We’ve designed FLkey 2 to work seamlessly with FL Studio, offering deep integration through powerful production and performance controls. You can also change your FLkey 2 to suit your needs with Custom Modes.
Before using FLkey 2 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 2 you need to be running FL Studio version 25 or above. After you’ve connected the FLkey to your computer open FL Studio and the FLkey 2 is automatically detected and set up in FL Studio’s MIDI settings.
Note
FL Studio should automatically detect your FLkey 2 37. These steps are only if FL Studio doesn't automatically detect your FLkey 2 37.
If you still have problems make sure:
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You have updated FL Studio to the latest version.
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Your FLkey 2 37 firmware is updated in Novation Components.
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
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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: ‘FLkey 2 MIDI’.
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Click on the DAW input, click the ‘Controller type’ drop down and choose: ‘FLkey 2 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.
The FLkey 2 37 isn't in MIDI Settings
If you can't see the scripts for your FLkey 2 37 in FL Studio's MIDI Settings, you can Update the MIDi scripts.
To do this, click the button Update MIDI scripts in the bottom of the MIDI Settings window.
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The Stop ■ button stops the playback and resets the play position.
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The Loop button turns on and off FL Studio's Loop recording function.
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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 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 2 37, so you can keep your whole setup playing, even without a DAW.
The FLkey 2 37 has a MIDI output you can use to send MIDI note and control data to other hardware like synths and drum machines. You can use the MIDI output on your FLkey 2 37 with or without a computer. To use the FLkey 2 37 without a computer you need to 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 2's sustain input automatically senses the pedal’s polarity. The Sustain input does not support sostenuto, soft or volume pedals.
The FLkey 37 has eight encoders to control various parameters inside FL Studio depending on the encoder mode.
To access encoder 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 encoder modes. The text above each pad shows which encoder mode the pad selects.
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Press a pad to select the encoder mode you want to use. The table below lists FLkey 37’s encoder modes.
|
Mode |
Use |
|---|---|
|
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 |
Mixer Volume and Mixer Pan – use the encoder bank buttons to change between the mixer's volume and pan controls. Mixer Volume mode maps the mixer faders in banks of eight to the encoder. Mixer Pan mode maps the Mixer Pan encoder, in banks of eight, to the encoders. |
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Mixer Inserts |
Mixer Inserts lets you control the mix level of your inserts. There are three Mixer Inserts pages, to change page the encoder bank buttons .
|
|
Channel Mixer |
Channel Volume and Channel Pan – use the encoder bank buttons to change between the channel volume and pan controls. Channel Volume mode maps the Channel Volume controls, in banks of eight, to the encoders. Channel Pan mode maps the Channel Panning controls, in banks of eight, to the encoders. |
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Transport |
Transport mode brings controls of your DAW's arrangement view onto your encoders, giving you hands-on control of your project's navigation. |
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Custom |
You can assign the encoders to custom parameters |
When you’re in the encoder 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 encoders 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 Channel Volume or Channel Pan encoder 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 encoders control.
In Plugin mode, you can use the FLkey 2’s encoders to control eight parameters in the plugin you have in focus. Most native FL Studio plugins support FLkey 2’s encoder mode.
Note
The parameters the FLkey 2 maps to in FL Studio’s plugins are fixed preset mappings. For third-party plugins, you can use the Custom encoder mode to create your own mappings.
There are two Mixer encoder modes: Mixer Volume and Mixer Pan.
To get to Mixer Pan, go to the Mixer encoder mode and press the encoder bank button down.
In Mixer Volume mode, the FLkey’s eight encoders map to the mixer faders in FL Studio. You can control mixer track volumes in groups of eight.
Mixer Inserts lets you control the mix level of your inserts.
If you have more than eight inserts, you can use the encoder bank buttons to move to the next bank of eight.
There are two Channel Rack Mixer encoder modes: Channel Rack Mixer Volume and Channel Rack Mixer Pan.
To get to Channel Rack Mixer Pan, go to the Channel Mixer encoder mode and press the encoder bank button down.
In Channel Rack Mixer Volume mode, FLkey 2’s eight encoders map to the Channel Volume control in groups of eight.
Transport mode brings controls of your DAW's arrangement view onto your encoders, giving you hands-on control of your project's navigation.
The screen shows short names for the following controls, explained in the table below and following sections:
|
Encoder |
Function |
Short name |
|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Transport Position (Scrub) |
Scrb |
|
2 |
Zoom |
Zoom |
|
3 |
N/A |
N/A |
|
4 |
N/A |
N/A |
|
5 |
Marker selection |
Mark |
|
6 |
N/A |
N/A |
|
7 |
N/A |
N/A |
|
8 |
Tempo (BPM) |
BPM |
This encoder 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 encoder 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 encoder to map the parameter to the encoder you moved.
Remote control modes:
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Link to controller - creates a link between one instance of the parameter and the encoder, 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 encoder.
The FLkey 2 37 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 2 37's pad modes.
|
Mode |
Use |
|---|---|
|
Patterns |
Add or select new patterns using FLkey's pads. |
|
Channel Rack |
The Channel Rack mode lets you audition and select channels. |
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Drum |
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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User Chord |
You can record and playback up to 16 chords. |
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Arp Pattern |
Arp Pattern pad mode brings your arpeggiator steps onto the pads and gives you extra arp functionality for more interactive arp editing. |
|
Custom |
You can assign the sixteen pads to custom parameters. |
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, press an empty pad and add steps to the sequencer view.
To clone a pattern, select the pattern you want to clone, hold Shift and press the Page down ▼ button).
