How do YOU use FL Studio? (title changed for controversy)

[SonicThHedgog]

I start with my drums(if its house or any other electronica genre) and..... will edit later

[Nabeel Ansari]

I start with my drums(if its house or any other electronica genre) and..... will edit later

I thought you used Ableton?

This isn't a how you write your music thread, this is a HOW YOU USE FL STUDIO thread.

[Modus]

Christ, neblix, workflow is a universal thing. i'm still shocked on a daily basis how defensive you are over FL Studio.

[SonicThHedgog]

I thought you used Ableton?

This isn't a how you write your music thread, this is a HOW YOU USE FL STUDIO thread.

I do use ableton, but i use fl for loops and compressing kicks cause im to lazy to Ctrl-D in ableton(clicking>Ctrl-D any day), but ableton does have a sequencer, but i use fl not only for loops, when i rewire(rarely) i can do quick midi arps in fl faster then in ableton and use the Boobass and Direct wave to avoid resampleing(altho i should buy it to use in any daw since i use Cubase, and Protool as well ).

And i (and some other artist for electronic music) usually start there work flow on drums.

( I will edit my other post tommorow)

[Nabeel Ansari]

Christ, neblix, workflow is a universal thing. i'm still shocked on a daily basis how defensive you are over FL Studio.

Read the first post, and read the title of the forum (i just changed it for more clarity since people don't read OP's). I'm not defending FL Studio, I'm defending the freakin thread.

The purpose of this thread is for people to learn about different ways to utilize the tools in FL Studio. If I wanted to ask about general workflows, I wouldn't have put it in the FL STUDIO sub forum.

You wanna talk about Reason, there's a forum for that.

[Nabeel Ansari]

what applies to FL applies to Reason, Ableton, etc.

No, because again I am not asking about how you write your music. I am asking about how you use FL STUDIO.

How you write your music is irrelevant. The point of this thread is to teach newbies how they can use FL Studio, because unlike all of the other DAWs that you are pointlessly defending (because I am not even attacking them), they only have one way you can work with them. FL Studio doesn't, and this thread is for the people who get intimidated by it's lack of guided flow. If you want a how to write music thread, there's a music composition & production forum with a shiny New Thread button on it.

I am getting worked up, by the way, because you don't seem to understand that I'm not disagreeing with you.

As for why restrict the discussion, I am restricting it because this thread is in the FL Studio forum.

You know WHERE YOU TALK ABOUT FL STUDIO?

[Tensei]

I just use protools.

[Chernabogue]

I only use Midi patterns. I know, it is bad.

[Nabeel Ansari]

I only use Midi patterns. I know, it is bad.

MIDI Patterns aren't bad at all; it's the entirety of my workflow. It's also kind of what FL Studio is designed for; that is easy midi sequencing.

[EC2151]

MIDI was the only way I could actually figure out the damn rhythm to Samasa Desert for Hylian Lemon's project.

Other than that, though, I try to avoid using midis- I tend to shoot from the hip/go by ear.

[Nabeel Ansari]

MIDI was the only way I could actually figure out the damn rhythm to Samasa Desert for Hylian Lemon's project.

Other than that, though, I try to avoid using midis- I tend to shoot from the hip/go by ear.

Yep, me too.

[warfighter67]

Since I don't have a keyboard, I do everything in the piano roll

I usually start out with a chord progression, improv a melody, stick a drum beat over it, and start with that. Often times what I make better suits the first verse or chorus of the track I'm making, so I then proceed to make an intro, and verse, and so on until I find a place that my first pattern fits. I have each section in a single pattern (verse, chorus, etc), and clone them to add fills/transitions to the next section. Many of my song do not follow the usual Intro-verse-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-etc, and usually end up ending a totally different song then I started out with. I do not name my patterns or tracks.

For mixing, (drums take forever to mix sometimes, so I do that before even starting the song), I start by adding all of the effects to my drums, testing various drum loops and patterns to test the quality of my mix. Everything else, I tend to mix on the go. For any non-bass instrument, I cut out everything under 60-100Hz, and for some bass (if not acoustic bass), I cut everything or lower it a lot above 1kHz or so.

[Turtle]

My method in the short time I've been using the software is rather similar to warfighter's, although I do have a piano which I play to get a rough idea of the tune I want before I plug the notes into the piano roll.

For most of my songs I work in 4/4 time, but occasionally I'll venture into 3/4 or even 5/4.

I tend to work with synthetic sounds rather than acoustic ones, but I'll always have a soft spot for the piano - especially its low notes, which have that lovely unique sound to them. Anyway, I'll usually start with three or four instruments and a basic drum kit (kick, hat, and snare), and expand from there. Patterns are usually one, two, or four measures in length, and I rarely have more than one instrument playing in a single one; I find that this allows for the most variation in the song itself.

