User Guide

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When you start FL Studio for the first time, you'll see the Step Sequencer window (see the “First Run”
section). This is where you lay out your drum and melody patterns for your songs.
1. What is it For? This is where you find channels, and dots. The channels are laid out horizontally
(see below) and each one contains a single sound. Each channel has 16 dots. If you're musically
inclined, these dots represent 16
th
notes. If not, think of each group of four dots as one beat, so 16 dots
are the four beats of a basic drum loop. (The layout below is from GettingStarted1.flp. You should
have this loop loaded now.)
A Channel
Name
A Channel
Some
Dots
2. What Dots are For? Clicking on a dot lights it up and tells FL Studio to trigger the channel (play the
sound loaded into that channel) at that point in the loop. For instance, the 1
st
, 5
th
, 9
th
, and 13
th
dots in
the DNC_Kick channel are lit up, telling FL Studio to play the kick drum sound four times during the
loop (if you are thinking of groups of four dots as a single beat, FL Studio will play the sound at the
start of each beat.) Try changing the pattern of dots in the DNC_Kick channel. (If you need to turn a
dot off, right-click it.) Once you've got the dots to light up like the picture below, press the play
switch to hear what you've created.
Channel
Controls
Su
gg
ested
Changes