We’ve designed FLkey to work seamlessly with FL Studio, offering deep integration through powerful production and performance controls. You can also change your FLkey to suit your needs with Custom Modes.
Before using FLkey with FL Studio make sure it's up to date, for steps on how to do this please see Updating your FLkey.
To use the FLkey you need to be running FL Studio version 21.0.3 or above. After you’ve connected the FLkey to your computer open FL Studio and the FLkey is automatically detected and set up in FL Studio’s MIDI settings.
In the MIDI Settings window, ( > > ) 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:
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Select and enable the FLkey MIDI and DAW input ports in the lower ‘Input’ panel:
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FLkey MIDI Out
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FLkey DAW Out (named MIDIIN2 on Windows)
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Click on each Input and, using the red ‘Port’ tab below, set different port numbers for both.
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Port numbers can be set to anything not already in use (except 0)
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Choose different port numbers for the MIDI and DAW ports
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Select each input and assign the scripts:
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Click on the MIDI input, click the ‘Controller type’ drop down and choose: ‘Novation FLkey MIDI’.
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Click on the DAW input, click the ‘Controller type’ drop down and choose: ‘Novation FLkey DAW’.
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Click the output ports in the upper ‘Output’ panel and set the ‘Port’ numbers to match the inputs.
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FLkey MIDI In.
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FLkey DAW In (named MIDIOUT2 on Windows).
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The scripts you set in Step 3 automatically link.
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Select the DAW output (upper panel) and enable ‘Send master sync’.
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Near the bottom of the window, enable ‘Pickup (takeover mode)’.
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Click ‘’ in the bottom left.
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The Play ▶ button works in the same way as FL Studio’s Play button, it continues and pauses playback.
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The Stop ■ button stops the playback and resets the play position.
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The Record ● button toggles FL Studio’s recording state.
The Play and Stop buttons send real time MIDI messages when they're not controlling a DAW. This lets you start and stop hardware sequencers or drum machines directly from your FLkey 49, so you can keep your whole setup playing, even without a DAW.
You can use the FLkey to scroll through presets.
Select an instrument or plugin and press the Preset ▲ or Preset ▼ buttons to select the next/previous preset. You can use the keys/pads to audition the preset.
The Preset buttons have the same interaction as clicking in your FL Studio plugin GUI:
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Default Preset |
After clicking the Preset ►button |
Note
If you're using third-party plugins you won't be able to browse their stock presets. You can however browse presets you've saved in both FL Studio and third-party plugins.
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.
The FLkey has eight pots to control various parameters inside FL Studio depending on the pot mode.
To access pot modes:
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Hold (or double press to latch) Shift to enter shift mode. The pads light up. The top row of pads represents the pot modes. The text above each pad shows you the pad’s pot mode.
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Press a pad to select the pot mode you want to use. The table below lists FLkey’s pot modes.
When you enable ‘Pickup (takeover mode)’ inside FL Studio’s MIDI settings, the pot needs to reach the original value before the changes apply to the parameter connected to the current pot.
|
Pot Mode |
Use |
|---|---|
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Plugin |
Plugin mode controls eight parameters, dependent on the plugin in focus. The screen shows the parameter name together with the new value temporarily. |
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Mixer Volume |
Mixer Volume mode maps the mixer faders in banks of eight to the pots. |
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Mixer Pan |
Mixer Pan mode maps the Mixer Pan pots, in banks of eight, to the pots. |
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Channel Volume |
Channel Volume mode maps the Channel Volume pots in banks of eight to the pots. |
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Channel Pan |
Channel Pan mode maps the Channel Panning pots in banks of eight to the pots. |
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Custom |
You can assign the eight pots to custom parameters |
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.
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In Mixer Volume and Mixer Pan pot modes press the ◀ or ▶ buttons under the ‘Mixer’ label to move the selection to the previous/next track(s). The red selection in FL Studio shows which bank the pots control.
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In Channel Volume or Channel Pan pot modes press the Channel Rack ▼ or Channel Rack ▲ to move the selection to the previous/next track(s). The red selection in FL Studio shows which bank the pots control.
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.
