Do you want to improve your FL Studio workflow? Then this article is for you! Every DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) has lots of shortcuts, a couple you might already know as they’re the same in every program; like ctrl+c for copying and ctrl+s for saving. Others you might not know, but are very handy. Especially in a DAW like FL Studio. This article points out the shortcuts; the most important keyboard and mouse shortcuts!

Note: When you want to use FL Studio’s shortcuts, make sure you don’t use the ‘typing keyboard as your piano’ option. Hit ctrl + T to switch between typing and piano keyboard.

File operations and basics

I’m confident that with these keyboard shortcuts you will definitely improve your workflow in FL Studio, which will result in more productive music production sessions. Keep in mind that this is the selection of shortcuts that I use the most, there may be more for you! Here is a complete list of all the keyboard shortcuts in FL Studio. These simple shortcuts for sessions, recording, and editing on FL Studio will help make your life so much easier. You could save precious editing time while giving a better professional impression. You could spend less hours doing the tedious parts and more hours actually editing with these simple shortcuts. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. User account menu. FL studio for mac. Posted by 10 days ago. FL studio for mac. Any cracked links for FL studio on mac OS? Log in or sign up to leave a comment Log In Sign Up.

Most of these shortcuts you probably already know, but do you use them?

Ctrl + O — Open a project.
Ctrl + S — Save File.
Ctrl + Shift + S — Save project as (at this window you can also save as wav or mp3).
Space — Start and stop song/pattern.
L — Switch between song and pattern mode.
Ctrl + M — Toggle Metronome.

Patterns

I find it quite annoying to scroll through patterns to end up at the pattern you want, chances are you go to fast. The following shortcuts will improve your workflow in the pattern view.

– and + — Go to previous and next pattern.
F4 — Go to next empty pattern.
Shift + Left Click — Hold shift and left click the green squares to select multiple channels in your pattern view. (Especially handy for copying and pasting!)
Alt + Del — Delete selected channels.
Alt + Arrow Up/Down — Move selected channel(s) up or down.

FL Studio: Select multiple channels in pattern view.

Piano roll and playlist

These are the shortcuts for the standard tools to edit your notes or patterns.

P — Pencil tool
B — Paint/Brush Tool
E — Select Tool
D — Delete tool
T — Mute tool

However, I usually only use the pencil tool and shortcuts to select, delete and copy notes or patterns. These might be the most important to improve your workflow. When the Pen or Brush Tool is selected use the following shortcuts:

Shift + Left Click — Clone selected notes or patterns. By holding shift and left clicking on one of the selected notes/patterns, you clone the whole selection. Release shift to get full movement, instead of locked horizontal movement.
Ctrl + Left Click –– Select multiple notes or patterns. Drag your mouse to select multiple notes and patterns in one single swipe.
Ctrl + Shift + Left Click — Select multiple notes or patterns in multiple swipes or clicks.
Del — Delete selection.
Ctrl + Scroll — Zoom in/out horizontally.
Alt + Scroll — Zoom in/out vertically.
Ctrl + Right click — Hold and drag to zoom in on selection.

When you want to edit or adjust your loop selection (the red area), you don’t have to change to your select tool. Just click on the timeline (where the green arrow is, see image below) with one of the following shortcuts:

Ctrl + Left Click (hold) — Make loop selection.
Ctrl + Left Click — Remove loop selection.
Right Click — Adjust loop selection size. Depending on which side of the loop selection is closest to where you click, the loop selection will adjust to where your cursor is.

Mixer

These 4 shortcuts are all you need to up your workflow in FL Studio’s mixer.

Alt + Arrow Left/Right — Move selected mixer track(s) left or right.
Ctrl + Shift + Left Click — Select multiple mixer tracks.
F2 — Rename selected mixer track.
S — Solo selected mixer track.

I’m confident that with these keyboard shortcuts you will definitely improve your workflow in FL Studio, which will result in more productive music production sessions. Keep in mind that this is the selection of shortcuts that I use the most, there may be more for you! Here is a complete list of all the keyboard shortcuts in FL Studio.

