How to produce music in FL Studio 5 - Part 3

Part III
Making Basslines and Melodies

Now that we covered percussion, we’re going to make a bassline. First, let’s add eight more blocks of the arrangement.

Ok, there we go. That way we can have some room for the bassline to come in.

Now, we need to go to “Channels” and to “Add one”. How about we get the “TS404 Basseline Synthesizer”

Ok, now that we have a bassline synthesizer, let’s right-click on it and click on “Piano roll”

This is the “Piano roll”, this is where you put the melodies in. You can also put the beats in there too. Anyway, to pull off good melodies, we need to go the “Snap” again and this time, we need to select “Step”

There we go. We can now make good melodies and basslines. Putting it to step is vital for melodies. Now we need to make a good offbeat bassline. I put arrows to where we should make the bassline. They are two blocks each.

See, now we have a good bassline. This is just a basic bass. Here’s how it would sound.

http://www.orbitfiles.com/download/id2753687780.html

Now let’s paste it in the arrangement.

There we go, now we have a bass in the song. Now doesn’t it sound good now?

Here’s how it would sound so far:
http://www.orbitfiles.com/download/id2753697346.html

See, now we’re getting somewhere. This helps get the beat going. Now we should add a nice melody synth. Now, we should add “Sytrus” for a starter.

Here we go, now we’re gonna be able to make some good melodies using good sound. Now, you can adjust the knobs to make your own sound or how about using presets? They do help with some sound selections. To select presets, click on the “plug icon” and it will give you a selection. Then select “Presets”.

It will give you a selection of preset synths for the Sytrus plug-in. Now this has a big selection on preset synths. They also include bass, pad organ, brass and other kinds of synth and pad presets. Now how about we select the preset “Short synth – trance”

Now, we’re going put in a simple melody. How about we put in a simple melody C5, F5, D5 and G5? In the shot above, I have put in some arrows of where to put the melody. Make sure it’s two blocks long. Here is how this melody will sound:

http://www.orbitfiles.com/download/id2754196484.html

Now, we should put it in the arrangement. I put arrows to where we should put this melody, how about we do it with 2 blocks apart.

There we go, now we have a simple melody in the song. This is how it would sound:

http://www.orbitfiles.com/download/id2754197608.html

Now, you can find plug-ins on the internet that are outside of FL. There are free ones and ones you have to pay for. You can also buy them in stores as well. There are sites that have info on how to install a VST. Here is one site that tells you how to install one

http://freevstplugins.blogspot.com/2007/10/how-to-install-vst-plugins-to.html

Anyway, now of you want to use a plugin, we need to go “Channels” again and this time we need to go to “More…”

Here we are, you can select other kinds of VSTs you added. You can also highlight boxes to make it available in the “Add one…” selection. Anyway let’s select z3ta.

Here we go, now we have something outside of FL that would help make the music sound alittle more professional than just generic. Now the first preset in Z3ta is called “8-bar First contact” It’s an arp, but how about we select a pad. so lets select “heaven pad”

So we’re going to add a pad to help with the feeling of the song so let’s make a line 2 blocks before the 3 minute mark.

So now we have a nice pad to fit the song. Here is how it sounds

http://www.orbitfiles.com/download/id2809165781.html

Alright, now let’s put it in the song, first how about we add more of the arrangement.

Then we should add the pad to the arrangement to where I have an arrow placed.

Now we have something that would help get the flow of the song going here. Here’s how it sounds with the pad.

http://www.orbitfiles.com/download/id2809744888.html

There we go, now we have a pad in the song. Melodies can composed anyway you like. This concludes the melody part. Now I’m gonna move on to the sound board to teach about FX.