6. Read this Guide. As soon as you start FL Studio, you'll be confronted with strange dialog boxes and messages. Proceed to the next section of this guide to find out what to do next. Also check the extensive on-line help that comes with FL Studio. In case of problems, please check our searchable Knowledge Base (http://support.flstudio.com/knowledgebase/base.php) and our support forums (http://forum.image-line.com/index.php). In case of order or registration related support, please create a support ticket at our website http://support.flstudio.com.

FIRST RUN

OK, so you just finished the installation and started FL Studio. This section explains what you will see. 1. The System Settings Screen. When you first run FL Studio, you may be faced with a dialog box like the one below (if not, press F10 to access it). Use the select boxes to choose your sound card and hardware controllers. At first, you may be looking at the MIDI screen, but for now the most important one is the Audio screen, accessed as shown below.

1. Click Here

2. Then Here
2. Select a Soundcard Driver from the list in the pull-down menu. Select an ASIO driver if possible (identified by the word 'ASIO' in the name), as they allow lower latencies with less CPU load compared to DirectSound drivers. If your soundcard does not 'natively' support ASIO, the ASIO4ALL generic ASIO driver http://asio4all.com may work for you. If you don't know which one to pick, just leave it as it is. If you experience sound problems later on, you can come back to this screen (by pressing F10) and experiment with other options.
The term 'Soundcard' is used very loosely, you may have a separate soundcard in your PC, a chip on your motherboard or it may be an external device connected by USB/FireWire etc. The soundcard is any device that makes the sound you hear from your PC speakers. The Soundcard Driver is the software interface between the Windows operating system and the soundcard. The driver tells FL Studio what inputs/outputs the soundcard has and what sample-rates it can support.

3. Buffer Length. You dont need to worry about most of the settings here yet but you definitely should know what the Buffer Length does. The Audio Buffer is a temporary store of audio data waiting to be sent to the soundcard. This allows FL Studio to even out momentary spikes in CPU load. If the Audio Buffer runs dry, because your CPU can't keep up, then your soundcard will make rude pop, click or glitch noises (a buffer underrun). Its worth noting that underruns can ONLY occur in real-time playback, they will not happen in exported audio files. Making the buffer longer will reduce underruns but FL Studio may feel sluggish when working live. Use trial-and-error to find a buffer length that is short enough so FL Studio feels responsive but not so short that causes underruns. 10 ms (440 samples) is the point of diminishing returns for responsiveness and CPU load starts to ramp up steeply. For a standard DirectSound driver, the Use Polling and Use hardware buffer options may improve latencies for some operating systems (2 switches x 2 states = 4 combinations, try them all), expect buffer settings of 20-40 ms. 4. The Main Screen. After youve closed the System Settings window, you'll be looking at a screen similar to the one below. 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), the Mixer (F9) and the Playlist (F5).
Video Tutorials! A picture is worth 1000 words, so a video must be worth, like, BILLIONSonce you are registered pop over to the FL website and watch hours of cool video tutorials, this is really useful so Ill SHOUT
http://tutorials.flstudio.com

MAKE SOME NOISE

Press the Play Button (also note the button to the left is in SONG mode). You'll hear the demo song. If this is not the first time you've run FL Studio, you'll have to reload this demo. Open the browser (F8) left-click on the Projects folder and right-click on the NewStuff.flp, then select Open from the menu. You can also drag the FLP file onto the desktop to open it. FLP files are FL Studio Project files and save entire songs.

A Channel Channel Name on button Steps
2. What Steps are For? Clicking on a step lights it up and tells FL Studio to trigger the instrument loaded into that channel at that point in the bar/loop. For instance, the 1st, 5th, 9th, and 13th steps in the DNC_Kick channel are lit up, telling FL Studio to play the kick drum sound four times during the loop (if you are thinking of groups of four steps as a single beat, FL Studio will play the sound at the start of each beat.) Try changing the pattern of steps in the DNC_Kick channel. (If you need to turn a step off, right-click it.) Once you've got the steps to light up like the picture below, press the play switch to hear what you've created. Suggested Pattern Channel Mute, Pan & Vol Controls
3. What are Patterns for? All the note data contained in the stack of instrument channels in the Channel Window is known as a 'pattern'. You can switch to a new pattern with the Transport Panel 'PAT' selector. When you do this, the note data visible in the current Pattern will change to reflect the selected pattern. To hear only that pattern (rather than the whole Playlist) make sure the button at the front of the Transport Panel is in PAT mode. Patterns are used in the Playlist as either pattern blocks or pattern clips. 4. Play with the Channel Controls. After you've set up the pattern, try playing with the Channel Controls on the left. The two round knobs (wheels) control the volume and pan of a single channel, and the green light switches the channel on and off. Panning is like the balance control on your stereo; turning this knob moves the sound from left to right in the stereo field. To reset a wheel to its default position, right-click on it and select reset. 5. Make Your Own Beat. Don't like the beat above? Good, then its time to make your own beat! In the next sections, we'll teach you how to load in new samples, set up melodies, and change the sound of each channel (and even each step) using Plugin Effects.

TWEAKING THE CHANNELS

In this section, we'll show you how to modify the sound of the samples in each sampler channel. FL Studio supports so much of this kind of tweaking that it's possible for two people to create loops that sound totally different using exactly the same samples (technically, each channel contains a Instrument, which could be sample-based or could be a synthesizer plugin). While there are dedicated samplers like FPC (percussion) & DirectWave (instruments), the single channel sampler is a versatile and useful tool.
Wait! What's a "sample"? A sample is a recorded sound stored in a file. Each channel in FL Studio, by default, uses a single sample, usually containing a single note (like a snare drum hit or a single bass note), but they can also contain entire beats or tunes. Samples are usually ".wav" file types, but FL Studio supports ".mp3" and.ogg sound files too.

Feed: Echo volume (sets how quickly the echo dies out). Ping Pong: Makes the echo flip back and forth from left to right (sounds cool on headphones). Arpeggiator: This gets explained in the Generators section of this guide.
Pan, Cut, and Res do the same job as on the sample panel, but the effects build up as the echo dies out. Pitch controls the pitch of the echo. If you turn this wheel right, the echo will get higher as it dies out. Ech: Number of times the instrument will echo before it stops. Time: Controls the amount of time (in dots) between each echo. Maximum delay time is 16 dots.
Getting Echo Time Just Right: The "Time" control is fine-grained to get you just the exact echo you want. But if you want to echo on the beat, you will have to look at the Hint Bar while you turn the dial. If you want the echo every three dots, just turn the dial until the hint bar shows "3:00".
5. Play With the Instrument Settings. Let's take a quick look at the INS panel before we move on (There's also stuff you should read about in the MISC, check the FL Help). Click on the INS tab and you'll get to the Instrument Settings. Here you can add Envelopes and LFO to your sample for the Volume, Pan, Cutoff, Resonance, and Pitch settings.
Indicator Light Effect Selector Envelope

Set Natural (root) Note

6. What's an Envelope? An envelope causes a parameter to vary over the life of the sound. The most common application is a Volume Envelope, that makes the sound rise then fall in volume. You can also put an envelope on Pitch, Cutoff, and Resonance. In terms of a volume envelope (VOL), The Delay (DEL) sets how much time passes before the envelope starts, Attack (ATT) is the fade-in speed, Hold (HOLD) sets how long the sound holds at full volume, and Decay (DEC), Sustain (SUS), and Release (REL) control how the sound fades away. Play with the knobs and watch the graph change below them. 7. What's LFO? LFO stands for Low Frequency Oscillation. Its like an Envelope but repeats over and over while a note is playing. Most commonly they are used to makes a particular effect oscillate up and down over the duration of the sound. The Amount (AMT) sets how much the effect oscillates, Speed (SPD) sets how quickly it oscillates, Delay (DEL) sets how much time passes before the oscillation starts, and Attack (ATT) sets how quickly the oscillation ramps up to it's full amount. Play with the knobs and watch the graph change.
8. How do I Use Them? Use the Effect Selector (see diagram above) to choose the effect, and then turn the knobs on either the Envelope or the LFO. To turn the Envelope on and off for each effect, click on the Indicator Light. To turn off the LFO, reset the Amount (AMT) to the middle (knob pointing straight up.) 9. Why Can't I Hear the Effect? If you're still on the Kick Drum it will be hard to hear any LFO effect, although the Envelope might make a difference. These effects are more audible on longer samples.

