Fruity Loops Tutorial - Part 2
In this tutorial I will show you what you need to do in order to create some very basic beats. The purpose of this tutorial is not to cover every single feature of FL Studio; the purpose is to help you feel the satisfaction of creativity by creating your very first, personal beat. Apart from that, this tutorial will make you feel a little bit more familiar with FL Studio and hopefully pique your curiosity and increase your desire to learn more!
Let's Go!
Great, if you are familiar with everything that was covered in the first tutorial of the series(if not, it is highly recommended that you to go back and read it one more time) then you'll be ready!
Let me read the Fruity Loops Tutorial :: Part 1!
Part II: Fueling your imagination!
Okay, without loosing any more time, quickly launch FL Studio!
Now, you are probably looking at something that looks like this:
That's fine.
Now, the first thing that I want you to do is to look at the Browser window. As I explained in the previous tutorial, the list with the coloured items is a list with categories of pre-created sounds (which are also called loops).
Many people think that the built-in sounds that FL Studio comes with are really bad. Well, that's mostly true; however, anything will do for learning purposes.
With that said, let's open the Packs category and then open the Dance sub-category that is included inside the Packs. Just in case you are lost, simply do what your instict would tell you after you have readen this: Open Packs->Dance
Take a look at the image below:
The Packs Category is marked yellow.
Inside the Dance sub-category there could be other sub-categories or there could ultimately be what we are looking for: ready, premade sounds.
The sounds are marked with an orange coloring in the image above. You can actually listen to each sound by clicking it.. Play a little bit with them.
Now, what we need to do is to import one of those sounds (choose the one you like the most; in this example we will use the sound DNC_ClubKick) into the Step Sequencer.
As we demonstrated in the first tutorial, drag the Sound of your choice on the Step Sequencer window.
After you have done that, your Step Sequencer should look something like this:
You can actually see that we have added the sound of our choice.
Of course, as you have learnt in the previous tutorial, if you click the PLAY button right now, you will not hear anything. This is because all the Dots of all Sound Channels are off.
Let's change that, enable a few Dots and click on PLAY so that you can see the result. You can actually modify the Dots on the run and watch the results in real time if the PLAY button is pressed. (Please make sure that the PAT light next to the play button is activated )
Here's an example of how our Dots are set up:
Of course, your combination might be completely different!
Now let's continue; make sure that the Playlist window is visible (we learnt how to do this in the first tutorial of the series)
Done it? Good.
Take a look at the image below, it's the Playlist ...
If you look carefully, you will notice that the Playlist is mostly a list of elements that have a default name of PatternX and several boxes to their right.
The current Item that is selected on this list is always marked with an Orange color. As you can see in the image, the item that is currently selected is Pattern1.
Now let me explain something very IMPORTANT. Think of the boxes next to each pattern as boxes that indicate in what part of the song each pattern will be played. For example, if you want Pattern1 to be played for the approximately the first 3 seconds on of the song, then the first 3 boxes next to Pattern1 need to be filled!
You can fill a box by left-clicking on it and you can erase it by right-clicking on it. You can also drag an area with your mouse and paint several boxes!
Did you get it? No? Yes? Let me give you one more simple example:
If you want Pattern1 to be played (approximately)during the first 3 seconds and during the seconds 6-9 then you should only fill the boxes as i demostrate below:
Simple, isn't it?
Well, that was an important thing to learn but let's move on...
Go to the Browser window again and add another sound that you like in the Step Sequencer
I quickly picked the "DNC_Crash" and dropped in the Step Sequencer as you can see below.
All good so far. Now go to the playlist window and select Pattern2 from the list
Look at the Step Sequencer, surprise! All the Dots have been set to a default value!
Don't get mad; that's good for us!
In the Step Sequencer, go to the last sound channel that we recently added and modify the Dots.
Done? Good! Now go to the Playlist and mark the boxes 3-4 Next to the Pattern2. You should have something that looks like this now:
Okay, you are almost ready to listen to your creation! Make sure that the SONG light next to the PLAY button is activated and click the PLAY button!
Well, although it is clearly NOT the type of song that will put you on the top of the charts, you have already learnt many things today.
Now, you have a partial idea of how you can combine different sounds together and you also have a better understanding of what the playlist does and how you can use it to make your first tracks!
By using the steps we used above, you can spend a few hours experimenting and trying to make something that can actually be considered to be your first digitally-created song.
In this tutorial, you wrote a "song" that plays a sound for the first 3 seconds, then it pauses the first sound and it plays the second one for 2 seconds and then, the first sound is played again for 3 more seconds.
You can use an unimited number of sounds and an unlimited number of Playlist entries/patterns to achieve some very impressing results; even with the minimal knowledge that you have!
Part III: Closing thoughts
We could have covered alot more information on this tutorial; you probably have many new, unanswered questions too.
The aim of this tutorial was to give you a strong foundation from which to build. We focused on detail so that you can read this tutorial without any hassle. After all, we always say that Quality > Quantity; especially in the field of tutorials/education.
Once again, it was a pleasure to accompany you!
Until the next tutorial, I wish you endless hours of creativity and fun!
