Tutorial 5: THE PIANO ROLL (Part 1)

Tutorial on how to use The Piano Roll  in FL Studio (part 1)

Now that you are supposed to know how to use the Browser and the Step Sequencer, at least in general terms, you are ready for the incredible Piano Roll (F7).

As you already know, when you add some samples into the Step Sequencer you can choose the notes or scales using the line of buttons at the right to (check previous chapter, do your homework) but the Step Sequencer is sometimes very limited and “small” to manipulate lot of notes. However, if you are ambitious and wish to create sophisticated notes which make a better and a non-monotonous track you will need a special tool, because the Step Sequencer is good to work with loops or constant, repeated sounds for example a kick for a disco song, but to do something more complex there’s nothing better than the Piano Roll.

But first choose your samples and place them in the Step Sequencer; you need the instrument before start playing it, right? Let’s make a little exercise:

Find and add a piano sample from the Browser into the Step Sequencer. You can find it in Packs/Piano1/CHANGPIANOHARD_C#50GG. Use this particular sample because it sounds pretty similar to a normal piano (many samples sound like a clavichord for instance).

Once the sample is in the Step Sequencer, right click and send it to the Piano Roll. You’ll see that the Piano Roll window opens showing a preview keyboard at the left. Those keys are there to let you know how they sound before you place the note at the big grey “board” at the right. Place some notes at that grey board by clicking; you will notice some green bars and that they sound when you put them. Place some of these green bars randomly and then press play upstairs to listen to what you did. If you followed my advice of putting them randomly they must produce a weird, incongruent sound, nothing to do with music, well, this is the part where your own musical capacity comes into scene. You might be an ace with this tool but if you don’t know how music works then you are dead (or deaf?). But don’t worry about that now, one of the purposes of this blog is to help you with basic music knowledge , rather than mere cold lessons about FL Studio.

Ok, coming back to Piano Roll: To eliminate some of these notes or green bars just right click on them; it will erase them. You can also hold down left click to move them to another location or increase/decrease its length to produce a shorter/longer sound. Check that when you move or click a bar to a lower position (below C5 key) it makes a lower sound and the contrary happens when you click or drag the bar to a higher level (above C5). Let’s say that C5 is a middle point in the chords. Take note: a good song has a lot to do with the correct use of Piano Roll, you need to know when you need more notes or when you put too many, as well as the balance between the sound you are creating in the Piano Roll and the rest of the samples you have there in the Step Sequencer that might be not inside a Piano Roll. In other words, all the instruments must go together and the whole responsibility of this balance remains in your ears. You can use a single Piano Roll configuration for each sample so your notes must be usually similar or go in the same direction so they don´t discord the entire song. We will come to this later, now focus on learning how the Piano Roll works because you are going to use it A LOT.

Oh, and you can also change the color of the bars, in case you have too many or just to separate one specific sound from another. Do you see a green square at the top left corner of the Piano Roll? Click there to choose the color you prefer.

Of course, this tool is worth for any instrument, not only for pianos, as a matter of fact it is very useful for guitars and basses, and in advanced drums is good too. You just need patience and perseverance to work with it. If you are a professional musician who knows how to play a piano and own an electronic piano to plug it in to the computer you can type the notes directly to the Piano Roll from there, but if you are like most of users with only a mouse, then, my friend, don’t hurry, choose patiently until you find the correct tone and you’ll see the results. Remember: creating a great song in FL Studio requires time and determination, but most of all, a lot of practice. 

Author: Miguel Angel Trujillo