10 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started FL Studio

FL Studio displays stereo audio with left and right channels summed together, making precise editing of doubled guitars, drums, vocals, and synthesizers very tricky.

Double left click to open the wrapper, right click on the waveform, select multi-channel waveform view to split the signal into separate left and right displays.

• Isolate one drum hit and move it around • Create vocal stutters or glitches • Cut out specific sections while preserving them in clipboard history

Isolate just the left or right channel using the audio editor, convert channels to mono, and apply effects independently to achieve professional-level precision and detail.

Right click on the sample and select edit in audio editor to see both left and right channels visualized as separate color traces (red for left, blue or white for right).

Use Tools menu to convert the left or right channel to mono, which removes the unwanted signal entirely and pans the desired channel to the middle.

• Drums: isolate and pitch shift individual drum hits • Vocals: apply effects only to harsh or dull backing vocal sides • Synths and guitars: isolate one side and apply independent effects

These precise edits and attention to detail often make the difference between an amateur-sounding track and a professional-level production.

Go to browser, navigate to library, piano roll scripts, and download the text to chord progressions script in one or two seconds.

• Select an instrument and open the piano roll • Go to Tools menu and select text Accord progression • Paste in any chord progression and select the desired chord length • Click accept to generate the progression automatically

Experiment by adding more notes to make progressions more interesting, and consider replacing the instrument with arpeggiated or different sounds.

Excellent for learning music theory, studying remixes, and working on cover songs by quickly generating and experimenting with chord progressions.

Right click on a sample and select detect Tempo, set the range from 75 to 150 beats per minute, and FL will identify the exact tempo of the sample.

Ignore decimal places in the detected tempo result, as these are usually rounding errors.

For samples with unknown keys like unmarked 808s, right click edit and open Pitch corrector to see exactly which note it is on the piano display.

For chord samples, load the Wavecandy plugin on the mixer, pause on any chord with the middle mouse button to identify which notes and harmonics are present.

Enable the metronome and press Play, then spend a minute warming up and practicing what you want to record to get comfortable and generate ideas.

Use Tools menu, select score log to selected pattern to capture the last 2 to 30 minutes of MIDI performance into the piano roll automatically.

• Keep human feeling in the performance by not over-quantizing • Cut out unnecessary sections after recording • Works for both MIDI keyboard and drum pad performances

Particularly useful for handling latency issues when recording MIDI drums by turning off metronome and recording while capturing the desired groove.

Keep Edison running on the master track with input set to three minutes to continuously record all audio passing through the master channel.

Always captures experimental effects processing and creative moments that might be difficult or impossible to replicate, preserving them on a loop.

Select desired chunks from the recording and drag them into the playlist to save cool sounds or effects that were discovered during recording sessions.

Eliminates the need to perfectly capture everything in real-time and allows focus on creativity without pressure, knowing audio is always being backed up.

Channel racks easily become overloaded with tracks during production or mixing sessions, making it difficult to find and work with specific instruments.

Select multiple channels and press Alt or Option G to create a named group, organizing related instruments together in a collapsible section.

• Create drum groups for focused drum programming • Group vocals together for cohesive vocal editing • Use pre-existing automation and audio groups • Create instrument-specific groups like cello or strings

Select a group to display only those channels on the channel rack, allowing focused work on specific elements without visual clutter.