The Step Sequencer In order to understand this tutorial, you will need to know the basics of operating FL. When you start up FL studio you should be greeted with a screen with a bunch'a blocks on it.
This is the step sequencer. The step sequencer is where you make the patterns that make up the song. The different drum parts, the different "riffs", and so on. Then you assemble this riffs in the playlist, which I will explain next. I will explain the parts.
01. This adjusts the beats per measure in this pattern. (By default it shows -- and it has 4 beats in the measure)
02. The pattern in the blocks will repeat while a piano roll sequence is playing. For example, If you set a kick to go off on each beat, but you assign a piano roll pattern to an instrument in this pattern to go for 8 beats, the 4 beat kick pattern will repeat once over the 8 beat intrument pattern (will explain better later..)
03. This little slider adjust the swing, When set all the way left, there is no swing, when all the way right, each beat is heavily accented and the notes in between each beat are kind of grouped together in a kind of triplet feel.
04. Graph editor - Controls note velocity, cut-off, resonance, ect.
05. Keyboard Editor - A worthless simplified version of the paino roll.
06. Clicking this little LED mutes the track beside it.
07. Adjusts the panning of the track (All the way left makes the sound play only in the left speaker, all the way right makes it only play in the right speaker) Defaults to center.
08. Adjusts the volume, default is 75%, and there is almost no reason it should go higher than that. Dont just go cranking up the volumes for no reason.
09. Sequencers, Add a note left clicking on one of these boxes with all a note there. Get rid of a note by right clicking. (the note will be the root for the song, more on that later) These are pretty much only used for drum tracks, you should use piano rolls for instuments. (more on that too..)
10. Drop down menu shows different sets of intruments, used for better organizing songs with alot'a synths, I dont ever use it though.
11. Little white "LEDs" show what note the sequencer is on while playing.
Drums I know, reading this is boring, so I'll give you a little something to do.
Make sure you are editing the first pattern. (make sure the little led display with "PAT" underneath it says 1)
See the kick instrument? Left click on the box at the beginning of each beat. Like so..
Hit the play button. You have just made an extremely basic drum beat.
Mess around with the drum instruments you see here, left click to add, right click to remove. Dont go overboard with the drums!
When you are ready to move on.. move on!
The top bar thing.. I dunno what to call it. 
01. These little buttons switch between the pattern in the step sequencer, and the entire song in the playlist.
02. Little slider to slide through the song.. :P
03. Play, Stop, and Record.
04. Adjusts tempo, just click and move the mouse up or down.
05. Selects a step sequencer pattern. Adjusted like tempo.
06. Playlist editor. (F5)
07. Step Sequencer. (F6)
08. Piano Roll (F7)
09. Browser. (F8)
10. Mixer. (F9)
Basslines Now you will learn how to add a bassline using the piano roll.
But, first, remove all the fiddling you did with the drums, or open a new project with File > Open.
Now, put a kick on each beat, and a hihat on each offbeat, and a clap on the 2nd and 4th beat. like so.
Click play to see how it sounds. Nice and simple. Now, for the bass. Right click on the snare, and go to Insert > BooBass. A screen will appear with the boobass settings, this synth is very basic, and only has 3 knobs, Treble, Bass, and Mid. Mess around with them if you like, and see what it sounds like with the little keyboard on the bottom.
Once you are done with that, right click on the BooBass and select Piano Roll, a window will appear, it will have a keyboard on the right, and a buncha empty slots. It appears a little daunting at first, but it isnt hard at all. Basically, on the big bunch of squares next to the keyboard, you place notes. The time goes from left to right when you click play. You place notes just like you did with the drums. But now, you can drag them around, and change the notes. Make something like this.
This makes an eighth note play on every offbeat at C5. Press play. Starting to sound like a song isnt it? I put the bass on the offbeat, so the mix doesnt get muddy, if I had the bass and the kick going at the same time they both take up a very similar frequency range, and things would get kind of muddy. The Kick-Bass pattern is a staple in most electronic music styles.
Now go to the next measure in the piano roll, place the same pattern at F5, then the next measure should be G5, and then F5 again, A simple I,IV,V progression. Click play. Didnt sound right did it? The drums only played during the first measure didnt they? Easy fix. Toggle the little box next to the arrow at the top right of the step sequencer. (Labeled with a 2 on the diagram). Press play, and the drums should repeat every measure.
Playlist Editor Press F5 to open the playlist editor. It looks kinda similar to the piano roll, but you organize patterns instead of notes. Place the pattern with the bass and drums you just made, which should have been pattern 1, so just click next to pattern one, and position it to take up the first 4 bars. Place another to take up the next 4 bars. Mouse over to the play button, but before you click play, toggle the little square with the word "SONG" next to it, to play the stuff in the playlist, instead of the one pattern in the step sequencer. Then click play. (You can click anywhere on the blackish horizontal bar with the numbers on it to skip around the song.)