5. Play with the Other Effects. Try to get a feel for the other effects on the graph editor. Filter Cut and Filter Res can be used to add or subtract values to the main cutoff and resonance wheels in the INS panel of the channel settings dialog box. (See the "Tweaking the Channels" section.) Pitch makes the sample higher or lower, like the pitch wheel in the channel settings dialog box. Shift can be used to push a step closer to the step beside it (you more musical types can use this to groove a beat). 6. Make melodies. Generally the Piano Roll is the best place for composing melodies (rightclick on a channel button), however if you have a melodic instrument loaded (such as the 3OSC instrument) the Keyboard Editor can also be used. To load 3OSC, right-click on an instrument button and use the replace command from the popup menu. To edit notes in the melody, click the Keyboard Editor button with the 3OSC channel selected as shown below. What you see now is a vertical piano keyboard for each step on the screen. Hopefully, you have some keyboard skills. (If not, it's time for some lessons!) You can change each note by left-clicking one of the buttons on the keyboard. Right-click turns the note off. When the loop is not playing, clicking a note will also play that note. But again, the Piano-roll is better for serious melodic work. Keyboard Editor Button Channel Selector Keyboard Editor
7. Super Important Tip. When you want to make a melody from longer samples, you often need to set it up so that each note cuts off the previous one. This easiest way to do this is by right-clicking the Channel Name in the Step Sequencer and selecting Cut Itself from the popup menu. Notice that the Ins_Round channel has this option selected. Try deselecting it, but be warned - the results can be nasty!
Big News! You can undo the last tweak from the Edit Menu or with CTRL Z.
THE PLAYLIST (from Patterns to Songs)
Now you've seen the basics of what can be done with sampled sounds in a single pattern. In this section we'll show you how to program more than one pattern and link them together into a longer loop. 1. The Pattern Selector. FL Studio lets you create 999 different patterns. In the previous sections, we've just been working with pattern 1, but we can access the other patterns by changing the number in the Pattern Number box. Use your mouse to drag in the Pattern Selector or use numeric 1 till 9 or + and -). Youll find these controls somewhere on the tool bar at the top of the main FL Studio window. Right-click the pattern selector to show all patterns with data in them. Pattern/Song mode selector Pattern number box
Play position indicator 2. Check out the Playlist. This screen can be opened either using the button under the hint bar, by hitting F5, or by right-clicking the song/pat button on the main screen (see above). Try it, and you should get a new window that looks something like the one shown below. This window is similar to the pattern view, except that the steps operate on whole patterns rather than single channels, and the bar lengths here vary to reflect the pattern length. Make sure Song is selected and press Play. You should see the Play Indicator on the Playlist start to move, and hear the patterns it is playing (use the NewStuff.flp). When the indicator reaches the end of the steps, it will jump back to the Song loop point and continue playing. Try moving the loop point (right-click where you want it to go) and see what happens. (If you press the Pat button, FL Studio will just repeatedly play the current pattern in the Step Sequencer.)

What are the Send Tracks For? Economy! There are 4 special Send Tracks that take their input from other Mixer tracks, rather than from Instrument Channels. Suppose you want to put the same Fruity Reverb on Guitar and Drums, but you want to add Fruity Delay to the guitar and EQ to the drums. Easy. Send the drums to Regular Mixer track 2 where you put the EQ. Send the guitar to Regular Mixer track 3 where you put the Fruity Delay. Then put the Reverb in Send Track 1 and turn the Send 1 knob on Mixer tracks 2 and 3 to send the output of these tracks to Send Track 1. Now you have the same reverb applied to both guitar and drums, but you only had to use a single reverb plugin. The send knobs are placed beneath the track receiving the input not the track sending. An orange down-arrow shows the source track.
This source track is sending audio to 2 other tracks.

Dedicated Send tracks.

These two tracks receive input, note the knob positions that show the input signal volume, click on the up-arrow to make send knobs appear/disappear. Changing Plugin Order. The order in which you add effects plugins decided in what order the FX are applied to the signal. Think of it this way the signal enters the top of the FX stack and leaves the bottom. So Delay above a reverb would mean the delay sits in a wash of reverb. Reverb above delay means the reverb tail is chopped up and delayed. To make it easier to experiment with effects order, FL Studio has a simple function to move an effect up or down in the effects chain. A quick way is to place your mouse cursor over the FX slot and scroll your mouse wheel. No wheel? Click the FX menu and press u or d on your keyboard to move the selected FX. Place your mouse over the FX name and scroll the wheel OR Left-click and press u or d
What do the Plugins Do? As mentioned, you can get on-line help for all of the FL Studio Plugins, but here's a quick rundown on what they all do -
Buzz Effect Adapter. Lets you load in any Buzz Machine effect. FL Studio comes with a few installed already, but you can get more at http://www.BuzzMachines.com. Edison. A fully integrated audio editing and recording tool. Edison loads into an effect slot (in any mixer track) and will then record or play audio from that position (see page 067 for more info). EQUO. Is a bank of 8 Graphic Equalizers with between-bank morphing, particularly suited to automation. Fruity 7 Band EQ. Equalizes your sound (just like on your Dad's stereo at home.) Fruity Balance. Lets you change the pan and volume while live recording. Fruity Bass Boost. Boost that bass for a super-phat sound. Fruity Big Clock. Pops up a huge timer to tell you how long the songs been playing. Fruity Blood Overdrive. Use this to distort channels. Fruity Center. Use for real time DC offset removal. Fruity Chorus. Adds a smooth chorus effect. Fruity Compressor. Use this to flatten out the dynamics of the sound. Apparently, Fatboy Slim uses massive compression to get his drums to sound the way they do Fruity dB Meter. Pops up a big levels meter. Fruity Delay. Use for a true echo (not just repeated samples like the channel echo). Fruity Delay 2. The next generation Fruity Delay. Adds panning and other effects. Fruity Delay Bank. Consists of a bank of 8 identical banks, each is able to be feed to the next bank in the chain in order to create complex delay and filtering effects. Fruity Fast LP. Use for low pass filtering that's CPU friendly (cutoff and resonance). Fruity Fast Dist. A great little distortion effect that uses almost no CPU. Fruity Filter. More cutoff and resonance filtering thats not so CPU friendly.

