[QUOTE=napalmbob;146892]Since there are alot of Ableton/Reaktor/Reason/Logic/Cub

ase tips and tricks threads on alot of forums, I thought I'd (attempt to) start
an FL Studio tricks thread here.
TIP 1: Split By Channel
Once you have created a pattern in the step sequencer with a few different instr
ument channels (ie: kick, snare, hats, etc), goto the PLAYLIST, right-click the
pattern, select SPLIT BY CHANNEL, and hey presto! Each instrument is placed into
its own pattern and renamed accordingly.
TIP 2: Live Mode
Create a few different patterns (drum tracks, basslines, melodies, etc), go to t
he PLAYLIST, click the little drop-arrow in the top left (called Playlist Option
s), select LIVE MODE.
Now, the fun part: hit the RECORD button then PLAY and use the little arrows at
the left of each pattern to turn the patterns on and off. When you have made you
r basic song arrangement, hit STOP and the arrangement will appear in the playli
st for you to tweak and edit.
TIP 3: Cut Groups
Create an instrument in the step sequencer, this can be a VSTi or you could just
drag a sample over from the Browser. FL should automatically open up a little w
indow called 'Channel Settings'. At the top there are a couple of tabs labeled P
lugin, Misc and Func (or Smp, Ins, Misc and Func for a sample). In the Misc tab
on the right is a section labelled Cut and Cut By. Lets put this to use:
Drag in an open and a closed hihat sample. We're going to use the closed hat to
cut the tail of the open hat. Put in a simple house pattern:
ie: closed = xx--xx--xx--xx--, open = --x---x---x---x-, you get the idea.
Go to the Misc tab of the Channel Settings window of the Closed Hihat and click
the CUT ITSELF button. It should say Cut 1, Cut By 1. Now go to the Open Hihat w
indow and click the same button, it should say Cut 2, Cut By 2. Change the Cut B
y number to the same number as the Closed Hihat (ie: 1).
Using this technique any instrument can cut out the sound of any other instrumen
t.
TIP 4: Easy Arpeggiator
Load up a VSTi in the step sequencer (or drag in a sample), a short, plucky soun
d works best. Right-click the instruments name in the step sequencer and choose
'Piano Roll' at the top of the list. Draw in a few notes (you can use chords if
you want) in a simple 4-bar progression, each note one bar long.
Go to the Channel Settings window for your VSTi/sample, select the Func tab. Hal
fway down there is a section labelled Arpeggiator. The row of black buttons choo
ses the direction, the rest are pretty self-explanatory (especially if you look
at FL's help-text window in the top left of the screen). The time knob works as
a multiplier (ie: 1.00 = 16th steps, 2.00 = 1/8th steps), gate shortens the soun
d, range is the range of octaves the arp will cover, repeat repeats each note, c
hord selects a chord to play (as if if you held down a chord on your keyboard).
TIP 5: Remote Control
Open a new project and look in the Browser panel, near the top of the list is th
e Current Project folder. Inside are the History, Automation and Remote Control
folders.
If we create a Generator or Effect their relevant folders will appear in this Cu
rrent Project folder. Lets open up a VSTi synth, like Synth1. If you open up the

