hey what's up guys this is Alex and
today we're going to talk about FL
Studio which just got a new release last
week
FL Studio 20 which opens up the
compatibility with Mac so I thought for
the occasion of making this video where
I'm gonna share with you 30 FL Studio
tips and tricks and shortcuts to make
your workflow faster just like my
workflow that you see in my composing
from scratch videos we're gonna start
from number one transposition so you can
transpose notes one semitone up if you
do shift up shift down is going
transpose them want a semitone down
control up transpose is them one octave
up and down it does one octave down this
can also be done on any video notes if
you select them say I would suppose
these control up control down etc you
can also select you know individual
notes by pressing control shift note
it's gonna select all the notes in that
note pretty much and then you can do
shift and controller on the swings tip
number two cloning say you have a
pattern like this one
you wanna copy it you can do copy-paste
but that takes a bit of time right you
can save time by selecting the notes and
pressing ctrl B it's gonna clone the
notes to start right after the last one
now if you want to clone this pattern
but you wanted to clone it and start at
you know beat 9 then you select control
left click on this bar select until beat
9 press control B and it's gonna clone
it you know after the bar you selected
so if you do this and this saves you
time you can also do this on patterns
tip number three another type of cloning
is if you select a note and you press
shift and then drag it it's gonna clone
the note and let you drag it this also
applies to patterns again so if I do
this here OOP it does it it also does it
on samples so you can do this and you
can clone them and that saves you time
again shift click drag tip number four
precision stretching say if you want to
stretch on melody or not like this but
you want to do it by ignoring the grid
you can press all two while you drag and
it's gonna ignore the snap this is
useful if you want to write music in a
way that is humanized and it doesn't
align perfectly to the grid and you see
me doing all the time in my video tip
number five path selection if you want
to select things quickly press ctrl and
drag your mouse with your left click
it's gonna select the notes and you can
also do it in the playlist but if you
want to select multiple nodes which are
apart from each other you can say you
can press ctrl shift and drag your mouse
and it's gonna sum all the different
selections that you know also cancel
collections you can also do this on the
play list if you want tip number six
fast preview you can click Alt + right
click to have a preview of a range of
notes
very useful if you need to check out
your course you can also do it on
patterns so if I want to check out the
pattern here I can press alt right click
very useful tip number 7 added events in
piano roll say you have a MIDI chord
like this one and you want it to swell a
bit more what you need to do is to draw
an automation curve before the mod wheel
so what you do is you open your MIDI
channel this is Barbara so articulate by
the way you're going to control you want
to draw the automation curve for right
click edit events in piano roll and then
you can edit your events right in the
piano roll so you can see them and if
this is grayed out it means that the
events are already available here so if
you don't see edit events control you
can go here and search for your events
and you can take care of them if you
need more precision you can do edit
events normally this doesn't give you
the view of what is happening but you
have more freedom you can copy/paste and
all those things tip number eight level
scaling say for example you have like a
pattern like this one and you want to
increase the value like velocities of
all the percussion but you want to keep
the ratio the same what you can do is
select the notes alt and scroll up it's
gonna increase all the velocities or
scroll down it's gonna decrease them but
say for example you want more precision
you can use level scaling so you select
or not you press alt X and it's gonna
open this dialog where you can you know
tweak these parameters to get a
different result and getting different
effect and impact in your velocities you
can also use the level scaling tool for
example on your MIDI control commands so
if for example you drew the MIDI
automation like I showed you before and
you just want to make this automation a
bit less powerful you can press select
this if you're into MIDI like at the
edit events pattern here you can select
this press alt X and it's gonna affect
the MIDI control command instead of the
velocities so yeah you can also do it on
me gonna mess if you want to do it on
velocities you go here go back to
velocities alt X and that's how it's
done
tip number 9 velocity humanization say
for example you have a pattern like this
one where all the velocity artists
and you want to change that what you
need to do is select the notes you want
to alter or if you want to act on the
whole pattern you just don't select
anything and you press alt e' and it's
going to open a dialogue which is going
to do things what you have to do is to
this dialogue is going to have all these
different tabs activated you need to
deactivate them all except for the
levels one you need to activate work on
existing score and then after you did
that you tweak this and this is gonna
change the velocity it's gonna randomize
the velocities by this margin and you
also want to activate bipolar so it's
gonna randomize them both up and down so
I'm gonna show you what happens when I
put working ceased or check the
velocities to see they're changing you
can also press this to change the
randomization a bit more so you can do
that if you want to randomize the
velocities again to do that you press
alt e' tape number 10 randomize freedom
so the thing we just did with velocities
can be done with rhythm as well say for
example you have a pattern like this one
[Music]
and you wanted to sound a bit more loose
a bit more human a bit more a bit of
time what you can do is use this slider
here the swing slider you can find it on
every pattern and this affects the
entire project basically the more you
increase this the more loose is gonna be
the way FL Studio reads this project so
some noes are gonna be a bit shifted
before a bit shifted after it's gonna be
a bit of like it's gonna have that
