MIXING & EFFECTS

Recording External and Internal Mixer Audio

FL Studio allows you to record live audio from an external sound source (6), ASIO is required (see Prerequisites for Recording External Audio below for more details) OR record internal audio from mixer tracks. Once the disk recording icon is selected (17) and 'armed' (orange), any audio on that track (internal or external) will be recorded to disk. Recording mixer tracks is a great way to free up your CPU when capacity gets tight. A video tutorial is available.

Multiple track recording - Each of the 64 mixer track can independently record internal and or external audio sources, allowing you to simultaneously record the full number of audio inputs available from your soundcard or multiple internal mixer tracks.

Loop Recording - If you have Loop recording turned on in Song mode, and have a range selected, you will be able to automatically record layer upon-layer of audio into the Audio Clip section of the Playlist. When FL Studio reaches the end of the Playlist range it will automatically create an Audio Clip and start at the beginning recording a new audio-clip. Previously recorded Audio Clips will be muted. As there is quite a lot for FL Studio to do each time around the loop (saving wav files, creating channels and creating new wav files) there may be audio glitches in the first few ms of each loop. In light of this we recommend a bar lead in at the start of the loop section, this will also give you time to ready yourself for the next loop.

Recording External Audio

Before you can record external audio sources the following conditions need to be satisfied:

Prerequisites for Recording External Audio

Recording internal audio from Mixer tracks only requires Producer Edition, however, to record external Audio you will also need:

1. FL Studio Producer edition or higher.
2. An ASIO driver for your soundcard.
3. FL Studio set to operate in ASIO mode. See System - Audio Settings, press F10 in FL Studio to bring them up.
4. The sound source connected to your PC via your soundcard or a USB/Firewire interface.

If there are no input options available in the IN box at 6 in the mixer (shown below), then at least one of the conditions above is not met. It is possible that your soundcard does not support the ASIO standard. In this instance you can try the www.asio4all.com driver on your system. Please note that this solution is a 3rd party work-around of the Windows Audio Drivers and Image-Line is not liable for any problems caused by the use of this driver.

Quick Audio Recording Procedure

If the above conditions are satisfied, FL Studio has an audio-recording wizard:

1. Select Tools > One-click audio recording from the 'Tools' menu.
2. Follow the prompts.

Normal Audio Recording Procedure

Where to record external audio: When recording external audio on a mixer track, internal audio routed to that track will be mixed in with the external source so it is best to use a mixer track with no internal generators routed to it. Remember that the Master mixer track has all the other tracks routed to it, so this is definitely a bad place to record external audio sources.

1. Mixer track arming: Select an external input (6). This should auto-arm the track for recording and the disk icon (17) will turn orange.
2. Naming (Optional): Select the name and location of the saved WAV file other than the default. Press the disk icon (17) TWICE, the first time will de-select the arming, the second time will re-select it and open the file-name/location dialogue. Select a location in the browse dialog and name the .WAV file to be recorded. If you use right-click, an automatic file name is assigned to the track. Do the same for all mixer tracks you want to record.
3. Recording Options: Open the Mixer pop-up menu. In the Disk Recording submenu check 32bit floating point recording if you want to render to 32bit wave files. Next select ‘Auto-create audio tracks’ to automatically insert recorded audio clips in the Playlist.
4. Monitoring: The default setup will be route the incoming audio on the armed mixer track through to the Master track where it will be audible. If you don't want to hear the incoming audio, deselect the 'Send to master' knob from the armed track to the Master track.
5. Effects: We strongly recommend that you record all incoming sources without FX and add them later, this provides maximum flexibility. However, you may wish to monitor the incoming signal with FX while recording the dry signal. In this case - deselect the 'Send to master' knob from the armed track to the Master track, route the armed track to a second mixer track with the FX you wish to monitor and allow that track to pass through to the Master.
6. Mono to Stereo (optional): If you have a mono sound source that appears in only the L or R stereo channel you can turn the stereo separation knob on the mixer track all the way right to fill both L and R channels for recording.
7. Recording: In the Transport Panel, ensure Record Mode is activated (orange) and push the Play button to start recording.
8. Stop recording: When you are finished, press the Stop button. At this point, all armed tracks will become unarmed, depending on whether you have enabled the Disk Recording > Auto-Unarm option in the Mixer pop-up menu.
9. Where's my audio? If you are in pattern mode then the recording will appear as an Audio Clip channel. If you are in song mode AND the Mixer Menu setting, Auto-create Audio Clips is on, then your recording will appear as an Audio Clip wave-display in the lower Play List window. All new audio-clips are routed to the master mixer track by default.