The following FL Studio Tutorial will help you understand the workflow, and learn keyboard shortcuts that will make you into an FL Studio pro!
Note: Keyboard shortcuts are referred to as key commands here.
In this tutorial we will be covering key commands in some aspects of the FL Studio Workflow that will help make you into an efficient power user of FL Studio.
The first place you can improve your efficiency is by learning some of the various key commands available. For example:
- The 'Tab' key allows you to quickly cycle through open windows in your project.
- Use 'Shift + Tab' to reverse the cycle order.
The windows and cells can be individually activated or opened and closed by using the corresponding key commands:
- 'F5' for the Playlist,
- 'F6' for the Step Sequencer,
- 'F7' for the Piano Roll,
- 'F8' for the Browser,
- and 'F9' for the mixer.
You might find it easier to just flip through windows with the 'Tab' key, and then just use 'F7' to open and close the Piano Roll whenever you need it.
To close any currently active window; either press the associated key command for that window or press the escape 'Esc' key.

Sequencer

When working in the Step Sequencer there are a number of useful commands:
- Use the Up and Down arrow keys to select the Next or Previous channel.
- To select more channels hold down 'Shift' and Left Click the other channels.
- To delete a selected channel hold down the control 'Ctrl' key and press 'Delete'.
When working on a big song it is useful to group different sounds, according to function. For example; a drum kit made up of separate sampler channels.
- Group select the channels by holding down the 'Alt' key and pressing 'G'.
When grouped the channels will only appear when you select the group’s name in the channel display filter.
- To quickly jump through groups use the 'Page Up' and 'Page Down' keys.
When editing sequences in the Step Sequencer there are a few little tricks to make things easier:
- To randomize the channel press the key combination of 'Alt + R',
- and to quickly send a sequence to the piano roll editor press the combination of 'Alt + P'.
- The Left and Right Arrow keys by themselves will take you to the Next and Previous pattern,
- and to quickly name the current pattern press 'F2, and type in the name.
- To create a new pattern and name it, press 'F4'.

Playlist

Moving over now to the Playlist, first of all, given that you can spend an extensive period of time editing in the Playlist you might find it useful to fill the FL Studio window with just the Playlist by pressing the 'Enter' key. Pressing it again returns it back to its original size. For now we'll just keep it at the full size.
One really neat navigational aspect in the Playlist is the ability to use the wheel on your mouse to move around the window:
- Just scrolling the wheel Up and Down will scroll through the pattern lists.
- If you hold down the 'Shift' key whist scrolling you'll be able to move horizontally through your arrangement.
- Holding down the control 'Ctrl' key whilst scrolling the wheel allows you to zoom in around the spot where the mouse is currently placed.
Moving through the timeline can also be achieved by pressing the 'Left' and 'Right' Arrow keys, much of this functionality is also available on the Piano Roll editor and the Event editor as well.
The number keypad on your computer has some helpful functionality built into it:
- To Fast Forward the play hear press the asterisk '*' key,
- and to Rewind press the forward slash '/'.
- To Fast Forward or Rewind in full hold down the control 'Ctrl' key while pressing these.
To make arrangements in the playlist easier you'll often use markers to define song sections.
- You create a marker by going to the Playlist Options Menu and choosing 'Add time marker...', a new time marker will be placed at the start of your song.
- To place a new marker in another point of the song click and drag the left most part of the marker to the position you want it.
Markers make is easy to jump to different sections of your arrangement:
- To jump to the next or previous song marker hold down the 'Alt' key while pressing the asterisk '*' or forward slash '/' on the number keypad.
- You can select areas in the timeline by holding down the control 'Ctrl' key and then clicking and dragging to define a cycle playback region.
- The same can be achieved by double clicking in the timeline and on the second click keep the mouse key held down and then, drag to define the selection.
- To move the marker region hold down ‘Shift’ and drag.
- To set selections that don't align with the timeline grid hold down the 'Alt' key.
- Double clicking on a marker name will also select the area under the marker duration.
- Hold down 'Ctrl + Alt' while pressing asterisk '*' or forward slash '/' to select the next or previous marker section.
- You can quickly jump around in the song during playback by clicking at the point where you want to jump to.
At the next bar the timeline will jump to this new spot without interrupting the timing of your song, this also works by using the Fast Forward and Rewind key commands I mentioned earlier. Note that, this way works only when you have Live Mode switched on in the Playlist Options Menu. See the Live Mode video tutorial for more on this mode. With Live Mode off the song will jump to wherever you click on the timeline without seeking to the tempo.
When you are heavily editing a song you will find yourself wanting to pause in the current play position, as opposed to stopping and automatically jumping back to the song or selection start.
- Hold down control when you press the space bar to do this. 'Ctrl + Space Bar' will then resume playback from the current position.
The tools that you use when editing in the playlist also have their own key commands:
- The Draw tool which you might like to think of as the pencil is selected by pressing 'P',
- the Brush tool by pressing 'B',
- the Delete tool by pressing 'D',
- the Cut tool by pressing 'C',
- the Select tool by pressing 'E',
- and the Zoom tool by pressing 'Z'.
Within a particular tool you also have other tools available by using modifiers:
- 'Ctrl' will switch to the Selection tool.
- 'Alt' will allow you to make edits that do not snap to the current grid settings, for example moving a pattern.
Most of the functionality I've described here in the pallets window also works in the Piano Roll, and the Event edit windows as well.

