Sound Capsule

Sound Capsule lets you save an FL Studio sound as a portable .flcapsule.wav file. Each capsule contains the selected generator channel or channels, their notes in the active pattern, their optional non-Master mixer inserts and effects, and an audio preview—ready to play in Finder, Explorer, chat apps, and ordinary audio players, then reuse in another project.

The standalone app is the main way to use Sound Capsule. The optional VST3 can also display the library inside FL Studio, but it is not required.

What you can do

• Capture one channel, a group of selected channels, or individual capsules for each selected channel.
• Build a searchable library with tags, favorites, MIDI previews, and audio playback.
• Import a capsule into the current pattern, a new pattern, or matching selected channels.
• Share playable capsules by dragging them out, exporting through a native Save dialog, or dropping shared .flcapsule.wav files into the app.

Install

Download the native installer from the latest GitHub release:

• macOS 13 or later: open the signed and notarized .pkg. The app is installed in /Applications.
• Windows 10/11 x64: open the .msi. The app is installed in Program Files, added to the Start Menu, and offers an optional desktop shortcut. The MSI is currently unsigned, so Windows may show an unknown-publisher warning.

The installers configure the FL Studio bridge automatically. The optional VST3 can be selected from the installer component list. Native releases include a self-contained helper, so end users do not need to install Python or uv. First launch also verifies the helper and FL Studio bridge, repairing setup automatically if an installer post-action was skipped.

Sound Capsule automatically follows FL Studio's User data folder, including when it has been moved from Documents. On Windows it reads Image-Line's Shared data registry value; on macOS it reads the same value from ~/Library/Preferences/Image-Line/reg.xml. It installs the MIDI bridge there and uses that folder's Browser history and Projects directory. Sound Capsule does not persist a second setting or create a guessed FL Studio data folder when registry data is missing.

For a manual installation, download and extract the macOS or Windows ZIP, then open the Sound Capsule application. Its included helper and FL Studio bridge are configured on first launch. Copy the optional VST3 bundle into the platform's VST3 directory if you also want the in-FL library browser.

First-time setup

1. Launch Sound Capsule.
2. On Windows, install loopMIDI and create or start a virtual port.
3. Open Settings, select FL Setup, and choose any listed loopMIDI port.
4. In FL Studio, add Sound Capsule as an external tool if you want it to open alongside FL. Then open Options → MIDI Settings. Under Input, enable the chosen port and select Sound Capsule (user) as its Controller type. Under Output, enable the same port.
5. Keep the standalone app open while you use the library.

See Windows MIDI setup for the full loopMIDI steps.

In Settings, Capsule save location chooses where .flcapsule.wav files are stored without moving Sound Capsule's program settings or cache. When changing locations, you can merge the current library into the new folder or leave the existing files where they are. Files with the same relative path are not overwritten and can be revealed from the result message.

Save a capsule

1. In FL Studio, select the generator channel or channels you want to save and choose the pattern to capture. You may also select Automation Clip channels in the Channel Rack; select each clip's target generator channel as well. An active Playlist time selection defines the captured phrase. Without one, Sound Capsule uses the current Pattern occurrence at—or nearest—the playhead.
2. In Sound Capsule, enter a name and optional comma-separated tags.
3. Leave Save mixer insert enabled to include each generator's non-Master mixer insert and effect chain. The choice is remembered; disable it for the earlier direct-to-Master capture behavior.
4. Enable Auto-find automation to automatically include every related Automation Clip placed inside the selected Playlist time range. This option follows Save mixer insert for automation targeting insert controls or effects. If related placed clips exist, Sound Capsule asks for an explicit range; when none match the selected range, it uses the normal playhead export.
5. Click Save capsule for one channel, Save selected for a grouped capsule, or Save individually to create one capsule per selected channel.
6. Sound Capsule saves the capsule to its library and creates an audio preview.

Use a capsule

1. Find a capsule in the library. Use search, tags, favorites, and the preview controls to choose the sound you want. MIDI previews preserve any opening rest but trim unused pattern space after the final note. Their playback indicator and click-to-seek timeline can therefore finish before the full audio waveform.

2. Click its Import button to add it to the configured destination.

3. Right-click Import, or use the three-dot menu, to choose a destination for this import:

   • Current pattern adds schemas 1–5 to the open pattern. A schema-6 Playlist phrase automatically uses a new isolated pattern so its captured repetitions cannot replay unrelated notes already in the open pattern.
   • New pattern creates a pattern for the capsule.
   • Override selection replaces matching selected channels. Saved mixer chains are restored to fresh inserts and only the overridden channels are rerouted; capsules without mixer state keep the existing destinations.

The captured phrase preserves repeated and partial current-Pattern clips, leading gaps, and offsets. Only selected Automation Clip placements intersecting that phrase are saved; boundary-crossing placements are cropped without moving their curve. On import, the whole phrase is recreated from the destination playhead and scaled for its PPQ. Mixer targets follow the newly allocated insert. Master, global, routing, send, and unrelated-insert connections are never embedded. The app asks before omitting excluded connections or a selected Automation Clip that has no placement in the phrase.

Sound Capsule creates a backup before changing a project. Undo Import is available for the recovery period configured in Settings.

Share a capsule

• Drag a library row from its name/details area to Finder, Explorer, another folder, or an app such as Discord. The same file can play as WAV audio and still imports with its MIDI and channel information intact.
• Open a row's three-dot menu and choose Export... to copy it with the native Save dialog.
• Drop one or more .flcapsule.wav files anywhere on the Sound Capsule window to validate and add them. Valid files in a mixed batch are added while corrupt, unsupported, or duplicate capsules are reported and skipped.

Older ZIP-based .flcapsule files remain supported. The app upgrades verified legacy files in the library to playable .flcapsule.wav files without changing their IDs or musical contents; a legacy source is removed only after its replacement verifies successfully.

The capsule data lives in a private SCAP chunk after the WAV audio. Copying or downloading the original file preserves it, but trimming or re-exporting the file through an audio editor may remove the capsule data and leave ordinary audio. The file is intentionally not a generic ZIP archive; use Sound Capsule to inspect or import its embedded contents.

What’s included

Sound Capsule captures generator channels, their active-pattern notes and selection-aware Playlist phrase, explicitly selected Automation Clips—and, optionally, all related Automation Clips in the selected range—and each enabled non-Master mixer insert shared by the selected generators. Insert identity and controls, EQ, effect-slot order and state, slot enable states, and mix levels are restored to pristine inserts in the destination project. Master state, external I/O, sends and routing graphs, solo/lock/layout state, and audio-track links are not embedded. Third-party plug-ins, sample libraries, and other dependencies must be installed on the computer where you import the capsule.

Contributing

Building from source requires CMake 3.22+, Git, a C++20 compiler, and uv.

cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
  -DSOUNDCAPSULE_BUILD_PLUGIN=ON
cmake --build build --config Release -j 4

Run the helper test suite with:

uv run --python 3.12 --project helper python -m unittest discover -s helper/tests -v

Releases

The manual GitHub workflow builds ZIP downloads, a Windows x64 MSI, and a universal macOS PKG. It signs and notarizes the macOS app, VST3, and installer before creating a draft release. Maintainer setup and the required encrypted Apple secrets are documented in docs/RELEASING.md.

License

Sound Capsule is licensed under AGPL-3.0-only. See THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md for bundled dependency notices.