Fruity Flanger. If you have to ask, you haven't heard it yet. Real popular among guitar players, this LFO-type effect can add a cool feel to any song. Fruity Flangus. A very useful effect, which allows you to enrich the stereo panorama of your instruments, add high quality chorus and simulate unison synthesis. Fruity Formula Controller. This is a fancy internal controller that you can link to other wheels and sliders inside FL Studio. Wait until the Live Recording section for more info. Fruity Free Filter. Yet another filter - a classical 12db instead of a state variable filter like the Fruity Filter (whatever the hell that means.) Fruity HTML Notebook. Add some notes to your loop in html format, or add your own web page! Fruity Love Philter. The most powerful filter plugin in FL Studio. Consists of 8 identical filter units, each able to be feed to the next one in the chain. Creates complex delay, gating and filtering effects. Fruity LSD. Enables FL Studio to access the DirectMusic Software Synthesizer bundled with DirectX 8. Note that you must have DirectX 8.0 or later installed on your machine. The LSD acts like an external MIDI device, which can be controlled from a MIDI Out Generator Channel (see section on Instruments above). Fruity Limiter. Single band Maximizer, Compressor & Limiter. Maximus Multiband Maximizer. 3 band compressor limiter. Powerful maximization (DEMO only). Fruity Multiband Compressor. A 3-band stereo compressor using ButterWorth IIR or LinearPhase FIR filters to separate the incoming signal into three bands for processing. Limiter functionality is also included. Fruity Mute 2. Use this to mute (silence) channels while live recording. Fruity Notebook. Keep your song notes here! This is the plugin used in the Tutorial Loops that came with your package. Fruity PanOMatic. Useful for panning the sound back and forth smoothly.
Fruity Parametric EQ. A parametric equalizer built for FL Studio. Regular equalizers only let you set the levels for preset frequency bands, but with a parametric equalizer you choose the frequency bands to equalize. Fruity Parametric EQ 2. An advanced 7-band parametric equalizer plugin with spectral analysis. The frequency and width of each band is adjustable, along with the band type. Useful for when you need precise control over EQ. Fruity Peak Controller. This is another internal controller. More on controllers in the Live Recording section below. Fruity Phase Inverter. Use to reverse the stereo phase (left and right). Fruity Phaser. Like the Flanger, but even cooler. Fruity Reeverb. Use for a much nicer reverb than you can get on the Channel Settings dialog. Fruity Reverb 2. New and improved Reverb plugin with higher quality sound and more controls than the original reverb. Fruity Scratcher. Load up a sample and scratch the hell out of it. This plugin is actually more like a instrument, since it produces sound on its own rather than modifying a channel. Fruity Send. Place this plugin between two other plugins to split the signal and send it to one of the four Send FX channels. Fruity Soft Clipper. This is a CPU friendly soft limiter filter. It allows you to avoid clipping and distortion by applying soft compression to the input signal. Fruity Spectroman. Pops up a spectrum analyzer so you can view the spectral distribution of the sounds in your track. Fruity Squeeze. Is a bit reducing, distortion and filtering plugin. Fruity Squeeze will add a gritty tonal character to input sounds and is particularly effective when applied to drum loops. Fruity Stereo Enhancer. Adds some really nice stereo separation and other effects. Fruity Vocoder. An advanced vocoder with a wide range of adjustable parameters and zero

The Edison Blur Tool works in a similar way to the Convolution Reverb, by multiplying an impulse sound (in this case, noise), against the waveform. The impulse function is crossmultiplied with the source in a moving average, to smear or 'blur' the sound. The multiplier function is determined by a user-selectable envelope. To preserve more of the original qualities of the sound, use narrower shaped envelopes.
The Equalize Tool boosts or cuts frequencies according to a user defined EQ envelope. The example below shows the effect of the selected EQ curve on a white noise sample. Frequency is displayed on the horizontal axis, time on the vertical axis (sample start is at the top, sample end is at the bottom) while intensity/saturation of color represents frequency amplitude. To open the tool you can either left-click on the EQ Tool button or use the Tools > Spectral > EQ option. , press Ctrl+E inside Edison,
The Time Stretch / Pitch Shift tool allows you to alter the duration, pitch and formant of a sample independently. Edison and, more generally the Sampler Channels & Slicer tool, use the lastique Pro, zplane algorithms to deliver advanced time stretching / pitch shifting that meets the standards of professional production and broadcast applications. To open the tool you can either left-click on the Time Tool button , press Alt+T inside Edison, or use the Tools > Time > Time stretch / Pitch shift option. To open the paste-stretch
dialog press Ctrl+Alt+V or use the Tools > Edit > Paste stretch option. The paste-stretch dialog is available only after a sample selection cut or copy operation. The Edison Loop Tuner allows you to remove clicks, pops or beating sounds from a loop. The Loop Tuner is not an automatic loop finding tool, it is intended for smoothing loops that have already been selected. Be aware that to accommodate the loop smoothing process, some settings will move the loop-start point automatically. To preserve your loop-start point, set the Crossfade and Snap settings to minimum.
Beat slicing. Edison has a range of beat slicing and drum stretch tools (Tools > Time > Drum(loop) stretch) that will allow you to create your own sliced beats.

SHARING YOUR WORK

So now youre done with your song you probably want to bring it out of FL Studio so you can put it on a CD, post it on the Internet, or edit it in another program. The Export function exists for this purpose. Here's how to use it. 1. Export to Wav, Ogg or MP3. This option is available from the Main File menu. Whether you choose Wav, Ogg or MP3, you will be asked to specify the name of the file and then the dialog below will appear. There's a lot to choose from here, and we dont have space to go into detail. If you want an explanation of every button, go to the on-line help F1, it's all there.
Dude! That looks complicated
2. Should I Use Wav, Ogg or Mp3? Wav is a raw sound file format. Huge files, excellent sound quality (expect to use about 10 MB per minute depending on Bit Depth). 44.1 kHz, 16 bit Wav files are for burning onto CD. MP3/Ogg are compressed formats with smaller files, but sound quality may be compromised (expect to use about 1 MB per minute

depending on Bit Rate). If you want to share files on the Internet, MP3/Ogg are good. 3. Should I Use "Background Rendering?" Rendering can take a long time and hogs the CPU, especially if you choose the high-quality options (as shown) in the Quality section of the window above. But if you click on Background Rendering, FL Studio will minimize and continue to render unobtrusively in the background. It takes longerbut the internet has plenty to see while you wait. 4. Exporting to a Zipped Loop Package. This feature is useful if you want to transmit your FL Studio files over the web. It takes your FL Studio file, plus all the samples used in that files, and puts them into one zip file. 5. Project Bones and Project Data Files. These options let you save a lot of the information about your track. The Project Bones option saves a file with all your presets, automation information, and so on to be loaded later. Project Data Files saves all the samples and other raw data you used to a single location on your hard drive. 6. Where Can I Put My Songs? There are a number of places on the web where artists can place their music in MP3 format for free. http://www.mp3.com is probably the best-known site, but it's easy for an amateur looper to get buried there in all the high-profile commercial stuff. http://sectionz.com is an option if you are more interested in feedback from other musicians who use FL Studio. The site is a musical community with people like you reviewing every song that is placed on the site. It's a great way to get feedback. If you don't like either of these options, you can always create your own site using one of the many free hosting services out there. Good luck! 7. Collab? When you register your box version at our website http://www.flstudio.com (or when you ordered your version from our FL Studio website), youll get a personal unique username & password to access the user restricted areas on our site. But it will also allow you to use our online COLLAB (stands for collaboration) utility. This program allows you to chat with other FL Studio users, collaborate with them and share your songs online on our Collab Internet servers.
If you want to share your work to the big public, consider setting up your own website! Try EZGenerator Web Site Builder (read easy generator), the tool we use to setup and maintain our own websites This is another piece of high quality software developed by Image Line Software! Free Trial version at: http://www.ezgenerator.com

EXTERNAL CONTROLLERS

Did you know that you already have at least two external controllers attached to your PC? One is your typing-keyboard and the other is your mouse. Obviously these dont make sounds, but send control signals to your PC so you can type and move your mouse. Similarly, external USB/MIDI controllers are just devices to send control signals to your PC, however in this case they are designed to play like a piano keyboard, move like a mixer desk, turntable deck or any other piece of hardware that is used to make/mix music. With a controller attached you can move the knobs and switches in FL Studio, or play a plugin instrument like a synthesizer. The only catch is that as the controller isnt hard-wired to particular functions, you have to tell FL Studio ahead of time what you want each knob on the controller to do (this is just the same as assigning your typing-keyboard control-keys in a game for example, a minor inconvenience for the luxury of changing both cutoff and resonance at the same time!) Each knob on the controller can be linked to a different wheel or slider on FL Studio. If you have a controller, this section will tell you how to make it work with FL Studio. If you don't have one, get one, if you arent sure where to start consider a small 2 octave MIDI keyboard with some knobs, you wont regret it! First we'll introduce a few of the more popular controllers, and then we'll tell you how to set them up. 1. A Few Examples of Controllers. Oxygen 8 This is a nice example of a combined musical keyboard and knob controller. It provides 2 octaves of notes, 8 assignable knobs that can be linked to knobs and sliders in FL, has transport controls to start/stop FL Studio and is connected to your PC over USB. Easy!

