BENDY is a free FL Studio native plugin meant to allow piano roll note bends/panning/effects to control third party VST instruments and external synthesizers, something that is not normally possible in FL. It also comes with some simple automatable MIDI controls that can be assigned to note controls allowing each individual note to send messages to a VST to control some arbitrary parameter (per note frequency cutoff, or per note reverb for example).
As BENDY is still in it’s beta stages, you can probably expect a few hiccups. Make sure you back up projects that you’re using BENDY in, and if you run into any issues please send me a message either on Twitter (https://twitter.com/superjoebob) or via the e-mail listed at the end of BENDY’s readme file- or leave a comment here.
Latest Version 0.99: https://www.wonthelp.info/bendy_0992.zip
One Drive mirror: bendy_0_992.zip
Changelog:
BENDY 0.992 – December 3rd 2024
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-Fixed bug where new projects where running the legacy codepath, preventing new velocity implementation from working.
-Added version number display.
BENDY 0.991 – November 24th 2024
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-Fixed bug where master pitch wasn’t working
-Fixed bug with re-triggers
BENDY 0.99 – November 22nd 2024
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-Completely rewrote the plugin in native C++ to solve stability issues.
-Fixed a number of bugs and issues with features not working correctly.
-Improved velocity/volume support in order to closer mimic FL’s Midi Out plugin.
-Added right click menu to CC settings filled with useful defaults.
BENDY 0.96 – July 28th 2023
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-Rebuilt using older toolset for improved compatibility and to remove VC++ runtime requirement.
BENDY 0.95 – May 28th 2023
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-Fixed issue with note releases cutting off note triggers in newer versions of FL.
-Upgraded to newest SDK allowing the plugin to work in newer versions of FL.
BENDY 0.92 – December 13th 2021
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-Fixed issue where note pitch would reset to neutral at the end of notes, causing notes with long release
envelopes to bend unexpectedly. This change may affect Nexus users, along with users of any other plugins
that have pitch bend speed settings. Make sure to always set your VST’s pitch bend speed to it’s maximum!
-Fixed issue where BENDY wasn’t being affected by the master pitch setting. To fix this, FPF_MIDIOut was
removed from the plugin parameters, as it seemed to have the plugin ignore master pitch as it’s only effect.
-Note Controls can now be assigned as either Full, Upper, or Lower. Full uses the whole note control value
range, Upper just uses the top half and Lower uses the lower half. This means you can assign up to 4 custom controls
to the piano roll, but you can only have two active at the same time.
-Added vibrato knobs, which can be linked to piano roll controls to enable piano roll vibrato control.
-Improved performance.
BENDY 0.91 – December 4th 2021
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-Fixed issue where CC-0 was being sent from knobs with uninitialized CC numbers, which caused
random bank changes.
-Fixed issue where changing the channel setting would cause a bank change
-Fixed issue where automating the patch selector would lag out FL with the number of messages sent
-Fixed patch selector automation not updating UI
Old Versions:
0.99:bendy_0_99.zip
0.96:bendy_0_96.zip
0.95: bendy_0_95.zip
0.92: https://1drv.ms/u/s!At9QBJ_8lobha8bixOVNRawBPXE?e=aey8gO
0.91: https://1drv.ms/u/s!At9QBJ_8lobhajoVb…, https://wonthelp.info/bendy_0_9.zip
Thank you so much for making this, this changes everything
Do you think you could possibly get this plugin integrated with the master pitch knob in FL? I use that knob all the time to quickly transpose up and down but it seems BENDY overrides it. That would be even more amazing, thank you.
Thank you!! And thanks for bringing the master pitch issue to my attention, just released version 0.92 which fixes the issue and adds some new stuff. Please let me know if you run into any more trouble.
I’ve been using your plugin a ton! Only just got around to downloading the new update and the master pitch function works great. Also the vibrato is a genius addition. Seriously, you’re making all of our dreams come true 😀
Seriously, thank you SO MUCH for this plugin. This changes literally everything. Please DEFINITELY make a post on the IL Forums for your plugin. It’ll probably get stickied. Let’s rally some support up, maybe they’ll think of including it. But even if they don’t, it’ll be well known so everyone can use it after you make a post about it. Cheers!
I was thinking that “bend granularity” might be a cool feature for this plugin
You know how older systems like SNES, Amiga, etc. lack perfectly smooth pitch bends due to the pitch granularity on those systems being larger? I think it could be interesting to have a knob that could replicate this in BENDY, so instead of sending smooth pitch bend messages, they would be segmented/quantized to a certain granularity of pitch (e.g. only every 50 cents). That might allow people to create a more authentic “retro” sound.
