FL Studio - Notes

Slide note feature represents not only Pitch Blender wheel action in keyboard (midi event) and much more ... since it applies to all effects parameters. So it is a cool way to automate using notes !!!

Best Use cases:

- Pan from Left to right
- Velocity gradually rise relative volume of the note
- Add vibrato effect by  with slide notes pitching up and down rapidly. 
- Can use this pattern multiple times and remove it when not needed.

Pro Tip: Use slide notes for panning and volume automation !!!

Using slide notes (in piano roll) cause the notes below (or above) to reach the pitch of slide note gradually. It affects the notes of the same color only, does not affect other notes.

Works with only FL native plugins.

Portamento note means "quick transition to this note from previous". The portamento flag in the note causes a short slide in pitch from the end of one note to the note with the portamento flag. There is transition time attribute for the note. You just read the note like normal note, but just be aware that the begining of the note does not have a "rough jump".

As for MIDI: the MIDI specification specifies: When a Note-On is received after a Portamento Control message, the voice's pitch will glide from the key specified in the Portamento Control message to the new Note-On's pitch at the rate set by the portamento time controller.

Slide note specifies the starting of the glide to destination pitch. Portamento specifies that the starting point is "bit smoother" than otherwise.

To select multiple mixer channels, click and drag.

Think mixer master control as the final block in the pipeline. To remove one particular mixer track going to master, just highlight the mixer track, then click the button below master, that will break the input. You can reroute one channel to another mixer track by clicking and dragging.

Understand this first :

Pattern  == Channel Rack == Set of instruments with specific notes (created using piano roll for example).
Playlist == Set of tracks. Represents the song.
Playlist track  === Each track can contain any combination of patterns or plain audio samples or automation clips.
Automation clip =>  Can be applied to track or multiple tracks. First select region of tracks, right click create automation track.

Typical playlist contains:

Melody Track
Percussion Track
Bass  Track
Vocal Track
Pattern Event Automation Track -- - for example, Panning which happens inside the pattern ??? (To do: understand this better)
Global Automation Envelope Track -- 

You can have groups of insert tracks.

Possible to route the audio of any Mixer Track directly to an ASIO output and or to another Insert Track.

To independently control volume per channel you have channel volume control within channel rack. There is no automatic volume control for channel rack -- You need mixer insert slot for that. Or you can group all channels in the rack, then you get one volume control right there.

The insert tracks 100 to 103 is reserved as "Return Tracks". By default for every insert track, 0% of signal is sent to these 100-103 tracks. And 100% is sent to Master Track.

Relation mapping :

Source              Relation   Destination       Comments

Channel Rack        N x 1      Insert Track      By default output goes to Master Track directly.
(Pattern)                                        Multiple channel racks can send output to single Insert Track.
                                                 Single channel Rack can send output to atmost 1 insert track.
                                                 If N > 1, the insert track acts like a "submixer", sharing the
                                                 volume control and effects applied.

Insert Track        N x 1      Master Track      Master track controls master volume and final effects applied only.

Insert Tracks       N x M      Output Tracks     Insert Track can receive inputs from multiple channel-racks and other insert tracks.
                                                 If M > 1, the insert track is called  "Send Track" (like analog send tracks).
                                                 The "Send Level" can be dialed to control how much to send.
                                                 Send Track usage pattern is to send "100 %" dry signal to Master and 
                                                 say, 10% signal to one reverb1 insert (return effect) track and another 10% signal
                                                 to another delay1 insert (return) track.
                                                 If a track receives multiple other tracks partial input, this is called "Return Track".

Send Track          1 x N       Return Tracks    One insert track can send output to multiple return tracks e.g.  reverb, delay, etc.

Hardware Inputs     1? x N      Insert Tracks    One Insert Track can optionally record atmost one hw input. 
                                                 However multiple insert tracks can record same mic input in parallel.

Insert tracks       N  x 1?     HW Outputs       Insert record, in addition to sending it's output to Master/other tracks, 
                                                 can send output to atmost 1 hw output e.g. speaker directly.

Given an insert track, you can detect the inputs and output tracks by right click Select => Tracks routed to this track.

FL Studios Playlist is not bound to any 'Instrument' or 'Mixer' Track.

• Mixer Controls - volume sliders, Panning, etc. [ Right click - Create Automation Clip ]
• Effects Controls - [ Right click to create Automation Clip ]
• VST Parameters - [ Tweak VST Parameter, then FL Menu Tool => Last Tweaked => Create Automation Clip. No CC involved ]
• Note: There is no direct MIDI CC Automation Clip. You should map midi cc to VST or DAW control then you can create automation clip for that.