The Music Producer's Ultimate Guide to FL Studio 20: Create production-quality music with FL Studio

337 Pages·2021·9.612 MB·English

by  Joshua Au-Yeung

The Music
Producer's
Ultimate Guide
to FL Studio 20
Create production-quality music with FL Studio

Joshua Au-Yeung
BIRMINGHAM—MUMBAI
The Music Producer's Ultimate Guide to FL
Studio 20
Copyright © 2021 Packt Publishing
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First published: February 2021
Production reference: 1180221
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
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ISBN 978-1-80056-532-6
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Contributors
About the author
Joshua Au-Yeung (professionally known as Chester Sky) is a music producer, composer,
director, and software developer. He has published more than nine albums, directed and
composed for short films, created board games, and hosts a podcast. He's an instructor for
several online courses, including bestselling courses on music production and composing
for films.
About the reviewer
Shaun Friedman is a music artist and composer from Cleveland, Ohio whose
instrumentals have been played on NBC, CBS, MTV, and Animal Planet, to name a few.
He also has hundreds of beats that are being utilized on YouTube by various content
creators. He is an educator who works in public, private, and religious schools. He
founded his company, Unbelievable Beats LLC, in 2006 and has previously authored FL
Studio Cookbook, published by Packt in 2014.

Table of Contents
Preface
Section 1:Getting Up and Running
with FL Studio
1
Getting Started with FL Studio
Technical requirements 4 Creating a drum beat with the Channel
Rack 12
Exploring the music production
landscape 4 Adding an instrument to the Channel
Rack 13
The musician's career path 5
Creating a melody with the Piano roll 16
Steps in composing a song 6
Routing channels to the Mixer 18
What is FL Studio? 8 Exporting the song 20
Exploring the FL Studio workspace 9
Summary 25
Making your first song 11
2
Exploring the Browser, Playlist, and Channel Rack
Technical requirements 28 Adding your own samples to the Browser 38
Introducing the FL Studio Swapping samples 41
workbench 28
Using the Channel Rack 41
Getting the most out of your
Channel Rack option features 43
samples 30
The Channel Rack Rename, color and
Using the Browser 32 icon option 45
Locating a sample's file location 35 Instrument options 47
Searching for samples 37 Detaching windows 50
ii Table of Contents
Installing new instruments 52 Version control 60
Using layers 54 Revert to last backup 61
Audio Stream Input/Output (ASIO) 61
Using the Playlist 55
Purge unused audio clips 62
Playlist Toolbar 57
Undo and redo 62
Element pattern options 58
Viewing project info 62
Using the main header Toolbar
Summary 63
features 59
3
Composing with the Piano Roll
Using the Piano roll 66 Recording into the Piano roll
with MIDI instruments 86
Choosing an instrument 67
Adding notes in the Piano roll 68 The snap to grid (magnet) tool 88
Selecting multiple notes 68 Quantizing notes 89
Deleting notes 69 Editing note articulations with the
Muting and unmuting notes 69 Event Editor 91
Slicing notes 70 Using Piano roll velocity 92
Sliding notes 70 Comparing instrument melodies with
ghost notes 92
Using the stamp tool to get assistance
with scales 75
Exporting sheet music 93
Composing great chord Using and exporting MIDI scores 94
progressions 77
Summary 95
4
Routing to the Mixer and Applying Automation
What is mixing? 98 Applying automation 108
Routing audio to the Mixer 98 Applying automation to external third-
party plugins 112
Navigating the Mixer console 103
Understanding the insert mixer track 104 Freezing Audio Clips 116
Understanding the master channel 106 Summary 120
Understanding the effects rack 106
Applying an effect 107
Table of Contents iii
Section 2: Music Production Fundamentals
5
Sound Design and Audio Envelopes
What is sound? 124 playing the same pitch sound
What causes a note's pitch? 125 different? 131
How do we hear things? 126 Modifying sound envelopes 131
How do instruments create Using Mod X and Mod Y for
sound with different pitches? 127 automation 134
Why do different instruments Summary 141
6
Compression, Sidechaining, Limiting, and Equalization
Understanding compression 144 Using limiters 158
Applying compression with Fruity Applying equalization 160
Limiter 146
EQ best practices 163
Applying gates and expanders 150 EQ general rules 164
When to use gating 152 Summary 165
Applying sidechaining 152
7
Stereo Width – Panning, Reverb, Delay, Chorus, and Flangers
Panning audio 168 Using delay effects 175
Panning best practices 170 Applying delay effects with Fruity
Delay 3 175
Using reverb 170
Delay effect best practices 178
Applying digital reverb with Fruity
Reeverb 2 171 Using chorus effects 179
Applying convolution reverb with Chorus effect best practices 180
Fruity Convolver 173
Using flanger effects 181
iv Table of Contents
Using phaser effects 182 Mix bus best practices 184
Understanding mix buses 184
Summary 188
8
Recording Live Audio and Vocal Processing
Technical requirements 190 Recording audio into FL Studio 197
Understanding microphones 190 Recording with Edison 200
Dynamic microphones 190
Using pitch correction with
Condenser microphones 191
Newtone 203
Ribbon microphones 191
Pitch correction best practices 205
USB microphones 192
Vocals effect processing best
Setting up your recording
practices 206
environment 192
Backing vocals effects best practices 207
Recording instruments 192
Recording drum kits 194 Summary 208
Preparing to record vocals 195
9
Understanding Vocal Effects
Understanding vocoders 210 Vocoder best practices 223
Understanding MIDI 210
Creating vocal chops 223
Using vocoders 211
Using Slicex to create vocal chops 224
Harmonizing vocals with Pitcher 211 Vocal chopping considerations 234
Using Vocodex 217 Summary 234
Section 3: Postproduction and Publishing
Your Music
Table of Contents v
10
Creating Your Own Instruments and Effects
Understanding glitch effects 238 Creating instruments with
Creating glitch effects with DirectWave 245
Gross Beat 238 Creating effects with Patcher 248
Mapping time and volume effects to a Creating custom dashboards in Patcher 250
sample 243
Summary 254
Gross Beat sequencer 244
11
Mastering Fundamentals
What is mastering? 256 Maximus 263
Can you master music yourself? 256
What are saturators/harmonic
When should you master your music? 256
exciters? 269
How do I get good at mastering? 257
Understanding limiters 270
What equipment do I use to master
Understanding stereo imaging
music? 257
with vectorscopes 271
Equalization in mastering 258
Stereo imaging best practices 273
Diagnosing frequency problems 259
Exporting audio for third-party
Understanding spectrograms 259
mixing and mastering 276
Adjusting dynamics 261
Summary 277
Using multiband compressors 262
Applying multiband compression with
12
Branding, Promotion, and Marketing
Marketing essentials 280 Making the most of your live
Creating a brand 280 performances 282
Choosing your artist name 281 Booking your first gigs 283
Creating a website 281 Filming your shows 283
Streaming performances online 283