Making A Good Synth Sound Time to program a nice lead synth!
01. Right click one of the instruments in the step sequencer and go to Insert > 3xOSC.
This synth has some pretty complex controls compared to BooBass. This synth has 3 synths that play at once. (Hence the 3xosc). Press some buttons on the little piano keyboard. By default, this synth is pretty plain sounding. Lets spice it up a bit.
02. Under Osc 1 click the shape that looks like a backwards N, this changes the wave of the sound to a rough saw shape, instead of a smooth sine. Still sounds pretty plain though doesnt it? Go ahead and change all the OSCs to this shape.
Osc stands for oscillator, it basically generates a very simple sound waveform in the shape you specify (The white buttons), This intrument, layers 3 oscillators over each other. The settings we just plugged are refered to as a Super Saw most of the time, these settings are very overused, and appear in hundreds of trance songs. Producers have grown sick of this preset, and most hate it to death. But, it will work for now.
The Knobs next to the osc are Volume, Pan, Course Tuning (1 note at a time), and Fine Tuning (around a cent at a time, up to 50 cents in either direction). By default, the Course tunning is set to have a 3 octave harmony, and the fine tunnings are all at 0 detune.
03. On Osc 2, very slightly adjust the Fine knob to the left, and on Osc 3, move it slightly to the Right.
This will create a chorus/flanger effect. The slight dissonance between the 3 oscillators makes the intument sound wider, fuller, and bit fatter.
04. At the top of the 3xOSC window, click on Misc, and toggle the box that says Porta.
This will make thesynth slide from note to note, mosts lead synths sound better with a subtle slide. The knob labled slide, changes the speed of the slide, leave it at default for now.
05. At the top right of the 3xOSC click on the box label FX, and drag your mouse slightly upward, so it says 1.
This routes the instrument through the first Effects channel. Press F9 to open the mixer. There should be a master, and a bunch of inserts, and 4 sends. The inserts are the places where you insert intruments to add effects, adjust volume, EQ, ect. The master add effects to the entire track. The sends are a little weird. Sounds can be sent here via plugin, or sometimes synths have options to send parts of the synth to one of the sends. I will explain the uses of the sends in a later lesson.
06. Click on Insert 1.
This is the insert you just routed your new synth too. All the way to the left. There is 8 things labeled from 1 to 8, these are the 8 slots for effects.
07. Click on the arrow next to one of the eight slots, and go to Select > Fruity Reverb.
Adds a reverb effect to everything in insert 1, which is only the lead synth we made.
08. On the new window click on the button in the very top right corner and go to Presets > Subtle.
This will change the settings of the reverb to something more subtle.
09.Now add an effect to slot 2, Insert > Delay 2. Set the preset to Stereo Effect, and adjust the Cut knob to a little less than half way.
The cut knob adjusts the effects low pass filter. This will make the higher frequencies the repeat be cut out, so the repeat isnt as pronounced as the note itself. Play around with the keyboard some more, see how it sounds.
The settings for the synth, and the effects. (Dont just copy this, there is another step, and valuable information in the above paragraph)
Now, to write the lead. Got to pattern 2. I felt like doing a corny major happy riff thing. So I did. (See the pattern below)Basically, its the root of the chord in that measure, the major 3rd, and the 5th, its basically and arpeggio of the Cmajor chord. And then, you select the lasso tool from the tools at the top of the piano roll, and select all of the notes. Hit Ctrl+c to copy, scroll over to the next measure and paster, drag the notes up to F6, so it transposes to an Fmajor arpeggio. Do that for the paste and transpose to G for the next measure, and then F measure for the last measure, a simple, happy sounding major lead. Now, place that pattern in the play list matched up with the second 4bars for pattern 1.
Hit play. The bass and drums should play, and then the lead should kick in the second time around.
FruityLoops FPC Tutorial - Part 1
by ultimate-guitar.com
Learning the basics of the Fruity Loops FPC generator will be the focus of this FL Studio tutorial. I'll show you how I use the FPC and set it up to create beats using input from your computer keyboard.
Start up Fruity Loops and load the FPC into a channel of the step sequencer. To do this press F6 to bring up the step sequencer, right click on a channel and select Insert then FPC. Now it will load up and you might notice that the FPC is based off the old MPC hardware sampler, drum machine.
