Layer channels in FL Studio

Layer channels in FL Studio are something incredible powerful and yet easy to master.
Ever wonder how to build complex sounds and manage them easely?
Picture this: you want a complex sound composed of several synths to be handled like just one instrument, let's say an orchestra of synth strings wich you want to be as rich as posible in colors and textures of sound, maybe some could be gated a little bit, maybe another synth could be taking care of the low frequencies and another distinct synth taking care of high frequencies, maybe independently changing it's cutoff a little bit to spice the whole layer.
You could perfectly make one of these in a complex synthesizer with multiple oscillators and multipattern capabilities, but for sake of argument I'll skip this option and go straight to the layer channel usage, but I'm not denying it's existance.
For the example above we could use three synths taking care of each part of the complex sound and link their execution via one layer channel, by doing this we can use the layer channel as if it was the sum of the other three synths with just one keyboard to play them. As you may wonder, this technique also applies to other sounds than pads, in fact, using a layer channel to map various wav samples is something I do often and I easely create custom drum patches.


Setting a Layer Channel

Once you got your synths in place and added the layer channel, select it and set aside its window so you can see it even if you change to see the channel window.

In the channel window select the channels you want to add to the layer channel by turning on their respective green lights, and then click the "set children" button inside the layer channel.

This will add the selected channels to the command of the layer, this means that from this point all the channels you just add will be played by the midi instructions you give to the layer (e.g. play a note).
You can play lots of synths as if they were just one, using just one keyboard!


What are those "Random" and "Crossfade" lights? and what about the "Fade" knob?

Random: Turning this button on will cause the layer to trigger any of the channels at random when playing a note.
Crossfade: Will crossfade between the channels in this order:
-to the left of the knob the top channels will sound
-to the right of the knob the lower channels will sound


Extra Functions

Click on the arrow to the left of "Layering" to show a new array of functions.

Split children: Despite the family-wrecking-name it does a great job, this function will split the children into the layer's keyboard keys independently. I personally use this a lot.
Picture this scene: you got a full array of drum samples to make a patch wich you could use in your music.
A very confortable way to test and arrange patterns is to make the channels children of a layer and split them to its keys, and you got yourself a nice drum machine in your midi controller.
Group children: All children of the layer will be added to an existing Channel Group or a new one if you like. (a text box will appear to write the name of a group, if it doesn't exist, a new one will be created).


Cons

You can't make a layer channel containing other layer channels inside, it won't work, they can't be linked in any way. You can only link layer channels with any other channels than layer channels.

A "Layers Layer" is not possible in FL Studio.

Conclusion

Layer Channels in FL Studio is something worth learning, it's easy, it's confortable, it's fast (doesn't eats cpu, it's just a sorting feature).
A must-know in my opinion, this feature will give you speed and creativity in your music productions.

See you next time, live musically!


How and when to effectively use Channel Groups <-Previous Tutorial

5 Ways to kick start your musical productions <-Previous Post

How and when to effectively use Channel Groups in FL Studio 9

Hi there! in this course of tutorials we have already learned the basics of FL Studio in our step secuencer, main meters, and keyboard shortcuts tutorials, it's now the time to learn techniques on how to organize ourselves better in the environment of FL Studio, more precisely in the channel window via channel groups.

Channel Groups

Channel groups is one of the most underrated and underestimated features in this DAW (digital audio workstation), mainly because the majority of the people are too messy with their projects and/or their projects never reach the complexity level needed to use this feature.
Even after looking at the demo projects that come with the DAW, people just don't use it. And I'll tell you a good reason why that is: you might be happily using the numbers on top of your qwerty keyboard to turn on and off(1 through 0) the channels in order to make some "live mixing" or just to quickly see how new combinations of channels sounded like, and then you start to group the channels and try to do the same within the groups and guess what, you can't do that. This happens because the order of the channels is the one in the "All" group, and it overrides any other order in the groups that you make. Pretty annoying isn't it? well, in this sense yes, and when you begin using channel grouping you should stop using that technique at all, because if you don't it will be very confusing and annoying.
Then, why should you learn to use channel groups? The reason is very simple: because it is the only way of working with larger projects (20/30 channels and above, or anything more than you can naturally, easily, and visibly handle).