I think I need some Oxygen!!!
Evolution U-Control. Alternatively the U-Control has only knobs and sliders. 24 knobs and 9 sliders makes for a lot of control. Again this is connected to your PC by USB. Too easy!
Other Controllers. - If you are serious then the sky is the limit, the Keystation Pro-88 has more control action than you are ever likely to need. Similarly if you already have other MIDI hardware, like the AKAI MPC (shown below) then that can be used to control FL Studio too (the MPC is the perfect match for our FPC plugin!)
Whoa! Talk about bringing a gun to a knife fight! Are you sure this thing cant make any sounds of its own?
Legendary AKAI MPC + FPC = Bliss
2. Setting Up Your Controller. a. Connect your controller to your PC (USB or MIDI). MIDI connectors are an older format and a bit more complex than USB so we will spend some time on them - Look on the back of your computer. If you see two or three round, 5-pin connectors labeled "MIDI", then you're in business. If not, look for a 15-pin trapezoidal joystick port. If you have the round connectors, you need a cable to go from "MIDI Out" on your controller to "MIDI In" on your computer. If you only have a game controller connection, you'll need a special cable that has two round MIDI plugs at one end and a trapezoidal plug at the other. Both these types of cables should be available at any music store specializing in keyboards and synthesizers (but if you ask for them in a computer store, you may just get blank looks.) b. Turn on the Controller and Start Up FL Studio. Press F10 to open the system settings. Then if you have an Oxygen 8 or U-Control just select Generic Controller in the controller type. Try turning the knobs on your controller. If everything is ok, you should see a little red "Midi" light flash beside the Hint Bar of FL Studio every time you turn a knob. If that works, great! You can skip steps c to e. If not, read on my friend. 1. Click here
2. Then here & Select generic.

3. Then here 4. And here

The Little Red? Light

c. Check the Options menu to see if there is a check mark beside Enable MIDI Remote Control. If not, click on it and see if you get the light now. If not, read on.
Customer: Yo, check it out. I need a keyboard controller for FL Studio. Computer Store Guy: QWERTY or DVORAK?

hERETIC

d. Set Your MIDI Input Device. If the light is still not coming on when you turn knobs on your controller, go into MIDI Settings (from the Options menu or by hitting F10). Check out the Remote Control Input box. If you see the word "none" there, then you've got to select an input. Typically, you will be presented with a number of choices, and you'll just have to try them all to figure out which one is right.

Are you ready to rock?

e. Troubleshooting Checklist. If the red light is still not coming on when you turn the knobs on your controller, here's a list of things you should check. * Did you select the correct controller type in step b? * Did you enable "Enable MIDI Remote Control" in step c? * Did you select the correct MIDI input in step d? * Is your USB controller detected OR are your MIDI In and Out cables reversed? * Did you plug the controller into a power outlet? The fun part - Linking a knob to Your Controller: a. Right-click on the Control You Want to Link to the hardware controller. In this case, we're trying the main volume control on a sampler Channel. Now right-click on the knob and select Link to controller, to pop up the Remote controlling settings window.
b. Turn a Knob on Your Controller. You should see the Remote controlling settings window disappear and the Channel Volume knob should now move in response to your hardware knob movements. You're in business! c. Set the Buffer Length as Low as You Can. Earlier, we explained the buffer length slider (get to it by hitting F10 and clicking the Audio tab). This slider determines the delay time between you turning a knob and the sound of FL Studio changing. So you want to set it low. But if you set it too low, the sound will become choppy. So try to find a happy medium. If you can't get it low enough to do what you want, then I guess you
need a faster computer. Sorry, dude. 3. Which Controls Can I Link? Pretty much all of them, actually. For reference, though, it's the same set of controls that can be changed in Live Recording. Again, if you want to know whether a control can be linked externally and live recorded, mouse over it and look for the two red steps in the Hint Bar. 4. What About Internal Controllers? Finally, we can tell you about the Internal Controller Plugins listed in the Effects section (the Formula Controller, Peak Controller, and X-Y Controller). These are plugins with controllers, which can set other controls. Did you follow that? Lets take the Fruity X-Y Controller as an example. Open the plugins window (F9) and put a Fruity X-Y Controller on the master Mixer track.

a. The Fruity X-Y Controller lets you control two wheels at once by linking one wheel to its X (horizontal) dimension and one wheel to its Y (vertical) dimension. Then you can grab the circle in the main window and as you pull it around, it changes both controls that it is linked to. Its particularly handy for controlling cutoff and resonance at the same time.
b. Link the Cutoff wheel to the X value of the internal controller, as shown above. Now link the Resonance wheel to the Y value. Then open up the Fruity X-Y Controller window, start the loop, and drag the circle around to listen to the Cutoff and Resonance changing at the same time. Cool, huh?
Well, thats it. Have fun! Dont forget theres more help available inside FLStudio (F1) and on line at http://www.FLStudio.com.

CREDITS

Frank Van Biesen Chief Software Architect Didier Dambrin (gol) Senior Software Engineer Frdric Vanmol (reflex) Consultant Software Engineers Maxx Claster Luis Serrano Sound Design & Sequencing Ammeris Gill Blake Reary Web Site Jean-Marie Cannie Frank Van Biesen Getting Started Guide Scott Fisher Sam Scott Tutorials, Help, Manuals Scott Fisher (Scott Fisher) Stanislav Vasilev (mmlabs) Frank Bongers (LemonBoy!) Robert Conde (Jaha, Doo-D-Rox) Sam Scott (hERETIC, Burton Coggles) Image-Line Staff Jean-Marie Cannie Frank Van Biesen Didier Dambrin Frederic Vanmol Ief Goossens Miroslav Krajcovic Jean-Philip Cannie Erika De Mulder Myriam Dupont
(More complete credits and thanks in the product itself.)
A big round of applause for the FLStudio teambut wait until I get my microphone so I can record it into FL Studio!

INDEX 3

321 countdown, 51 3xOsc, 25, 26, 27 chords, 40, 58, 61 chorus, 42, 46 compression, 46 countdown, 51 cut itself, 21 cutoff & resonance, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 46, 51, 53, 62, 71, 76, 77
amount (AMT), 16, 17 Aphex Twin, 27 arpeggiator, 15, 40 attack (ATT), 16 Audio Settings, 6, 51, 75 automation, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 54, 70, 76 auto-smoothing, 54
decay (DEC), 16 delay (DEL), 16 delay (echo), 15, 16, 19, 42, 43, 44, 46, 51, 75 depth, 55, 69 DirectMusic Software Synthesizer, 47 DirectSound streaming buffer, 7 DirectX, 34, 47 discussion forum, 9 distortion, 46, 48 dots, 10, 11, 18, 19, 20, 22, 51, 58, 76 DrehBank, 72
background rendering, 69 balance, 11, 46 bass, 23, 27, 36, 46 BeatSlicer, 33, 41 BeepMap, 25, 26, 27 bit rate, 69 BooBass, 25, 26, 27 browser, 12, 41 buffer length, 7, 49, 51, 75 Buzz Effects, 46 Buzz Generators, 25, 26 BuzzMachines.com, 46
echo (delay), 15, 16, 19, 42, 43, 44, 46, 51, 75 Edison Wave Editor, 65 envelope, 16, 17 environment settings, 6, 7 Equalizer, 42, 44, 46, 48 event editor, 51, 53, 54, 55, 58, 60, 61, 62 events (initial), 54 export, 69, 70

