CcytzO's " How to make beats wit FL Studio" THREAD!!!!

[ValleyPainProduct]

I see alot of questions about FL Studio in here at various times and from what i gather there are a lot of cats here who use it or at least try to use it so i decided to start this thread......im a go into some details so yall need to bare wit me while i load up the screenshots and explain some things....ill probably be doin this in parts as well cuz its gonna take a while to get it all nice n organized for you folks......


once im done explaining how i do it then i urge any of you other experianced users to share your techniques cuz there isnt any ONE way to make a beat in FL Studio but i believe my way is a good way especially if you want to tracc out beats for proffesional use......


HOPEFULLY MY THREAD DOESNT GET DELETED CUZ I HAVE HAD THAT PROBLEM IN THIS FORUM BEFORE!!!! :cheeky:


I run FL Studio 6 but have been usin this method since FL 3.....not much has changed but some improvements have made things a lil easier.....


And on that note the lesson shall begin:

 

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Part I: Gettin Started and Setup

1. Setting Up the Beat

one thing i do that may be different from most other FL users is i make the beat in "double time".....meaning i use double the tempo/bpm than normal but i stretch out the bars so that its really half of what the bpm counter says....ie: the bpm says 168 but its really only 84bpm......

to do this i 1st go to:

Options > Project General Settings

 

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then i change the bar count from 4 to 8 but i leave the beat count the same at 4

 

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Notice how the size of the pattern sequencer changed:

 

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now i change the tempo accordingly ..... ill go wit 168 on this one so its really 84 in realtime(red circle) ..... this is where i also make sure the mode is set to song and not pattern (see yellow circle)

 

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the reason for song mode is that youll want to lay out your beat in the PLAYLIST so that you can break your patterns down for a full song

 

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PLAYLIST

this is how i typically setup my playlist.....its at 4 bar loop right now wit patterns 1-4 setup to play in 1 bar successions ....these are for the drums or at the least the claps......

 

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i leave patterns 5 and up for melodies and such so they need only to be where i wish for them to start playing....by defualt i start them all at the beggining.....

 

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SAVE THE STARTUP!

at this point i would save the file as Startup or something of that nature so you can always return to this as a template for startin beats in the future and you aint got to set it all up again.....

 

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2. Starting a drum sequence


Like i said above i now have patterns 1-4 setup for the drums....so ill go to pattern 1 first....(make sure your on pattern 1!)

 

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the easiest thing to start wit is the claps or snare cuz it will help you hear the tempo of the beat without using the metronome (i cant stand the sound of a metronome playin while i try to make a beat)

i start off simple wit 2 snares per bar:

 

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then i copy the snare pattern:

right click > edit > copy

or you can jus use Ctrl+c

 

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then i go to PATTERN 2 and paste it:

right click > edit > paste

or you can use Ctrl+v

 

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i repeat this for patterns 3 and 4. this is makin a simple snare pattern that hits on the same time througuot the whole loop.....wit tweaking later on ill probably add a snare hit on pattern 2 or 4 to make it change up but ill keep it like this for now.....

 

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so now when you click on any of the patterns 1,2,3, or 4 they should all look like this:

 

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and when you hit play you should have a clean 4 bar loop that hits the snares on the same time throughout the loop even when the loop starts over.....let it keep loopin around to make sure......if your beat sounds off at all then go bacc and make sure all the patterns have the same hits turned on.....

 

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BASS/KICK DRUMS

from this point you could add anything you want....sometimes i jus go straight to a melody if i hear it in my head or a bassline....but to keep on point wit this tutorial im a go wit the bass drum next.....

note: i already have my drum sounds chosen but during any time you could swap sounds to your liking......


ill go bacc to PATTERN 1 and add a hit on the 1st bass drum beat pattern:

 

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from here you could add more hits on the bd pattern to your liking.....im a keep it simple:

 

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now depending on what you want you could copy this same pattern onto 2,3,and 4 or you could make it different on each one......this is how i did it:

 

[BoMbTrEeS2]

man i thought i was the only one who doubled the tempo like that haha