Before you say Fruity Peak Controller, the main features I want with an LFO are:
- Quick presets for basic shapes
- Curve editor for custom shapes
- Quick way to change durations (beat, 1/2 beat, etc)
- Sync to tempo switch
- Bipolar switch
- Control over modulation amount
- Minimum setup required
- retrigger switch
These have become standard and cover a large swath of workflows. I think it's why the shaperbox plugins have become so popular.
I don't think there's an FL stock option that covers all or most of them.
With some third party plugins, I figured out a way to get all of these in FL. The tradeoff is you sacrifice 1 mixer track for 3 LFO's.
Required 3rd party plugins
1. ShaperBox/Volume Shaper (paid)
1b. OR a free LFO editor alternative like Flux Mini https://www.caelumaudio.com/CaelumAudio/?Page=FluxMini2, or google "Free LFO Tool alternative".
2. MOscillator (Free)
Setting up the LFO takes only 3 steps:
1. Drag the FST for the mixer chain into your sacrificial mixer insert.
2. Open LFO 1 Signal Generator > Right click "a" knob > Link to controller > internal controller dropdown > LFO 1 Audio to Event Converter Peak
3. Link the desired parameter you want to the LFO. (Right click link to controller > Internal controller drop down > FOA 1 Signal Generator - Out)
You can use b and c knobs on the LFO 1 Signal Generator to control the LFO depth and whether it's bipolar, respectively.
A few more details in the notes inside "LFO 1 Generator", including how to set up retrigger and other things.
You can copy/paste the bottom three slots for two more LFOs in the same mixer insert.
PS While writing this I realized there's a couple of features missing but shouldn't be too hard to implement:
- no control yet for LFO offset
- no control for LFO phase
For offset, if you're on non-bipolar mode you can just use the base knob in the peak controller. Alternatively, you can mess with the formula inside the "link to controller", though I'm trying to avoid doing math.
PPS - I would still just prefer a Fruity LFO that does this all in one step
Couple tweaks to the grossbeat code and you're there... but then it all seems so easy from the outside
Edit:
I made another version with offset, but requires a little more set up (but no math). You just need to map a couple more things.
However, I don't really have time to document too thoroughly, so I added just a few more notes inside the the formula controllers. Maybe someone else can make better documentation.
This setup requires an additional formula controller per LFO, where you would manually set the offset. So you can only fit 2 of these per mixer track.