channel selector light, 12, 18 channel settings, 13, 14, 15, 20, 25, 26, 40, 44, 48, 50 func panel, 15, 26, 40 instrument panel, 16, 20, 26, 27, 50, 55 misc panel, 16, 26 sample panel, 14, 26 choppy sound, 7, 31
fat mode, 15 Fatboy Slim, 31, 46 feed, 15
filters, 18, 20, 46, 47, 48 flanger, 42, 47, 48 Force Feedback File, 34 Fruit Kick, 25, 26, 29, 30 Fruity DrumSynth Live, 25, 26, 30 Fruity DX10, 25, 26, 31 Fruity effects, 11, 27, 39, 76 Fruity Granulizer, 31, 41 Fruity Scratcher, 41, 48 Fruity Send, 48 Fruity Slicer, 33, 41 Fruity Soft Clipper, 48 Fruity SoundFont Player, 25, 26, 33 Fruity Vibrator, 34 Fruity Wrapper, 38 Fruity X-Y Controller, 49, 76, 77 FruityLoops.com, 2, 5, 9, 38, 39, 40, 77 FX Tracks, 42, 44
layer channel, 36, 37, 38 Lemon Boy, 10, 12, 15, 41, 51, 71, 72, 74, 77, 78 LFO, 16, 17, 47, 55, 56 live recording, 46, 47, 53, 54, 55 loop point, 22, 59
main window, 9, 54, 76 MC-505, 72 menu bar, 9 MIDI controllers, 37, 71, 74, 75 drivers, 6 files, 62 MIDI Out channel, 37, 47, 73 settings, 74 MP3, 69, 70 mp3.com, 70 mute, 47
graph editor, 18, 19, 20, 53, 62
hERETIC, 74 hint bar, 9, 22, 51, 73, 76 hold, 16 HTML Notebook, 47
NewStuff.flp, 9 notebooks, 47
on-line help, 9, 14, 40, 45, 69 oscillator (OSC), 27
import, 62 initial event, 54 internal controllers, 47, 48, 49, 76, 77
pan, 11, 15, 16, 18, 19, 46, 47, 62 pat/song, 22 pattern selector, 22, 55 phase inversion, 48 phaser, 42, 48 piano roll, 4, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62
keyboard editor, 20 kvr-vst.com, 40
ping pong, 15 pitch, 15, 16, 18, 20, 41, 58, 61, 62 pitch bend (slide), 19, 58, 62 play indicator, 22, 54, 55, 58 play switch, 9, 11 playlist, 22, 23, 50, 53 Plucked!, 25, 26, 34 plugin, 12, 25, 30, 38, 39, 40, 43, 44, 45, 47, 48, 49, 76 polling, 7 presets, 26, 48, 49, 70 project bones, 70 project data files, 70
Speech Synthesizer, 41 speed (SPD), 16 step sequencer, 12, 21, 22, 26, 41, 58, 62 sustain (SUS), 16 synth channels, 40
TB-303, 36 tick, 51, 57 tool bar, 22, 57, 60 troubleshooting, 75 TS-404, 25, 26, 36, 51, 53, 55, 58, 75 tutorials, 9, 47
release (REL), 16 remote control input, 74 resonance & cutoff, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 46, 51, 53, 62, 71, 76, 77 reverb, 42, 44, 48

undo, 54, 61

velocity (volume), 18, 19, 62 volume, 11, 16, 18, 19, 42, 46, 62, 75 VST plugin, 38, 39, 40
sample browser, 12, 13, 41 samples, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 20, 21, 25, 26, 31, 33, 41, 44, 46, 48, 55, 58, 59, 70 SectionZ.net, 70 shift, 18, 20 shortcuts, 9 SimSynth Live, 25, 26, 35, 40 slide (pitch bend), 19, 58, 62 snap to grid, 57, 60 song/pat, 22 SoundFonts, 25, 26, 33 spectrum analyzer, 27, 48
Wasp, 25, 26, 37 wav export to wav, 69 Windows, 7
zipped loop packages, 70 zoom, 53, 54, 59

Click Here Channel Selector Sample File Name

Open file

Save! If youve created a masterpiece and you want to keep it, dont forget to save. Theres a cool Save new version that will add a 1,2,3 etc on the end of the FLP name, so you can keep all your old versions.
3. Play with the Sampler Channel Effects. Its worth noting that FL Studio can add audio effects on Mixer tracks (set by the FX selector), but this section is to show you the power of Channel sampler effects. Ok, at this point the best advice is to start the pattern looping, then play with the controls in the sample (SMP) panel of the Channel Settings Dialog and listen to the difference in sound. Here's a short description of what some of them do. For more info see the on-line help.
Vol, Pan: Volume and panning wheels that also appear on the main screen for each Channel. Turning these will also makes the knobs on the Channel Window move to match. Fade In (IN): Applies a quick fade in to the sample (turn maximum to left to disable). Fade Out (OUT): Applies a quick fade out to the sample (turn maximum to left to disable). Pitch bend (POGO): Applies pitch bend to the sample. Useful with drum samples. Crossfade Loop (CRF): Allows you to crossfade the sample for the creation of smooth loop sections (turn maximum to left to disable). Trim Threshold (TRIM): FL Studio trims the silence at the end of the samples, as this frees up RAM and does not alter the resulting sound. This control allows you to raise the volume threshold below which FL Studio detects "silence".
Remove DC Offset: Use this option to fix vertical offset in the samples (see Wave View below). Reverse Polarity: "Flips" the waveform vertically. Normalize: Maximizes the sample volume without distortion. Fade Stereo: Creates a stereo fade from the left to the right Channel of the sample. Reverse: Reverses the sample. Swap Stereo: Switches left and right Channel of the sample.
Wave View Window: Shows the shape of the sound sample. Click here to hear the sample with all the effects. Also a drag and drop window for loading samples. Right-click too!
Can't hear the difference? If you press a button or turn a knob and you can't hear any difference in the sound, try making the same change on another Channel. For example, sometimes a change that doesn't affect a kick drum much will make a huge difference to the sound of a snare. If you still can't hear the difference, stop the loop from playing and listen the sounds separately by clicking on the wave view window. You might be able to hear the effect better without the other instruments.

Left-click to add notes, click and drag to move, right-click to delete.
Super Important Tip. When you want to make a melody from longer samples, you often need to set it up so that each note cuts off the previous one. This easiest way to do this is by rightclicking the Channel Name in the Step Sequencer and selecting Cut Itself from the popup menu.
Big News! You can undo the last tweak from the Edit Menu or with CTRL Z. There is also an undo history in the Browser directory called Current project, History folder. Click up and down the list to un/re-do changes. Make sure F10 > General Settings > Undo knob tweaks is selected.

THE PIANO ROLL (Notes)

You have probably already realized that there are some things that the Step Sequencer doesn't do very well. It gets tricky to use when you have melodies that are longer than 1 bar. It's also tricky if you want to play chords. The Piano Roll solves all of these problems! 1. Open the Piano Roll. Load up NewStuff.flp and select a pattern that shows some green bars as shown below. Notice that the Step Sequencer view is very different. These Channels contain Piano Roll data instead of normal steps. You can open the Piano Roll for any, Channel either by right-clicking the Channel name or by left-clicking the Mini Piano Roll. Open it for the Ins_Round Channel.
Right Click Here (Channel Name) Then Here
Left Click Here (Mini Piano Roll)
2. What You're Looking At. First thing to notice is that this screen looks a little like the Event Editor. See the Play Indicator Bar, the Edit Mode Buttons, and the Edit Menu Button? But the "events" in the Piano Roll are notes to be played at the given location, rather than level settings for various FL Studio controls. Each horizontal green line shows where a note should start and end, and the Piano Keyboard on the left shows the pitch of each note. The note labeled below is a C5 (C in the 5th octave), which will start on the second beat of the first bar and play for 3/4 of a beat.

Watch where you click! The mini view Piano roll in the Channel window has a cool feature, that for long Piano roll scores it will open the Piano roll at the location where you clicked. Super duper!

Edit Menu

Local Snap

Edit Mode Buttons

Change Channel here
Change lower PR data type here

Play Indicator

Vertical Zoom

Keys Mode

Drag here for Horizontal Drag here for Horizontal Zoom Position

Note C5

Velocity(volume)
3. Whats with the lower Piano roll window?. This allows you to adjust all sorts of note parameters such as note velocity, pan and also Channel automation. If there is any Event automation in the pattern that the Piano roll is part of, you can select that too and edit it in the lower window, just like in the Event editor. Even more lazy? You can use the Channel selector to change Piano rolls within the pattern (Noted as Change Channel here above). 4. What Kinds of Channels Can Have Piano Rolls? You can have a Piano Roll for any type of Instrument. But there's something you should know about Sample Channels. You can use the Piano Roll on any Sample Channel, great for percussion programming, but chords and sustained notes will always work best when you are using Looped Samples. Loop points that let the sample play over and over again to create a sustained sound that lasts as long as the note is held (length of the green bars above). If you don't have a looped sample, you can still use the Piano Roll, but remember your notes may not last as long as you wanted them to.