Recording Internal Mixer Audio (Freezing)

Mixer track recording (or freezing) enables you to quickly replace the real-time effects and instruments with prerendered audio, saving CPU. It also helps for easier rendering of separate mixer tracks for additional processing in 3rd party applications. For users with ASIO enabled sound cards, you can route ASIO inputs (see Audio Input/Output Routing above) to the track input (for ex. microphone, line in) and record it in a *.WAV file.

There are two ways to record a track: realtime (interactive), allowing recording of ASIO inputs; and non-realtime, allowing (usually) faster rendering times and higher audio quality.

Non-realtime recording

To perform non-realtime export of Mixer track/s (also known as 'track freezing'):

1. Mixer track arming: Press the disk icon (17) on the desired mixer track. In the browse dialog that will open, select a location and name for the *.WAV file to be recorded. The disk icon turns orange to show the track is ready to be recorded. Do the same for all mixer tracks you want to record.
2. Recording Options: Open the Mixer pop-up menu (1). In the Disk Recording submenu check 32bit floating point recording if you want to render to 32bit wave files. Open the Mixer pop-up menu (1) and the Disk Recording submenu check Auto-create audio tracks to insert the resulting audio clip in the Playlist's audio tracks after recording is completed.
3. Rendering ( Alt+R): Open the Mixer pop-up menu (1) and the Disk Recording submenu select Render to Wave File. The rendering settings dialog appears. Adjust the settings and press OK to render the track. NOTE: Some of the options available when rendering a full song are not available for track recording: render to MP3 or MIDI file, saving of NFO file with the audio clip and saving ACID-ized audio.
4. After recording all tracks that were activated for recording go back to their normal state.
5. Where's my audio? If you are in pattern mode then the recording will appear as an Audio Clip channel. If you are in song mode AND the Mixer Menu setting, Auto-create Audio Clips is on, then your recording will appear as an Audio Clip wave-display in the lower Play List window. All new audio-clips are routed to the master mixer track by default.

NOTE: ASIO inputs are disabled while recording in non-realtime.

Realtime (Interactive) Recording

To perform realtime recording of Mixer track/s:

1. Mixer track arming: Press the disk icon (17) on the mixer track you wish to record. If you use left-click, select a location in the browse dialog and name the *.WAV file to be recorded. If you use right-click, an automatic file name is assigned to the track. The disk icon turns orange to show the track is ready to be recorded. Do the same for all mixer tracks you want to record.
2. Recording Options: Open the Mixer pop-up menu (1). In the Disk Recording submenu check 32bit floating point recording if you want to render to 32bit wave files. Open the Mixer pop-up menu (1) and the Disk Recording submenu check Auto-create audio tracks to insert the resulting audio clip in the Playlist's audio tracks after recording is completed.
3. Rendering: In the Transport panel, activate Record Mode and push the Play button to start recording the state.
4. When you are finished, press the Stop button. At this point, all armed track will become unarmed, depending on whether you have enabled the Disk Recording > Auto-Unarm option in the Mixer's pop-up menu.
5. Where's my audio? If you are in pattern mode then the recording will appear as a sampler channel. If you are in song mode AND the Mixer Menu setting, Auto-create Audio Clips is on, then your recording will appear as an Audio-clip in the Play List.

Mixer reference diagram