One great feature of FL Studio is the Mixer. From here you can mix Channel Rack instruments and
make any arbitrary link between Mixer tracks to create complex mixing chains. Take a deep breath!
One of the best features of the Mixer is that you can add effects to the sounds coming from the
Channel Rack instruments. Effects can range from a simple volume changes to more advanced
effects such as compression, chorus, reverb, phaser, delay, flange, and EQ, among others (you
can also add notebooks, controllers, monitors and all kinds of other goodies!).
Open the Mixer Window. Bring up the Mixer screen by pressing F9 or by going to View > Mixer.
You'll get a window like the one below…
What are you looking at? All audio in FL Studio passes through the Mixer. Unless specifically redirected,
newly added Instrument Channels are routed to the Master Mixer track. There are
125 Insert tracks for receiving input from plugins and external audio inputs, 1 x Current track for
hosting tools like Edison (page 71) and Wave Candy and a Master track for master effects
processing. The Mixer has three docks for tracks (left, middle and right) and can be stretched
horizontally or vertically by clicking the edges and dragging. In combination with the layout
options (on the Mixer layout menu), the controls visible will change to suit the Mixers size. To see
tracks outside the current view, use the Track Scroll Bar below the 'Send' switches OR roll your
mouse wheel over the track names. Select a track by Left-clicking the pan or fader controls. Select
multiple tracks by holding (Ctrl+Alt). Selected tracks are highlighted with green faders (track 1
above is selected).
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The Track Inspector panel shows the properties and effects for the selected track. Controls
include a 3 band parametric equalizer, audio Inputs and Outputs (from and to your soundcard) and
Plugin Delay Compensation Controls (PDC).
Turn Plugins On and Off / Mixing Wet and Dry. Click on the green LED to the right of each
plugin slot to turn it on and off. Try this with the loop running to hear the difference. You can also
tweak the knob next to the LED to mix a “dry” (without effect) and “wet” (with the effect) sound.
Select Plugins. To load an effect plugin, choose a free slot and open the effect slot menu on that
slot and select a plugin from the Favorites list. At the top of the menu there are also options
to Open the plugin picker (FX are on the right), Browse plugin database etc, if you need to
access plugins not yet set as Favorites. NOTE: Once an effect is loaded on any slot in a mixer
track the FX icon will light orange on that track to let you know effects are loaded (clicking on the
FX icon will disable all effects in the track).
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Tweak the Plugins. Left-click on the plugin name to open and close its Plugin Settings screen.
Some plugins have a generic interface like the Fruity Reverb 2. Others have more complicated
looking controls (like Fruity Limiter). Most plugins come with their own help, so we won't go into
how to use the controls here. Why not play with them all to see what they do?
Sending Sound to the Mixer. The box in the top right of the plugin window under the Channel
Settings icon, is a Mixer track ‘send’. Any effects placed in the Master Mixer Track will be applied
to all the sounds in the song. But effects in Mixer Tracks 1-103 will only be applied to the Samples
and Synths, which have selected that Mixer Track in their Track Send control.
What are all those wires and knobs at the bottom of the selected track? You can send audio
from one Mixer track to any of the others. Select a track, then click the ‘Open send’ switch on any
destination tracks you want to use and adjust the knob to change the audio send level. Sidechain
sends happen when you turn the audio to minimum. These are useful for some FX that can use
sidechains like Fruity Limiter.
Changing Plugin Order. The order in which you add effects plugins decided in what order the FX
are applied to the signal. Think of it this way – the signal enters the top of the FX stack and leaves
the bottom. So, Delay above a reverb would mean the delay sits in a wash of reverb. Reverb above
delay means the reverb tail is chopped up and delayed. To make it easier to experiment with effects
order, FL Studio has a simple function to move an effect up or down in the effects chain. A quick
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way is to place your mouse cursor over the FX slot and scroll your mouse wheel. No wheel?
Click the menu arrow at the start and choose ‘Move up/down’.
Place your mouse
pointer over the FX
name and scroll the
wheel.
A sidechain means a sound from one mixer track can be passed directly to a specific effect
on another, a direct connection. Normally sound goes from slot 1 to 10. For VST plugins the
sidechain input shows on the VST Wrapper Setting > Processing tab.
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