Using Loop Points

Man, this thing just keeps gettin' better!

Loop Points

5. Basic Piano Roll Editing a. Entering Notes. To enter a note, make sure you're in Draw Mode by clicking the Draw Mode Button ( )or the Paint Mode Button ( ), click on the note area, where you want it to start then release. Next grab the middle of the note and drag it up/down. If the project is not playing, you should hear the note you are entering as you drag it around. The length of the note will match the length of the last note you placed. To change the length, grab the right hand side of the green bar and drag it. b. Note Snap. You may find the note snaps to a place you didn't want it to go. If so, change the Snap Level on the toolbar the same way as you did for the Event Editor (see previous section). Sometimes you just can't get the note length to snap where you want no matter what you do. In this case, hold the ALT key to override snap and drag the note (smooth!). c. Note Color. See the row of 4 colored buttons under the Edit Mode Buttons? These let you select the color of the notes you enter. This may seem odd right now, but color26

z. Slicex (included producer edition and higher) uses advanced beat detection algorithms to slice song/percussion samples into pieces and make them independently playable from the Piano roll or controller. If the wave file contains slice/region data this will be automatically used instead of the beat-detection algorithm. Slicex offers playback, reordering of slices and time-stretching capabilities optimized for drum loops.
aa. SynthMaker (included producer edition and higher). Hang onto your hats! SynthMaker is an audio programming application that is used to create virtual instruments and effects without the need to write basic code. The instruments and effects you create in SynthMaker can be used in FL Studio as 'native' plugins and shared with other SynthMaker users
bb. Sytrus (inc, in Signature Bundle). Sytrus the most versatile synthesizer in the FL Studio armory, combining Frequency Modulation (FM), Ring Modulation (RM), plucked string modeling and subtracting synthesis, and featuring a powerful envelope editor. The synth includes a powerful editable unison mode and a comprehensive effects section.
cc. TS404 (included). Is a great techno machine for creating synth lines and bass lines, which sound similar to the classic TB-303 machine (look under more in the Add one pop-up).
dd. Wasp (demo for Express edition). Another full digital synthesizer. This one creates fast, buzzing, techno-oriented sounds (hence the name).
ee. WaveTraveller (included). Create realistic scratches with a full control over the smallest details!
ff. Layer (included). This isnt really a Instrument, but its cool. It lets you create an instrument Channel to control a bunch of other instrument Channels at once.
gg. MIDI Out (included). This one isnt a Instrument either. It lets you send a MIDI controller signal to an external (or internal) MIDI device.
hh. Speech Synthesizer (included). This is a wizard to add synthesized speech lines to your song (see p.39). ii. Others. There are a few other instruments, see the FL Studio Help (F1).
7. Even More Instruments! With the Fruity Wrapper you can additionally add any VST or DX plugin synthesizer you download or buy. From the Channels menu select 1. Add One > 2. More. This will produce a list of the available plugins as shown below. You can select any of the plugins under the Fruity Generator Plugins heading by double-clicking them. The F in the box beside the plugin name marks it as a Favorite and will make it appear directly in the Add One menu shown below. If you have added a new plugin to your VST search directory (F10 File settings in FL Studio), you may need 3. Refresh and 4. Fast scan, to see your new plugin appear in the More list.
Favorite list Favorite switch

New plugin

8. VST and DX Plugins. You may have noticed the Fruity Wrapper in the above list of plugins. The wrapper is not strictly an instrument but provides the interface between FL Studio and VST or DXi plugins. If you double-click on one of the VST Plugins, it will automatically open the Wrapper for you. You may notice that some plugin instruments (and effects) dont have their own interface, see the DX10 freeware plugin below. This uses the generic wrapper interface. Others have a more professional looking interface, like Poizone.

Generic interface (DX10).
Custom interface (PoiZone).
9. The Other VST Plugins. What about all the other VST Plugins in the list? VST plugins are either synthesizers or effects (FX), we explain how to use the FX in the Mixing & Effects section below. VSTs are held by the FL Studio Wrapper. 1 = Wrapper menu. 2 = Plugin settings (useful to set multiple outputs or whip misbehaving plugins into shape!). 3 = Preset selector. 4 = Close interface. Unfortunately, there is just no way for FL Studio to tell the difference between FX and Synth plugins, so youll just have to remember which is which. If you try to open a VST Plugin and all you get is an error message and the empty wrapper, then it was probably an FX plugin.
10. Do I have to demo plugins to use them? We fund the lifetime free updates program by selling some additional plugins to our loyal customers, so yes in some cases you do have to register them to unlock their full capabilities. By doing so you support not only Image Line Software but the whole FL Studio community. Go to http://flstudio.image-line.com for more information on where to send your hard-earned cash. 11. Where Can I Get More? There are literally thousands of synth plugins out there to download. Some of them are free, and some you have to pay for. Search the web and http://flstudio.image-line.com or http://www.image-line.com for good deals. A place you should definitely bookmark is http://www.kvraudio.com - a huge site with details about every VST plugin you could possibly want (new VST Plugins should go in the shared Program Files\Image-Line\ VST directory on your hard drive). 12. The Arpeggiator. Now that we've introduced the Synth instruments, we can tell you more about the Arpeggiator section in the Channel Settings window. Open one of the synth Channels (SimSynth Live, for instance) and go to the FUNC panel of the Channel settings box. Now click the up arrow and select a chord. Now go to a new pattern and place a single SimSynth note and press play. Instead of a single note, you get a repeating arpeggio. Cool, huh? Read more about this in the on-line help.
Don't deny yourself, dude! You need all the Instruments. Save up your squeegee money and buy them ASAP. Probably the one that will make the most difference to your tracks is Sytrus and while we are on the topic, dont forget Maximus effect, this Maximizer plugin rocks!

Direction of Arpeggio

Octave Range and Repeat

Speed, Duration, etc.

Chord Selection
The Arpeggiator works best when you play the instrument hosted by the Channel using a MIDI controller, like what I have here in my hands. Sweeeeeeeeeeeet!
13. Speech! Yep, you read that right. You can have a conversation with FL Studio using the built in support for speech synthesis. The easiest way to access this feature is to look under speech in the sample browser, and drag one of the files there onto the step sequencer. Youll get a dialog that looks like the one below. All you have to do is replace the text, choose a personality, style, rate (speed), and pitch. Click the listen button to hear what it will sound like. When youre done, press the check mark and a sampler Channel will be added. You can also drag a speech file into a Granulizer, Fruity Scratcher, or Fruity Slicer Channel. Have fun.

Tweak the Plugins. Left-click on the plugin name to open and close its Plugin Settings screen. Some plugins have a generic interface like the Fruity Reverb. Others have fancier looking controls (like Fruity Limiter). Most plugins come with their own help as shown below, so we won't go into how to use the controls here. Why not play with them all to see what they do?
Effects have presets too!
Left-click here to open the FX

Click Here for help

Click here to enable / disable FX
Sending Sound to the Mixer. The box in the top right of the Channel Settings (below, remember left-click on a Channel button to open this window) is a Mixer track send. Any effects placed in the Master Mixer Track will be applied to all the sounds in the song. But effects in Mixer Tracks 1-99 will only be applied to the Samples and Synths, which have selected that Mixer Track in their Channel Settings Dialog. Sending to Mixer track 2
What are the Send Tracks For? Economy & convenience! There are 4 Send Tracks that take their input from other Mixer tracks, rather than from Instrument Channels. Suppose you want to put the same Fruity Reverb on Guitar and Drums, but you want to add Fruity Delay to the guitar and EQ to the drums. Easy. Send the drums to Regular Mixer track 2 where you put the EQ. Send the guitar to Regular Mixer track 3 where you put the Fruity Delay. Then put the Reverb in Send Track 1 and turn the Send 1 knob on Mixer tracks 2 and 3 to send the output of these tracks to Send Track 1. Now you have the same reverb applied to both guitar and drums, but you only had to use a single reverb plugin. The send knobs are placed beneath the track receiving the input not the track sending. An orange down-arrow shows the source track. Note: since any Mixer track can send to any other, you can have more than 4 send tracks.
This is the source track and is sending audio to 2 other tracks, tracks (a regular & send track). Dedicated Send tracks.
These two tracks receive input, note the knob positions that show the input signal volume, click on the up-arrow to make send knobs appear/disappear. Changing Plugin Order. The order in which you add effects plugins decided in what order the FX are applied to the signal. Think of it this way the signal enters the top of the FX stack and leaves the bottom. So Delay above a reverb would mean the delay sits in a wash of reverb. Reverb above delay means the reverb tail is chopped up and delayed. To make it easier to experiment with effects order, FL Studio has a simple function to move an effect up or down in the effects chain. A quick way is to place your mouse cursor over the FX slot and scroll your mouse wheel. No wheel? Click the FX menu and press u or d on your keyboard to move the selected FX. Place your mouse pointer over the FX name and scroll the wheel OR Left-click and press u or d

