FL Studio 20 Getting Started Manual

EXTERNAL & INTERNAL CONTROLLERS

Did you know that you already have at least two ‘external controllers’ attached to your PC? One is

your typing-keyboard and the other is your mouse. Obviously these don’t make sounds, but send

control signals to your PC so you can type and move your mouse. Similarly, external USB/MIDI

controllers are just devices to send control signals to your PC, however in this case they are

designed to play like a piano keyboard, move like a Mixer desk, turntable deck or any other piece

of hardware that is used to make/mix music. With a controller attached you can move the knobs

and switches in FL Studio, or play a plugin instrument like a synthesizer. The only catch is that as

the controller isn’t hard-wired to particular functions, you have to tell FL Studio ahead of time what

you want each knob on the controller to do (this is just the same as assigning your typing-keyboard

control-keys in a game for example, a minor inconvenience for the luxury of changing both cutoff

and resonance at the same time!) Each knob on the controller can be linked to a different knob or

slider on FL Studio. If you have a controller, this section will tell you how to make it work with FL

Studio. If you don't have one, get one, if you aren’t sure where to start consider a small 2 octave

MIDI keyboard with some knobs, you won’t regret it! First we'll introduce a few of the more popular

controllers, and then we'll tell you how to set them up.

1. A Few Examples of Controllers:

Korg NANOKEY, NANOKONTROL, NANOPAD (inexpensive and portable) – These are

tiny-tiny controllers (with a tiny price to match), great for people on the move with a laptop. The

one with the knobs has 9 assignable knobs and 9 sliders that can be linked to knobs and sliders

in FL, has transport controls to start/stop FL Studio and is connected to your PC over USB.

Easy! There are a range of small MIDI keyboard controllers out there, time to hit Google and

check them out!

Wow these are small like squirrels. Squirrels

make me nervous man…stay AWAY FROM ME