How to follow a Linear Workflow | FL Studio — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:01Welcome.
2. 0:03In this video, we're taking a look at
3. 0:04how you can follow a near linear
4. 0:06workflow in FL Studio using instrument
5. 0:09and audio tracks.
6. 0:11Instrument and audio tracks offer a
7. 0:12system that keeps track of your
8. 0:14automation, mixer routing, patterns, and
9. 0:17audio clips, making complex arrangements
10. 0:19easier to work with.
11. 0:23Linear workflow comes from the days of
12. 0:25tape editing. Because the tape only
13. 0:27moved forward, your edits had to move
14. 0:30forward too. That's why it was called
15. 0:32linear. One tape, one timeline, [music]
16. 0:35one direction, not the band.
17. 0:37Today, the term linear workflow is used
18. 0:40more loosely. It simply means that all
19. 0:42the non-linear parts of your project
20. 0:44stay intact and arranged in a logical
21. 0:47way.
22. 0:48FL Studio's workflow is built around
23. 0:50three main windows, the channel rack,
24. 0:52the playlist, and the mixer. And here's
25. 0:55why we made this video.
26. 0:57By default, FL Studio does not impose a
27. 1:00simple instrument, playlist track, mixer
28. 1:02track relationship. Playlist tracks in
29. 1:04particular are not bound to any specific
30. 1:07instrument or piano roll, and that
31. 1:09confuses some people.
32. 1:11In most other DAWs, each playlist track
33. 1:14is a single instrument and its piano
34. 1:16roll data and a mixer track. Instrument
35. 1:18tracks and audio tracks manage the
36. 1:20connection between these windows and
37. 1:22help keep your project organized.
38. 1:24To create an instrument track, drag a
39. 1:26sample or a plugin onto a playlist track
40. 1:29header. If you drag a sample, FL Studio
41. 1:32will ask you whether you want an audio
42. 1:34track or an instrument track. Choose
43. 1:36instrument track for now.
44. 1:38You'll see that the playlist track,
45. 1:40mixer track, and channel rack are all
46. 1:42renamed and colored together.
47. 1:45Dragging an instrument plugin works the
48. 1:46same way and creates an instrument track
49. 1:49automatically. A few of the nice things
50. 1:52about instrument tracks,
51. 1:54creating one automatically adds a
52. 1:55pattern clip ready for editing.
53. 1:59[music]
54. 2:01If you want few windows as possible on
55. 2:03screen, set this option to piano roll.
56. 2:06This means double clicking pattern clips
57. 2:08will always open the piano roll.
58. 2:15You can open the linked plugin by double
59. 2:17clicking the playlist track header.
60. 2:22Now when you rename or recolor any part
61. 2:25of an instrument track, all linked parts
62. 2:27update with it.
63. 2:29And if you change its mixer routing, FL
64. 2:31Studio moves the entire mixer track,
65. 2:34including its effects to keep everything
66. 2:36in sync.
67. 2:38This means you can work completely from
68. 2:40the playlist now.
69. 2:41Close the channel rack.
70. 2:47[music]
71. 2:58[music]
72. 3:04If you automate anything on that
73. 3:06instrument track, either the plugin or
74. 3:08one of its effects, the automation clip
75. 3:10appears on a new, automatically named
76. 3:13and colored track, grouped neatly
77. 3:15underneath.
78. 3:19[music]
79. 3:24[music]
80. 3:29Now let's make an audio track.
81. 3:32Drag a sample onto a playlist track
82. 3:34header again, but this time choose audio
83. 3:36track. Audio tracks work similarly to
84. 3:39instrument tracks. Only there's no
85. 3:41instrument plugin attached, just an
86. 3:43audio clip channel. [music]
87. 3:45Any audio you drop onto that playlist
88. 3:47track will be routed to the same mixer
89. 3:49track the audio track is linked to.
90. 3:57[music]
91. 4:02[music]
92. 4:04These options work with multi selections
93. 4:06too. If you drop a bunch of wave files
94. 4:09on a playlist track header, you can
95. 4:10choose to have each one be added as an
96. 4:12audio track.
97. 4:18And if you have multiple playlist tracks
98. 4:20selected, you can turn them all into
99. 4:21instrument tracks by dragging a plugin
100. 4:23on one of the selected tracks headers.
101. 4:28There are also other ways of creating
102. 4:30instrument and audio tracks via menus.
103. 4:32[music]
104. 4:33You can right click any channel and
105. 4:34assign it to a new instrument track in
106. 4:36the channel rack.
107. 4:40[music]
108. 4:51[music] You can also right click
109. 4:52playlist track headers and choose
110. 4:54whether to make them instrument tracks,
111. 4:56which requires choosing an instrument
112. 4:58plugin from the menu
113. 5:06or audio tracks, which requires choosing
114. 5:09a mixer track [music] to link it to.
115. 5:18There is also the plus button in the
116. 5:20playlist.
117. 5:21Left click it to make a new instrument
118. 5:22track. Select an instrument plugin from
119. 5:24the menu here
120. 5:33or select an audio track to make a new
121. 5:35empty audio track.
122. 5:37You can quickly make new audio tracks by
123. 5:39right clicking the button too.
124. 5:45[music] Deleting
125. 5:46If you delete the channel or playlist
126. 5:48track, there will be an option to delete
127. 5:50everything associated with the
128. 5:52instrument.
129. 5:58[music]
130. 6:03[music]
131. 6:04Using these tools makes it much easier
132. 6:06to stay organized compared to manually
133. 6:08naming and coloring everything yourself
134. 6:10and trying to remember which automation
135. 6:13belongs to what.
136. 6:15And that's all you need to know about
137. 6:17audio and instrument tracks in the
138. 6:18playlist.
139. 6:19We hope this video helped you
140. 6:21future-proof your projects so you can
141. 6:22open them years later and still
142. 6:24understand what you did. Remember to
143. 6:26check out the video description for a
144. 6:28link to the demo projects we made for
145. 6:30this video.
146. 6:31Happy music making.
147. 6:34>> [music]
148. 6:40[music]