FL Studio Basics
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Making Music - FL Studio Workflow
This section covers the FL Studio desktop and basic workflow. In short, FL Studio allows you to load instruments and samples, play these live or manually enter the note data, record external sounds (from a microphone for example) and play the while mix back through the 64 channel mixer (adding effects). The final result is saved to a wave, MP3 or MIDI file.
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Main Screen
The FL Studio desktop is based on a number of windows, most of these are movable (with overlap), resizable, zoomable and switchable so if a window isn't visible retrieve it using the Shortcut toolbar (or the function keys as noted in brackets below). The three main windows involved in FL Studio music creation are - Channels ( 
F6), Mixer ( F9) and Play List ( F5).
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Workflow
After you master the FL Studio interface, the next step is to understand the sequence of activities required to create music (the FL Studio 'workflow'). There are five main steps, outlined below:
- Sounds/Instruments – Instruments/generators make the sounds used in the song and are held in the Channel window. In the example above, the instrument interfaces are 'collapsed' into buttons down the left side of the window. To open an instrument left-click on the Channel button. Instruments can be native FL plugins, samples or 3rd party virtual synthesizers (VSTi, DXi etc). Think of the Channel window as a rack of synthesizer/sampler modules that can be routed to any one of the 64 Mixer Tracks.
- Composing/Sequencing – The musical elements can be played live via MIDI keyboard or entered manually in the Piano Roll (not shown) or the Step Sequencer. When programming patters, make sure you are in Pattern Mode so that the pattern that is selected is played. To the right of each instrument button in the Channel window is either a step-sequencer display (the rows of squares) or a mini-preview of a Piano Roll (green lines). Step Sequencers and Piano Rolls are interchangeable for each Channel, starting as Step Sequencers by default. Step Sequencers and Piano Rolls hold the note data for the instrument they are associated with. Step-sequencer 'steps' are accessed by left-clicking the squares to turn them on or right-clicking to turn them off (great for percussion programming). To open an existing Piano Roll Left-click directly on the mini-preview window. To create a new Piano roll Right-click on the Channel button and select 'Piano roll' from the pop-up menu. The notes from either of these sequencer types drive each instrument with up to 999 unique sequence ‘stacks’, known as ‘patterns’. In the example above, Pattern '1' (the entire Channel window data) consists of two Piano rolls and one Step Sequencer pattern. As you step through the patterns (using the Pattern Selector) the appearance of the channel window will change to reflect the note data associated with each pattern. The length of each pattern is determined by the number of bars covered by the longest note sequence or automation data.
- Arranging - Left-click to place and arrange Patterns in the Playlist window (see above) along with any controller data and audio clips, such as track length vocals (lower Playlist window). Make sure you are in Song Mode so that the patterns are played from the Playlist. The Playlist allows you to re-use patterbs throughout the song without the need to enter the basic note data into the sequencer over and over. However, FL Studio is not limited to pattern based sequencing, there is nothing to stop you entering an unused pattern block into the Playlist and then playing in song-length data (patterns). This flexibility makes FL Studio a 'track based' sequencer, a pattern based sequencer or a combination of the two.
- Mixing - The sound from the Channel instruments is routed through the Mixer where levels are set and Effects (FX) are added, such as reverberation (reverb), chorus and delays. Almost all aspects of the mix are automatable so fader movements and knob changes can become part of the overall performance. The Mixer is also the place where external audio from a microphone, guitar or synthesizer can be recorded along with the internal instruments. The recorded sound is displayed in the lower part of the Playlist as an Audio Clip
- Exporting/Rendering - The final mix is exported from FL Studio to .WAV or MP3 file format by selecting the export option from the file menu in a non-real time process called rendering. Please note that if you want to make an Audio CD you need to render 44.1 kHz WAV files. FL Studio does not burn Audio CD's, you will need to use a 3rd party application for that.
That's it, go make some organized noise! :)
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More Basic FL Stuff
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Useful Links
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Image-Line Web Site
- FL website - The FL Studio Home Page.
- Shop - Buy FL Studio and other plugins.
- Magazine Reviews - Read magazine articles relating to FL Studio.
- Loop Talk1 - Forum for user open discussion on all things relating to FL Studio.
- Tech Support1 - Forum where you can leave a technical question to be answered by FL Staff. This is not available to Demo users as tens of thousands of people download the demo each month.
- Song Exchange1 - Share FL Studio projects/songs with other users.
- Introductory Video Tutorials1 - Introductory tutorials (Interface, Stepsequencer, Play list, Piano roll, Effects, Mixer, Midi controllers, FPC & MPD16, Recording audio etc).
- Advanced Video Tutorials1 - Advanced tutorials (Loop recording, Automation clips, Layers, Advanced Piano roll, Sytrus, Time stretching, Vocoding, Rewire, FL as plugin, Wave editor etc).
- Sample Fusion1 - Download a huge library of free samples, FPC kits (Misc downloads) and FL Keys libraries. Since FL Studio is mainly sold via download we can't include all the samples we would like, so get them here. FPC and Direct Wave can access Sample Fusion directly from the Download Manager
- Sytrus Presets1 - Forum dedicated to sharing Sytrus patches and patch creation.
- Sytrus Website - Explore Sytrus, Image-Lines most advanced synthesizer.
1Site is open to registered users only.