Note
The parameters the FLkey maps to in FL Studio’s plugins are fixed preset mappings. For third-party plugins, you can use the Custom pot mode to create your own mappings.
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 controls send out in Custom Mode.
To map most parameters in FL Studio to the Pots on the FLkey:
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Right-click a parameter in FL Studio.
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Select one of two remote control modes (explained below).
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Move a pot to map the parameter to the pot you moved.
Remote control modes:
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Link to controller - creates a link between one instance of the parameter and the pot, regardless of focus. This link works project-wide.
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Override global link - creates a link across all projects, unless overwritten by a ‘per-project-link’. As this depends on the focused instance, you can control many parameters with one pot.
The FLkey 49 has 16 pads to control various elements inside FL Studio depending on the pad mode.
To access pad modes:
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Hold (or double press to latch) Shift to enter shift mode. The pads light up. The bottom row of pads represents the pad modes. The text below each pad shows you the pad mode.
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Press a pad to select the pad mode you want to use. The table below lists the FLkey 49's pad modes.
|
Mode |
Use |
|---|---|
|
Patterns |
Add or select new patterns using FLkey's pads. |
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Channel Rack |
The Channel Rack mode lets you audition and select channels. |
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Instrument |
You can control the selected instrument; FPC, Slicex, and Fruity Slicer have special layouts. |
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Sequencer |
In Sequencer mode, you can create and edit steps. You can also edit the whole graph editor. |
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Scale Chord |
You can play predefined chords in your set root key and scale. |
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User Chord |
You can record and playback up to 16 chords. |
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Custom |
You can assign the sixteen pads to custom parameters. |
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 the pad is assigned 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 use Channel Rack ▼ or Channel Rack ▲ to bank the selection to the previous/next group of eight. The Channel Rack buttons light white when banking is available in that direction. Banking does not affect the selected channel.
You can hold down the Channel Rack ▼ or Channel Rack ▲ buttons to auto-scroll through the Channel Rack.
You can control Channel Rack plugins from your FLkey 49 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:
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FPC pads
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Slicex
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Fruity Slicer
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Kepler
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A Default Instrument layout
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:
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The leftmost 4 × 2 pads control the bottom half of the FPC pads.
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The rightmost 4 × 2 pads control the top half of the FPC pads.
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 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 right buttons to get to the next 16 slices to be able to trigger them with the FLkey pads.
Kepler
FLkey 49's pots are mapped to control parameters in Kepler, giving you hands-on tweaking of the sound.
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 and right buttons decrease or increase 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 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.
The play button plays the sequencer. While the transport is playing, the currently playing step is lit in bright white. Press the Play button again to stop the sequence. The sequencer always starts from step one when using the FLkey 49’s transport section. You can move the start position using the mouse, the FLkey 49 uses that as the start point.
You can use pots one to eight to edit step parameters in Sequencer mode. They map to the eight graph editor parameters from left to right (see table below for more details). In Sequencer mode the pots default to the last selected pot mode; to enable Graph Editor you need to hold the step(s) you want to change. The Channel Rack Graph Editor modes are below.
When you edit parameters, the graph editor shows in FL Studio. When you change a step’s note value, the graph editor window follows the note value you set.
Latch edit allows you to edit one, or multiple steps' values. To enter Latch Edit mode, hold a step for more than 1 second. The pads light in a graph editor parameter colour. This means you can release steps before setting their parameters with a pot movement.
Press any step to add or remove it from the selection of latched steps. Any parameter change affects all selected steps.
To exit latch edit mode, press the pulsing Channel Rack ▼ button.
Hold a step and move a pot within a second to enter quick edit mode. Press and hold a step pad and move one of the eight pots to control the parameters in the graph editor. Parameter changes affect any step held in quick edit mode.
The moment you move a pot, the graph editor appears in FL Studio and disappears when you release the step.
To exit quick edit mode release all held steps.
To edit steps with more parameters, hold the step on the pads and then turn the pot.
|
Pot/Knob |
Graph Function |
|---|---|
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Pot 1 |
Note Pitch |
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Pot 2 |
Velocity |
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Pot 3 |
Release Velocity |
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Pot 4 |
Fine Pitch |
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Pot 5 |
Panning |
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Pot 6 |
Mod X |
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Pot 7 |
Mod Y |
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Pot 8 |
Shift |
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.
