i. Step sequencer
The Step Sequencer will most likely be the first window you’ll see after loading FL Studio. It will most likely already have some channels loaded that represents the sounds or effects in the project. The step sequencer is mainly used for laying down your drum patterns, percussion as well as simple melodies. I personally use it completely for drum patterns, and leave all melodies to the Piano Roll Editor which I’ll explain in further detail later. Beside each channel on the left, are small rectangles to the right of them which represent steps. You can fill in these steps by left clicking them (right click will clear a step) and each filled step will trigger the channel to the left of it. You can set the pattern length by clicking and dragging the “- -“ (insert pic) section on the top-left. This will increase (or decrease) the length of the pattern, and represented in “beats per bar”. Most hip-hop music is in 4/4 time which basically means there are four beats per bar. Hip-hop can range from 2 bars to 8 bars, but this open to your liking or experimentation. Just to the right of the “- -“ (insert pic), there’s a little box which when enabled will repeat the pattern in the step sequencer. This is particularly helpful when some of your melodies are several bar lengths longer than the pattern in the step sequencer. The Graph Editor (insert pic) is used to adjust the “velocity” or volume for each note you wish to adjust in the step sequencer. Just to the right of that is the Keyboard Editor which lets you adjust the pitch of each note in the step sequencer. To the right of each individual channel in the step sequencer is the Pan and Volume knobs which, as the name states, adjust the pan and volume of each channel. Clicking a channel in the step sequencer brings up the Channel Properties window where the channel can be edited and fine-tuned. Now that you have a better idea on how to lay down your drums, lets look at what we can use to create more advanced melodies.