Greetings mate and Welcome aboard!
Stuart Charles here, HomeStudioBasics.com helping YOU make sound decisions, so…
In this guide, we’ll dive directly into the process of recording vocals in FL Studio!
Whether you’re working with audio or vocals, the fundamental principles are the same.
We’ll cover setting up your recording environment, configuring FL Studio for recording, and a couple of nifty techniques.
By the end of this tutorial, you’ll have the knowledge to efficiently record vocals in FL Studio and improve your recording skills.
Let’s begin.
This guide assumes you have an audio interface and a microphone already set up.
Step 1
Open FL Studio, head up to File > New From Template > Empty.
Next we’ll assign an audio track.
Hit F9 to bring up your mixer, then right click Insert 1 > Assign to new audio track(s).
Now your audio track is assigned in the playlist and the mixer.
You can also assign it through the playlist.
For that, simply right click a track in the playlist > Track mode > Audio track > Insert 1 (or wherever you want it).
Now select your appropriate mono input by clicking on the small audio input source button.
Alternatively, you can go to the mixer and select it from the drop down menu as well.
My MXL 990 is plugged into input 1 of my Universal Audio Volt 2, so I’d simply select Input 1.
From here it will ask you if you want to switch to External input only to avoid recording internal audio on this track.
Click Yes, as this will ensure it records your vocals and nothing else.
Now simply arm the track by hitting the Arm/Disarm recording button and speak into the mic.
You should see some green wave forms in the Insert 1 window on your mixer – indicating a signal.
You should also hear sound coming out of your studio monitors or speakers when lightly tapping or speaking into the mic.
If you’re using a condenser microphone but aren’t seeing anything, make sure your 48v phantom power switch/button is on.
After all that’s done, simply hit the record button and you’ll see a dialog box pop up asking what you would like to record.
From here you have a few options.
I personally use the top 2, and prefer recording into Edison as I’m really familiar with it and use it to sample for beats.
If you want to drag the recorded audio from Edison into the playlist, you can do that as well.
Just hover over the Drag / copy sample / selection button, click and drag to the playlist. It’s that simple.
You can also record straight into the playlist as an audio clip.
For this, just select that option and you’ll get a countdown before it starts.
Tips
In Edison, there’s an option for how long you’d like to record.
I simply set it to For “EVER” just to be on the safe side.
In the past when I was jamming on my Korg Volca Keys, I forgot to switch it from 5 minutes (the default) to Forever and got cut off while recording.
Not ideal. Lesson learned.
Even if you’re just recording a quick demo or something, it’s good practice to set it to Forever as it will become habit over time and you won’t forget when recording longer passages with instruments, vocal takes, etc.
Recording
You can also right-click the record button for a few added options.
One is “Recording Starts On Playback.”
This means when you press record, it will give you a countdown in the song position window. Click to also enable the metronome as a sound indicator if you’d like.
The Metronome is right next to the Tempo indicator at the top.
The second nifty feature is “Disarm on Stop.”
With this checked, as soon as you’re done recording your vocals and hit the space bar to stop, the record button will be turned off which is incredibly helpful.
This ensures you’re not recording a bunch of useless ambient sound that you’ll have to delete after finishing up a take.
Deleting a Take
After you’ve recorded something and either dragged it into the Playlist or simply recorded straight into the playlist, you’ll see it appear next to insert 1.
If you’re not satisfied with it, simply right-click and delete it.
This may seem kind of obvious until you realize that all of your takes start piling up in the playlist window (as well as the step sequencer area) if they aren’t deleted.
So deleting a take inside Edison doesn’t completely get rid of it as you’ll need to use the method above.
Hearing yourself while recording
For many people including myself, hearing my voice as it’s being recorded not only throws off my timing (due to a tiny bit of latency) but it’s also just incredibly annoying.
To turn this off, simply click the “Disable send from insert 1 to REC” button.
You do have to re-enable it to hear what you just recorded, so keep that in mind.
And with that, you’re ready to lay some sweet vocals down! (or whatever you want to record)
Well that’s about it for today my friend! I hope you’ve enjoyed this discussion on how to record vocals and audio in FL Studio and came away with some valuable insight.
Questions? Comments? Requests? Did I miss the mark on something? Please let me know down below or Contact me!!
What are you trying to record? I would love to hear from you. Until next time..
All the best and God bless,
-Stu
