Tutorial 9: The Mixer

How to use the mixer in FL Studio?

To open the Mixer press F9.There you have it. The Mixer is an interesting tool. It lets you enrich your sounds with great effects such as echoes, delays, resonations, etc. Its properties are almost infinite and it really helps to improve a song because once you know how to work with it you can start experimenting and giving your sounds the beauty and complexity you wish.

As you can see, it is divided in several buttons, knobs and other stuff which give you the same headache like in the other tools. But the good news is that maybe this tool interface is easier to work with than the previous ones…maybe, I’m not so sure.

Ok, relax. The first thing you need to know is that the mixer must be linked to the samples. It can be all of them or individually. If you go to the Step Sequencer (F6) and select a specific sample you will notice a small indicator on the right top with a digital number within. It says FX below the number

For example, in the figure it shows the number 2. This means that this particular sample is using the Mixer track bar number 2 and all the mixing you are going to do with that sample will be configured only in that bar so if you want to use a different effect for another sample you are suppose to choose another bar. To change this number or bar in the sample back in the Step Sequencer to use another Mixer configuration, just hold down left click over the number and press it up or down. It shall change.

Of course, maybe you don’t understand a damn thing I’m saying here so the best way to get it is to make an exercise.

1. Select a sample, for instance, the Kick, in the Step Sequencer. The FX indicator must have a 1 in it, which is always the default number that all samples start with.

2. Change it to 2 to give the sound an effect in the Mixer. Note: If you keep number 1 and work on that bar in the Mixer, all the samples will acquire the effects you choose later ’cause as I said in the previous seconds all the samples are predetermined in FX 1. Again: choose FX number 2

3. Now you can open the Mixer (F9) or just double click on the small FX screen of the sample.

Once in the Mixer you will see a horizontal line of numbered bars. Each bar represents a single configuration of effects or “mixes”. We are going to work with bar 2 because that was the one we assigned to our kick sample so click on it.

4. For that precise bar you got the possibility to add 8 desired effects at the right section where you already have eight empty slots for that purpose.

Suppose you want to give a kind of delay or echo to the dry sound of your kick. Press the number 1 slot at the right and then select an effect plugging named Fruity Delay Bank. 

Then press play to listen to how it works.

NOTE: It doesn’t sound at all? That’s maybe because you have not clicked any bar back in the Step Sequencer.

With this effect added to the kick sample you will listen that now it sounds with something like an echo, which is what that pluggin is designed to. However you can adjust or even play around with the pluggin until you find an effect you like. As a matter of fact, the device is full of tiny knobs and buttons to make hundreds of combination, but if you want to modify them randomly just press the upper arrows left or right.

There are more pluggins with fantastic effects there waiting for you and you can even use more than one, to do so just add them to different slots. Only remember that an effect from the Mixer can enhance the sound of a sample but can also ruin it. Some samples sound better in their default arrangement, pecially thos related to percussion, where some effects just do not match. You will discover that certain affect are better for instruments like guitars, keyboards, some others work better with drums and some even seem to adapt to any sample.