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 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. You can select one channel from the hardware at a time.
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 encoder layout.
You can use Channel Rack ▼ or Channel Rack ▲ to bank the selection to the previous/next channel. The Channel Rack buttons light white when banking is available in that direction. Banking does not affect the selected channel.
The page buttons let you bank the selection to the previous/next group of eight channels.
You can hold down the Channel Rack ▼ or Channel Rack ▲ buttons to auto-scroll through the Channel Rack.
The Channel Rack pad layout follows Channel Rack groups. When you switch Channel Rack groups in FL Studio using the drop-down at the top of the Channel Rack window the pad grid refreshes to display the new bank within the group you select selected.
In Channel Rack Pad Mode, you can use the FLkey 2 to scroll through presets.
Select an instrument or plugin and press Shift + the Channel Rack buttons to select the next/previous preset. Use the keys/pads to audition the preset.
The Preset buttons have the same interaction as clicking in your FL Studio plugin GUI:
|
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.
You can control Channel Rack plugins from your FLkey 2 37 in Drum mode. To enter Drum mode, hold shift and press the pad above ‘Drum’. 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 Drum layout
By default, Drum 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
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
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 Drum 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.
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.
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.
During Pattern playback, 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 2 37’s transport section. You can move the start position using the mouse, the FLkey 2 37 uses that as the start point.
You can use encoders 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 encoders default to the last selected encoder 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 encoder within a second to enter quick edit mode. Press and hold a step pad and move one of the eight encoders to control the parameters in the graph editor. Parameter changes affect any step held in quick edit mode.
The moment you move a encoder, 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 encoder.
|
encoder |
Graph Function |
|---|---|
|
encoder 1 |
Note Pitch |
|
encoder 2 |
Velocity |
|
encoder 3 |
Fine Pitch |
|
encoder 4 |
Panning |
|
encoder 5 |
Mod X |
|
encoder 6 |
Mod Y |
|
encoder 7 |
Shift |
|
encoder 8 |
Repeat |
User Chord mode allows you to input your own chords.
When you're in User Chord mode, if you've not added any chords yet the pads are blank. In the following example we've added chords to five pads:
To play a chord, press a blue pad. The pad lights white when you're playing a chord.
To assign a user chord to the pads:
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Press and hold a blank pad. The screen shows a representation of the keyboard.
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Press the notes on the keyboard you want to assign to the chord. You can either play the entire chord, or play each note independently (e.g. for chords you can't play with one hand). You can assign up to six notes– the FLkey 2 ignores any extra notes.
The screen shows the notes you've added to the chord and the chord name:
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Release the pad.
In User Chord mode you can use the page ˄ up and ˅ down buttons, to the left of the pads to transpose the entire User Chord bank.
To transpose by a single semitone, press either the pad up or pad down button. You can transpose up to 12 semitones (one octave) up or down.
To transpose by an octave (12 semitones) hold shift and press the pad up or pad down buttons. You can transpose up to three octaves, up or down.
Arp Pattern is a pad mode that brings your arpeggiator steps onto the pads and gives you extra arp functionality for more interactive arp editing.
To access Arp Pattern Mode, hold shift and press Drum Pad 13.
When you select Arp pattern mode, the screen temporarily shows Pad Mode Arp Pattern.
In Arp Pattern Mode:
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Active steps are lit blue and inactive steps are unlit. The arp plays active steps and mutes for inactive steps. When the arp is playing, the current step position lights on the top row of pads.
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You turn off arp steps using the top row of drum pads. Press a pad to remove the step from the arp sequence.
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The bottom row of pads gives you more arp functions you can control per step. Press the button to cycle between the three functions available: Accent, Ratchet and Tie.
These steps are the same as the arp rhythm pattern. Arp rhythm mode affects the grid, changing the arp rhythm value changes the pattern shown in the grid and overwrites any changes you make.
When Arp Tie is on, the Function button lights red and any steps with Arp Tie light red.
Arp tie, links two notes in an arp pattern together. In Arp Tie mode, press a pad on the bottom row to tie that arp step to the next step. The pad turns red to show the step above it is tied.
When a step has a tie on it, the Arp gate increases to 110%.
When Arp Accent is on, the Function button lights orange and any steps with Arp Accent light orange.
When you add an accent to a step, the Arp step's velocity jumps by +30 velocity compared to the step without an accent.
The Accent velocity value is capped at 127.
Note
Accent affects both notes when Accent and Ratchet are both active for a step.
When Arp Ratchet is on, the Function button lights yellow and any steps with Arp Ratchet on light yellow.
When you add arp ratchet to a step, the arp plays two triggers for that step. For example, if the arp is at 1/16 a step with ratchet on plays two 1/32 notes. The pitch of the notes stays the same.
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.
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.
When you press the Quantise button it triggers the ‘quick Quantise start times’ function in FL Studio. This snaps all note's start positions in the piano roll for the currently selected Channel Rack channel to the current piano roll snap setting.
To access Quantise, hold Shift and press the Score Log button.
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 undo function works by pressing the undo button. To use the Redo function, hold Shift and press the undo button.
The Pattern/Song mode button switches FL Studio between pattern and song mode.
In Pattern Mode, only the current pattern is played. In Song Mode the whole Playlist arrangement is played.
|
Pattern mode active. |
Song mode active. |
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 encoder control and Channel Selection. If you select a Mixer encoder 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.
|
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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encoder 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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encoder modes
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Mixer Volume
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Mixer Pan
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Moving a Mixer Volume or Pan encoder
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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 encoder mode