How to use it

First of all, there's three categories of groups:
"All" group: it shows all the channels of the project, whether or not they are in a group. Useful to keep track of the whole project.

"Unsorted" group: it shows only the channels that are not in a group. Useful when locating group-less channels.

Your own groups: these are the groups that you make on your own criteria, i.e. "leads" "strings" "drums".

Now that you know the available groups, in order to make one of your own you must right click on the "channel display filter control"->"add filter group",

set the name of the new group and press enter,

this will create an empty group in wich you'll be able to add all the channels you want, and the way to do that is this: after the creation of the new group the other groups seem to be gone, but you can see the group that you want by clicking the "channel display filter control" and selecting it.

Once in the "All" group, select the channels to add (by left clicking the green light to the right of every channel, right clicking deselects the selected channel, aka "turns off the green light", but also selects individual channels, aka "the ones with the green light turned off"),

  then go to "channel" on top of the main menu and then click "group selected" (alt+g).

This will bring a text box where you must write the exact name of the group where you want to add the selected channels.

The finished and newly created channel group called "drums"

  A very simple procedure that will save you lots time in managing those huge projects full of channels everywhere.
There's another procedure to add channels to already created groups: simply select the group on the "channel display filter control" and add a channel as you would normally do. The new channel will belong to that specific group.
How do you move a channel from group to group? just select the desired channel and go to "channel" on top of the main menu and then click "group selected" (alt+g) and write the name of the desired group, this can be the "All" group or even the "Unsorted" group.

Conclusion

Even when you don't actively use groups, you are actually using them, because the "All" default group is a group after all. So, denying an important feature like this one will only be to confuse the hell out of you when you reach a decent complexity in your projects.
This feature is a must in later advanced projects, without it, effectively editing and managing of your channels will be compromised.


See you next time, live musically.

5 Ways to kick start your musical productions <-Previous Post
Philosophical reason to learn your favourite software shortcuts <-Previous Tutorial

5 Ways to kick start your musical productions

Hi there, while I was on vacations several mails asking different things came to me, and one of the must recurrent questions was: "I want to make a song / career in music production, how can I achieve that?"
While there are many ways to a) make a song, and b) starting a carrer in music production, I'll be talking about the more-standard-low-profile-music-production-career that's on the web all around us today: the DAW(digital audio workstation) based producer. And I'll give you a few things to do for reaching the goal of making a song. Let's start.

1) I really recommend you to first of all, learn a solid basis of musical knowledge before anything else. Why? Because if you don't do it you'll be tweaking presets and downloading prefabs your whole life instead of creating new music, and delivering value to the scene you choose.

2) It all depends on your musical development level, your musical production skills, and the time you have been messing with both. The more time you mess with them, the more skillful you'll be. There are no magical recipes to achieve this, but reading, watching tutorials and get in tune with the scene you choose really helps.
 
3) Practice in your favourite program is a must. You can't wake up one morning with a song in your head and make it happen in 15 minutes if you don't know how to do it isn't it?

4) Get used to the environment you choose and learn the shortcuts you use most of the time, you'll be thankful later.

5) A quick way to improve in music production: learn from the best. This means listen to your favourite music, learn to recognize what's in it that you like and try to perfectly emulate it in  the program you have chosen.
Yes, by this I mean copy the specific thing you hear.
In this process you'll learn to distinguish new things in music, little details that before this procedure you had never heard or being aware of. Listen to the patterns, the secuence of sounds, when something comes in and when something comes out of the song. Why, when, and how much of a specific effect is being applied.
All this detailed reaserch of any song you like will elevate you to another level in music awareness, and the next song you'll analize will be easier, and the next one even easier, until the technics of bringing to life all those cool sounds begins to appear in your own music too.

All this may require several things: time(lots of it), effort(lots of it), will power(lots of it), money(not that much at all), samples(depends on your music genre), a community where you can send your firsts songs and get feedback (there's lots of them around, just choose), and patience(lots of it).

If you lack some of the points if been talking about don't worry, if you care enough for your music you'll find the way in the end to make the best of it. I'll be around to see if I can be of any help.

Thanks for your feedback, and...until next time, live musically.

Philosophical reason to learn your favorite software shortcuts<-Previous Post

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