PIANO ROLL

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FL Studio Reference Manual
FL Studio's Piano roll has the well deserved reputation as the best Piano roll in the business. The Piano roll
Title Page sends note and automation data to plugin instruments associated with the Piano roll's Channel. This process is
known as 'sequencing'. There are a number of useful tools to help with complex score editing and other
What is FL Studio? manipulations as described below. Note pitch is displayed on the vertical axis and time on the horizontal axis.
This is the exact principle as paper 'Piano rolls ' used to automate player-pianos in former times. The resolution
What's New in FL Studio 21?
of the grid is user-selectable (zoomable) and allows the composition of songs with unlimited complexity. Note
Product Information data can be entered manually with the editing tools or recorded in from 'live' MIDI controllers, then edited to fix
mistakes or make changes.
Purchasing & Registration

Introduction to FL Studio

What's New?

The user interface

Video tutorials

Making music (Tutorial)

Hardware controllers

Software controllers

Touch Controllers

IL Remote App

Keyboard & Mouse shortcuts

Useful web-links
NOTES: You can click the ( Middle-Mouse-Button) and drag in the Piano roll to scroll vertically and
Setting Up FL Studio horizontally at the same time. To change the selected Note Color ( Left-click) the color selector. To set a
custom color, ( Right-click) it.
Setup Wizard

Audio Setup Piano roll Basics

ASIO Driver Setup Notes - are displayed as horizontal bars. Slides are shown as horizontal bars with a small triangle drawn
in the right side. Preview Channels by Left-clicking the Preview Keyboard keys.
Primary Sound Driver Setup
Pitch - is mapped from bottom (low) to top (high).
MIDI Setup
Duration - The horizontal length represents time. The number on the Piano roll's top-ruler are bars
File Settings Setup
(groups of beats).

Next Steps
Resolution / grid - The smaller grid each bar is divided into are set by the window's snap ( ) setting.
Scroll speed will slow when snap settings other than 'Line' are used. Resolution can also change
Options & Settings
with Zoom when Snap is set to Line. Selecting Main will use the Global Snap value. Some Global
System Settings snap settings will also quantize live input recording from a MIDI controller.

MIDI Settings Target Channel - Select a Channel with the drop-down menu, in the title bar, to select for editing.
Channels with notes, in the currently selected Pattern, will display a tick. You can roll your mouse-wheel
Audio Settings while hovering over the control to show Channels with notes OR hold ( Ctrl+Mouse-wheel) to show
used and unused Channels.
Audio ASIO4ALL Settings
NOTES:
General Settings
1. Click-and-hold - Beware the 'F10 > General Settings > Click-and-hold functions in piano roll' option on
File Settings the General settings tab. It's functions include:

Theme Copy note: Hold on an existing note to copy it.

Debugging Information Cycle slide/porta - Click and hold when adding a note to cycle through slide & porta event
modes.
Project Settings

Glue notes - Place the cursor between 2 neighbor notes, so the resize cursor appears, then
Project Information
click and hold to glue them.
Project General Settings
2. Mouse-wheel velocity - Use Mouse-wheel while holding notes to change velocity.
Main Menu, Panels & Tool Bars
3. Mouse-wheel tools - Change tools by holding right click and rolling the wheel.
Main Menu Bar
4. Time Markers - When set to type Pattern length (Right-Click a marker) Time Markers will define the
File Menu length of the currently selected Pattern.

Edit Menu Piano roll Controls

Add Menu
Toolbar icons - Along the top of the Piano roll window:
Patterns Menu
Main Menu - Includes: Edit, Tools, View, Snap, Select, Group, Zoom, Time Marker, Clip
View Menu Source, Performance Mode, playhead and Detach options.

Options Menu
Tools menu - Riff machine ( Alt+E); Quick legato ( Ctrl+L); Articulate ( Alt+L);

Tools Menu Quick quantize ( Ctrl+Q); Quick quantize start times ( Shift+Q); Quantize (
Alt+Q); Quick chop ( Ctrl+U); Chop ( Alt+U); Glue ( Ctrl+G); Arpeggiate (
Help Menu Alt+A); Strum ( Alt+S); Flam ( Alt+F); Claw machine( Alt+W); Limit ( Alt+K);
Flip ( Alt+Y); Randomize ( Alt+R); Scale levels ( Alt+X), LFO ( Alt+O)
Toolbar

Editing the Toolbar Piano roll Snap - Snap determines how Notes will move and quantization aligns events
relative to the background grid (Hold Alt to temporarily set snap to 'none'). NOTE:
Main Menu There is a Global Snap selector on the Snap Panel.

