FL STUDIO 20 Categories Dark green Mixer Pink Window Light green Piano roll Purple Pattern Yellow Playlist Dark blue Playback Orange Both Playlist & Piano roll Light blue Navigation Red Help No color Mixed Shortcut list Tips Press Ctrl/Cmd + F to activate Search field Press Ctrl/Cmd + (+) or (-) to maximize or minimize content. Music Production in FL Studio 20 - Make 3 Full Tracks - Manage FL Studio in Just One Day, Music, Mixing & Mastering Bestseller Rating: 4.7 out of 5 4.7 (4,498 ratings).

Always wondered about FL Studio and whether it might be the right DAW for you? In this article, we’ll have a look at FL Studio 20 to bring you a tutorial and a review. Keep reading to find out more.

What is FL Studio?

FL Studio is a digital audio workstation developed by the Belgian software company Image-Line.

It started almost like a game in its infant stage. FL Studio is a DAW that is easier to navigate and create music quickly. It features a graphical user interface based on a pattern-based music sequencer.

FL Studio was first known as Fruity Loops but they changed the name to FL Studio (Fruit Loops Studio) because the former name seems professional and less childlike. FL Studio can also be used as a VST instrument in other audio workstation programs and it also functions as a ReWire client.

Image-Line, who owns the software, also offers other VST instruments and audio applications. But it was the simple interface of FL Studio that brought it a huge number of fans, in particular the States. It is quite popular in the hip-hop community.

FL Studio has been used by countless Hip-Hop, Beat Makers and EDM producers and has established itself as one of the top five most popular DAWs on the market.

What can you do with FL Studio?

FL Studio allows you to load instruments and samples, including the ability to play these instruments live

or you can manually enter the notes and record external sounds. You can save the completed project and export to a Wav, MP3 or OGG audio file.

Although FL Studio had capabilities to run on Mac, it was quite glitchy and complicated. In 2018, Image-Line finally created a compatible version FL Studio for Apple Mac users. Therefore you can now run FL Studio on your Mac Book Pro with full VST and AU support!

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Getting Started & Pricing

At the entry-level, you have FL Studio Fruity Edition. This is a great way to start out with a DAW such as FL Studio. It features a limited playlist, no audio clips and no audio recording. But it is a great price at only $99.00

FL Studio Producer Edition is an All-in-one virtual studio. This edition will cover all your music production needs in one simple to use location. For a budding or seasoned music producer with a bit of a budget, I would strongly suggest this edition.

It has full song creation & mic recording features including audio recording full playlist and 7 additional native plugins. This edition goes for $199 with a lot provided for your buck.

Next is the FL Studio Signature Bundle, which is a combination of FL Studio Producer Edition including some signature plugins. It features audio recording with full playlist and an increased 14 additional native plugins for $299.

If you are a producer that likes to collect countless synths and plugins, the All Plugin Bundle would work for you. It is priced at $699.

If you want to try out FL Studio before purchasing, you can try their free demo version which includes all of the program’s features. It includes all VST plugins and allows users to render project audio to WAV, MIDI, MP3, and OGG.

Download the free version here.

Setting Up

MIDI

Setting up MIDI to FL Studio can seem a bit daunting at first but it is quite simple once you become familiar with the interface. First, FL Studio needs to recognize that your MIDI keyboard is connected to your computer before you will be able to use it. If needed, you will be prompted to install the latest drivers for your keyboard and follow the instructions in the owner’s manual before proceeding.

To manage MIDI connections for FL Studio, you need to navigate to the MIDI Device menu. From this point, you can activate or deactivate the MIDI ports or channels of your hardware.

First, you need to click the “Options menu” from the top toolbar, then click MIDI Settings.

The next step is to go in the MIDI Options window, go to the Input settings section. You can select your MIDI keyboard and click Enable. If you happen to see the input named USB Audio Device, you should enable that, and change the controller type to Generic Controller. Finally, you should press a key or pad to confirm you’re getting a MIDI signal.

Audio Interface

To set up an audio interface with FL Studio, you will need to connect the cable that came with your audio interface to the interface and to your computer. Next step is to set your sound settings. You can do this by going to the same drop-down menu by going back to “Options” then select Audio.

From the drop-down box similar to the MIDI set up box, you can select your interface. Example, Focusrite or other default settings, including FL Studio. Although I am connected to my Focusrite, I tend to keep it on FL Studio. But you can play around with it and listen to the difference in the sounds.

Once your keyboard is set up, you can select it in FL Studio, and start working with FL Studio.