random ik sort of essence to it
very subtle
if I put this a 0% it's gonna be precise
it's a good thing to do is to set it to
like 20% because again this is subsoil
but it acts on the whole project so
every single node will have a random ik
margin of error in rhythm so that gives
you that sort of human feel if you
enable it for two you make it too
powerful it's gonna make it sound weird
so 20% I think it's a good place to
leave it that's where I'll aim it
personally so the string parameter is on
top of every pattern here tip number 11
ghost notes you might have noticed this
grayed out nodes in my patterns if I
right-click on them twice it's gonna
bring me to instrument that these notes
belong to you know it's also useful
because it shows you which notes are
already you know being played in this
pattern you can activate them by going
here view
no sorry helpers jaws channels and if
you activate the editable ghosts it's
gonna let you lead you to even edit
these ghost notes if you want to but I
don't like to activate that tip number
12 precision on drawing so for example
if you want to draw the velocities for
this pattern but you want them to be
progressive like this you can right
click and drag and it's gonna be super
precise you can also do this on the MIDI
control commands same thing if I want to
do this but more precise right click
drag and it's gonna be this straight
line tip number 13 widescreen if your
screen is cluttered with plugins you can
press f12 and it's gonna close
everything then if you press f5 is gonna
open the playlist f6 brings up the
channel tab so f12 f5 f6 to make your
project a bit more ordered tip number 14
link to the mixer I made easy' say for
example you have a new sample in your
son and you want to link this sample to
the mixer you can click here on track
and it's gonna link it to the first open
or free mixer channel that he finds and
it's also gonna rename it and color it
accordingly
you can also do this by pressing ctrl L
on a sample or on a selection your
samples that you choose tip number 15
fast rename if you press f2 you enable
this what you can rename whatever you
have at hand you can do it with samples
you can do it with
her name so the last thing you selected
is gonna rename it we have to number 16
select tool you can switch between a pen
brush and cutter tool slicing tool by
pressing P B or C in your keyboard this
is only doable if you disable the typing
keyboard - piano keyboard button here
but it's very useful so I will disable
this and use BB C to switch among those
tools
tip number 17 instant slicing you can do
this by activating the slicing up tool
and then right click and dragging this
is gonna do this red line which is just
a slicing but instead of just leaving
the two hubs he's gonna remove the
smaller half instantly so this is very
useful again right click and drag tip
number 18 multiple undo if you undo with
control Z is gonna undo the last step
but if you press control Z again it's
gonna bring bring it back forward so if
you want to go back multiple levels you
can press ctrl alt Z multiple times
until you're done and doing all the
things so ctrl alt Z doesn't do
indefinitely if you want to increase the
step like that the undo levels you can
do it from the options somewhere here
general maximum and new levels are set
100 so I can do control Z 4 100 times
and you can increase this other craziest
you choose tip number 19 zooming out if
you have a pattern you want to see the
whole notes press control right click on
an empty spot and it's gonna zoom on the
whole thing if you press ctrl scroll up
it's gonna zoom in zoom in i scroll down
while holding ctrl zooms out tip number
20 consolidating say if you have a
pattern like this one which consumes a
lot of CPU
one cool thing you could do is to freeze
this and now you can do it on the spot
by right-clicking on the you know the
track where that pattern is click on
consolidate this track from track start
you set your settings and you press
start this will consolidate the pattern
and it will put an audio version of it
right below it while muting the MIDI
version and you can toggle I could go
back to the MIDI version any time so
this is a brand-new way of phrasing very
useful if you want to save your RAM step
number 21 grouping tracks say you have
two tracks like these ones in the
playlist and you want to group them you
can right click on one to group with
above track and now they are linked this
will also enable multiple functions like
this one this is a new one which allows
you to pretty much stretch them all
together or split them there's also
other things you can do with grouped
tracks tip number 22 is something you
can do with the track groups so muting
or solving if you press alt and right
click on any track of any group it's
gonna isolate that entire group the
contrary if you press alt and left click
is gonna either activate or deactivate
the entire group this is very useful if
you just want for example to hear the
brass and the strings in your song you
do this
[Music]
or give my CPU but yeah it gives you
like having group tracks like this gives
you freedom to isolate them remove them
at wheel another thing you can do to
group your patterns is to select them
and press shift G this will group them
in such a way that if you delete one
you're going to get them all if you
select one you're gonna select them all
and if you move my we're gonna move the
ball so you can do this you can also do
it on patterns that belong to different
groups for example I can do this shift G
and I'm gonna link this to if you want
to ungroup you select and press alt G
this is also done in the patterns with
the notes say for example I want to
group all the Dinos I go here ctrl shift
left click on D 5 D for D 6 and all of
these and I press shift G now all the
Dinos are linked if I move now they're
gonna move like that if I transition
them I suppose then they're gonna all
transpose and if I want to unlink them
again alt G tip number 23 using markers
you might have seen in my songs these
guys here this I used them to understand
like to delimit each part and it's also
useful if you want to skip from part to
part you just have to left click on a
marker the way do you set these up is
you press alt T you give your marker our
name and gonna call this banana and
alpha is gonna put the marker at the
beginning and then you can take it and
drag it whatever you want to pull it now
with deficit of 20 you can also I think
assign a different time signature to