Title & Hint Panel

Stamp tool - Add predefined chords selected from the menu that opens when this tool is
Transport Panel clicked. NOTE: Deselect 'Only one' at the top of the menu to avoid the tool reverting to
single note mode after the first stamp.
CPU & Memory Panel

Global Snap Panel Loop switch - See the Channel Rack section on Looping Controls. In this case the Piano
roll will show a Marker of type Loop for Channels containing Piano roll notes to indicate
Output Panel the current loop point.

Online Panel
Draw ( P) - Left-click to add a note. Left-click-and-drag to reposition the note
Pattern Panel before releasing it. Right-Click to delete notes. Right-Click and drag to delete multiple
notes. Right-Click and hold on the background to open the slice tool (F10 > General
Shortcut Icons
settings > Click and hold functions on). Modifier keys: ( Shift) add in stretch mode. (
Ctrl) to make a selection. ( Alt) to add in Draw mode (pencil) with snap set to
Time Panel
'none'.
Multilink Controllers Icon

Paint ( B) - Paints multiple notes as you drag in lines. You can paint notes above or
Main Volume & Pitch Panel
below existing notes to create chords. Left-click to add a single note. Click-and-drag to
Window Controls add multiple notes. Right-Click notes to delete them. Modifier keys: ( Shift) -
Monophonic paint allows vertical movement while painting AND replaces existing (or
File Browser selected) notes to create a monophonic score. Use ( Ctrl) to make a selection.

Plugin Database
Paint drum sequencer mode ( N) - Similar to the 'Paint' tool above. Adds multiple
Project Browser notes as you drag in lines. Behaviors are fine-tuned to work for drum sequencing in the
Piano roll, where you may want to mute/unmute steps. Left-click to add a note. Click-
Advanced folder stuff and-drag to paint a line of notes. Left-click on notes to mute/unmute them. Right-
Click to delete notes. Right-Click and drag to delete multiple notes. Snap sets the note
Channel Rack & Step Sequencer
length. Right-Click and hold on the background to open the slice tool (F10 > General
Channel Button Menu settings > Click and hold functions on). Modifier keys: ( Ctrl) to make a selection. (
Alt) paint at half the selected snap setting.
Channel Settings

Main Control Delete ( D) - Click or Click-and-drag to delete notes. Right-Click and hold on the
background to open the slice tool (F10 > General settings > Click and hold functions on).
Sampler Setting Modifier keys: Hold ( Ctrl) to make a selection, then press ( Delete).

Instrument Setting
Mute ( T) - Left-click on notes to mute them. Left-click and drag to mute multiple
Miscellaneous Setting notes. Right-Click to delete notes. Right-Click and hold on the background to open the
slice tool (F10 > General settings > Click and hold functions on). Modifier keys: (
Automation Clip Setting Ctrl) to make a selection.

Layer Setting
Slice ( C) - Left-click and drag vertically to slice through notes. Glue notes by
Plugin Window Setting making a selection of touching notes and using the ( Ctrl+G) shortcut. Modifier keys:
( Shift) slice without dragging. ( Ctrl) to make a selection. ( Shift+Alt) Slice
Piano Roll
without dragging and with snap set to 'none'.
Piano Roll Arpeggiator
Select ( E) - Click notes or Click and drag to make group selections. Modifier keys:
Piano Roll Articulator
( Shift) add to or remove notes from the selection.

Piano Roll Chopper

Zoom to selection ( Z) - Left-click and drag to zoom to selection. Left-click on
Piano Roll Claw Machine
background to zoom out. When in other modes use ( Ctrl+Right-Click) and drag to

Piano Roll Flam Tool make a zoom-to selection. Right-Click again to swap between zoom and unzoomed
modes. Right-Click the icon to open a menu of quick zoom options:
Piano Roll Flip Tool
Zoom in/ Zoom out ( Page up / Page down) - Zoom centers on the Cursor
Piano Roll LFO Tool position.

Piano Roll Key Limiter Tool Quick-zoom 1, 2 & 3 ( Shift+1, 2, 3) - Three handy zoom levels.

Piano Roll Menu Zoom out far ( Shift+4) - Minimum horizontal zoom.

