.FLP File Format

Introduction

These are the projects saved by FL Studio 20. Its main change to the file is arrangements: a project can hold several playlists, each a separate arrangement of the same patterns and clips, with more tracks than before. Most of the open-source tools were built and tested on files from this version, so it is the best understood, and the event reference for it is the most complete.

Structure

The file is a 14-byte header chunk and a data chunk holding one long stream of events. Text is UTF-16LE, except the version string. What sets these files apart:

• Arrangements. A new-arrangement event starts each arrangement, and its playlist items and track settings follow. PyFLP marks multiple arrangements as new in version 12.9.1, and uses that version to decide how to read the playlist.
• Playlist tracks. Each arrangement has 500 tracks instead of 199. Playlist items are 32-byte records, and the track number is stored as 499 minus the track. One other reader, FLParser, uses 501 minus the track for version 20, so this detail is not settled; see playlist items.
• Mixer. PyFLP counts 127 insert slots from version 12.9: 125 inserts, the master and a “current” slot.
• Time markers. According to a comment in PyFLP, early versions of FL Studio 20 wrote time markers before the new-arrangement event rather than after it, so a reader should accept both orders.
• Growing records. Some fixed-size records keep growing within the version. PyFLP notes that the channel parameters record is 168 bytes as of 20.9.1, and the pattern events gain two new IDs from 20.1.

Telling it apart

The FL Studio version text event (199) is 12.9.1 or later, with a major number of 20 or below, for example 20.8.4.2576. Text other than the version is UTF-16LE, and playlist item records are 32 bytes long.

Variants

• FruityLoops 1 to FL Studio 5 – early projects: single-byte text, old tempo events and the 1999 layout
• FL Studio 6 to 11.4 – single-byte text, with volume and pan on a newer scale
• FL Studio 11.5 to 12 – every string but the version switches to UTF-16LE
• FL Studio 20 – multiple arrangements, 500 playlist tracks and 125 mixer inserts
• FL Studio 21 and later – 60-byte and longer playlist records, and an event that breaks the size rule

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