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Visible on screen |
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|---|---|
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Page 1 (Shown above) |
Top: Triads (Light blue) Bottom: 7ths (Dark Blue) |
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Page 2 |
Top: 7ths (Dark Blue) Bottom: 9ths (Purple) |
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Page 3 (Shown below) |
Top: 9ths (Purple) Bottom: 6/9s (Pink) |
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 pads send out in Custom Mode.
Add or select new patterns using FLkey's pads.
To enter pattern mode, press and hold shift and press the Patterns pad.
The pads are lit in the respective pattern colours from FL Studio. The selected pattern will be lit white on the pads. To assign a pattern colour, right-click on the pattern in FL Studio and click Or .
Pressing a pad selects a pattern, you can edit the pattern, for example using the Sequencer pad mode.
To add a new pattern, hold Shift and press the New Pattern (Preset ▲ pad).
To clone a pattern, select the pattern you want to clone, hold Shift and press Clone Pattern (Preset ▼ pad).
Note
As with adding or cloning patterns in FL Studio, any empty patterns disappear if you don't edit them before selecting a different pattern.
Use the channel rack up/down buttons to the right to change the selection of displayed patterns. Pressing up/down will move the display in banks of eight patterns.
Pattern Groups
In FL Studio, you can group patterns. When you group a set of patterns, FL Studio allows you to filter your patterns by these groups. Your FLkey pads will follow the filters in FL Studio, only showing the filtered patterns on the FLkey pads.
The FLkey has nine faders to control various elements inside FL Studio depending on the fader mode.
By default, Mixer Volume is selected. To access the different fader modes:
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Hold the Shift button.
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Press the respective fader Mode button.
In this example, the Fader Mode: Plugin is selected so the Pot mode: Plugin lights amber to show you can't select both simultaneously.
|
Mode |
Use |
|---|---|
|
Mixer Volume |
Mixer Volume mode maps the mixer faders in banks of eight to the faders. The ninth fader controls FL Studio's master track. |
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Channel Volume |
Channel Volume mode maps the Channel Volume pots in banks of eight to the faders. The ninth fader controls FL Studio's master track. |
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Plugin |
Plugin mode controls eight parameters, dependent on the plugin in focus. The screen shows the parameter name together with the new value temporarily. The ninth fader and fader buttons have no function in Plugin mode. |
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Custom |
You can assign the eight faders to custom parameters |
Note
You can’t assign a mode to both the pots and faders at the same time. If a mode is already mapped to the pots, then the Fader button appears amber while you hold Shift, pressing a Fader button whilst in this state will not assign the faders to that mode.
When you’re in the fader modes for Mixer or Channel Volume you can bank between mixer tracks or channels.
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In Mixer Volume mode press the ◀ or ▶ buttons under the ‘Mixer’ label to move the selection to the previous/next eight track(s). The red selection in FL Studio shows which bank the pots control.
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In Channel Volume mode press the Channel Rack ▼ or Channel Rack ▲ to move the selection to the previous/next track or bank. The red selection in FL Studio shows which bank the pots control.
In Plugin mode, you can use the FLkey’s faders to control eight parameters in the plugin you have in focus. Most native FL Studio plugins support FLkey’s fader mode.
When you move a fader your FLkey 49's screen temporarily shows the plugin parameter's name and new value.
Note
The parameters the FLkey maps to in FL Studio’s plugins are fixed preset mappings. For third-party plugins, you can use the Custom fader mode to create your own mappings.
In Mixer Volume mode, the FLkey’s faders map to the mixer faders in FL Studio. You can control the mixer track volumes in the current bank in groups of eight with faders 1- 8.
When you select the Mixer Volume layout, the FL Studio mixer window is brought to the front.
In Channel Volume mode, FLkey’s eight faders map to the Channel Volume control in groups of eight.
When you select the Channel Volume layout, the FL Studio Channel Rack window is brought to the front.