Import MIDI Data Dialog On Selection ( Shift+5 - Zoom to time-line selection. The command will be
disabled if no time region is selected in the timeline.
Piano Roll Quantizer

Piano Roll Randomizer

Play selected ( Y) - Click the notes you want to play. Click and drag to 'scrub' play
notes. Modifier keys: ( Ctrl) make a selection.
Riff Machine

Piano Roll Scale Level Tool

Play / Pause - Left-click to start/pauses playback. Right-Click (while playing) to
stop and return to the last set start position. Right-Click (while stopped) to return the
Piano Roll Strum Tool
playhead to the start of the Piano roll. NOTE: There is an option on the Right-Click main
Playlist transport Stop button Remember seek time for the start position to be remembered.

Patterns
Target Channel - Change instrument channels (of the current pattern) without leaving the Piano roll.
Audio Clips Right-Click to open the target Channel instrument's interface.

Automation Clips Event editor target - Selects the data to be displayed in the integrated event editor. This can include
parameters such as note properties (Panning, Velocity, etc.) or automation events.
Performance Mode
Slide & Portamento - These are flags that can be set per-note and work as follows:
Instrument / Generator Plugins
Portamento Toggle ( O) - When selected, notes added to the Piano roll will display a
Plugin Wrapper 'portamento flag' ( icon). The portamento flag causes a short slide in pitch from the end of
one note to the note with the portamento flag. This is a note transition effect. NOTES: 1.
Wrapper: Menu
these features only work with native FL Studio instruments and not VST instruments. 2. Click-
and-hold functions in piano roll - Click and hold when adding a note to cycle through slide,
Wrapper: Additional Settings
portamento note mode. See General Options settings.
Wrapper: Plugin Processing
Slide Toggle ( S) - When selected, notes added to the Piano roll become 'slide notes'
Wrapper: Troubleshooting displaying the slide icon ( ) that causes notes, above or below the slide-note, to slide to the
pitch of the slide-note. The slide-time is set by the length of the slide-note.
3x Osc
Note color / Color group selector - Create note groups for independent editing of overlapping notes
Audio Clips categorized by color group. NOTES:

Autogun MIDI Control - Color groups appear to plugins as separate MIDI channels, so one Piano roll can
control several MIDI channels in the associated plugin.
Automation Clips
Recording notes - To record incoming MIDI Channels from a controller or MIDI sequencer to
BassDrum
the correct MIDI note colors, Right-Click the instrument's Channel Rack button and activate

BeepMap the 'MIDI channel through' option.

BooBass Color group selection - There is another Note / Clip Grouping function activated from the
Toolbar Group Icon, that groups notes by selection. Use the Piano roll menu to group selected
Channel Sampler notes.

Control Surface Customize note colors - Right-click the Note Color selector to change note colors from the
defaults.
Dashboard
Preview keyboard - Click on the keyboard to preview notes. This does not work when play is active.
DirectWave Sampler
Click here with the ( Middle mouse button) and drag vertically to change the vertical zoom centered
on the note you click.
FLEX

Horizontal & Vertical Zoom controls - To horizontally zoom the Piano roll click on the edge of the
FL Keys
horizontal position slider and drag. For the vertical zoom boxes likewise click and drag.
FL Slayer
Ghost notes - These are notes in other Piano rolls associated with the current Pattern. See the Piano
FL Studio Mobile roll Menu > Helpers > Ghost channels ( Alt+V) option. To edit Ghost notes ( Double Right-
Click or X1 button) on the notes to switch to the Ghost channel. Piano roll menu > Editable ghosts (
FPC Ctrl+Alt+V) - Allows direct interaction with Ghost Notes as per normal notes.

Fruit Kick Event Editor - Edit: Note Velocity, Pan, Pitch, Filter cutoff & Automation events (the lower Piano roll area
can display the same data as the Event Editor). Select events to edit from the Target Control selector or
Fruity Dance
Right-Click the area at the front of the editor as shown above.
Drumaxx
Notes - Click/select to drag, stretch, paint, clone, copy, etc. (see 'operating with notes' below). Note
Drumpad colors can have special functions, discussed here.

Fruity DrumSynth Live Splitter handle - Left-click and drag the divider to resize the upper and lower windows. Right-Click to
return to the original position.
Fruity DX10

Using the Piano roll

Fruity Envelope Controller
FL Studio has, arguably, the most powerful Piano roll editor available. Combined with the Piano roll menu you will
Fruity Granulizer
find the possibilities are endless and (after practice) effortless.

Fruity Keyboard Controller NOTE: Many of the movement and draw commands are constrained by the snap setting that controls how
notes move relative to the Piano roll grid. Hold the ( Alt) key to temporarily bypass snap. Important also, the
Fruity Layer Global snap setting can be used for MIDI input quantizing.

