We’re going to take a look at a couple of piano roll options you may have not used before. These quick tips can generate chords, inspire your leads, and make your beats sound a little less robotic.
These are “quick” tips, so let’s open up FL Studio and get to it.
With FL Studio, it’s o.k. If you haven’t studied music theory. There is an option inside the piano roll that will help take your one-note melody and transform it into brilliant chords. If you are ready to do this, open up the Piano Roll.
Now you have these rich and full chords. It's time to compliment them. To find some good options to go along with each chord, you can do the same function with scales, in the same menu as chords.
If you ever find yourself stuck or lacking an idea. Try Riff Machine. It will generate a variety of different patterns. It offers options such as chords, arps, grooves, and for some off the wall randomness, try "art". All you have to do is place a note in the piano roll to get started.
(Optional) Using the “Fit” tab will allow you to take the existing “riff” and put it into a specific key.
Always select "Accept" when you find the option that you like. If you just close the window, your selection will not be applied and will default back to what you started with.
This is a feature that is not limited to drums. Once you take a look at the menu you will see options by instrument and genre. This trick will help give any aspect of your track a more dynamic sound. To start out I placed a couple standard hi-hats. Feel free to try any sound that you like.
Once you select an option you will notice the velocity (indicated below each note) has changed. Each option has a varying degree of fluctuation.
Always select "Accept" when you find the option that you like. If you just close the window, your selection will not be applied and will result to the default you started with.
Now you know some of the best tricks in the FL Studio Piano Roll that you can apply to beats, leads, for inspiration and to generate chords.