Here's my formula/tutorial for FruityLoops Studio. Shouldn't take more than an hour. IT'S WORTH IT!

Creating a Loop:
- Find a sound/sample/loop that you like. It can be a single hit of an instrument or an entire riff. (need free loops, check out: www.loops.net)

- If the sample is MP3, convert it to Wav using a program such as MUSICMATCH

- Copy/move the sound into the Patches folder in the FruityLoops forlder/Data/.

- Open Fruity and your sample should now appear in the Browser window, usually on the left hand side of the screen. (If you don't see a browser window go to the view menu and select it.)

- Drag your sample from the browser window and drop it onto one of the Tracks in the Step Sequencer window. (The default instrument in that Track will be replaced by your sample) If you don't want to replace an instrument drop it below the instruments and a new Track will be created.

- Click the first 'step' in the track with your sample so it highlights.

- Press play. While the track is playing, adjust the tempo until itfits the length of the sample. (With longer samples you will want to increase the loop length. To do this go to the Options menu, select Project General Settings, click on the Bar number and scoll it to 32 or 64.)

- If you only want the first part of a sample you can quickly cut it by right clicking on the Track name and selecting Cut Itself.

- If you are starting with a single sound, a single piano note for example, and you want to use it to write you own loop, right click on the track name and select Piano Roll.

- Once you're satisfied with the sample and it is in a nice tight loop, add some drums into the other tracks and click Steps on/off until the beat matches the style, tempo of the sample.

***Hint: I usually keep all non-drum related samples at the top of the Step Sequencer and the drums bunched together at the bottum. (Keeping things somewhat orginized will save you time and make it easier to find things when you return to a track after a while)

Creating a Song:
Once you have a complete loop (sample, drums , bass, etc..) you want to arrange your tracks using the Playlist window in order to build an entire song out of the tracks in your loop.

- Click the ovel between the track name and the Steps. It should light up green. Click it again so that the ovel for all tracks light up green. Now select copy from the Edit menu.

- Go to Pattern 2 by clicking 2 on the keypad at the top of the Fruityloops window. (If there is no keypad right-click an empty spot at the top and select it.)

- Now select Paste from the Edit menu. Pattern 2 should now be identical to Pattern 1.

** The following is not neccesary but I STRONGLY suggest you do it. Leave Pattern 1 alone, ie: as the entire loop. this will make it easier to add/modify elements in the track later.

- In Pattern 2, click the Ovel for second Drum Instrument/track so that only it is highlighted green. Copy it and paste it in Pattern 3. (Choose the second because the first will remain in Pattern 2)

- Do the same for each drum sound until they each have their own Pattern. (You can bunch some drums together or all drums sounds together on one pattern if they are all going to play at the same time during the song. The trade off is that with each Instrument track having it's own Pattern you will have more flexibility when arranging your song, but it will take more time.)

- Now copy each of the non-drum instruments/tracks to their own patterns.

***Hint: Since I usually end up with about 9 Patterns involving Drum related instruments/tracks, I usually copy all the non-drum related sounds to Pattern 9 immediately. By doing so I know that the Drum samples are always from Patterns 1-8 and non-drum related samples from 9-.... Again, this will save you time when you open a loop months after you originally wrote it, cus you'll know where things are.

- Once you have the intrsuments/tracks laid out in the various Patterns, open the Playlist window. On the lefthand side of the window Patterns 1- 99 are listed. (The first time you arrange a song you may want to rename the Patterns according to the instruments/tracks they contain. For example: if patter 1 contains your bass drum, rename the patter to Kick by right clicking on the Pattern #)

- Now arrange your song by adding boxes for each pattern at the time you want the instruments/tracks contained in that pattern to play during the song.

- When your finished arranging. Click the SONG square beside the Play button to hear the entire song.

- Finally, select Save As in the File menu to save the entire song as an MP3 or Wav.

***NOTE: Don't forget to periodically select regular SAVE in the file menu while working AND when your finished arranging to save your work as a fruity loop file.

Some other things:
- Before adding a lot of samples to the Patches folder you may want to create sub-folders for the various kinds of samples your going to collect. For example: I have a drums folder, effects folder, instruments folder, vocal folder, etc. And inside my instruments folder I have sub-sub-folders for various instruments such as guitar, piano, bass, etc, etc.

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This is a very simple introduction to Fruity Loops and not necessarily the most professional way to do things. As you progress you'll find other techniques and prgrams to achieve results in a more 'Professional' manner.

Although not nearly the most powerful Sequencing Program available, once you have the basics down it's pretty decent for making quick beats. Just as a referance my basic beats have 3-5 drums and 5-10 non-drum instruments/tracks. A basic beat usually takes me about an hour or so.

Some of my more complex beats have 50+ instruments/tracks that end up being arranged on 40+ Patterns. (for example check out my tracks State of the Union, or I Want to get High. THese beats are built up over several days.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/2/2...productions.htm

Feel free to ask any questions on any of the above, or anything not covered like the Mixer window, Effects, or all the shit available when you click on a Track name in the Sequencer window.

It may seem daunting at first but just follow the steps and in an hour or so you'll have your first track and you'll know the basics of Fruity.

Good Luck.

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