Fruity Slicer Tools Menu - ( ) is a shortcut to the Piano roll tools submenu (see the Piano roll menu page, ),
containing various commands for operating on patterns in the Playlist.
Fruity Vibrator

Adding Notes - draw mode ( ) allows you to draw, edit and delete notes. To add notes and draw
Fruity Video Player
the length, hold the ( Left-Shift) Left-click and drag to the desired length. The paint mode ( ) is
Fruity Voltage Controller similar, but allows you to draw multiple notes at once while dragging horizontally in the Piano roll. Notes
are added monophonically (replacing any notes they overlap). Hold ( Shift) to bypass monophonic
Groove Machine Synth paint mode. In draw or paint mode, Left-click in the Piano roll's grid to draw a note. The default
length for notes will be equal to the last touched note.
Harmless
Deleting notes - Right-Click a note to erase it (alternatively switch to erase mode to erase with
Harmless Tutorials
Left-clicks ( ).

Harmless Credits
Selecting/Deselecting groups of notes - There are a number of methods to select several notes, so

Harmor you can move and resize them all at once:

IL Remote Standard selection - Press and hold ( Ctrl key) and either click a note to select it, or drag
a rectangle to select all notes in enclosed area.
MIDI Out
Magic lasso - The Piano roll Menu > Select > Magic lasso option must be selected. Move
MiniSynth your mouse pointer in a loop that encloses the notes you want to select (no clicking required, it's
'magic' remember). Make sure you have no notes selected before you perform the lasso action
Morphine (Right-Click the empty Piano roll to deselect all notes and make another selection).

Morphine: General Settings & Controls Add notes to selection - Hold ( Ctrl+Shift) together while selecting to add notes to the
existing selection.
Morphine: Generator Page

Selecting notes in a time or pitch range - Time, ( Ctrl+Left-click) or double-click the

Morphine: Resynthesis
time ruler (along the top of the Piano roll) and drag along it to select all notes in a specified time
Morphine: Morph-Mix Page range. Pitch, ( Ctrl+Left-click) the Preview Keyboard to select a range of notes with the
same pitch (dragging vertically on the Keyboard will select notes in the vertical pitch range).
Morphine: Modulation Page
Deselect all notes - While holding ( Ctrl key), click empty space in Piano roll's grid.
Morphine: Credits
Remove notes from selection - ( Ctrl+Shift) deselects individual notes from the existing
Ogun selection of notes.

Ogun Master Invert selection - Use ( Shift+I).

Ogun Synthesis Select mode button - Instead of holding ( Ctrl key), you can also switch Piano roll to select
mode by clicking the select mode button ( ).
Ogun Effects
Group notes - ( Shift+G) - Group the selected notes. Grouping functions so that an action on any
Ogun Tutorial
note in the Group will affect all other notes in the same way. Any number of groupings may be created.

Patcher To group notes: make a selection using the Select tool, then use the Group function. Activate /
deactivate grouping: Use the Note / Pattern Grouping switch on the Toobar icons. Deselecting the
VFX Color Mapper Note / Pattern Grouping switch will disable note grouping behavior until the switch is reactivated.

VFX Envelope Copy & Paste - Make a selection (see above), hold the ( Shift) button THEN drag selection with the
left-mouse button OR ( Ctrl+C), scroll to the new position/pattern and ( Ctrl+V).
VFX Key Mapper
Duplicate selection - Make a selection and press ( Ctrl+B). The selection, or all notes if nothing is
VFX Keyboard Splitter selected, will be duplicated to the right of the original selection. To define a specific repeat interval, make
a time-line equal to the complete interval to be duplicated and press ( Ctrl+B). NOTE: The time-line
VFX Level Scaler
selection and note selection can be made independently. The repeat interval is set by the time-line
VFX Sequencer selection, the notes duplicated by the note selection. In this way, notes outside the time-line selection
can be duplicated according to the time-line interval.
Plucked!
Moving notes - Select the note/sequence, Left-click on the note and drag vertically or horizontally.
Poizone NOTES:

Poizone: Master Controls The snap setting will affect the movement.