This fader mode gives you freedom over whichever parameters you wish to control and up to nine simultaneously. Using Novation Components, you can edit the messages the faders and fader buttons send in Custom Mode.
To map most parameters in FL Studio to the Faders or buttons on the FLkey:
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Right-click a parameter in FL Studio.
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Select one of two remote control modes (explained below).
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Move a fader to map the parameter to the fader you moved.
Remote control modes:
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Link to controller - creates a connection between one instance of the parameter and the pot, regardless of focus. This link works project-wide.
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Override global link - creates a link across all projects, unless overwritten by a ‘per-project-link’. As this depends on the focused instance, you can control many parameters with one pot.
The row of buttons below the faders can control the Mute/Solo states of Mixer Tracks or Channels.
When you select the Fader mode Channel Volume the fader buttons Mute or Solo FL Studio Channels.
When you select the Fader Mode Mixer Volume the fader buttons Mute or Solo FL Studio Mixer Tracks.
When the Solo button is unlit, the Fader buttons act like the Mute buttons in FL Studio.
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Press a fader button to Mute/Unmute a Track/Channel.
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Fader buttons assigned to active tracks will light the Channel/Track colours, and muted tracks are unlit.
To turn on Solo mode, press the Solo button, the Solo button lights and the fader buttons start dimly lit.
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Pressing a dimly lit fader button Solos that track/channel, (equivalent to CTRL + left-clicking a mute button in FL Studio) the fader button lights to show a Soloed track/channel.
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Continue pressing unlit Fader Buttons to turn on those tracks/channels (equivalent to left-clicking mute buttons in FL Studio); the fader buttons light to show active tracks/channels.
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If you want to Solo a single track/channel again, press the Solo button, followed by the track/channel you want to Solo.
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When a Track/Channel is Soloed, double-tap the Solo button to unmute all tracks/channels in your project.
In FL Studio, only one track can be soloed at a time. One soloed track is equivalent to all other tracks being muted, and you can unmute muted tracks by pressing the dimly lit fader buttons.
Note
You can change the behaviour of double-tapping the Solo button so that instead of unmuting every track/channel, it restores the Mute/Solo states you had before soloing a track/channel.
To change this setting, In FL Studio go to > > enable the setting Restore previous state after solo.
When you press the Quantise button on FLkey it performs the ‘quick Quantise start times’ function in FL Studio. This quantises all note's start positions in the piano roll for the currently selected Channel Rack channel to the current piano roll snap setting.
You can press the Undo and Redo buttons on FLkey to trigger FL Studio’s undo and redo functions. The FL Studio setting “Alternate undo mode” doesn’t affect how these buttons work.
The Score Log button allows you to insert all MIDI notes received by FL Studio in the last five minutes into the selected pattern. If note data is already in the pattern, a popup asks you to confirm to overwrite the notes.
This button is identical to using the > to Selected Pattern option in FL Studio.
Hold Shift in any pad layout mod while the FL Studio Channel Rack is visible to see the current selection. This applies to Channel Bank Selection, Channel Rack Pot Control and Channel Selection. If you select a Mixer Pot Mode, this displays the selected mixer bank.
(on first boot)
You can’t toggle Loop Record from FLkey, it’s set to ON the first time you connect the FLkey to FL Studio. This ensures your current pattern loops when recording, and doesn’t extend infinitely.
To disable Loop Record, to the left of FL Studio’s main clock is an icon with a keyboard and circular arrows. If you disable Loop Record, it stays disabled– even if you disconnect and reconnect FLkey.
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Loop Record Off |
Loop Record On |
Some interactions with FLkey affect the focused window in FL Studio. The following actions focus the Channel Rack:
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Pad Modes
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Channel Rack
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Sequencer
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Pot Modes
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Channel Volume
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Channel Pan
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Paging left or right on the Sequencer
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Selecting a channel in the Channel Rack
The following actions focus the Mixer:
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Pot modes
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Mixer Volume
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Mixer Pan
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Moving a Mixer Volume or Pan pot
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Banking in the mixer
The following actions focus the plugin for the selected channel:
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Moving a Parameter in Plugin Pot mode