Exporting MP3 or .WAV from FL Studio VST (C11-Pro)

Cubase
,
1

FL Studio runs as a VST under most DAWs so I wanted to run it in Cubase to take advantage of their FLEX synth which I’ve never found an equivalent to anywhere else.

It runs almost fine. I can use all their synths and other features and they sound great in Cubase when I play them from the Transport Controls. BUT if I try to Export music made that way as an audio file (e.g., .MP3 or .WAV) it fails. There are huge gaps between notes and they are out of order in some weird random way.

Why would a VST sound great when being played via the transport controls but get messed up in Export?

Thanks in advance.

2

Try using Real Time Export & see if that helps.

3

Try using Real Time Export & see if that helps.

That was a good idea but it didn’t help.

Searching around on the web I see other complaints about this problem with FL Studio as a VST on other DAW discussion forums, and even on FL Studio’s own forums as far back as 2018. So it seems to be a bug in FL Studio. Still, I can’t understand why it sounds perfect when played with the Cubase transport controls but not when exported.

I was only doing this to get at FLEX, which is not available as a separate VST. It’s got classical instruments like strings and woodwinds that sound much better than Halion SE and not as “synthy” as presets in Serum and Sytrus. Anyone here know of any good alternatives to FL Studio’s FLEX?

4

If your Audio Interface supports Loopback you could play the piece and record the Looped Backed Audio like it is coming from a hardware synth. Or if the interface doesn’t have Loopback then use a cable to connect an output to an input. As always, take extra care in situations that can create Audio feedback loops.

5

I’m trying to compose with it, so I need it to act like any other VST instrument, so I can tweak individual notes as I go along, so recording it as an audio track from FL Studio won’t work.

I’m still trying to understand what the signal path is in Cubase that it sounds OK played from the transport controls but not in export.

There’s probably nothing else to add in this thread since it seems to be an FL Studio problem, but I’ve posted a tech support request from them, so if they have anything useful I’ll post it here.