Basically what you have is 16 pads on the right that can be loaded with a sample and triggered by clicking on each pad or routing it to a MIDI controller of some kind. And on the left there are 16 corresponding boxes of the pad note and cut group matrix. These set what MIDI note will play the sample you have in the same pad on the right side. For instance maybe you have Pad 1 in the lower right hand corner and the pad note/octave may be at C5 here C is the note and 5 represents the octave.
At the top it shows which pad you’re editing and the sample loaded in it. Also next to the Pad name you can set the volume and pan of each individual pad sample. If you want to load a different sample into a pad click the little folder icon in the lower right of the pad and browse for your sound.
Also at the top there is three tabs labeled Pads, Layer Properties, and Mixer. Pads is what we're working with now. Layer Properties allows you to set up various layers and sounds based on velocity changes. This tab can be tricky to use and I'll write a tutorial on using it in the future. And of course the Mixer allows you to boost and cut the volume of each pad as well as your usual mixing functions. However for now just focus on the Pads.
How I like to use the Fruity Loops FPC is by setting it up to be triggered by my computer keyboard. This way I can input beats live while recording then fix whatever needs adjusting in the Piano Roll editor. It gives a more human feel to the tracks when you’re actually playing the hits rather than laying everything out in the step sequencer.
First, I'll find the Kick Drum, snare, and a hihat on the FPC pads. By default mine are on pad 2, 3, and 5. It might be the same for you or you may have to load up your sounds or use different pads. It doesn't really matter what pad on the left side on FPC each sample is on, as the right side with the notes will determine which key will trigger that specific pad.
Make sure that you have the Typing keyboard to piano option is turned on. If not go to the top of FL Studio and select Options and make sure "Typing keyboard to piano" is checked.
Now you can use your computer keyboard as a MIDI input controller. Fruity Loops is set up at note/octave C4 starting at letter Z on your computer keyboard going up. For example letter Z = C4, X = C4, C = E4, and so on up the scale. The letters above these S,D,G,H,J, ect are your flat and sharp notes. Insert Fruity Keys into a channel after you've turned on Typing keyboard to piano and play around with it and you'll figured out how each key is mapped to the keyboard. Here's a useful little chart I made that shows each key and the NOTE/OCTAVE in red that it will trigger in FL. Print it out and use it as a quick reference for your Fruity Loops projects.
Now all you have to do is put whatever sample you want to trigger into a pad on the right of FPC and set it to the key that you want to use for it on the left note side.
Here I set Pad 2 as Kick drum on the right and as note C4 (which is key Z on the computer keyboard) on the right side of FPC. Pad 3 is Closed Hat note G4 (key B). Pad 5 is Snare set to note E4 (key C). You could just as easily use whatever keys on your keyboard you like for each. I like to set mine at least two keys apart on the keyboard as sometimes when they are right next to each other on my laptop keyboard they false trigger each other for some reason. With this I can play my Hi-Hat pattern on the B key and lay out the Kick and Snare hits with Z and C.
click to enlarge
Now you can set the tempo to your track hit record and play your beat or melody in real time. While not as responsive as a real MIDI controller it is great when laying down ideas and when you don't have or want to hook up your other MIDI gear.
If you’re interested in using the Fruity Loops FPC with a real MIDI controller to lay down your tracks check out these couple of controllers. They each have 16 pads laid out just like the FPC in FL Studio and can trigger the exact pad just as you see it on screen when using FPC.
Korg padKontrol
M-Audio Trigger Finger-16 MIDI Drum Control Surface
I've known a few people who had one of these MIDI controllers and they worked great with Fruity Loops for real time input in the FPC or any other VST instrument, generator, or plugin.
Until next time, stay classy San Diego... and Good Luck.
Fruity Loops - FL Studio REsource
The Piano Roll
Working in Greater Detail in the Piano Roll
by fltutorialz.com
To work at the greatest resolution in the piano roll go to the "options" menu and select "Project general settings".
For greatest detail change the "Timebase PPQ" to the highest numerical value, which is currently 768.
Be aware that changing this setting also makes greater magnification in the playlist also. From within the playlist simply change the zoom time to a level you're comfortable with. This is done by holding down left click on the zoom time button (circled below) and moving the mouse upward to zoom out or downward to zoom in.
I also have the "snap/quantization" set to "none" during fine work in the piano roll.
For very intricate sounds I set the zoom level at 1 which provides the greatest magnification. Simply hold down left click on the zoom time button (circled below) and move the mouse downward to zoom in.
There is much greater freedom and control over lengthening and shortening notes. It's great for groups of short rapid notes. By using extremely short note lengths you can have vast clusters of notes close together.
Here's an example ..
This technique allows you to place notes precisely between beats or anywhere for that matter. It can also be used to great advantage for snare rushes and making glitchy beats. Try experimenting a bit with things like super fast pitch bends.
