|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
FL Studio is an audio software program designed to create music from scratch or edit existing songs. The latest version (12) was released in September 2018. FL Studio has been around since 1996 and continues to improve. In recent years, it has become the go-to program for those who want to compose their own music. It is also extremely versatile and comes with tons of features. Let’s see below how FL studio 12 works.
Loads up FL STUDIO
You can download the free trial versions at www.FLstudio.com/trial. You will need a copy of Windows to use the program. After you have downloaded it, open the installation file that came with the download and follow the instructions. Once installed, launch FL STUDIO and click on “Welcome” to get started.
How to make music
The first thing you’ll notice about FL Studio is its interface. It looks like most other DAW programs, but it is actually very different. FL Studio focuses more on getting your ideas out than polishing them. That means you won’t see many tools for adjusting instruments or effects, nor will you find any faders. Instead, you are presented with dozens of tracks along the bottom and almost every window contains a track editor. Every instrument, effect and part is represented by a track.
Making Songs
The main way to make new music is through the Track Editor which is accessed by clicking on the tab labelled “Create”. This opens the Tracks palette where you start making music. Each track has three sections: Instruments, Effects and Parts. We’ll talk about each one now.
Instruments
Each instrument has five buttons above it. These buttons represent the number of notes played on a scale. Clicking on these buttons increases or decreases the note count. When all buttons are clicked, this adds extra notes to the current scale. For example, if there are only two buttons pressed, then C major would play two Cs followed by a G. By pressing all four buttons, you could add another A and B note to the mix.
FL studio effects Effects
Effects allow you to change the sound of certain parts of a song. There are over 100 built-in effects and more available online. If you scroll down the list, you’ll find additional options such as vibrato, reverb, delay etc. Simply click on the desired option and drag it onto a selected segment of the track. Dragging the effect outside of a segment deletes that section.
Parts
Parts let you combine multiple sounds together into one piece of music. You can easily switch between multiple parts within a single track. To do so, simply double-click on the name of the part inside the track editor. You cannot duplicate parts; therefore, if you want to include a second part later, remove the first one before adding the second.
MIDI sequencing
MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface and it allows FL Studio to connect directly to various electronic musical instruments. With this connection, you can play your computer-generated music along with your real-world counterpart. Connecting computers to synthesizers via MIDI is easy. Most software packages will guide you through the process. Just search Google for “how to connect Midi devices to FL Studio” or visit our website for step-by-step instructions.
Recording audio
The recording is done in real-time using the microphone. Try not to move around too much while recording because this may distort the sound. Also, be careful when speaking loudly near the mic.
Mixing
Mixing consists of combining several parts together. In order to do this, select an appropriate volume level for each part and adjust the balance among the different elements. You can also create loops using MIDI clips.
Sound design
Sound design is a creative area of the program. Using samples and loops you can create original songs without having to write actual code. Try creating a beat, sampling something and looping it until it becomes a unique pattern. Then, use your creativity to arrange these patterns into a full song.
In conclusion, FL Studio offers almost anything that you need to get started making music. It’s very intuitive, stable and powerful, which makes it ideal for beginners. However, if you’re looking for some advanced features then you might want to try other programs.