Let’s Talk Main Windows Flexibility

The FL Studio DAW has numerous windows. Most of these windows are movable, resizable, zoomable and easily interchangeable.

The main windows in FL Studio music creation are as follows:

• Playlist (F5)
• Channel rack ( F6)
• Piano roll (F7)
• Mixer(F9)

The Browser is used to access audio files, plugins & presets. You can press Alt+F8 to access the browser. The flexibility with the windows makes it quite easy to navigate between the different sections while creating – ideally have a large monitor screen or dual screens are best so you don’t have to keep flicking between windows and set up everything so essential gear can be accessed quickly.

Powerful New Features In Version 20

FL Studio recently celebrated their 20th anniversary.

To celebrate their 20th anniversary they skipped versions 13-19 and went straight to 20. With their 20th version came countless new features. Including the ability to render (freeze). You can create and save complete multi-track music projects & arrangements with their complete layouts of automation and pattern clips.

In addition, there is Plug-in delay compensation that ensures a smooth mixing experience. You’ll also enjoy an updated version of Graph Editor, Precomputed FX, an upgraded Channel Sampler, including a variety of new and updated plug-ins.

Powerful & Convenient

Image-Line FL Studio 20 has a full-featured melody and loop creation capabilities.

This includes audio sends, sidechain control, advanced automation, multi-touch support, and much more to boot.

The Piano Roll makes arranging and sequencing quite easy to accomplish. The playlist is very flexible and allows you to use Automation and Note data. Workflow is super-fast due mainly to FL Studio’s browser. A unique capability of FL Studio is the ability to use third-party VSTs.

Therefore making it extra powerful beyond its already powerful capabilities. This is quite an impressive quality and another selling point.

Advanced MIDI Music Production Capabilities

It’s very flexible loop-creation tools let you time-stretch, beat-slice, chop and edit mix your audio with ease.

Including, up to eight different effects can be added to each track, in addition to being routed to any of the other audio tracks.

There are a wide variety of effects that are already added to spark instant inspiration. Including effects such as:

• Delay
• Distortion
• EQ
• Filtering
• Reverb
• Phasing
• Flanging
• Chorus
• Vocoding

You can use the software just as a drum machine, beat maker or access the drum samples in conjunction with other high-quality instrumentals such as transistor bass and lead synths. Easy access to mastering tools like multiband compression/limiting and parametric EQ are also included.

Automation & Music Production Support

Fl Studio also has very slick automation features. It’s quite fluid with various ways to manipulate automation to allow you to breathe life into your songs and musical creations.

Among the other new features, FL Studio 20 also updated several of its signature features and plugins.

1. You can customise the browser to make it easier to navigate back and forth during the creative process.
2. Fruity Reverb 2 now includes a modulation section that adds some of that cool classic metallic ring modulation to your sound.
3. FL Studio’s very unique sample chopper and beat arranger Slicex has been updated with new slicing and send options.
4. The main window features such as Channel rack, Playlist and Browser can be clicked on or off. Therefore decluttering the DAW’s creative workspace is much easier to accomplish.
5. Automation can be added to the Playlist later.
6. The mixer in FL Studio is customisable with channel width and number of controls on display.
7. FL Studio 20 Producer version comes with 80 VST plug-ins which can be added to the Channel rack by hitting the + button and then selecting from a drop-down menu. This cool new feature makes it easier to add plugins rather than navigating away from the Channel rack.
8. Piano roll editor now features plenty of melodic editing options within the Piano Roll editor.
9. All of the settings are in one window via lots of tabs. Therefore you can set up everything you need for more fluidity.

FL Studio vs Ableton vs Logic

FL Studio is a quality DAW that’s not in question, with easy accessibility to numerous sounds in addition to ease of use to quickly create a musical idea.

It has more than enough effects to perform the highest level tasks. As a long time owner and user of FL Studio, there are so many other segments to this all in one powerful DAW.

You can keep discovering something new, years after owning it. One of their best synthesizers and my go-to synth in FL Studio is Systrus. This is a hybrid FM and additive synth with a wide sound palette.

FL Studio might best be compared to other DAWs such as Ableton or PreSonus but its features are more flexible. There isn’t the go-to DAW for producers or composers of a certain genre of music.

Therefore it might not have the unlimited number of track capabilities such as Logic, but it has both PC and MAC capabilities.

While Ableton seems to have a better MIDI controller support and less learning curve with most of its synths, FL Studio 20 has a lot of easily accessible sounds. Including easy to navigate windows to quickly come up with creative ideas.

There are so many sounds in the earlier edition of FL Studio and with FL Studio 20 there is a lot more to choose from.