Hint bar: Description

Red Dots
Plugins. You can record live tweaking (moving) of knobs on most Plugins, but not all knobs. Experiment to find out. Check the live manual (press F1 in FL Studio) section on Recording Audio, Notes & Automation.
LemonBoy's Live Tweaking Recording Advice 1. Always, always, always check the pattern selector before you start recording. Automation will be recorded into the selected pattern. 2. Right-click on the record button to check Automation, Score (notes) and or Audio is ticked. Depending on what you want to record. 3. Get your song laid out the way you want it before you start live recording. This makes it much easier than trying to align automation to song structure. Its better to record automation on an existing song. 4. Always save a backup copy of your project before you start any live recording. That way if you mess things up or change your mind, you can go back to the clean copy. 5. Save your project frequently during live recording. Press Ctrl+N to quicksave a new copy of your project. This adds a _1, _2, _3 etc each time you do it to your project file. If you accidentally tweak something and erase some events, you can always go back to any previous version. 6. Get yourself an External Hardware controller to make your life easier
THE EVENT EDITOR (Edit Automation)
Unless you're a real pro, you'll probably find that the live automation doesnt always sound perfect. That's where the event editor comes in. Each time you move a knob during a recording session, the new setting is stored as an "event" for that knob at that moment in the loop. With the event editor, you have complete control over how the sound is tweaked during playback. NOTE: You will find an option under the Edit Menu to convert Event data to Automation Clips. This allows you to export the automation to a format that can be directly tweaked in the Playlist rather than in the editor. 1. Record Some Live Tweaking on a Particular Knob. The PAN on the Snare sample, for instance. Let's assume you already did that in the previous section. 2. Stop FL Studio and Open the Event Editor. Right-click on the knob you automated, and select Edit Events from the pop-up menu. The screen you are looking at now is a lot like the Graph Editor described earlier. One difference is that this graph controls the level of a single knob or slider at a particular point in the song. (OK, it's actually more complicated than that. Remember how we told you to keep all your live recording in a single pattern (Pattern 2) and place this pattern once at the beginning of a song? If you do that, then the bars in the Event Editor will match the bars in the Playlist. If you don't do that, you're on your own!) The other main difference is that this graph is used to set Events (bright vertical lines corresponding to the value of the knob you are setting) that persist until the next event. Edit menu Edit mode selection Select automation Vertical zoom

(click + drag)

Horizontal zoom

Play position indicator

Automation data (events).
3. Event Editor Modes. The event editor has several modes, which are explained below. a. Draw Mode. In this mode, the mouse pointer looks like a pencil. You can add new single events by left clicking in the main window. You can also left-click and drag to draw multiple events, or right-click and drag to draw a line of events. b. Brush Mode. This mode ( the mouse. ) is very similar to Draw mode, but ignores snap distance
c. Delete Mode. Click on the delete symbol to change to this mode. You can delete events by clicking on them, or click and drag to delete a series of events (the events are the bright vertical lines on the main window.) d. Smooth Mode. Click on the smoothing (interpolation) symbol to change to this mode. You can click and drag to highlight a region. When you let go of the mouse button, the events will be smoothed out, instead of looking choppy. Try it! You can also turn on Auto-Smoothing from the edit menu, so that events you draw in Draw Mode are automatically smoothed out. e. Select Mode. Click on the select symbol to change to this mode. When you click and drag, you will see a red region highlighted on the Play Indicator Bar. You can also right-click on the Play Indicator Bar in any mode to expand the highlighted region. You can cut and zoom to this region from the Edit Menu. f. Zoom Mode. The zoom mode automatically zoom fit to that area. allows you to select an area in the event editor an
4. Miscellaneous Facts. Here's some stuff you should know about the Event Editor. a. Undo. There is a limited form of undo available for the Event Editor. Use CTRL-Z to undo the last action. b. Setting the Initial Event. You will notice that after live recording, the knob you recorded sometimes doesn't start in a sensible place when you play back the loop. This can be fixed by turning the knob to a good start position, and then right clicking the knob and selecting Init Events With This Position. This sets the very first event so that the knob will always start where you want it. c. Getting a Feel for It. It takes some practice to master the event editor, and to be able to get a song to sound exactly the way you want it, but it's definitely worth it. Keep practicing until you get it right! d. Live Recording Defeats Static Tweaking. If a knob has some events recorded on it,
you can no longer just set it anywhere you want and expect it to stay there. You have to go through the Event Editor or start a new live recording session to change it. 5. Introducing the Event LFO. Sometimes you want basic oscillation of a parameter, but its hard to control exactly how this oscillation is going to fit with the song. That problem is solved with the Event LFO, which lets you simulate the perfect oscillation inside the event editor and align the peaks/troughs against the tempo grid.

The Time Stretch / Pitch Shift tool allows you to alter the duration, pitch and formant of a sample independently. Edison and, more generally the Sampler Channels & Slicer tool, use the lastique Pro, zplane algorithms to deliver advanced time stretching / pitch shifting that meets the standards of professional production and broadcast applications. To open the tool you can either left-click on the Time Tool button , press Alt+T inside Edison, or use the Tools > Time > Time stretch / Pitch shift option. To open the paste-stretch dialog press Ctrl+Alt+V or use the Tools > Edit > Paste stretch option. The paste-stretch dialog is available only after a sample selection cut or copy operation. The Edison Loop Tuner allows you to remove clicks, pops or beating sounds from a loop. The Loop Tuner is not an automatic loop finding tool, it is intended for smoothing loops that have already been selected. Be aware that to accommodate the loop smoothing process, some settings will move the loop-start point automatically. To preserve your loop-start point, set the Crossfade and Snap settings to minimum.
Beat slicing. Edison has a range of beat slicing and drum stretch tools (Tools > Time > Drum(loop) stretch) that will allow you to create your own sliced beats.
Cool! Hit me with your rhythm stick! I live for beats. Fast beats, slow beats, big beats

SHARING YOUR WORK

So now youre done with your song you probably want to get it out of FL Studio so you can put it on a CD, post it on the Internet, or edit it in another program. The Export function exists for this purpose. Here's how to use it. 1. Export to Wav, Ogg. or MP3. This option is available from the Main File menu. Whether you choose Wav, Ogg or MP3, you will be asked to specify the name of the file and then the dialog below will appear. There's a lot to choose from here, and we dont have space to go into detail. If you want an explanation of every button, go to the on-line help F1, it's all there.

Are you in SONG mode?

2. Should I Use Wav, Ogg or Mp3? Wav is a raw sound file format. Huge files, excellent sound quality (expect to use about 10 MB per minute depending on Bit Depth). 44.1 kHz, 16 bit Wav files are for burning onto CD. MP3/Ogg are compressed formats with smaller files, but sound quality may be compromised (expect to use about 1 MB per minute depending on Bit Rate). If you want to share files on the Internet, MP3/Ogg are perfect.