Also, is there any way to use BENDY to create midi files, like you can with FL’s MIDI Out? It doesn’t seem to work just by hitting export.
One last thing, I think that the vibrato feature has the same minor issue that the normal bends had. The speed/pitch depth reset to neutral at the end of notes, causing notes with long releases to stop having the vibrato as it fades out. Extending a vibrato slide note past the end of the original note doesn’t seem to work to keep the vibrato going, either.
Thanks a bunch again.
Now that I think about it, I think that effect might actually come from the speed at which the pitch can update
Good idea! As a suggestion, perhaps you can simulate FL’s smooth arpeggio when Slide is on, with pitch bend too?
hello, while trying to install the plugin I keep encountering an error reading: “The plugin BENDY couldn’t be found or opened. If it has to be unlocked, please make sure that you unlocked it correctly.” I am using the trial version of FL Studio 21. Please let me know if you have a solution; thank you!
Hey! Could you try re-downloading the current version on this page? I updated it to have a custom installer that makes sure all versions of FL are getting the right files. Just re-download, unzip and run “install_bendy.exe”. If that doesn’t work, try installing the vc_redist from this page: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170
Please let me know if either helps! If the redist helps then I probably need to include some additional DLL files with the plugin.
It worked once I installed the redist, thank you very much!
I absolutely love this plugin. The only trouble is that I can’t “bake” any of the pitch changes to the piano roll, and this doesn’t really work properly with MIDI Out plugins or the native fl plugins..
My wish has come true!! There was one more similar plugin, that extended the functions of midi-out. I wish there were more like these.
I tried but, it didn’t work, i tried with Sonata Orchestra, it didn’t work, I tried with LABS electric guitar, it didn’t work. What’s going on?
My mistake! i was doing it wrong! HOLY SHIT! i always wanted to do a 80s songs that sound like that epic guitar songs you listen on those movies like midnight run and Lethal weapon, those that sound like, twaaaaaaaaaaaaaang, wtooooong twreeeeeng, now i can thnaks to you, i’ll post a song later using this plugin! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUU! HAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
download link doesnt work for me, can u use another host like google drive or mega?
it works now, probably some weird dns issue on my end since i couldnt connect to onedrive, thank u for this awesome plugin 🙂
Cheers superjoebob, this is great work!
I’m using FL to make .mid files for Doom 2 WADs (nominally, at least – yet to actually produce something complete). This means using Fruity LSD as an effect on the mixer bus to actually hear what the end product *may* sound like.
While setting the patch/instrument while working does set the patch correctly in Fruity LSD, when I go to export the MIDI file, all BENDY instruments/channels end up as Acoustic Grand Piano, patch 1.
I’ve been working around this by Patcherizing BENDY and also connecting a MIDI Out to the FL output MIDI port, configured with the desired patch and channel. I think this works … so far 🙂
(To be honest I’ve been Patcherizing every channel anyway, because other MIDI VSTs don’t like being on the bus with LSD – who does?)
Thanks!
super thanksssss
thanks for this ‘bendy’ plugin! usefull! where’s your paypal donate ? i was gonna give u a $10! hehehe 🙂
Absolutely phenomenal plugin Joe, can’t wait to see more of this being developed.
Do you plan on releasing the source code in the future like you did with Genny if you ever feel comfortable with what you’ve made behind it? Because I’m sure something like this would be immensely useful to FL developers to work on themselves and applying this to other plugins if they can. Understandable if you don’t want to, this is just a really useful plugin that I’m sure many FL musicians would love to see more of in other projects.
Hey I noticed you’re able to send the track out to different mixer outputs by adjusting the mixer number next to the plugin, but I noticed it doesn’t actually output it to the mixer tracks and instead just behaves like the MIDI OUT plugin.
Do you plan on making that a functionality or just leaving it blank as is like MIDI OUT?
Finally someone who tries to do something about this issue. The installation doesn’t work in the newest version of FL Studio, which right now is 21.2.2. And yes, I’ve read the installation guide.
The note panning doesn’t work with 3rd party plugins 🙁
It didn’t work with the fl studio version 20.8. Pls update it
20.8?.. You mean a version of FL that was released in December 2020?.. I think you might want to update your FL instead. You won’t believe how many features you’re missing on anyway in 2024.
Hi There. I am currently having an issue with Bendy at the moment.
When attempting to open bendy, the error “There was a problem opening the plugin BENDY for an unknown reason.” is shown
Any idea why
Macos version……please……