Poizone: MIDI Horizontal note positions can be adjusted by ( Shift + mouse-wheel) by holding the cursor
over a target note in the Piano roll.
Poizone: LFO
( Shift) - Vertical position lock.
Poizone: Envelope Generator
( Ctrl) - Horizontal position lock.
Poizone: ADSR (Amplifier)
Bumping notes - This allows you to move the note/s by either 'snap' or 'pixel' based units. Snap units:
Poizone: Oscillators
Select the sequence/note and hold the ( Shift key) and use the arrow keys on your keyboard. The

Poizone: Filter snap setting will affect the bump size. Pixel units: Hold the ( Alt) key and use the arrow keys
on your keyboard. In this case the zoom setting will affect the bump size.
Poizone: Arpeggiator
Change note length - Select the note/sequence, Left-click on the right side and drag horizontally to
Poizone: Effects change the note length. This can also be performed on a selection of notes. NOTE: The snap setting
will affect the way in which the note changes length. If ( Caps Lock) is on and the note is selected by
Poizone: Trance Gate the left side, resizing notes will anchor the note end point, moving only the start position. If the note is
selected by the right side the start point will be anchored.
ReWire

Edit Ghost notes - Use ( Double Right-Click or X1 button) on the Ghost notes to switch to the Ghost
Sakura
channel.
Sawer
Stretch / compress scores - Select a group of notes and drag the pop-up handle OR hold ( Right-
Sawer: General Settings Shift) and drag the right edge of a note in the selection. This changes both note length and sequence
duration. ( Alt + Right-Shift) will stretch in 25% increments.
Sawer: Master Controls
Slice Tool - ( ) allows you to split one or more notes in the direction of the cut through the Piano roll.
Sawer: Oscillators To use the cut tool, make sure you're in cut mode (the Cut button is selected), Left-click in the grid area
and drag to define the "cut line" direction and length. Release the mouse button to split all notes at their
Sawer: Filter
intersection point with the cut line.

Sawer: Modulation
Resize chords & splits - Hold ( Left-Shift) click and drag on the slice point or right-side of the chord.

Sawer: Effects (Delay, Chorus)

Playback/Scrub tool - ( ) enables you to preview the current sequence by dragging horizontally in

Sawer: Arpeggiator the Piano roll (thus enabling you to define the playback speed and order). Alternatively, hold ( Alt) +
Right-Click while in draw mode.
Sawer: MIDI Modulator
Play notes straddling the playback position marker - When stopping and starting you can play
Sawer: Credits & Information notes that cross the playback position by opening the Audio Options and selecting 'Play truncated
notes'.
SimSynth Live
Quick chords - Enter chords with one click using the Piano roll Menu > Tools > Stamp Tool . The
Slicex
stamp tool allows you to add chords & note-patterns selected from a menu.

Slicex: Master Panel

Note properties - Note velocity, panning, filter-cutoff, etc, are available from the Target control
menu and appear in the Piano roll Event Editor. Note properties can be adjusted by mouse-wheel (
Slicex: Articulation Panel
Alt+mouse-wheel) by holding the cursor over a target note in the 'Note event window'.
Slicex: Wave Editor
Merging scores across Patterns - Place the Pattern Clips in the Playlist, with the Pattern Clip you want
Slicex: Keyboard & Piano roll to receive the other scores at the top. Select all the clips to merge then use the Edit > Merge pattern
Clips function from the Playlist Menu. This merges the selected Pattern Clips into the uppermost Clip.
SoundFont Player
Click-and-hold functions in piano roll - Copy: Hold on an existing note. Slide & Porta: Click and
Speech Synthesizer hold when adding a note to cycle through slide, portamento event mode. See General Options settings.

FL SynthMaker
Selection Stretch Handle
Sytrus
After making a selection the Stretch Handle appears. You can click and drag this to stretch the selected notes.
Toxic Biohazard Hold the ( Alt) key to apply snap settings. Alternatively, hold ( Right-Shift) key then click on the right-
side of a note in the group and drag.
Toxic Bio: Master

Toxic Bio: Oscillators

Toxic Bio: Filter

Toxic Bio: LFO

Toxic Bio: FM Matrix

Toxic Bio: MIDI CC

Toxic Bio: Sequencer

Toxic Bio: Effects

Transistor Bass

Wasp
Mouse-wheel Property Note Changes
Wasp XT
Hold your mouse over the note and hold ( Alt+Mouse-wheel) to change the currently selected note property.
Wave Traveller To see the property being adjusted maximize the vertical zoom.

