An FL Studio native plugin for using piano roll note bends with Virtual Instruments (VST) and external synthesizers.

Basic Use

Add BENDY to your project, then add your most beloved VST plugin (The order doesn't matter, BENDY can be added later for any plugin!). Click the gear in the corner of your VST, then click the button that looks like a plug overtop of a gear. In the MIDI section, adjust the "Input port" field to match the "PORT" value in BENDY: Simple piano roll bends should now work in most plugins! But, since BENDY's BEND parameter is set to 2, it will only bend up to 2 semitones (notes) up or down.

Bending More Than 2 Semitones

First, try changing BENDY's BEND parameter to the desired bend range:

This may work if the plugin accepts a bend range message, but most plugins don't... If it's not working, you need to figure out where the bend range parameter is hiding in your plugin. Here are a few examples to give you an idea of what this setting looks like and how they might have been sneaky in burying it:

REFX NEXUS

With this one you should set speed up to full if you don't want notes to quack.

KONTAKT

This one varies per library, some examples:

SYLENTH

These folks know where bend range should go.

Arturia Synclavier V

God help you with these, every Arturia plugin is different and as far as I'm aware there's no standard for setting bend range.

Using BENDY with an external synthesizer

The process is exactly the same. BENDY will send MIDI notes on whatever port it has set, so all you need to do is plug your synthesizer into the same port, or route it to that port in FL Studio's MIDI settings. You're on your own finding where the pitch bend range is on these, sorry!

Presets

There are some presets for synths I like to use:

These automatically hook up some common controls to BENDY's CC knobs, Cutoff and Reverb in NEXUS for example. If you create a preset, please share it and I'll add it to a later version! You should be able to export your preset with the "Save preset as..." button. BENDY also supports note names, you can see this in action with the Shreddage preset. Unfortunately there's no way to set these through BENDY at the moment, but I plan to add one later. If your preset would benefit from note names, just let me know what notes need names when you share your preset and I can add them on my end for now.

If you run into any problems, especially crashes, or if you want a preset added, please open an issue here or email me at [email protected]!

This plugin uses Steinberg's VSTGUI: https://github.com/steinbergmedia/vstgui