Events

This section is intended for those who want to delve into PyFLP’s low-level API or understand how internally events are ordered. A good understanding of FL Studio’s GUI is assumed.

When to use the low level API?

If PyFLP fails to parse a particular model or you want to dive deep into the true / raw / real (whatever you want to call it) representation of an FLP.

See also

Binary layout of an event

Structure

Very early versions of FL Studio were literally a dump of the changes taking place in FL’s GUI. Say for example, you create a channel and then add notes to some pattern; the events for those would be dumped in the same order.

Hopefully its not the same now, but some of those characteristics are still visible.

Caution

DO NOT use the following section as a definitive / complete source of information for adding / removing your own events. While most likely your events will get parsed correctly, there’s always a chance of corrupting your FLPs.

This is roughly the order of the events (as of latest FL Studio):

1. Project-wide / metadata

2. Display groups / channel filters

3. Initialised controls

4. Pattern notes / controllers

5. MIDI remote controllers

6. Internal remote controllers / automations

7. 1st channel

8. Pattern metadata

9. Remaining channels

10. Arrangements:

    1. Index, name

    2. Playlist items

    3. Time markers

    4. Tracks:

       1. All data except name

       2. Name

11. Mixer:

    1. Inserts:

       A list of events in the order:

       1. Color, name, icon and flags

       2. Effect slots

       3. Post EQ, input/output, routing

    2. Remaining insert data

12. Channel rack height

Channel

There are currently 5 types of channels (specified in ChannelType). Although some of them don’t use certain events, FL Studio dumps the same event tree for any type of channel. For e.g. a Layer channel will have all the events a Sampler channel has, irrespective of whether the events have any meaning in that context. Certain channels have extra events.

#	Event ID	Model / property
1	ChannelID.New	Channel.iid
2	ChannelID.Type	Channel subclasses
3	PluginID.InternalName	Channel.internal_name
4	PluginID.Wrapper	Instrument.plugin
5	PluginID.Name	Channel.name
6	PluginID.Icon	Channel.icon
7	PluginID.Color	Channel.color
8	PluginID.Data	Instrument.plugin
9	ChannelID.IsEnabled	Channel.enabled
10	ChannelID.Delay	_SamplerInstrument.delay [5]
11	ChannelID.DelayModXY	_SamplerInstrument.delay [5]
12	ChannelID.Reverb	Sampler.fx.reverb
13	ChannelID.TimeShift	_SamplerInstrument.time.shift [#1]
14	ChannelID.Swing	_SamplerInstrument.time.swing [5]
15	ChannelID.FreqTilt	Sampler.fx.freq_tilt
16	ChannelID.Pogo	Sampler.fx.pogo
17	ChannelID.Cutoff	Sampler.fx.cutoff
18	ChannelID.Resonance	Sampler.fx.reso
19	ChannelID.Preamp	Sampler.fx.boost
20	ChannelID.FadeOut	Sampler.fx.fade_out
21	ChannelID.FadeIn	Sampler.fx.fade_in
22	ChannelID.StereoDelay	Sampler.fx.stereo_delay
23	ChannelID.RingMod	Sampler.fx.ringmod
24	ChannelID.FXFlags	Quite a few, refer code.
25	ChannelID.RoutedTo	_SamplerInstrument.insert [5]
26	ChannelID.Levels	Sampler.filter + few more
27	ChannelID.LevelAdjusts	_SamplerInstrument.level_adjusts [5]
28	ChannelID.Polyphony	_SamplerInstrument.polyphony [5]
29	ChannelID.Parameters	A lot; spread across many models.
30	ChannelID.CutGroup	_SamplerInstrument.cut_group [5]
31	ChannelID.LayerFlags	Layer.random, Layer.crossfade
32	ChannelID.GroupNum	Channel.group
33*	ChannelID.Automation	Automation
34	ChannelID.IsLocked	Channel.locked
35	ChannelID.Tracking * 2	_SamplerInstrument.tracking [5]
37	ChannelID.EnvelopeLFO * 5	Sampler.envelopes, Sampler.lfos
42	ChannelID.SamplerFlags	Certain Sampler properties.
43	ChannelID.PingPongLoop	Sampler.playback.ping_pong_loop
44*	ChannelID.SamplePath	Sampler.sample_path [6]

[5] (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)

Sampler & Instrument base off of _SamplerInstrument.

[6]

Optional event for Sampler only.

Pattern

Pattern events are serialised at 2 different places inside an FLP. The first section contains the notes and controllers held by a pattern if any.

#	Event ID	Property
1	PatternID.New	Pattern.iid
2	PatternID.Controllers	Pattern.controllers
3	PatternID.Notes	Pattern.notes

The next section contains colour, icon, timemarkers and any new events get added here. Some events aren’t listed because their order is not confirmed yet.

#	Event ID	Property
1	PatternID.New [7]	Pattern.iid
2	PatternID.Name	Pattern.name
3	PatternID.Color	Pattern.color
4	157 [7]	N.A.
5	158 [7]	N.A
6	164 [7]	N.A.

[7] (1,2,3,4)

Acts as an identifier here.

[8]

Unknown events; complete list here.

VST plugin parsing

Implemented in VSTPluginEvent, this is arguably the hardest event to parse cleanly. If you are familiar with PyFLP’s internals, you might be surprised to know that this event has events inside events. Why a struct wasn’t usable is beyond me.