Underneath the main time counter, you’ll find a universal snap control represented by a horseshoe-shaped magnet (where it shows ‘1/4 beat’ in the screenshot above). These allow you to switch between playing back what’s in the Channel Rack (pattern) and what’s in the Arrangement (song). To the right, nearing the center of the toolbar, you’ll find the transport section: play, stop, and record buttons, tempo, and more. You’ll also find two playback options: Pat (pattern) and Song. Just underneath the menus on the lefthand side of the toolbar is a dialogue box offering descriptions of items and buttons when your mouse hovers over them (in the screenshot it says ‘MaxwellMcAllister,’ representing who the owns the software license, as I had not scrolled the mouse over a button).
Options is an important menu containing general, audio, and MIDI settings, plus a plugin manager and more. These all provide essential functions, and you should explore each of them to get comfortable with the layout. Main Toolbarįrom left to right, you’ll find standard menus including File, Edit, Options, and more. This makes it one of more customizable DAWs out there. The first thing you’ll want to understand about FL Studio is that all the windows (arrangement, mixer, channel rack, piano roll, etc.) can be moved around to your liking. Apart from the toolbar across the top of the screen, nothing in FL if fixed. When you open the software, it will probably look something like this:
