Making your sound better.
Okay, so we are now back with another video, our second Pro Tip video where we are going to discuss Piano Roll tips.
So basically, we know that the piano roll is where we put our chords and melodies in.
It’s where the magic happens because this is where we bring the secret ingredient of our track.
So the first tip that I want to share with you guys is the background waveform.
So what it is, is it will serve as a guide, especially if you’re programming melodies and beats.
For instance, we have a drum right here, FPC.
Let’s go with a preset.
Let’s go with the dubstep.
We now have a bunch of sounds right here. We have the kick, snare and a bunch of stuff.
So what we can do right now is we can drag a sample here on the piano.
And that will serve as a guide, let’s say, for example, a loop.
How about this one?
Now you can see that it’s perfectly quantized.
With the grid, you can see these arrows right here.
Because this one is from FL.
So if you’re using a different sample, maybe you have downloaded something on the internet.
So what you need to do is you need to set that up according to the temple, right?
For example, it’s 128, then you need to set that template to 128.
And you can then activate a macro called switch audio clips to your real-time stretching.
So now what we can do here inside the piano roll, now that we have this guide, we can analyze it.
So we know that this right here, this huge waveform right here is the kick.
Right?
So let’s listen to it.
So we know that the hi-hat is constantly playing snare.
Oops.
Let’s look for a snare.
That’s it.
That’s more of the top end.
How about this?
Listen to it.
So So we now have the second piano tip that I want to share with you guys are these two special features inside a panel, which are the slide and departamento VST special feature are often disregarded by a lot of producers, may be because there’s not a lot of information about
Because a lot of producers online are using massive serum in silence.
And unfortunately, this one doesn’t work with third-party plugin.
It only works with the built-in plugins of FL.
Let’s say, for instance, we have this synth called harmless, right?
So what we can do is we can program a chord.
Let’s say, for example, see, this is how it sounds when you don’t put any slide or portamento in it.
But if we put a slide, it will sound like this.
It can also be colour-coded.
For example, you have the secret right here.
And it corresponds to this note slide which is also green if but if we add a note which is blue.
Oops, let’s deactivate the slide for now.
The only regular one.
See, and we added a slide which is also blue.
Right here.
He can hear that there’s a variation between the two chords because this one right here, this blue chord right here corresponds to this one on the blue slide note and the green one corresponds to the green slide note.
So the portamento on the Handworks differently.
Because it, it functions every after and of the note.
So let’s say, for example, we have this piano right here.
Let’s add a melody.
And we add the first note.
That is fundamental.
And the following one should not be fundamental.
Did you hear that slight node variation?
It’s kind of like a fast node bration from this node right here, this node right here.
So if you listen to oops, this year.
So that’s it.
The third Piano Roll tip that I want to share with you guys are these tools that are really useful when it comes to arranging chords and melody inside a piano. Oh.
And it seems like a lot of producers regard a lot of these tools, right, they only use the quantize function, which is very common, especially if you arrange using your MIDI keyboard.
But what a lot of producers didn’t know is that you can extract new ideas from these tools.
So what we can do is we can we can put a chord, let’s say we have a C major triad here, right.
So what we can do is we can go to Tools, we can select between the arpeggiator and D randomizer.
arpeggiator.
Basically, we’re particularly the cords for your vertically.
So you now have a lot of note inputs right here.
So if you play it, you can adjust the range.
You can select a bunch of options here.
and a whole lot more with the pan velocity release, and a mod x mod y and a bitch as well.
We can also use the randomizer.
With the Unit randomizer, you can adjust the note length, and also the number of notes.
The same goes with the arpeggiator.
You can also adjust depending on the last city under release.
And another thing is this Trump.
The strum is basically a tool inside of the piano roll that allows you to make a guitar plugin. Let’s say, for example, Music Music labs real real guitar.
If you have that, and you have this function, then it will be easier for you to program guitar sounds.
Because, as we all know, if you play guitar, we can’t always play all the notes altogether at the same time.
It always starts with the bass note, the second notice the third note the string, rather, the fourth string and so on.
You can also see that if you play a guitar player in slow motion, so what we can do is we can adjust this time.
As you can see, it moves the beginning of the two nodes moves. You can adjust this from left to right, as well.
And from right to left there, he can be more creative.
So the last one that I really find useful is the glue. Oftentimes people will be serious just use this if they have this instance, example this situation right here.