Mixer & Mixing

Mixer Functions

Mixer Menu

Plugin Effects

Mixer Track Properties

Audio Input/Output Routing

Audio Recording

Levels, Mixing and Clipping

The dB Scale

Effect Plugins

Plugin Wrapper
Note Properties & Event Editor
Wrapper: Menu
The note properties editor gives you access to a number of per-note properties and event data velocity, pan,
Wrapper: Additional Settings release (where supported), Mod X & Y (where supported), pitch etc. Select the data to be edited with the Target
control, as shown below.
Wrapper: Plugin Processing

Control Surface

Distructor

Edison Wave Editor & Recorder

Edison: Sample Properties

Edison: Amp Tool

Edison: Blur Tool

Edison: Convolution / Reverb Tool

Edison: Claw Machine Tool

Edison: Drum Tool

Edison: Equalize Tool

Edison: Noise Removal Tool

Edison: Script Tool

Edison: Time Stretch / Pitch Shift Tool Selecting Targets - Left-click to select from the menu. You can also roll your mouse-wheel while
hovering over the selector.
Edison: Tune Loop Tool

Note properties - are displayed as vertical lines with a small circle at the top. The right-facing tail
Effector
allows you to see the independent values of notes with the same start time. Note properties move with
EQUO the notes they belong to. The editor can also display standard Event Automation associated with the
pattern. NOTE: To edit the properties of a note when it has the same start time as others, make a
Frequency Shifter selection first, then edit the property for the note (as shown above in red).

Frequency Splitter Note events - When editing Automation Events the editor works in the same way as the Event Editor.

Fruity 7 Band EQ
Time Signatures
Fruity Balance
The default Project Time signature is set in the 'Project General Settings > Time settings > Set as time
Fruity Bass Boost signature'. You can also set custom and even multiple Time Signatures per Pattern. And, since Patterns exist
independent of the Playlist Time Signature, you can use multiple Time Signatures at any point in the Playlist
Fruity Big Clock (polyrhythms) by stacking Patterns using different Time Signatures. This flexibility means you need to manage
your Pattern and Playlist time signatures independently.
Fruity Blood Overdrive

Fruity Center

Fruity Chorus

Fruity Compressor

Fruity Convolver (Reverb)

Fruity dB Meter

Fruity Delay

Fruity Delay 2

Fruity Delay 3

Fruity Delay Bank

Fruity Fast Distortion

Fruity Fast LP
NOTE: Time Signatures are a visual helper for the Piano roll and Playlist grids. They have no technical effect on
the notes played, except for the downbeat heard when using the Metronome. You can safely change Time
Fruity Filter
Signatures for the Pattern without affecting the notes, only the grid behind them changes. One Channel affects
Fruity Flanger all - As Time Signatures are set per-Pattern, changing the Time Signature for any Piano roll (Channel) will affect
ALL Channels in the Pattern. Use the Pattern Clip menu opton 'Make unique' to avoid this, if it is a problem.
Fruity Flangus
TIPS: Here are some useful tips for working with Time Signatures. This applies both to the Piano roll and Playlist.
Fruity Formula Controller
Set a custom Time Signature - Place the Play head at the point you want to set the new time
Fruity Free Filter signature and hold ( Shift+Alt+T) to open the Time Signature tool.

Gross Beat Set a Time Signature range - Make a time selection and hold ( Shift+Alt+T) to open the Time
Signature tool. The Time Signature will return to the Project Default at the end of the selection.
Hardcore Guitar Effects
Set a Time Signature based on the Pattern Clip location in the Playlist - Open the Clip Menu and
Fruity HTML Notebook select 'Use current time signature'

Fruity Love Philter Move Time Signatures - Drag the Time Marker/s. Additionally you can use this feature to set partial
bars of a given Time Signature.
Fruity Limiter
More on Time Signatures - See: Playlist Time Signatures & Project General Settings.
Fruity LSD

LuxeVerb Waveform Helper View

Sometimes it is useful to closely align notes with an audio waveform. For example when using Fruity Vocoder or
Maximus Multiband Maximizer
Pitcher. To show the waveform drag from a waveform preview and drop on the Piano roll. To deselect this view
Maximus: Controls & Options use Piano roll menu > Helpers > Background waveform ( Alt+N).

Maximus: Tutorials & Tips

Maximus: Credits

Multiband Delay

Fruity Mute 2

Fruity Multiband Compressor

Newtime

Newtone

Fruity NoteBook

Fruity NoteBook 2

Fruity PanOMatic

Patcher
Understanding Slides & Portamento
VFX Color Mapper
The following ONLY applies to native FL Studio instruments. To slide a VST instrument automate the channel
VFX Envelope pitch knob. The Piano roll can slide notes from one pitch to another using slide notes above or below the notes
to be affected. Slide notes have a small triangle drawn at the start of the note.
VFX Key Mapper

Portamento Toggle ( O) - When selected, notes added to the Piano roll will display a 'portamento
VFX Keyboard Splitter
flag' ( icon). The portamento flag causes a short slide in pitch from the end of one note to the note
VFX Level Scaler with the portamento flag. This is a note transition effect. NOTES: 1. these features only work with
native FL Studio instruments and not VST instruments. 2. Click-and-hold functions in piano roll -
Fruity Parametric EQ Click and hold when adding a note to cycle through slide, portamento note mode. See General Options
settings.
Fruity Parametric EQ 2
Slide Toggle ( S) - When selected, notes added to the Piano roll become 'slide notes' displaying
Fruity Peak Controller
the slide icon ( ) that causes notes, above or below the slide-note, to slide to the pitch of the slide-

Fruity Phase Inverter note. The slide-time is set by the length of the slide-note.

