Fruity Loops Tutorial - Part 1
Okay, the first thing that you need to do before we do any magic is to launch FL Studio.
You will now notice several weird-looking windows around the screen; don't worry, it's all easy. If there is a tip-of-the-day screen, just close it.
Hopefully, you are looking at something that looks like this:
The first thing that you will probably notice is that FL Studio doesn't seem like the normal Windows applications that you are used to. Yes, this is true; you can quickly tell just by realizing that there is no X button at the top-right of the screen.
Well, take a look at the image above and spot a yellow rectange; yes, that's the Minimize/Restore/Close buttons that we were talking about, i wanted this to be clear to you because it might be very confusing for begginers.
Okay, I understood what that yellow marking was about. What about the purple one?
Well, I was just going to explain that...
As you have probably understood by now, Fruity Loops has many mini-windows inside it's workspace. Those mini windows serve as useful tools that you will be using when creating music. Each tool/mini-window is used for a certain function.
Yes, that's all good; but you still haven't told me what the buttons in the purple area do!
Maybe if you listened more and talked less, it would be better for both of us; I was just going to explain that! The 5 buttons that you can see in the purple area are buttons that toggle on/off the mini-windows/tools that i was talking about above. Let me give you a small example:
In the image above (and in your FL studio too), if you look to the left of the screen, you can see a list with items of different colours. At the top of the list you can see the word Browser and an X sign. This is a very basic tool/mini-window; you will be using it to import pre-created sounds in your music project.
Now, try clicking the close close (X) button of this mini window. Good, it's gone! Now what if you want to bring it back? Well, that's what the buttons in the purple area do! Each button represents a mini-window; the button that represent's the Browser mini-window (the one that we just closed) is the 4th one, with the "SB" indication. Click it and watch as the Browser mini-window appears again!
Play around a little bit with the buttons in the purple area. Have a look at the very basic mini-windows that FL Studio will pop-up. I will show you all those 5 mini-windows and also give you an explanation of what each one does.
Part III: Your Weapons; the tools
They say an image is more than a thousand words; let me take advantage of it, look at the image below!
In the image above, I opened all the mini-windows. That is, you can see all 5 mini-windows/tools on the screen.
Yes, I know that you understood it; but just to make sure, I have to tell that the name of each mini-window is marked with a yellow color in the image.
You might notice that the Step Sequencer is the only mini-window that doesn't have a name on it; don't ask me, I really don't know why they did so...
Okay, let's have a look at what each mini-window is about!
Browser tool
The browser allows you to select through a categorized list of pre-created sounds/loops. For example, if you want to add a "Clap!" sound in your song then you will use the Browser to navigate through the pre-created sounds, find it and then import it. Try to click on a category and then on a sound in the Browser window, it is funny and addicting!
Step Sequencer tool
The step sequencer contains channels and dots. The channels are laid horizontaly and they are represented with a box that has the channel's sound-name on it. Next to the channels name, are the 16 channel's dots. Those dot's are actually clickable rectangle "lights" that tell FL Studio how many times the sound should be played during the loop.
In the Step Sequencer window above, the very first channel is marked with a Red; it also reads "Kick", this means that it is basically assigned to play a sound that is named "Kick".
Now, to the left of the Kick channel, you can see 16 buttons witch are marked with a Green in the image above. Those buttons are called "The Dots". You can actually click on them (left mouse-click turns a dot on, right mouse-click turns a dot off) to enable/disable them. By default, they are off; this means that you will not hear the sound of this channel unless you activate at least one of them!
The Playlist tool
This tool is used to specify the way that your individual sound patterns are played/combined. For example, here you can specify that for the first 5 seconds of your song, you will hear nothing but a strong kick/bass sound.
The Piano Roll tool
Here you will be actually be writing notes. This is a very easy-to-use and simultaneously helpful tool.
The Mixer
Part IV: Enough theory, let's make some noise!
Great, we are approaching the end of the first tutorial but I don't want to leave you with a bitter taste on your lips.
Let's make some noise before we meet again!
Okay, Launch FL Studio. Make sure that both the Browser and the Step Sequencer are open.
Now, play a little bit with the Browser tool and find a sound that you like...
You can find some cool sounds in the category Packs->Dance
Yes, i know it's addicting to try to make music by clicking on the sounds but stop doing that and let's continue.
Now, click on the sound that you like and by hondling the mouse down and moving it, drag the sound onto the Step Sequencer.
I demostrate this in the image below (the sound should be moved to the green area):
Good, now you have added that sound. There's just one last thing that you need to do, and it's really simple and fun!
In the Step Sequencer play a little bit with the Dot buttons by turning them on and off. Don't worry about anything.. just randomly pick a few and turn them on/off.
An example is the image below:
Voila, you are ready to listen to your brand new sound production! Just click on the PLAY button witch is located on the top-middle of the screen!
Well, depending on your music-production experience and on your character too, you might be really impressed and fulfilled with satisfaction or you might be like "heh, funny".
Well, whatever the case, this was the very first introduction tutorial on the FL Studio series. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as i did writing it!
Again, thank you; have a good time, always listen to music and take care!
Click Here to read part two now!