And they want all their notes.
They want to merge all their notes.
What they do is just delete it and they expand the first note, but what you can do and what they didn’t know is you can glue all these notes together.
And this is a unique feature inside FL Studio, and because I didn’t see this feature in Ableton Institut one, I don’t know about other dos.
But yeah, for me, this one is uniquely inside FL Studio.
So what you can do is you can select it, you can hover over here and click glue, or you can just hit Ctrl G.
So for me, I like using shortcuts.
So I go for Ctrl G.
And there you go.
The fourth Piano Roll tip that I want to share with you guys is time markers.
Time markers are basically a guide for you to locate where your intros are, where your verses are, where your choruses are, or your jobs.
And again, this feature is often disregarded by a lot of producers that I see online, maybe because they just want to arrange stuff without thinking about some other things, where in fact, this can actually help them stay organized.
Let’s say, for example, here.
In this case, we have an intro, because that’s usually where the song starts with an intro.
So I can go to these options, select time markers.
Always remember to select Add one first, Alt t rename it, or you can just execute the shortcut, Alt C, and you can rename it.
Let’s say we have an intro for bar number one.
And after four bars, we have our verse right here on bar number five, starting on bar number five.
So what we can do is we can execute Ctrl T again, not alt t because if you execute alt T and name it, the marker will begin here on bar number one.
So always remember to execute Ctrl D after that. All righty in the beginning, so Ctrl T, right-click Rename verse.
It can also be applied inside a playlist.
Again, all t intro.
After four bars, we have verse Ctrl, T, right-click Rename, verse.
And that’s how you stay organized.
This fifth Piano Roll tip is geared towards those producers, those people who don’t know that much about music theory and also for those people who just started out using FL Studio and don’t know that much about the settings, the special features inside the FL studios piano roll.
So the good news for you guys is that the image line actually develops this feature called scale highlighting.
Now this is one of the unique features inside FL Studio which makes FL Studio good for beginners.
And what we can do is we can navigate here on the options.
Go to the helpers. You can see that we have this scale highlighting options right here.
And right now we are in automatic mode, which means that I can put a certain note, let’s say C and I put a triad C, then the piano will automatically detect the scale.
And it will automatically highlight the scale.
The black highlighting areas are the parts that you must avoid to stay in tune.
Because if you put a certain note here, then it’s not in the major C major scale anymore.
So another thing that you can do is you can navigate back to the helpers scale highlighting let’s say, for example, you have a project in D major, just click this major right here.
Go back to Alpers again, and click now. You can see that all the D nodes are highlighted in gray here on the piano view, right.
So that means that this piano roll right here is in D major scale.
Another thing that you can do is you can use a scale stem.
Let’s go back to the helpers and deactivate them.
Let’s put it in automatic mode.
Now we have the scale stem.
What a scale stamp does is it generates a scale pattern for you.
Let’s say, for example, a major scale, right?
I want to work on a C major scale.
So I will click the area where the C starts.
I know for a fact that this one is C right here.
So I’ll draw the scalar on this area on bar number two.
So what I can do is I can just click here, and there you go.
You have it generated for you.
The next general tip that I want to share with you guys is about ghost notes.
Ghost notes are useful, especially if you’re working with a bunch of sounds that are playing all together at once. For example, maybe you want to work with your melody for your drop, and you have five synthesizers on hand. That’s playing on the same pattern.
Or maybe you’re working on a huge orchestra project where you have to stack a bunch of strings altogether.
The good news is that in FL, you can edit all those notes together at once.
Now, we now have this feature in Ableton in Studio One.
But in the NFL, there’s a unique way of doing it, but they have to be in the same pattern.
Right.
So, for example, this close grand number one should be on pattern one, along with the other instrument. It won’t work if this one is in pattern two.
So what we can do right here is we can go to either one of them.
And we can alternate between each instrument by navigating here, right there.
So now what we can do is we can go to panel options, helpers, Eddie, goes channels.
So now you can see the notes that are playing behind these chords, right.
Right now we can not edit.
We can only replicate what it’s done using the current instrument of the brain, so in order for us to edit this, we need to activate editable ghost notes.
So we go to piano options, helpers, editable ghost notes.
So there you go.
You can now edit this.
You can jump inside the piano of these course notes by right-clicking it double right-clicking it right there.
The same goes with going back. Just do the same thing with the other note right there.
So that’s it.
