PANELS

Transport Panel

The Transport Panel contains controls for playing, recording and setting song position and tempo.

1. Pattern/Song mode (L) - Switch between pattern and song mode. In pattern mode, only the current pattern is played, while in song mode the whole sequence in the Playlist is played. Right-clicking this control toggles the Playlist window.
2. Play/Pause ( Ctrl + Space) - Press the button once to play, again to pause. To Play/Stop use ( Space). When the record button is armed pressing Play starts the recording process. NOTE: There are also play buttons on the top bar of the Piano roll, Channel window / Step Sequencer and Playlist to aid workflow.
3. Stop ( Space) - Stops playback or recording. To pause playback use ( Ctrl + Space).
4. Record (R) - Switches between record and play mode. Right-click the record button to show the Recording Filter options (all items with a tick will be recorded, left-click to select items):
   
   
   • Automation - Select to record movements of knobs, sliders and switches by the mouse or from controllers. Turn this off if you want to adjust mixer track volumes, generator settings, etc. while recording external audio and you don't want those movements recorded.
   • Score - Select to record note data from keyboards, etc. Turn this off if you want to accompany a vocalist, for example, but don't want to record your keyboard performance.
   • Audio - Select to record audio.
5. Song tempo (larger digits) - Shows/sets song tempo. To set the Time signature use the Project General Settings. Right-click the LCD screen for some tempo presets & commands:
   • Tap - You can now tap the tempo in FL Studio. Click the tap command and you'll see the tempo tap window appear (you can have the song playing before you launch the tap tool). Click the tap icon repeatedly with the desired tempo in mind. You will see the tempo adjust to new levels after some taps. For best results, tap at least 10-16 times until the tempo is stabilized. Click the OK button to accept the new tempo.
   • 80bpm-160bpm - Some commonly used tempo presets.
   • Half speed - Play the song at half the current BPM setting. The value displayed in the Tempo LCD does not change when 'Half speed' it set. This is a temporary state to make it easier to record difficult note/event performances, making it easier to remember what the original tempo was after you are done.
   • Tempo fine tune (smaller digits) - This control lets you fine tune the tempo of the current project in measure of 1/1000 bpm. The value set here will be added to the base tempo. Note that it's not recommended to use that setting when starting a new song (it is better to use a whole number for your tempo). However, it can be used to match the exact speed of another song to be mixed in a FL Studio project (for making using existing sampled loops, 'cover songs', etc).
6. Pattern selector ( + /for next pattern/; - /for previous pattern/) - Shows/sets the current pattern. Right-click to show a pop-up menu of all patterns in the project. A maximum of 999 individual patterns can be created.
7. Song position slider - Shows/sets the current song position. Click and drag to move.