IMPORTANT - Write your unique personal CD serial number here: (locate your serial number on the CD case) Information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Image Line Software. The software described in this document is furnished under a license agreement or nondisclosure agreement. The software may be used or copied only in accordance of the terms of the agreement. It is illegal to copy this software on any medium except as specifically allowed in the agreement. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, for any purpose without the express written permission of Image Line Software. Copyright © 2002-2005 Image Line Software. All rights reserved. FL Studio Copyright © 2005 Image Line Software. All rights reserved. FL Studio and Fruityloops are registered trademarks of Image Line Software. Other company and product names are trademarks of their respective owners. Image Line Software is a division of Image Line BVBA. Visit Image Line Software at http://www.image-line.com Visit FL Studio on the web at http://www.flstudio.com/. TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................. 3 FOR FRUITYLOOPS 3.x and FL STUDIO v4.x USERS......................................................................... 5 INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS........................................................................................................................ 6 FIRST RUN ................................................................................................................................................... 7 MAKE SOME NOISE.................................................................................................................................. 8 HELP! ............................................................................................................................................................ 9 GET THE "GETTING STARTED" LOOPS ............................................................................................ 9 THE STEP SEQUENCER ......................................................................................................................... 10 TWEAKING THE CHANNELS ............................................................................................................... 12 TWEAKING THE NOTES........................................................................................................................ 18 THE PLAYLIST (from Patterns to Songs) .............................................................................................. 22 GENERATORS (from Samples to Synths)............................................................................................... 25 INTRODUCING THE TS404 .................................................................................................................... 40 MIXING & EFFECTS ............................................................................................................................... 44 RECORDING WITH LIVE TWEAKING............................................................................................... 52 THE EVENT EDITOR............................................................................................................................... 55 THE PIANO ROLL.................................................................................................................................... 60 AUDIO TRACKS ....................................................................................................................................... 65 INTEGRATED WAVE EDITOR.............................................................................................................. 67 THE BEATSLICER ................................................................................................................................... 68 SHARING YOUR WORK ......................................................................................................................... 71 EXTERNAL CONTROLLERS................................................................................................................. 73 CREDITS..................................................................................................................................................... 80 INDEX ......................................................................................................................................................... 81 Lemon Boy is in the house: Yo, whassup! Having problems? Before you panic and start spamming the FL Studio Tech Support, look for me. I'll pop up here and there with answers to common problems that might save you (and the FL Studio staff) some trouble. FOR FRUITYLOOPS 3.x and FL STUDIO v4.x USERS This guide is current to Version 5 of FL Studio. If you were the proud owner of one of the FruityLoops 3 versions (good for you!) or FL Studio v4 (even better), then read on to see what's new in this version. 1. FL Studio Name. Since version 4, the name of the product changes to FL Studio. FL Studio contains all the stuff you know from FruityLoops 3.x and much more! Mixer. The effects window from FruityLoops 3.x is now a full-blown mixer with 64 insert tracks, 4 send tracks, per-track equalizer, balance controls and disk recording. You can also create complex mixer setups by routing the insert tracks to each other! Playlist. New Piano Roll style showing the correct pattern lengths, supporting live mode pattern mixing and brand new audio tracks are some of the improvements integrated in the new Playlist window. Per-Pattern Grid Length. In previous releases, the Step Sequencer had one fixed length for the entire project. Now you can adjust the sequencing grid for each individual pattern! New in this version .... Check out the new generators and effects in this release! Check out the WhatsNew.doc in the main FL Studio directory for a brief run down of what else is new 2. 3. 4. 5. 5 INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS There are two ways to purchase FL Studio: on line, or in a box with a CD and this printed manual. The installation differs slightly in each of those cases. Read here what to do: A. If you bought your copy of FL Studio in a box, here's what you do. 1. Run the CD. Insert the install CD-ROM that comes with your box in your CD-ROM drive. If you have auto-run enabled, you will see the CD menu automatically appear. Otherwise, right-click your CD-ROM drive icon in Windows Explorer and select Autorun. 