Working with the FLkey 37 in FL Studio

In the MIDI Settings window, (Options > Settings > MIDI) make sure it is set up like the following screenshot. For a text guide on setting up your MIDI Settings, you can also use the steps after the screenshot.

Manual Installation steps:

To use the 5-pin DIN socket for MIDI output on your FLkey without a computer, you can power the unit with a standard USB power supply (5V DC, minimum 500mA).

You can connect any standard sustain pedal via the TS jack input. Not all plugins support sustain pedal signals by default, so you might need to link it to the right parameter inside the plugin.

The FLkey’s sustain input automatically senses the pedal’s polarity. The Sustain input does not support sostenuto, soft or volume pedals.

When you’re in the pot modes for Mixer or Channel settings you can bank between mixer tracks or channels. While using Channel Rack Pad mode navigation banks in groups of eight so the pots line up with the bottom row of pads; in all other pad modes banking moves one Track or Channel at a time.

In Plugin mode, you can use the FLkey’s pots to control eight parameters in the plugin you have in focus. Most native FL Studio plugins support FLkey’s pot mode.

In Mixer Volume mode, the FLkey’s eight pots map to the mixer faders in FL Studio. You can control mixer track volumes in groups of eight.

In Mixer Pan mode, the FLkey’s eight pots map to the pan controls in FL Studio’s mixer. You can control the mixer track’s panning in groups of eight.

In Channel Volume mode, FLkey’s eight pots map to the Channel Volume control in groups of eight.

In Channel Pan mode, FLkey’s eight pots map to the Channel Pan control in groups of eight.

This pot mode gives you freedom over whichever parameters you wish to control and up to eight simultaneously. Using Novation Components, you can edit the messages the pots and fader buttons send out in Custom Mode

components.novationmusic.com.

To map most parameters in FL Studio to the Pots on the FLkey:

Remote control modes:

The Channel Rack pad mode lets you play up to 16 Channel Rack channels at once. Each pad represents a single channel you can trigger using a C5 note. The pads light the channel colour for the channel you assign the pad to.

When you press a pad, FL Studio selects the channel and triggers audio. The pad then lights white to show the selected channel, and the channel’s name shows momentarily on the screen. You can select one channel from the hardware at a time. The FLkey shows when you have no channel selected in FL Studio.

The pad layout is left to right, bottom to top, in two rows of eight. The channels in the lower row align with the Channel Rack Pan/Volume pot layout.

You can control Channel Rack plugins from your FLkey in instrument mode. To enter instrument mode, hold shift and press the pad above ‘Instrument’ on the hardware. You can input MIDI note data via pads, adapting special instrument layouts:

By default, Instrument Pad mode displays a chromatic keyboard across the pads (shown below). When you have Scale mode enabled in Instrument mode, the MIDI data sent from the pads maps to the eight notes in the scale you select, across two octaves.

The Preset ▲ or Preset ▼, buttons allow you to scroll through the instrument’s presets.

FPC

In Instrument mode, when you add the FPC plugin to a Channel Rack track, you can control the FPC drum pads from FLkey. When you select a channel with the FPC plugin:

FPC is special in this: As its pads have distinct colours, the pads from the FLkey respect those colours instead of the channel colour.

Slicex

In Instrument mode, when you add the Slicex plugin to the Channel Rack, you can play back slices using the FLkey’s pads.

You can press the Page ◀ left or Page ▶ right to bank to the next 16 slices and trigger them with the FLkey’s pads.

Fruity Slicer

You can play back slices using the FLkey pads while in instrument mode when you select a Channel Rack channel with this plugin.

You can press the Page ◀ left or Page ▶ right page left or page right to get to the next 16 slices to be able to trigger them with the FLkey pads.

Default Instrument

This layout is available for a Channel Rack track with any other plugin without custom support or no plugin at all.

By default, the pads show a chromatic keyboard layout, with note C5 (MIDI note 84) on the bottom left pad. You can change this using the FLkey’s Scale mode.

Pressing the Page ◀ left button decreases the octave, and the Page ▶ right button increases the octave. The brighter bottom right/top left pad is always the root note (C by default). With Scale mode enabled, the pad layout matches the scale you select, starting with the root note on the bottom left pad.

In Sequencer mode, you control the sequencer grid in the FL Studio Channel Rack. You can place and change steps inside the selected instrument and pattern. To use Sequencer mode, hold (or double press to latch) Shift + Sequencer. The upper row of pads shows steps 1-8, and the lower row steps 9-16.

In Sequencer mode, the pads display the steps for the selected Channel Rack track, active steps appear in bright track colour, and inactive steps in dim track colour. You can toggle the steps by pressing the pads.

Press Channel Rack ▲ and Channel Rack ▼ to scroll through the instruments. The pads update to match the colour of the Channel’s sequencer you’re controlling.

In the following graphic and screenshot of FL Studio– you can see the ‘Kick’ channel has four active steps in the sequence and four lit pads on the FLkey’s pads.

While the transport is playing, the currently playing step (Step 6) is lit in bright white. When you pause the sequencer, the playing step’s pad stays white, but it doesn’t show when you stop the transport.

Use the Page ◀ and ▶ buttons under the ‘Page’ label to shift the selection to the previous/next group of 16 steps. A red box briefly highlights which steps you’ve selected in FL Studio’s Channel Rack.

Scale Chord Mode provides you with banks of predefined chords. To access these banks, hold the shift button and press the Scale Chord pad (5th pad). Each pad row contains a bank of chords. The root key is C minor by default, to change this see Scale Mode.

Each row's first and last pad lights up brighter than the middle pads to show the root chord position. To navigate between pages of chords, use the Page ◄ ► navigation buttons. This mode has three pages with predefined chords: Triads, 7ths, 9ths, and 6/9ths.

When you press a pad, it lights green and returns to its original colour when released. To change the chord’s octave, hold Shift and press the Page ◄ ► buttons, these provide access to a range of -3 to +3 octaves.

Press Shift + Scale to choose a scale with the pink lit pads and a root key with any note on the keyboard that changes the predefined chord’s scale and root key.

In User Chord Mode, you can assign up to six note chords to each pad. The FLkey saves these chords to its internal memory and is accessible between power cycles. Any assignments you make are available after you turn your FLkey off and on again.

Hold the Shift button to enter User Chord Mode and press the User Chord pad (6th pad).

To assign a chord to a pad: press and hold a pad and press the notes you want to assign from the keyboard. You can assign up to six notes to each pad using individual key pushes; you do not need to hold all the notes at once if the pad is held.

When you assign a chord, the pad lights up blue. When you press the pad, it plays the chord and lights up green. If a pad has no chord assigned, the pad isn’t lit. The four blue pads below show pads with assigned chords.

To delete a chord assignment from a pad, hold the Preset ▼ button, the pads with assigned chords turn red. Press a red pad to delete the assigned chord, once deleted the pad is no longer lit.

The Page ◄ ► buttons transpose the chord bank in semitones between -12 and +12, the FLkey’s screen displays any changes you make.

This pad mode gives you freedom over whichever parameters you wish to control. Using Novation Components, you can edit the messages the pots send out in Custom Mode.