each marker by doing at time signature
you determine which one you can do it
and yeah so markers now are more useful
than ever thanks to a 420 and you can
activate them by pressing alt T jeep 24
call a ring you can color your notes
like for example as I did here in this
pattern
by going here picking a color that you
want selecting the notes and pressing
alt see it's gonna lead you to color
these notes the color in this case
doesn't change anything
it has functions in some situation but
it is one it doesn't although you can do
one cool thing so I use color here to
distinguish the notes that are the bold
is the one that I really want to have an
impact and one cool thing you can do is
based on color you can select the notes
so if I go here and I select taste color
and I press shift C it's gonna select
all the nodes correspond to the active
color I have here so all these notes and
I can then press alt X and just increase
their attention like this so now these
orange notes are more loud so I could
select them thanks to shift C so using
node colors can be useful for that if
you want to distinguish some certain
notes and then you want to edit them
differently they can be useful or if you
use colors in for example a contact
instance each color is gonna correspond
to a different MIDI Channel or if you
use colors with PRS or articulate each
colors do not correspond to an
articulation but that's something I talk
about in the tutorial about Baris
articulate so if you're interesting that
will check out that tutorial again to
give colors you select all to see and to
select colors shift C tip number 25
soloing in the mixer so if you have
something like this you just want to
concentrate on single instrument family
press alt s on the mixer group of that
family is gonna isolate that group along
with all these children you can also do
it on a particular instrument alt s eyes
are looking to violence press it again
is gonna bring it back
it's very useful if you only to want to
focus on a single instrument family or
instrument group alt s tip number 26
chopping notes this is useful if you
want to create a percussion role if you
have a longer note like this one and you
press alt you is gonna do this open this
window you can use this to make notes a
bit smaller and then you can tweak their
velocities and do this so you have a
percussion roll done very easily with
alt you tip number 27 quantization so
quantization is useful if you have notes
which are a bit too loose like this and
you want to align them perfectly to the
grid what you do is you select the notes
you press ctrl Q and it's gonna align
them depending on what the grid is now
these are actually triplets so if you
want to quantize them perfectly to how
they are supposed to be I'm gonna go
here change the grid to triplets one
third beats control cube and it's gonna
quantize them depending on the grid you
can also quantized more advanced Li in a
more advanced way if you press alt Q so
you have more parameter stuff like that
but I use usually ctrl Q and I assign my
I change my grade depending on how I
want this rhythm to be quantized tip
number 28 fast saving if you want to
save your project fast you can press
ctrl s it's gonna save it you press ctrl
and it's gonna save a new version so
that leaves the old version in your hard
drive safe to be recovered ctrl s or
ctrl + tip number 29 purging if you have
loads of audio clips that you're not
using in your track anymore you have
loads of channels that you're not using
there are they're occupying your RAM one
thing you can do is to go on tools
macros and either do purge in your audio
clips which is gonna delete all the
audio clips which are not being used or
you can click select a news channel this
is gonna take a few a moment to select
all the channels that you're not using
in your track you know these green ones
and if I press and you delight elite
it's gonna remove all of them now this
selects the ones with empty like there
have no notes into them but in this case
you see my contact instances are being
selected as well but I'm using these
contact instances with the MIDI outs so
you should beware
of what you're deleting when you use
select a news channels because sometimes
you're using those channels but abusing
them or media outs instead of the
channel themselves but it's useful in
general if you you know want to get your
project rid of extra things that are
occupying your RAM or CPU tip number 30
the last one this is if you want to save
the CPU done easily you go in options
audio and you press on smart
disable what he's gonna do is whenever a
plug-in stays idle for like five seconds
in your song it's gonna not disable it
so it saves a bit of that CPU because
it's not processing that plug-in at all
and as soon as that plug-in gets a new
note or new signal is gonna enable it
instantly so it acts so this makes it so
that you know plugins don't stand idle
in the background consuming energy or no
reason C Mississippi for no reason so
smart disable interruptions very useful
but you should also you know be aware
that it might lead to strange things
like graphical bugs and that only gets
solved when you press a note and
activate that plugin so I use it
sometimes but not all defined but it can
lead you to save CPU another thing you
can do is here another example in
quality you can lower it it's gonna use
less CPU on the playback of your song
but whenever you export your song
ideally you want to keep the settings
high so I in this case when I'm not
exporting I put it example into 512
points Inc and 24 bits or 32 bits or
something like that but in the playback
you can reduce it it's gonna sound a bit
worse but it's gonna use less of your
CPU so those are the 30 tips on FL
studio 20 I hope they were useful to you
some are about spinning your workflow
others were more about optimization
optimizing your project and your CPU
usage and if you have more like new tips
that you want to share if it's something
I forgot to say please add it on the
comments of this video and please share
this video with any Alpha studio
producer who might earn value out of it
so that is all for this video again f
Oct 20 just got released a couple weeks
ago if you want to get your Mac you can
do it now and if you haven't you can
upgrade upgrades on if a studio are free
so if you are still
on the old version go on image science
website and download your FOC 220 right
away because it's freaking awesome that
is all for this video and I'll see you
in the next one