FL STUDIO BASICS

FL Studio User Interfaces

This section covers the main control interfaces in FL Studio. A video tutorial is also available on the FL Studio website.

Controls & Interfaces

This section contains notes about the interface controls of FL Studio. Hold the mouse pointer over everything and look at the Hint Bar while you do. Different icons will explain what actions are possible with that icon.

Hint bar

The Hint Bar shows help tips for items as you move the mouse cursor over them. In the screen shot above 'Mix level' shows the object the mouse pointer is currently over, and the icons to the right what actions are possible. There is an optional, larger, floating Hint panel revealed by the View > Toolbars > Hint bar setting. There is no better way to discover features in FL Studio.

Knobs & sliders

• Common Features - All knobs (wheels) and sliders in FL Studio behave similarly. To change the value of a knob or slider left-click the image and drag up/down (left/right for horizontal sliders).
• Fine Adjustments - To fine-tune the value of a control, hold the CTRL key while dragging OR hold down both mouse buttons and drag on the control.
• Snapping - Some controls (knobs and sliders) may pause at default and other useful places while you tweak them. If you want to avoid that behavior, hold down the SHIFT key while using a control.
• Quick Reset - Holding ALT and left-clicking a control resets it to its default value OR if you have a three button mouse (the scroll-wheel is often a button, press it and see if it clicks...'clicks', not cracks!), you can quickly reset any knob or slider to the default value by clicking on the middle mouse button as opposed to the standard right-mouse click and selecting 'reset' from the menu.
• Automation - Most knobs and sliders can be linked to external controllers OR internal controllers. Right-click the knob or control you want to automate and move a knob on your physical controller or select a link option from the menu.

LCDs

The value of the LCD control is normally set by dragging on the screen with your left mouse button up and down (just like a wheel). You can also increment or decrement the LCD value one step at a time: place your mouse pointer at the top edge of the LCD (to increment) or bottom edge (to decrement) the control - the pointer will change to show the increment or decrement cursor respectively (). Click to increment/decrement the LCD value.

Window menus

There are menu icons located in the top left corner of the Playlist, Channel Settings, Piano roll, Mixer and others. Left-clicking these will access the associated menu.

Menu items

Where you see the save drag icon [] associated with a Save item, you can click on the icon and drag the file to a compatible location in FL Studio (e.g. another Piano roll, the Browser, etc).

Scrollbars

Some Scrollbars (Playlist and Piano roll) have 'two dimensional scrolling' - drag them with your right mouse button (instead of the left, as usual) to move the view simultaneously in the horizontal and vertical directions.

Zoom

The Playlist and Piano roll have zoomable areas. Where zooming is possible you will notice a rectangular box. Click on this with your mouse and move up/down to change the zoom level.

1. Horizontal zoom - The box shows the state of zoom. Max: , Min:

2. Vertical zoom - Max: , Min:

Zoom resolution depends on the 'Timebase' (PPQ) settings in the General Project Options (F11). The higher the PPQ, the greater the resolution, although you will find the default setting of 96 PPQ to be adequate for most situations.

Presets

Right click on the double arrows () in the top right corner of Instrument or FX wrappers to bring up the preset menu. Select a preset from the list to load it. Left click on the right arrow to step forward and left arrow to step back through the preset list sequentially.

Wave displays

If you see a sample displayed in FL Studio, it can probably be left-clicked and dragged to another location such as a sampler channel or a another plugin that uses .wav files.

Multimedia Keyboards

If you have a multimedia keyboard you can use the Play/Pause button to Start/Pause FL Studio, the Stop button will stop FL Studio and return the song position marker to the beginning of the Playlist. The FF/RW buttons will jump between Playlist Time Markers if present.

Favorite folders

All open/import and save/export dialogs in FL Studio have a Favorites function to quickly jump to frequently used folders.

1. Favorites Combo Box - Contains a list with shortcuts to all favorite folders you have set.
2. Set As Favorite - Adds the current folder to the favorites.
3. Remove From Favorites - Removes the currently displayed folder in the combo box from the favorites list.