Piano Roll

The Piano Roll though has the additional playback tool which has the key command 'Y'. Also, all of the Piano Roll edit tools have their own key commands so you might want to gradually learn them as well.
A few neat editing tips in the Piano Roll are:
- Press 'Shift' and the 'Up' or 'Down' Arrow keys to transpose the semi-tone,
- 'Ctrl' and 'Up' or 'Down' will transpose the octave,
- and 'Shift' + 'Left' or 'Right' will shift the notes left and right by current snap-to grid settings.
So now you have learned a few new keyboard shortcuts it is now time to look at some other aspects of FL Studio workflow.

Browser

You are probably used to using the browser for dragging and dropping samples you have stored on your hard drive. The browser also contains a wealth of functionality that relates to the construction and management of your FL Studio projects.
This appears under the browser entry labelled 'Current Project'.
The first entry is 'History' which provides an undo history list that you can browse to pinpoint and come back to a previous edit state in your session.
- This will show up to as many undo states you have set in the General Settings 'Undo History'.
- Click on an undo state to revert back to that edit point.
Underneath the Undo folder is the 'Automation' folder:
- Here you can manage all the automation contained in your project.
Automation that appears here is automation that is contained within patterns, playlists, sequences, as well as the automation contained in the main automation such as Track Mix automation, which also appears as a pattern in the playlist.
Clicking on an automatic parameters name, will open up an Event editor allowing you to view and edit the automation.
This kind of axis becomes useful when your project is quite large and complex, allowing you to quickly home in a particular aspect of your arrangement.
Underneath the Automation folder is the 'Generators' folder:
- This lists all the Generators included in your project.
Clicking on a Generator name reveals all controls that can have automation or external media controls attached to them.
- Right click on the Control name to assign it to or add it to its automation.

Keyboard Shortcuts Fl Studio

Under the Generators is the same thing for all 'Effects' contained within your project.
Under Effects is a folder called 'Remote Control':
- This lists all parameters that you have either linked external media remote control signals or automation clips to.
- Left clicking on the parameter name allows you to assign a new signal to control with.
That concludes this FL Studio Tutorial.

Visual Studio Shortcut Keys

You will be able to get help with using FL Studio and learning how to make beats by posting a thread in the Producer Talk forum, and by asking other Producers who upload their beats in the Homemade Beats forum.

Fl Studio 20 Mac Shortcuts

Fl Studio Shortcut List

Disclaimer:
The tutorials I post, are not tutorials that I have written or recorded. They are simply rough audio transcripts of the videos embedded in the tutorials. The videos have been found freely available online, unless otherwise stated.