newly created Generators folder and select Synth1 you should now see a list of
all its parameters. The same can be done for any Effect plugins as well.
To assign a control on our MIDI controller to a parameter of our synth, just rig
ht-click the control on the list (the Remote Control Settings window will open),
and tweak/press the control. If you want to remove or alter any assigned contro
ls they are located in the Remote Control folder. Just left-click to open the Re
mote Control settings window. Click the Reset button down the bottom to un-assig
n the control. Also, clicking the drop-arrow in the Mapping Formula box lets you
change how that control affects that parameter.
TIP 6: Sidechaining and the Peak Controller
The Peak Controller uses the level of one signal to generate an internal control
ler message. By routing this message to remote control a parameter on a plugin y
ou can emulate a sidechain system.
The best example is sidechaining the kick drum to the EQ of a bass so that the t
wo sounds don't share the same frequencies at the same time.
Firstly, set up a simple house-style kick and bass pattern. Route each generator
to a separate mixer channel. On the kick drum's channel insert the Peak Control
ler effect, on the bass insert a parametric EQ. Unmute the Peak Controllers outp
ut and adjust the Base to 50% and the Volume to -200%.
Now right-click any gain control on the bassline's Paramteric EQ and select the
'Link to controller' option. Up springs the Remote Control Settings window. In t
he middle is the Internal Controller box, select the 'Peak ctrl (*mixer channel
name*) - Peak' option. The EQ band should now be dropping down with every kick d
rum hit and then rising back up.
Adjust the EQ settings (ie: bell curve with a low Q and set around 10Hz), and al
so the Decay and Tension settings on the Peak Controller to taste. Of course, yo
u could link more than one band to the Peak Controller.
TIP 7: The Fruity Sampler
When you're laying down your next 'Phat Beat' (TM), you'll probably start by dra
gging some samples from the browser into the step sequencer, doing this automati
cally creates the Fruity Sampler plugin. Let's have a closer look.
Under the title bar are the Pan and Volume controls, these knobs are also shown
next to the Generator channel on the step sequencer and mirror their settings. N
ext is the pitch bend knob and the bend range LCD, which responds to you pitch b
end controller, and can go upto 48 semitones either way and applies to all the s
ampler instances. Finally, we have the mixer channel selector LCD (labelled FX).
Under these are the selection tabs, labelled with SMP, INS, MISC and FUNC for Sa
mple, Instrument, Miscellaneous and Special Functions. We are just going to look
at the first two:
The Sample Tab: here we have the Load Sample button and the sample name box, cli
ck on the box to see a list of recently loaded samples (handy when auditioning s
amples in context).
Next is the Wave section, this has some important funtions: Keep On Disk plays t
he sample from your hard disk rather than from memory, I usually turn this off.
Resample resamples the sample (*phew) into 44.1kHz, 16bit (this should be turned
off to save CPU, especially if you use a higher sample rate). The next two, Loa
d Regions and Load ACID Markers are only useful if you want to load REX or ACID
drum loops, turn these off if you want (FL has two slicers, so its a legacy feat
ure).

The Loop section applies to samples with loop regions, keep Use Loop Points on i
f you are using a pre-looped sample (like the string sounds that came with FL St
udio). The Ping Pong Loop button toggles between forward looping (off) and pingpong looping (on).
Next up, the Time Stretching section, this is where all the fun shit happens . T
he Pitch knob adjusts the samples pitch without affecting its length (like it wo
uld if you just played the sample at a note), this isn't linked to pitch bend li
ke the previous pitch knob. The Multiplier knob adjust the sample length based o
n sample size, and the Time knob adjusts length based on the projects tempo (rig
ht-click for some presets). The box selects the algorithm used, when pitching vo
cals for special effects just try the different types to hear how they affect th
e sound.
The Precomputed Effects section also adjusts the sample in RAM, so neither this
section nor the Time Stretching section can be automated (*aww). All the buttonoperated effects are self-explanatory (except fade stereo, which pans the sample
from the left speaker to the right speaker). The In and Out knobs fade the samp
le in and out. Pogo is a pitch bend applied to the sample. CRF loops the sample
by crossfading the start and end together. Trim is like a low-level noise-gate,
this knob controls the threshold (higher settings = less 'silence').
The last section displays the waveform of the sample as it is stored in you comp
uters RAM, so altering the Time Stretching or Precomputed Effects sections will
change how it looks. The little boxed number is the bit depth and the other icon
represents mono or stereo (one box or two). Clicking the waveform previews the
sample and you can drag-and-drop to/from the waveform as well.
The Instrument Tab: here we have five sub-tabs: Pan, Volume, Cutoff, Resonance a
nd Pitch. All except Pan feature an Envelope and LFO.
The Envelope is turned on by altering a control, turn it off by clicking the but
ton next the Time button. The knobs control Delay, Attack, Hold, Decay, Sustain
and Release. The Cutoff, Resonance and Pitch sections also have an Amount knob.
The Time and TNS (tension) buttons select between editing the envelope or editin
g the tension of the curve of each envelope section. Time has red lines, tension
has purple lines. The lines of the other sub-tab envelopes are shown in grey. T
he breakpoints can also be grabbed with the mouse pointer. The TB button engages
tempo-based time for the envelope.
The LFO features controls for the Delay, Attack and Speed of the LFO. Turning th
e Amount knob right increases the amount of LFO going to that parameter (ie: pan
, cut, pitch, etc). Turn it to the left to invert the LFO. The TB button engages
tempo-based time and turning the Global button on makes the LFO run globally (i
e: instead of being retriggered with each note-on).
Also, there is a single seven-mode, multi-mode filter whose parameters are avail
able from every sub-tab.
...more to come.[/QUOTE]