Tutorial 1: The basics

Tutorial on the basics of FL Studio

There are many ways and many web sites where one can learn the ABC of FL Studio. This blog has its own way too so I’ll try to make it as simple and attractive as possible for you not to get bored or yawn after reading the first three lines. I assume you have purchased FL Studio or you’re about to. After all, you need a car before you start driving, right?



Chapter 1

Ok, here we go.
You already opened the program and a grey main panel, typical of a Star Wars movie, appeared. Don’t worry about the many small things you see, don’t let them intimidate you; here’s what you are going to do:

1. Relax
2. Don’t touch anything.
3. Identify the main tools:

• The Step Sequencer: It’s the big rectangle at the center of the screen that looks like a building. You don’t know what it is?, press F6 several times until you see it disappear and reappear. Now you see it?, if you don’t, go to the ophthalmologist to check your eyes, you might need glasses. The Step Sequencer is where all the sounds meet; imagine it like a bunch of orchestra seats, each horizontal bar is a single sample or instrument.

• The Browser (F8): Where the different samples, presets and FL Studio projects are located. It’s the bar at the left with signs in different colors. The first sign on the top reads BROWSER; you can’t miss it, can you?

• The Pianoroll: Not shown at startup, but a very important tool. Press F7 to have a glimpse of it. It actually looks like a real piano and it actually works like one, except that you can play not only a piano melody out of it but even a bass or a drums!

• The Playlist (F5): Don’t get the name puzzle you, it’s nothing to do with Winamp or Mediaplayer playlists. The FL Playlist is where you put all the pieces together to give a nice shape to your song; we’ll come back to this later.

• The Mixer (F9): The name shows itself. With this tool you can add and mix some incredible effects to your track (echoes, extra bass, reverbs, delays, etc.). You can also make horrible noises and screeches, but don’t be afraid, I’ll show you how to work with it.

4. Check the rest of the interface.

Figure 1

There are twelve buttons at the right side of the main panel; they are shortcuts. The first five correspond to each main tool we explained before and the next seven to other functions like Undo, Save as…, Render as audio file…, etc.

You will also see some big numbers, that’s the LCDs (The indicator with the 1:38:65 at the figure 1), and no, it’s not the PC clock, although it does marks the track time. The Play/Pause/Stop bottoms beneath the LCDs are used just for that, similar to a tape recorder.

5. Now grab the mouse and without clicking roll over the different bottoms and everything you like. You shall notice that the Hint Bar at the left (Located under FILE/ EDIT/ CHANNEL/ VIEW/ …Etc.) informs you about the function of each thing as the cursor passes over it. There is also a visible bar for internet connection in order to get online news, tips, etc. from the FL Studio community.

If you look close you will notice that some functions are gathered in certain groups or blocks (like the 5 main tools shortcut panel). They can be arranged to wherever position on screen you like. Try it out by holding down left click on one of this “blocks” and drag it to another position.

Author: Miguel Angel Trujillo