Specs

• Bit Depth:
• 64-bit
• Format:
• VST2, VST3, AU
• Hardware Requirements – Mac:
• Intel Core Duo or higher, 4GB RAM or more recommended
• Hardware Requirements – PC:
• Intel Core Duo / AMD Athlon 64 or higher, 4GB RAM or more recommended
• OS Requirements – Mac:
• macOS 10.13.6 or later
• OS Requirements – PC:
• Windows 8.1 or later.

Conclusion

It would take you a while to even begin to scratch the surface. Another bonus and reason to get FL Studio 20. It has free updates for lifetime use, which other software brands don’t offer as you only normally get discounted upgrades from the purchase price, which some people criticise and stop them from upgrading.

FL Studio 20 is a great DAW for both, beginners and professional producers. Especially if you are into making beats and genres such as Hip Hop & EDM productions. You should definitely get this super cool All-in-one DAW by Image-Line.

• Industry news and tips
• Opportunities to submit your music and collaborate with others
• Free software and resources
• Free membership to Music Gateway

Mixer Fl Studio 20

• Licence your music to Films, TV and Ads
• Manage your music and metadata
• Submit music to labels and publishers
• Create playlists to showcase to A&R reps
• Collaborate with others and pitch for work
• ...and so much more!

• 5GB+ of samples
• VST plugins
• Midi production files and templates
• Industry guides and how-tos
• Spotify curator list
• ...and so much more!

Mixer Fl Studio

There are various ways to control your own sound levels on FL Studio.

Actually, hearing yourself in the record mode is actually a helpful thing. Most of the artists use this on purpose.

However, sometimes for a specific reason, we need to lower our own sound or mute it completely.

I will explain the ways on how to not hear yourself on mic in FL studio.

In order to not hear yourself when recording in FL studio, follow these steps:

1. Open FL studio
2. Open the mixer
3. Select master channel
4. In the plugins section, in the very top open select menu and select (none).
5. Now select the track in the mixer that you want to record in.
6. Open the same menu selection in the top plugin section as you did in step 4, just do this in your current track and select the input channel that your microphone is connected to.

Control your sound level when recording in FL studio

In some cases, you may not want completely mute yourself, but maybe just adjust your sound level a little, so you would not be loud in the record mode.

There are two ways to not hear yourself on mic when recording in FL studio:

A. Control an output level. This means to control the sound that you are actually hearing when recording.

In order to achieve it, follow these steps:

1. Open FL Studio
2. Open the mixer
3. Click on the track that your instrument is recorded to.
4. Adjust the volume

B. Control an input level. This means to control the sound that is being recorded to the mixer. For example, if you mute input level completely, you will simply have a silent record and you won’t be able to hear anything after.

In order to achieve it, follow these steps:

1. Connect an instrument to the audio interface
2. Start the track in record mode
3. Find an input sound level control knob of your current channel that your instrument is being recorded.
4. Adjust the sound as you want.

Why do you hear yourself when recording?

You hear yourself when recording because when you start to play the song on record mode, your vocals are sent to the channel that translates the sound in real-time.

Do you need to hear yourself when recording?

As a reference, remember someone who likes to sing when listening to music with headphones.

Do you enjoy how they sing?

Usually, they sound terrible, due to the fact that they don’t hear themselves and their brain believes that they are doing a great job because they only hear the music played on their headphones.

When professional singers try to record themselves, they want to hear themselves in order to hear all the details about their tonality, pronunciation, phrasing. Also, they need to hear some of the other instruments to have a sense of what is playing and how do they fit in in the track.

In these scenarios, headphones really help since you can control the sound level of a recorded instrument (microphone as an example) and modify the other instrumental tracks sound level as well.

It is a good practice to hear yourself. When bands do their live shows, vocalists usually ask for monitors (speakers that are facing the band) to be set as they could hear themselves live on how they are doing.

Even DJs want to hear themselves in the club as clear as possible, so they can make song transitions smooth and without mistakes. They have to rely on how the songs transition sounds at the moment and if they need to make some adjustments to it.

How to play a specific part of the track when recording?

If you want to hear only the best part, for example, you can manage this in the mixer. You can select the tracks that you want to mute, then set the sound level to zero, and you will stop hearing them. In this way, you can control what to hear and what not to hear when recording the track. You can manipulate it in any way you need using the mixer volume channels.

Conclusion

I hope this article did help a bit to control your sound when recording in FL Studio.

Furthermore, I’ve covered some of the questions that are related to the topic to give you a broader understanding of not only how to do it, but also to tell you if it is recommended to cut your own sound while recording and how other artists approach this topic.