Pressing the “…” button enters FLkey into navigation mode for browsing samples and presets. The pads light up as shown below. The four blue pads form a left, right, up, and down keypad which replicates a computer keyboard’s cursor keys.
The green pad functions as the Enter ↵ key on your computer keyboard. The blue pads function as keyboard cursor keys to browse presets and samples in FL Studio or a software plugin. They can also perform any other function of a keyboard’s cursor keys and enter button.
The navigation keys are useful for stepping through samples in the Browser and pressing Enter (the green pad) to load your sample to the Channel Rack.
In Scale mode, you can set the entire keyboard, or the pads in instrument mode, to only play notes in a scale you select. Press the “Scale” button to activate this mode, and the button lights to show the mode is active.
The screen displays a message to show the active scale (C minor by default).
To change the scale, you need to access Scale Settings. Hold the Shift button and press the Scale button. The Scale button flashes to show you are in scale settings.
To change the root note, press the corresponding key (all the black keys represent sharps #). The pads change the Scale type. In scale setting mode, they look like this:
The bottom row of the pads lights so you can select a scale, and the screen shows the selected scale. From left to right, the pads select the following scales:
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Minor
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Major
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Dorian
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Mixolydian
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Phrygian
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Harmonic Minor
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Minor Pentatonic
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Major Pentatonic.
To exit the Scales setting mode, press the Scale button or any function button. The settings mode also times out after ten seconds of inactivity, with the keyboard returning to its previous state.
Pressing the Octave buttons increments and decrements the keyboard octave by ±1. The available octaves range from C0 to G10 in FL Studio (C-2 – G8 with other software). Shift-pressing the Octave buttons transposes the keyboard up or down by one semitone.
After you change the octave, the screen displays the current Octave range for five seconds. You can tell if your keyboard is in a different Octave as the Octave +/- button lights. The brighter the button, the more octaves you have moved.
To reset the keyboard octave to 0, press the Octave +/- buttons simultaneously. To reset the keyboard transposition to 0, hold shift and press the Octave +/- buttons simultaneously.
Hold Shift and press Octave +/- to transpose the keyboard up or down in semitones. The screen shows the transposition amount.
Fixed Chord lets you play a chord shape and transpose it by pressing other keys. To set a chord, press and hold the Fixed Chord button. While still holding the button, press and release the keys you wish to be in your chord. The chord is now stored.
The FLkey sets the first note you input into the chord as the chord’s ‘root note’, even if you add notes lower than the first note.
Press and hold the Fixed Chord button press and release C, E, and finally G (a C Major chord). The FLkey stores this as the ‘Fixed Chord’. Release the Fixed Chord button.
Major chords now sound on whatever key you press. For example, you can now press F to hear an F Major chord (shown below), or Ab to hear an Ab Major chord, etc.
Note Repeat applies to the pads and allows you to play notes (especially drum hits) at various Rates, locked to a set Tempo.
When connected to FL Studio, Note Repeat always follows the DAW tempo regardless of the playback state. By default, master sync (in FL studio’s MIDI settings) is enabled, making Note Repeat trigger tightly to the grid. If you disable master sync, Note Repeat begins when you press a pad.
Press the Note Repeat button to enable Note Repeat on the pads. FL Studio sends MIDI clock to the FLkey by default, so it synchronises to this tempo. Hold any pad, and they repeat at the set Rate and Tempo.
In Sequencer mode, the Note Repeat function doesn’t affect the pads. In Sequencer mode, the pads assign notes to the sequencer.
To change the rate, hold the Shift button (or double-tap to latch) and press Note Repeat to enter Note Repeat settings. Press a key labelled 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, and Triplet. The Triplet option sets the Rate to a Triplet feel for the currently selected rate, e.g. if the Rate was set to 1/8, enabling Triplet sets the rate to 1/8t.
With Note Repeat held or latched, you can change the Rate as you play the pads, too. In Note Repeat settings, the button pulses to show the keys are controlling the Rate and Tap Tempo.
In Note Repeat settings mode, repeatedly press the key labelled Tap Tempo until you’ve set the desired tempo. With Master Sync enabled in FL Studio (this is by default), the screen reads ‘Tempo External’– tap tempo is changing the DAW tempo. The Note Repeat button will flash at the tempo you set.
You can use pad pressure to control the Note Repeat hit’s velocity. The initial velocity is set as you press the pad. As you hold it, you can increase pressure to increase velocity, or reduce pressure to reduce velocity, etc.
You can disable Velocity in the Settings menu, see FLkey 49 Settings menu.
If you reduce pressure after the initial hit, the Note Repeat output keeps the initial velocity constant and only change velocity if you increase the pressure above the initial velocity setting.
When you connect FLkey to FL Studio, it follows the Pickup (takeover mode) setting in FL Studio’s Settings.
In standalone mode, you can turn on Pot Pickup from the settings menu. When Pot Pickup is on, FLkey saves the various pages for the Pot’s states. The control only outputs MIDI when it moves to the position of the saved state. This prevents sudden jumps in the control’s value.
When you move a pot, and it’s not yet picked up the value, the screen displays the saved value until you’ve moved it to the pick-up point.