Short Version
Open LFOTool and click the gear icon top left next to the name. Just below, click ‘VST wrapper settings’, and navigate to Troubleshooting. In the menu, uncheck the ‘Use time offset’ option. This will fix LFOTool’s sync in FL Studio.
LFOTool
LFOTool by Xfer Records is a handy plugin, especially for quickly creating a sidechain effect. This is where the audio ducks to the kick to create a signature pumping effect heard in countless dance records. However, a strange issue persists with this tool in FL Studio, and it’s one that took me a while to solve.
Every now and then, LFOTool will fall out of sync with the track, and the sidechain falls apart. It can range from subtle timing issues to downright mayhem, especially with more than one going wild. Pausing and restarting playback sometimes helped, and sometimes didn’t. As I wrap up many older projects, this issue has persisted across most of them. This gave a clue as to how it could be solved. In short, older projects made prior to FL Studio 20.7 can cause this problem, and it relates to a single option in the wrapper settings.
The Fix
The setting is called ‘Use time offset’, and it’s found by clicking the gear icon in the top left of LFOTool’s wrapper, opening ‘VST wrapper settings’ and navigating to the Troubleshooting tab shown. If active, click to disable this option, and the timing issue should be resolved. The setting is mentioned in the always helpful FL Studio Online Manual, and states to “turn this off for any plugin that is unexpectedly out of sync” for projects prior to FL Studio 20.7. The ‘Use fixed size buffers’ can also reportedly assist in re-syncing problematic plugins. This would also be the fix for any other VST or VSTi having syncing issues in older projects. Z3TA+ 2 showed the same issue, and this fixed its syncing problem as well.
I hope this finds anyone having the same issue. You can read more about it in the manual here. Happy producing!
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