I don't really do much mixing, seeing as I have no idea how. I usually just stick on a Reverb and EQ, even though I don't know how to use them very well.

[Nabeel Ansari]

Some great contributions so far, lots of different workflow ideas. I'll admit I like mine the best, but that's because everyone works in their own way. Thanks for posting in this thread, guys, because newer people can learn a lot from the workflows of others.

[DDRKirby(ISQ)]

http://www.mediafire.com/?n9awexh8artwo2c

something like that, anyways.

[PROTO·DOME]

mouse musician REPRESENT

FUCK YEAH AMEN! I hear ya' brother.

Also, I hate putting my pattern blocks in the audio thingy, it's uncomfortable, unnatural and a sin against God. Y u no show me all my MIDI tracks in the pattern audio section bit?

Proetoes <3 Pattern blocks 4evar 2k11.

[xzin]

Thank you Neblix, you taught me how to group my individual drum parts in the mixer. *applause*

[Guifrog]

I mess everything up. Everything that I put is in the same category ('unsorted', except for audio and automation clips), everything's piano roll'd, the way I put the patterns in the playlist varies a lot no matter the instrument, I don't use blocks, I don't colorize the instruments I put on the Mixer and normally I don't start creating music from the intro. ;P

[SonicThHedgog]

loops, export then work in ableton or cubase

[Nabeel Ansari]

Really, dude?

loops, export then work in ableton or cubase

Why not post the different ways we work in FL Studio to give ideas to more inexperienced members? They can try one of the many ones that could get posted in here and choose the one that works for them best.

The least you could do is write whatever you actually do in FL other than just write "loops".

[redtails]

A tip to beginners wanting to use plugins that support multiple midi channels like kontakt or EWQL.. the colours in pianoroll represent the midi port the data is sent to.

Left-top is midi port 1, right from that is midi port 2, etc, the second row starts at midi port 5, all the way up to 16. Midi-routing is limited to that channel, so you can have two or more channels each with 16 separate midi ports, without them interfering with one another. One Fruity Wrapper can this way work as 16 separate VSTs. Using "processing -> connections", the audio made from each midi port can be sent to separate outputs, so you can still apply individual effects using the mixer.

That way, I don't have to have several instances of big RAM-eating plugins open and the magic of kontakt as a big sample-host actually works like it does in Cubase, with all the plus-points of FL

[Nabeel Ansari]

A tip to beginners wanting to use plugins that support multiple midi channels like kontakt or EWQL.. the colours in pianoroll represent the midi port the data is sent to.

Left-top is midi port 1, right from that is midi port 2, etc, the second row starts at midi port 5, all the way up to 16. Midi-routing is limited to that channel, so you can have two or more channels each with 16 separate midi ports, without them interfering with one another. One Fruity Wrapper can this way work as 16 separate VSTs. Using "processing -> connections", the audio made from each midi port can be sent to separate outputs, so you can still apply individual effects using the mixer.

That way, I don't have to have several instances of big RAM-eating plugins open and the magic of kontakt as a big sample-host actually works like it does in Cubase, with all the plus-points of FL

EDIT: never mind, it never worked like that for me. Having just tested it, i can confirm that this works.

Thanks for posting this, I was still using the old MIDI Out channel method until you came along. Was this a recent addition?

[SonicThHedgog]

Really, dude?

The least you could do is write whatever you actually do in FL other than just write "loops".

I do occasionally create tracks in fl when i want to use it vst's.

[redtails]

Thanks for posting this, I was still using the old MIDI Out channel method until you came along. Was this a recent addition?

I upgraded from fruityloops 6 to 9 a while back, and it was suddenly in there. So I guess it got introduced somewhere in between. That's not very informative of me, though lol. I discovered it by chance because my favourite colour suddenly didn't send signals to kontakt.

A quick google search reveals this: http://flstudio.image-line.com/help/html/pianoroll.htm#Pianoroll_ColorGroups

[DDRKirby(ISQ)]

I upgraded from fruityloops 6 to 9 a while back, and it was suddenly in there. So I guess it got introduced somewhere in between. That's not very informative of me, though lol. I discovered it by chance because my favourite colour suddenly didn't send signals to kontakt.

A quick google search reveals this: http://flstudio.image-line.com/help/html/pianoroll.htm#Pianoroll_ColorGroups

Nice! I've still been using the MIDI out method as well, though i do use note color when I want reverses in slicex.

Do you know any way of quickly changing the current note color that you're drawing in? Right now I'm having to resort to actually clicking on it, which is sort of a pain...

(also, S for pitch slide is super-useful, yay)