Importing projects

A song you started in another program can continue here. Importing reads a MIDI file, an Ableton Live set or an FL Studio project and makes a new project from it: tracks, notes, recordings and tempo arrive, and you choose what plays each part. The original file is only read, so it stays exactly as it was and still opens in its own program, as it always did.

Importing a file

There are three ways in, and all three lead to the same place:

• Import from another program… in the project menu at the top left, or on the start screen.
• The same command in the palette, Ctrl+K.
• Drag the file onto the window.

Before anything is made, the studio shows what it found: how many tracks and notes, the tempo and the time signature, every part with what played it, and everything that stays behind. Nothing is written until Import, so Cancel leaves no trace. Import makes the project and opens it. The one you had open stays among your projects.

An imported project is an ordinary project. It has history, it syncs, and undo takes back anything you do to it from here on.

Choosing what plays each part

Each part starts on the sound nearest to what it had, and the button beside it opens the same list as a track’s instrument in the inspector: the synth’s starting points, the recorded instruments, the drums and any plugins on this computer. You can change any part’s sound here, or at any time after importing.

MIDI files

A MIDI file holds notes and asks for sounds by number. Each channel of the file is a part, and each part becomes a track of its own. So a whole band saved on one MIDI track comes apart into bass, piano and drums instead of arriving as one lump played by one instrument. A part is named after its MIDI track, or after the sound it asks for when the track has no name.

The file has no arrangement, so each part arrives as one clip running from the bar of its first note to the end of the bar of its last. Each sound the file asks for is replaced by the nearest one the studio has: a recorded instrument when one is close and installed or can be downloaded, a synth starting point when not, and the drum kit for the tenth channel, which is where MIDI files keep their drums.

Tempo and its changes come across, except a tempo outside a project’s range, and so do markers. Of the time signature, the first one comes across. A channel’s volume and pan set the track’s fader and pan, and when they move during the song they become automation.

Ableton Live sets

Choose the .als file of a Live set, from Live 8 or later. Keep it in its project folder: its recordings are found through the paths the set holds, then in its Samples folder and beside the set, and they are copied into the new project so it no longer needs that folder.

The arrangement comes across: each track with its clips where they lie, groups with the tracks inside them, and the markers and the loop. A clip that loops is written out for as long as it played, notes repeated and recordings placed once for each time round. A clip that repeats too many times to write out plays once, and the dialog names it. A clip warped to the song stays on the beats; one warped to another tempo follows the song’s tempo, keeping its pitch, or changes pitch with the speed, like a tape, if that is how it was warped.

A set that holds only Session View clips has no arrangement to bring, so its scenes are laid end to end. When a set has an arrangement, Session View stays behind, and the dialog says how many clips that is.

FL Studio projects

Choose the .flp file, from FL Studio 8.5 or later. FL Studio keeps an instrument on a channel and notes in patterns that any channel can play, and here a track holds both. So each channel that sounds becomes a track, and each pattern in the playlist becomes a clip on the track of every channel it plays: a pattern placed twice on the playlist is two clips, and editing one does not change the other. A clip cut from a longer pattern holds the part it showed.

Audio clips in the playlist arrive as clips of their recordings. FL Studio writes paths from its own folders in a way that means nothing outside it, so keep the recordings beside the project file, or use Zipped loop package in FL Studio first and unpack it: a recording not found is named in the dialog, and its clips are left out.

A project that only ever played patterns has an empty playlist, so its patterns are laid out one after the other. Only the first arrangement that holds clips comes across; the others are counted in the dialog.

A channel using FL Studio’s Sampler arrives with its notes and without its sample. A part called something like Kick or Snare starts on the studio’s drums, and its notes move to that drum.

What comes across

The dialog names everything that stays behind, by track. After importing, the command Show what the last import changed in the palette shows that list again, until the studio is closed.

Plugins

A plugin the song used comes across when the same plugin is on this computer in a format the studio loads, CLAP or VST3. It is found by its ID, or by its name when the song used a different format. Effects go back on their tracks automatically, and an instrument is offered as the part’s sound. A plugin arrives with its default settings: what you set inside it in the other program stays there. Plugins that are not here are named, and the part starts on one of the studio’s sounds.

What stays behind

The other program’s own instruments and effects stay behind, so a song sounds different here until you choose new sounds.

A part that played samples keeps its notes and loses its samples, and the dialog says so for that part. Synth Drums has drums on only five keys, so a sliced loop on it can go almost silent. The dialog says how many notes of the part make no sound, and changes as you choose another sound.

Everything else that stays behind is named in the dialog:

From a MIDI file:

• The sustain pedal. Notes end when the key was let go, so a piano part can sound shorter than it did.
• Pitch bends and pressure. Notes play at their written pitch.
• Sound changes partway through a part. The part keeps the sound it started with.
• Modulation, expression and other controllers. The dialog names the parts that move them.
• Messages meant for one particular synthesizer.
• Lyrics.

From an Ableton Live set:

• Live’s instruments and effects, racks included, and everything on the Main track. Simpler and Drum Rack do not bring their samples along.
• Return tracks and sends. Their sound is in effects that stay behind.
• Routing. A track routed to something other than the main output goes to the main output here.
• Automation of effects, sends and the main fader, and automation drawn inside clips. Curved fader moves and fades become straight lines.
• Clips that were turned off, takes that were not chosen, and Session View beside an arrangement.
• Grooves. Clips play straight, so their timing and accents change.
• Note chance and velocity deviation. Every note plays every time, at its written velocity.
• Pitch, pressure and slide drawn note by note.
• Track delay, split stereo pan and the crossfader.
• Warping that changes along a recording. A clip holds one speed, the average of its markers.
• Changes of pitch by cents, and by more than two octaves.

From an FL Studio project:

• FL Studio’s generators and effects, and the samples in its Sampler channels.
• The mixer: levels, panning, routing and every effect on an insert. The dialog lists the effects by insert.
• What is set on a channel: its level, pan, filter, delay, arpeggio, envelopes, stretching and time offset.
• Tuning. A channel, or the whole song, tuned away from its notes sounds as written.
• The song’s swing. Notes play straight.
• Automation clips, and automation recorded inside patterns.
• Note slides, per-note pan and pitch. Notes play at their written pitch, at their written velocity.
• Muting of clips. A clip here cannot be muted, so a clip that was muted, or sits on a playlist track that is turned off, plays, and the dialog says how many.