The Basics! - Intro to FLStudio & Using the Step Sequencer

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This for the absolute beginner, as I was not so long ago, from arranging a simple sequence to arranging full blown tunes. Once you have covered the basic tutorials on this site, you'll know how to write simple tracks and know how to work on them.

I work in a methodical way, choosing some samples for drums, instruments and etc then on to layering them with each other to create the main part or the intro of the track. With FLStudio this is SO simple and its why I have stuck to using it for almost everything I do in music.

Making good music takes time and some dedication, a bit of planning, and experience and is a shitload of fun getting there, making crap tracks is a laugh sometimes whether its a pain or not that you can't finish it. At the end of the day, the more you like doing it and the more you want to do it, the better you'll get! No one is born a musician!

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TUTORIAL:

Step 1 of 10

Ok, you now have the interface staring at you, with some weird boxes and windows, you'll see whats what as we go on so don't worry about not knowing everything yet!

First off we're gonna add some stuff and make a simple beat. So open FLStudio, and go to File > New, to make sure were starting from fresh here.

1, Now left click some of the Step buttons on the Step Sequencer (Keyboard Shortcut - F6) to create a simple drum loop. To remove a note, click again or right click, (depending on what's set in the options).

(You might want to add some different samples from the Sample Browser (F8). Drag and drop them over to the Step Sequencer to use them. If you want to use your own samples, add them to the sample browser in Options > File settings)

2, Note the switch that says "PAT" and "SONG" on the left, make sure "PAT" (short for Pattern) is highlighted. This switches Fruityloops between two modes - 'Pattern mode' and 'Song mode' which tells FLStudio to play either the current pattern your on, or to play what is drawn out in the Playlist, but we will get in to the Playlist later.

Press the Play button at the top of the screen to hear the pattern you made..

This is Pattern No1, that you are editing as shown by the LCD to the right of tempo.

3, OK, now to change the active pattern, drag the LCD. up or down or press Numpad + or - keys on your keyboard. With the tempo, just drag it up and down from the LCD, this is pretty common in FLStudio where ever you see an LCD.

WANNA ADD SOME NEW INSTRUMENTS?

4, Lets make Pattern No2 a bit more exciting, Change to Pattern No2, and right click on a sampler/instrument in the Step Sequencer... this brings up a list of things you can add to a pattern.

Pick out something like Simsynth, DX10, TS404, or WASP, they are "Soft Synths" not great ones, but thats where external "VSTi's" come in later!

5, Click on the Keyboard Editor display button up on the top right of the Step Seq.

6, I guess you figured by now you can click on the Steps in the note you want them in!

7, OK, you now have 2 patterns in your project. How do you put them together as part of the tune?

Well, you should hopefully have by now gotten a drum pattern on Pattern No1, and a synth riff on Pattern No2, So what you need to do now is come out of pattern mode and go into song mode to put them together in the Playlist...

OK, Left click once on SONG at the top to change to song mode.

8, There are 5 buttons up at the top right of the screen, this is the Shortcut Panel. Click on PL on the left, to get the Playlist up. (Keyboard shortcut F5)

9, And now, the top horizontal line is pattern No1, the second No2, etc... You can rename these by just right clicking on the text. For example, No1 could be called renamed from "Pattern 1" to "Drums", and you could rename Pattern No2 to mean something more significant like "Synth riff" like you should have there.

All you need to do here in the Playlist to get the individual patterns to play over time, is just left click to make a block appear in the line with the corrisponding pattern.

So to get Pattern No1 (our drums) to repeat for 8 bars. and the synth to play only once every 2 bars, you'd draw out like it is in the picture. Then when you hit play, the synth will play along with the drums you made ealier. All pretty straight forward stuff!

10, Now hit play to start it rollin!

Play about and have fun, experiment as much as you can with diffrent sounds, download yourself some samples, VSTi synths, and VST / Direct-X effects, (you can learn how to install them in the next-but-one tutorial) just basicly mess about for a while making sounds and you should start getting used to how FLStudio works fairly quickly as once you learn the basics, all the rest falls into place after a while!

You'll find that most of the things in FLStudio are very methodical, i.e... You'll add an instrument, make it sound good, make a melody with it in the step sequencer or piano roll, then decide 'Do I want FX in it?', if so, then route it up to an FX channel and add some FX there.. then draw it in into the playlist, press play and you'll have it playing amongst your other stuff, exactly where you want it to. If you get stuck on what something is or why something dosn't work, check the help for a second, run a search, or just hover hour mouse over the thing your unsure about and some info will always pop up up in the title bar at the top! Failing that, just bob in to the chat room and fire away your questions to the 40 or so people there.. there's usually someone around that will help you out! :)

The more complex stuff will be covered in a little more detail later, as will be Automation of Plug-Ins (What's a Plug-In you may ask!?), have you always wanted that slow fade into a rave track that builds up, not just the volume but 3 synths in tandem, with that "strange" sort of pre-phased sound, all it takes is a filter, AUTOMATED!

NEXT... Piano rolls and recording the keyboard in to them