Xaiir, you can also go to Options then to project general settings and change the bar setting by clicking and dragging the box located there.  This will set the default bar length for the whole track.

I just started using FL Studio like everyone here :P and i must say this is the most useful tutorial i have found so far. I live in Miami bit I'm from Dominican Republic, where the electronic music is in the hearts of most young people(at least the cool ones) and with FL I will start my producers career. I will write u  a check once i get famous 

heh, sounds good romocito. I'll hold you to that ^_^

ok...Im gonna sound really stupid now...ready?...

I have no idea about any of this stuff. 
Is there an FAQ about all this?
sorry I feel soo noobish.
Whats FL? I dont know what you guys are talking about but it sounds important.

FL Studio is one of many programs that fall under the category of DAW, or Digital Audio Workstation. Programs like Pro Tools, Sonar, Cubase, Logic Pro, Reason, Digital Performer, Ableton Live, etc, etc, are all referred to as 'DAW's.

In layman's terms, it is a program for creating/composing/recording/editing music. FL is mostly geared towards creating computer generated music. You won't find any links on this site about getting your hands on a copy of FL, as probably 90% or more of us have attained it illegally, but do a little googling and a lot of anti-virus scanning and you should be headed in the right direction (hint: torrents) You can, however, get a free demo from flstudio.com. I'm not sure what the limitations of the demo would be. Once you've got the program running, feel free to dive into this tutorial, and hopefully you'll be on your way.

And if you're wondering why this is relevant to bandamp, it's because a lot of the users posting songs here write them in FL.

Hope this helps some! Drop me a line at willydavidk@gmail.com for more info if you're still lost.

Peace,
-David

OH! 

Thanks man that helped a lot!

hey man, GREAT tutorial! I was wondering though, when I put a note into the piano roll, it plays for a while, even after the next note in the sequence. How can i get the first note to stop playing once the "time bar" hits the next note? Thanks! And if you could reply at sam_i_amurai@yahoo.com, it'd be appreciated

Bass4YourFace, I looked into those files you mentioned and I can't get any sound. I see that there's something there but I tried the piano roll, channel settings and I get nothing.

You do go through File - Open, right?

Edortizr6, he's actually talking about samples to be used within FL, through the use of a 'sampler' instrument. Go to insert a new instrument and insert either 'Audio Clip' or 'Sampler' then look in the instrument window under the smp tab I believe it is, and you should see a file path and a folder icon. If you click on the folder icon, it should allow you to locate the samples in question here.

For more information about audio clips, see this tutorial:
http://forum.bandamp.com/Lessons/37190.html

Hope this helps!
-David

Hey guys! I just wanted to make a quick post here...

It's now been over 2 years since I first posted this tutorial, which is just crazy to me! I am still getting hundreds of hits daily on this tutorial (it makes up almost 50% of the hits on my server each month!) and I am so glad that I've been able to help as many people as I have. Has anyone googled 'fl studio tutorial' lately?

Anyways, just wanted to say thanks again to bandamp, and everyone involved here, and just let you guys know that a lot of people are still reading these things every day!

Peace,
-David

ps- just wondering, is this the most viewed thread on the forums? I couldn't believe it the other day when I was checking in and saw it had gotten >100,000 views!!

Thank you WillyDavidK for taking the time to post this tutorial, it has been very very helpful to me. This software is sooo much fun!

Hey man, I know you said you posted this basic FL tutorial a good while back, but I just want to thank you for your effort.  Your post made the basics much easier to understand.  I will continue to review the rest of your post on this particular subject.

Charlierock

Nice post, keep up the good work!

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Free FL Studio Wav Sample Packs
http://rcamileshigh.110mb.com

i've had fl studio since version 3 but never bothered learning how to use it..thanks to you, i can channel my passion for music into other channels other than mp3 hoarding.. thank you so much...

i just got fl studio and didn't have a clue on how to use it. this tutorial looks amazing!  no wonder it got so many hits. it's one of the first results on google!