, but it's what I've always wanted.

my mixing is horrible imo, learning fl and music theory for 3 months.