Fruity Loops Studio 10 Beat Making Tutorial

First, what you want to do is, make sure you have FL Studio 10 installed and make sure to install ASIO4ALL that is included in the FL installer! If you have skipped the installation of the ASIO driver you can get it here: ASIO4ALL

Now, open up FL and in the left hand corner of the screen click on: File, New. This will open up the default template of the FL interface:


Here is what we should see next:


This up here, is where you are going to be making your beats with. You just left click on one of the boxes, and it should fill in with white. Left click on the boxes to delete what you had placed.


Press the space bar on your keyboard or the play button on the top of the screen to play the beat.

Next, what we need to do is extend our beat. You can't make the world's greatest song with just one solid beat so, here's what we need to do:

1. Start off with the same template from lesson 1.
2. Press '2' on the number pad to go to the next track or pattern. If you don't have a number pad you can always use your mouse to slide the value up or down. Proper area is marked in red:


3. You will see that the pattern you had previously made is gone. It's not really gone, just hidden for now. Change up the beat however you like. I'm going to just change the ending of the first pattern so it has a little transition or 'fill-in'.

*Note only the snare hit has been changed*

4. Press the F5 button or click on the 'View Playlist button' to start placing your patterns.


5. Here is the playlist. Start by going back to pattern 1 (NUMPAD 1) and click on the playlist. Place three pattern ones on the top line. Then go back to pattern 2 (NUMPAD 2) and place one pattern 2 under, and after the three pattern ones you placed like so:


6. Make sure the 'Song' button is selected so that it will play what you have programmed into the playlist. 'Pat' is just to listen to the individual pattern.


7. Push play.

The sounds in Fruity Loops are great and all, but, what if you want to use your own sounds or you have higher quality samples that you want to use in your project? Simple, import it.

1. On pattern 1, click on the button that says 'Kick'. A box will pop up. Looks like this:

2. Click on the little folder icon in the box to open up your file browser:


3. Find your sample library and click 'Open' on the desired sound. Your new sound is automatically assigned to the previous sound. Now our song doesn't sound like it's from the early 90's.

PRO TIP: You can add new samples by right clicking on one of the 'samplers', going to insert, then clicking on sampler. Repeat steps 1-3 to add your sound.

The piano roll is a more advanced technique (for new users) which lets you go more in-depth with your beats. You will be able to assign different timings on the notes you use. (Half notes, quarter notes, etc...)

***I will not be using the previous drums for this part of the tutorial. I will be starting from scratch.***

1. Right click on your sampler and click on 'Send to piano roll'. Any sampler will do. You will be able to use the piano roll on any instrument you want.


The piano roll will pop up and you will be able to freely add notes as you please. NOTE: When using the piano roll on drums and cymbals, the proper note is almost always going to be C5 on the keyboard in piano roll.

Finally, we can render the beat. This will be the final product of your hard work.

1. Make sure that on the menu with the play button on the top of the screen, the 'Song' button in selected, not the 'Pat' button!
2. Go to the top-left hand side of the screen and click on File, Export, MP3 File. ( or WAV or MID )
3. You will then be prompted to name your file. Save it.


4. Here is where you are given options on what quality you want to render you project in. On your last final rendering, these are the settings I recommend:


Thank you for reading this tutorial and I hope that it is helpful. All Youtube videos recorded and pictures provided, are my own works and credit goes out for whoever made 'Erkan's Organized Samples' available.

Music Radar - Thousands of free sounds and loops.

TAL - 10 free VST plugins.

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