3
THE BEAT GOES ON
Once you’ve attempted to make your own drumbeat (or
copied ours, if you prefer), this is now referred to as a
pattern, specifically pattern 1. You should be able to see this
pattern in your workspace and you can now paint it into the
playlist [Image C]. The playlist is the main area where you’ll
piece patterns together to layer up a song.
>> When you click once in the playlist with your pattern
selected, it will place that where you click. In our example, we
made a quick change to our track and changed the tempo down
to 120 beats per minute (BPM) from 130bpm. We then placed
two examples of our pattern into the playlist next to each other.
To listen to this, head over to the top again and select ‘SONG’ to
listen to the playlist window.4
SPICING THINGS UP
Now that we’ve created our basic drumbeat, we need to
spice it up a bit in the playlist. To do this, we can build the
sound up in stages. This can be done by splitting the pattern up
into its individual parts and then gradually stitching them back
together again.
>> To do this, find where it says ‘pattern 1’, right-click this then
select the option ‘split by channel’ [Image D]. In our example, we
took the deep 707 kick and the snare first to create a simplified
version of our beat. We layered these by clicking on the
instrument and drawing it into the playlist.
>> After one pattern of four, we kept this going but introduced
our pedal and acoustic kick. This creates a more detailed beat
pattern that is used by layering.>> This is only a simple beat but using these methods
and tutorials gives you a basic understanding of how to
piece together a song and how structuring works. FL
Studio is an intuitive piece of software that lets you draw
your creations out. It makes the process more enjoyable,
so try to make as many drum patterns as you can with a
limited amount of instruments [Image E].
>> Challenge yourself to come up with creative
alternatives and interesting new sounds. Music is all
about experimentation. It takes time and practice to
perfect a sound, so be patient with your work.Even some fairly basic productivity suites can start to
become pretty disorganized and overwhelming in no time.
This is the last thing you want when trying to keep your
creative juices flowing. To help navigate quicker and more
efficiently around FL Studio, check out the shortcuts on
the website: http://www.image-line.com. We’ll quickly touch
on the best ones that help you switch between the main
windows we will need.
Using shortcuts is great for smaller displays, where
you can’t have every window open at once. This is often
where things can get complicated, so it’s best to use a few
simple keyboard combinations to keep things tidy.
To open up the playlist, use F5; for the channel rack use
F6; for the piano roll, it’s F7; and for the mixer, press F9.
These are the main areas of the software you will need,
so learning them will help speed up your workflow.QUICK SHORTCUTS
ON FL STUDIO
CDEMAR 2022 MAXIMU MPC 61