2. 3. 4. Start the Installation. Select the FL Studio installation link. The installation window appears. Follow the instructions on screen. The Serial Number. During the installation you will be asked for you serial number. You can find it printed on your CD-ROM case. Write it down for further use and make a backup of this number. Register On-line. After you complete the installation successfully you can register on-line to gain access to the extra FL Studio website features and community. Go back to the CD-ROM menu (reload as described in step 1 if needed), and click on the link called "Click here to register to the FL Studio community" or go to this link http://www.flstudio.com/FLBoxRegistration. In case of problems. Please consult our F.A.Q. section on our website www.flstudio.com. Useful information about known issues can be found there. 5. B. If you bought your copy of FL Studio on line, here's what you do. 6. Download and Install the Demo. Download and install the demo version of FL Studio. It is recommended NOT to install over previous releases of FL Studio/FruityLoops. 7. 8. Apply for a Regcode. Go to www.flstudio.com/register and enter your username and password you received by e-mail after your purchase. Click the button below to your regcode to pop-up. Wait for the E-Mail. The FL Studio team will send you an e-mail with a link. Make sure your email account can accept emails coming from us (domain: e-officedirect.com). Please follow all instructions carefully. Run the Program. Restart FL Studio if it is running and you will be able to save your projects. 9. 10. Bookmark the Web Site. The FL Studio web site is an awesome resource. Check back at http://www.flstudio.com/ often to see what's up. 11. Read this Guide. As soon as you start FL Studio, you'll be confronted with strange dialog boxes and messages. Proceed to the next section of this guide to find out what to do next. Also check the extensive on-line help that comes with FL Studio. 6 FIRST RUN OK, so you just finished the installation and started FL Studio. Read this section for an explanation of what you're seeing. 1. The System Settings Screen. When you first run FL Studio, you may be confronted with a dialog box like the one below (if not, use F10 to bring it up now). You just have to use the select boxes to choose your sound card and MIDI drivers. At first, you may be looking at the MIDI screen, but for now the most important one is the Audio screen, shown below. Click Here Then Here 2. Select an Output Driver from the list in the pull-down menu. If you don't know which one to pick, just leave it as it is. Later on if you have sound problems, you can come back to this screen (by pressing F10) and experiment with the other options. The DirectSound Streaming Buffer. Most of the stuff on this screen you don't need to know about, but you should know what the Buffer Length does. Basically, if you make this buffer long, you are less likely to get choppy sound but changes you make to a playing loop will take longer to kick in. If you make it short, you are more likely to get choppy sound but changes will kick in faster. You want it short, but depending on your computer, you may need to come back to this screen later (F10) and make it longer. If you have a combination of a fast computer and a good sound card, you may be able to get the latency as low as 10ms. For a SoundBlaster Live, you can probably go as low as 30ms. The 3. 7 Use Polling option can also improve latencies for some operating systems (keep it turned on if you use Windows 95 or 98, but try switching it off in Windows 2000 to see if it brings better performance). 4. The Main Screen. After you close the Environment Settings window, you'll be looking at a screen like the one below. FL Studio is all about windows within windows. So you're looking at the outer Main Window with its Tool Panels at the top. Then within that you're looking at the Browser (left) and the Step Sequencer (right). The panels might be arranged differently for you, but that doesn't matter. Step Sequencer MAKE SOME NOISE Press the Play Switch. This is the button on the Transport panel (next to the stop and record buttons). You'll hear the FL Studio 3 demo song. If this is not the first time you've run FL Studio, you'll have to reload this demo. Select Open from the File menu in the top left and double click the file NewStuff.flp in the Loops directory. 8 HELP! This booklet is just supposed to get you up and running quickly. It is not meant to be a reference manual for everything FL Studio can do (that would take a multi-volume encyclopedia!). Fortunately, there's a ton of info out there on what FL Studio does. Here's how to get it. 1. The Hint Bar. This is located on the Main Window just under the Menu Bar (see the previous page, in the top left). You can mouse over any of the controls anywhere in FL Studio and this panel will display a short description of what that control does. The Hint Bar also shows you the Shortcut Key that will activate the same function. This is displayed on the right. Pressing this shortcut key has the same effect as pressing the corresponding button. On-line Help. FL Studio also comes with a massive on-line help reference. Just use the Help Menu and select Contents. This help also features context-sensitivity ­ select a window and press F1 on your keyboard. The reference automatically displays the help you are looking for. Tutorial Loops. Click File >Open and surf to the Tutorials directory. These loops contain notes on how to do various things in FL Studio. The Web Site. FL Studio comes with a massive web site at http://www.flstudio.com/. The site has a support section that includes a FAQ and a Discussion Forum, Online Tutorials, Video Tutorials (soon), Song Exchange section and the Samplefusion samples site. Check these to see if anyone has answered your questions already. If not, feel free to post your own question on the discussion forums. 2. 3. 4. GET THE "GETTING STARTED" LOOPS To use this guide effectively, you should find and load the "Getting Started" loops that were included in the FL Studio package. Go to the File menu (above the Hint Bar) and click on Open. Alternatively, click on the File Open Icon below the Hint B ...