Fruity Phaser Add a slide note - Click the slide switch and then click as normal to add a note to the Piano roll.

Pitcher De-select the slide mode - Click the slide button again.

Pitch Shifter Channel Settings > Misc - Polyphony > SLIDE (even if grayed out) will interact with Portamento
notes, and Time > GATE will interact with Portamento and Slide notes.
Razer Chroma
NOTE: The General settings Click-and-hold & special gesture functions activate cycle slide/porta. Click and hold
Fruity Reeverb when adding a note to cycle through slide & porta event modes.

Fruity Reeverb 2 How slide notes work

Fruity Scratcher Slide notes are used to create 'glissando' effects. That is, a continuous slide upwards or downwards in pitch
between two notes.
Fruity Send
Notes - Slide notes must overlap the note they slide. A slide note, played on its own, without
Fruity Soft Clipper overlapping a standard note, will not produce sound. The length of the overlap sets the slide time.

Fruity Spectroman When the slide note is reached the pitch of the original (standard) note will start sliding toward the slide
notes pitch, reaching the same pitch at the end of the slide note event. The length of the slide note
Fruity Squeeze controls the rate of pitch-changed of the slide. If the note being slid, ends before the slide notes pitch
has been reached, the slide will terminate prematurely.
Fruity Stereo Enhancer
Chords - If notes are overlapping, so they form part of a chord, the topmost note is used as the
Fruity Stereo Shaper reference for the pitch offset (see picture below). All notes in the Chord will slide so the topmost note
reaches the same pitch as the slide note, with all notes in the chord moving the same note interval. After
Fruity Vocoder
the slide event ends, notes still remain offset from their original pitch. Note colors can be used to create
Wave Candy independent slides for up to 16 notes in a chord. Notes of the same color group, slide each other.

Fruity WaveShaper

Fruity X-Y Controller

Fruity X-Y-Z Controller

Soundgoodizer

SynthMaker

Transient Processor

Tuner

Vintage Chorus

Vintage Phaser

Vocodex

Vocodex: Setup Inputs

Vocodex: Parameters

Vocodex: Carrier Synthesizer

NOTE: Slide events have all the usual note properties (velocity, panning, cutoff and resonance, etc). During
Vocodex: Tutorials slides all note properties move toward those set in the slide note. Slides themselves do NOT produce sound,
although they allow preview when created/moved.
ZGameEditor Visualizer

Installing & Using VST / AU Plugins How portamento notes work

Portamento applies only to the transition from one note to the next. This is basically a fast slide, only at note
Recording: Audio, Notes & Automation
transitions. The effect is most audible when larger note intervals are used. The Portamento indicator should be
Audio Recording set on the note to receive the portamento effect.

Audio Interfaces (USB Microphones)

Color Groups (Slides, MIDI, Editing)
Note Recording
Editing - To select the note/slide color, click the Color selector then one of the 16 colors on the color group
selector and click in the Piano roll to add notes. To change the color group of existing notes, make a
Note Step Entry
selection and use the Piano roll menu > Edit > Change color ( Alt+C) option.
Automation Recording By creating color groups you can choose to edit the properties of only notes of the selected color. This can be
handy when there are overlapping notes in the same Piano roll that you wish to manipulate independently. Colors
Linking USB/MIDI Controllers
are used for independent processing of notes in the Piano roll, these include:
MIDI Scripting
MIDI Channels - Each color is locked to a particular MIDI channel. To see the relationships, hover the
Preconfigured Controllers (USB/MIDI) mouse over each color and look at the hint bar where the MIDI channel number is displayed. NOTE: This
only applies to plugins hosted by the Wrapper, in other words, these MIDI channels will only be visible to
Linking Internal Controller Plugins the plugin associated with the Piano roll. To control external MIDI hardware on separate MIDI channels
use the MIDI Out plugin.
Mapping Formula