3. Should I Use "Background Rendering?" Rendering can take a long time and hogs the CPU, especially if you choose the higher-quality options in the Quality section of the window above. But if you click on Background Rendering, FL Studio will minimize and continue to render unobtrusively in the background. It takes longerbut the internet has plenty to see while you wait. 4. Exporting to a Zipped Loop Package. This feature is useful if you want to transmit your FL Studio project over the web. It takes your FL Studio file, plus all the samples used in that files, and puts them into one zip file. Note that it does not save the plugin Instruments you used, just the samples. 5. Project Bones and Project Data Files. These options let you save a lot of the information about your track. The Project Bones option saves a file with all your presets, automation information, and so on to be loaded later. Project Data Files saves all the samples and other raw data you used to a single location on your hard drive. 6. Where Can I Put My Songs? There are a number of places on the web where artists can place their music in MP3 format for free. http://www.mp3.com is probably the best-known site, but it's easy for an amateur looper to get buried there in all the high-profile commercial stuff. Image-Line (thats us) has a Song Exchange forum (http://forum.imageline.com/index.php) if you are more interested in feedback from other musicians who use FL Studio. It's a great way to get feedback from fellow Floopers (thats you). If you don't like either of these options, you can always create your own site using one of the many free hosting services out there. Did you know we also make our own website building tool? Its called EZGenerator, check it out here - www.ezgenerator.com Too EZ!
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EXTERNAL CONTROLLERS

Did you know that you already have at least two external controllers attached to your PC? One is your typing-keyboard and the other is your mouse. Obviously these dont make sounds, but send control signals to your PC so you can type and move your mouse. Similarly, external USB/MIDI controllers are just devices to send control signals to your PC, however in this case they are designed to play like a piano keyboard, move like a Mixer desk, turntable deck or any other piece of hardware that is used to make/mix music. With a controller attached you can move the knobs and switches in FL Studio, or play a plugin instrument like a synthesizer. The only catch is that as the controller isnt hard-wired to particular functions, you have to tell FL Studio ahead of time what you want each knob on the controller to do (this is just the same as assigning your typing-keyboard control-keys in a game for example, a minor inconvenience for the luxury of changing both cutoff and resonance at the same time!) Each knob on the controller can be linked to a different knob or slider on FL Studio. If you have a controller, this section will tell you how to make it work with FL Studio. If you don't have one, get one, if you arent sure where to start consider a small 2 octave MIDI keyboard with some knobs, you wont regret it! First we'll introduce a few of the more popular controllers, and then we'll tell you how to set them up. 1. A Few Examples of Controllers. Korg NANOKEY & NANOKONTROL These are tiny-tiny controllers (with a tiny price to match), great for people on the move with a laptop. The one with the knobs has 9 assignable knobs and 9 sliders that can be linked to knobs and sliders in FL, has transport controls to start/stop FL Studio and is connected to your PC over USB. Easy! There are a range of small MIDI keyboard controllers out there, time to hit Google and check them out!

2. Then here

3. Then here & Select generic.

4. And here 5. Then here

The little red light
c. Check the Options menu to see if there is a check mark beside Enable MIDI Remote Control. If not, click on it and see if you get the light now. If not, read on.
FLooper: Yo, check it out. I need a keyboard controller for FL Studio. Computer Store Guy: QWERTY or AZERTY?

FLooper

d. Set Your MIDI Input Device. If the light is still not coming on when you turn knobs on your controller, go into MIDI Settings (from the Options menu or by hitting F10). Check out the Remote Control Input box. If you see the word "none" there, then you've got to select an input. Typically, you will be presented with a number of choices, and you'll just have to try them all to figure out which one is right.
Hey did you know you can use MORE than one controller with FL Studio at the same time? Just set each of your controllers to transmit on a separate MIDI Channel (check the manuals that come with your gear) and you can control multiple Instrument Channels or the Playlist jump-to markers COOL!
e. Troubleshooting Checklist. If the red light is still not coming on when you turn the knobs on your controller, here's a list of things you should check. * Did you select the correct controller type in step b? * Did you enable "Enable MIDI Remote Control" in step c? * Did you select the correct MIDI input in step d? * Is your USB controller detected OR are your MIDI In and Out cables reversed? * Did you plug the controller into a power outlet? The fun part - Linking a knob to Your Controller: a. Right-click on the Control You Want to Link to the hardware controller. In this case, we're trying the main volume control on a sampler Channel. Now right-click on the knob and select Link to controller, to pop up the Remote controlling settings window.
b. Turn a Knob on Your Controller. You should see the Remote controlling settings window disappear and the Channel Volume knob should now move in response to your hardware knob movements. You're in business! c. Set the Buffer Length as Low as You Can. Earlier, we explained the buffer length slider (get to it by hitting F10 and clicking the Audio tab). This slider determines the

Keyboard controller, 77 Keyboard editor, 22 kick drum, 15 Knob controller, 77 Knowledge base, 6 kvraudio.com, 50
Layer channel, 46, 47, 48 Lemon Boy, 11, 14, 17, 52, 62, 76, 77, 79, 82, 83 LFO, 18, 19, 58, 66, 67 depth, 66 Lifetime free updates, 5 Limiter, 58 Live recording, 57, 58, 64, 66 Loop point, 25, 29

Main screen, 9

Main window, 10 Menu bar, 10 MIDI controllers, 48, 76, 79, 80 drivers, 7 files, 28 MIDI Out channel, 48, 58 settings, 79 Mixer tracks, 55 Morphine, 41 MP3, 74, 75 mp3.com, 75 Mute plugin, 58
Play indicator, 24, 29, 65 Play switch, 10, 12 Playlist, 29, 30, 61 Plucked!, 33, 34, 44 Plugin, 14, 33, 49, 50, 54, 55, 56, 59, 60 Plugin instruments, 35 Plugin Order, 56 PoiZone, 43 Polling, 8 Presets, 34, 60 Project bones, 75 Project data files, 75
NewStuff.flp, 10 Notebook, 58
Recording automation, 65 Release (REL), 18 Remote control input, 79 resonance & cutoff, 57 Resonance & cutoff, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 57, 64, 76,
OGG, 74 Ogun, 41 On-line help, 10, 16, 50 Options & settings, 7 Oscillator (OSC), 35
Reverb, 53, 55, 59 Room sound, 59
Sample browser, 14, 15, 51 Sample editor, 70 Sample slicer, 42 Sampler, 16 samples, 14, 40 Samples, 14, 15, 18, 19, 22, 23, 33, 34, 43, 51, 55, 57, 59 Save 16bit, 74 24bit, 74 32bit, 74 Save audio, 74 Save samples, 75 Sawer, 44 Send tracks, 55 Send Tracks, 55
Pan, 13, 17, 18, 20, 21, 28, 57, 58 Pat/song, 29 Pattern selector, 29 PC considerations, 60 Phase inversion, 59 Phaser, 53, 59 Piano roll, 24, 25, 27, 28 Editing, 26 lower panel, 25 Ping pong delay, 17 Pitch, 17, 18, 20, 22, 28, 51 Piano roll, 24 Pitch bend (slide), 21, 28 Pitch bending, 27
Serial Number, 6 Setup Wizard, 11 Shift, 20, 22 Shortcuts, 10 SimSynth Live, 33, 34, 44, 50 Slicex, 45 Slide (pitch bend), 21, 28 Snap Global, 68 Snap to grid, 26 Song/pat, 29 Soundcard Driver, 7 SoundFonts, 33, 34, 43 Spectrum analyzer, 36, 59 Speech Synthesizer, 51 Speed (SPD), 18 Step, 13 Step sequencer, 14, 23, 24, 28, 29, 34, 51 Steps, 12, 20, 21, 22, 24, 29, 62 Stereo shaper, 59 Sustain (SUS), 18 Synth channels, 50 SynthMaker, 45
Troubleshooting, 80 TS-404, 33, 34, 46, 62 Ttool bar, 26 Tutorials, 10, 58

Undo, 27 Event editor, 65 Piano roll, 27
Velocity (volume), 20, 21, 28 volume, 18 Volume, 13, 18, 20, 21, 53, 57, 80 VST plugin, 49, 50 VST Plugin, 48
Wasp, 33, 34, 47 Wav export to wav, 74 Wave editor, 70 Windows, 8
TB-303, 46 Technical support, 6 Tick, 62 Tool bar, 29, 68 Toxic Biohazard, 42 Transport Panel, 13
Zipped loop packages, 75 Zipped project, 75 zoom, 25 Zoom, 64