Automation Clips

Automation Event Editor

LFO Tool

Scale Levels Tool

Import MIDI Data Tool

Edison Wave Editor & Recorder

Edison: Sample Properties

Edison: Amp Tool

Edison: Blur Tool

NOTE: You can load and save complete note color palettes from the Piano roll menu > View > Note
Edison: Convolution / Reverb Tool
colors option.
Edison: Claw Machine Tool
Sliding - Slides will apply only to notes of the same color as the slide note event. For example, yellow
Edison: Drum Tool slide note will bend the pitch of yellow notes, but will ignore green notes. This way you can have up to 16
notes sliding simultaneously in different directions.
Edison: Equalize Tool
Slide color groups are also used with the Mono mode in the polyphony settings (see Miscellaneous
Channel Settings). Mono mode applies to each color group separately. So using all four colors actually
Edison: Noise Removal Tool
can result in a polyphony of up to 4 voices at once.
Edison: Script Tool
Recording notes - To record incoming MIDI Channels from a controller or MIDI sequencer to the correct
Edison: Time Stretch / Pitch Shift Tool MIDI note colors, Right-Click the instrument's Channel Rack button and activate the 'MIDI channel
through' option.
Edison: Tune Loop Tool
NOTE: Some plugins use note colors for special functions. For example Harmless, Harmor and Slicex.
ReWire Support
Note Properties Dialog
Client Mode
The Note Properties pop-up is an alternative way to set notes properties. It's particularly useful when you need to
Host Mode
set different properties for notes that start simultaneously (so their properties appear as one in the integrated
event editor). Double-click a note to display the properties pop-up box.
FL Studio as a Plugin (VST / AU)

FL Studio as a Plugin (VST or AU)

Load & Save File Formats

Open & Import File Formats

Open/Import File Formats

FL Studio Project File (.flp)

FL Studio Project Zipped (.zip)

BeatCreator/BeatSlicer Grid File

MIDI File

Save & Export File Formats

Levels - These controls allow changes to per note - panning (PAN), note on velocity (VEL), release
Audio & MIDI
velocity (REL), channel filter cutoff (MODX) and channel filter resonance (MODY). NOTE: MOD X/Y can
FL Studio Project File (.flp) also link to custom parameters as set in native plugins. Harmor has Mod X/Y controls that map to these
parameters, for example. Release velocity is supported in Sytrus, Harmor, Harmless and Ogun.
FL Studio Project Zipped (.zip)
Slide - Slide ON / Slide OFF. Determines if the note will respond to slide events. Porta - ON,
Sample File Formats inverts the portamento state for this note. If the global portamento (see Misc Channel Settings) for this
channel is off, for this note it is on and vice versa.
DrumSynth Preset
Color - Click on this to select the color channel group the note is on.
MS Waveform File
NOTE: If the note you double-click is a part of a selection, then the properties you set apply to all notes
ReCycle Loops in that selection. The Time section is not available in that case, because the selected notes might have
different length or start point.
SimSynth Preset
Time - Change the Start Time (note position) in bar:step:tick. The length of a 'tick' depends on the PPQ
Speech Preset setting. Reducing PPQ mid-song will reposition any notes not falling on an exact Bar or Step boundary.

Other File Formats Duration - Change the Note duration in bar:step:tick. The length of a 'tick' depends on the PPQ
setting. Reducing PPQ mid-song will reposition any notes not falling on an exact Bar or Step boundary.
Other File Formats

Reset - Resets note properties to levels they had before launching the properties box.
FL Studio State File

Accept - Apply your awesome changes!

FL Studio Score File

Humanize Preset File Piano roll Menu

MIDI File This menu provides many important functions for working with the Piano roll, such as copying and pasting notes,
converting color groups, etc. You can access Piano roll's menu by clicking the Piano roll menu button. For more
Trouble Shooting & FAQ's information, see the Piano Roll menu page.

Optimizing CPU Performance

Multi-touch Gestures "
Plugins Behaving Badly
See FL Studio User Interface > Multi-touch support
Updating & Upgrading Procedure

Missing Plugins or Files

Piano roll keyboard shortcuts
See the Playlist Keyboard Shortcuts page.
Lifetime Free Updates

FL Studio Editions & Features Why 12 Notes and Why Music Theory?

Perform Clean Installation We recommend watching the following videos:

Offline help installation

Why Does Music Only Use 12 Different Notes?
Copyright Cleared Content Share

Lost Registration Codes/Login

Pitch or Tempo Problems

Reset Settings

Troubleshooting FAQ

Audio Myths & DAW Wars

Monitor Speakers

Glossary

ACM Waveform

Cutoff and Resonance Filter

Envelope

Gate Watch on

LFO
Acknowledgements
Music theory concepts ranked by importance
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