FL Studio is a complete software music production environment or Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). It consists of all components that are required to compose, arrange, record, edit, mix and master professional quality music.
For any kind of music, vocals add an organic touch to the track and convey a message for a song. In this article, we shall describe the method to record vocals in FL Studio so as to enrich the track with unique sounds.
As a pre-requisite for recording vocals, it is essential to procure the FL Studio Producer Edition or higher. The other mandatory devices required for this activity are a reliable Microphone, an XLR cable to connect the microphone to the audio interface, an XLR to USB adapter and a pop filter. These accessories add to the quality of the audio and vocals.
How to Record Vocals in FL Studio
In order to record vocals in FL Studio 12, ensure that an ASIO driver is used. To access the driver settings, proceed to Options >Audio settings > Input/Output devices and choose an ASIO driver. Right-click on the Record button on the top toolbar and ensure that the Audio option is checked. This enables a direct recording into the Playlist.
Once your microphone is connected, choose any Mixer track for the audio to input. At the top of the signal processing chain, set the Audio input source to the device that the microphone is connected to. There are two sections, namely stereo and mono. Stereo will record in one stereo track. Both the mono options will record copies of the same signal in mono for both left and right. In the vocoder setup, the modulator is the microphone input panned hard left, and the carrier is a synth preset panned hard right.
There are two ways to record vocals in FL Studio.
- The first method is to record into the Playlist as an audio clip. This clip will also be present in the Channel rack. This saves a file of the recording on the computer under the Recorded folder in the Browser/plugin picker. Ensure that the Mixer track on the microphone input that is routed to is armed for recording. When the microphone input is chosen, FL Studio will auto-arm the Mixer track. This can be checked by viewing the Mixer track and ensuring that the red Arm disk recording button is lit. Click it to toggle to on or off. There is an option to right-click and choose a different folder directory to save the audio clips.
- The second method to record vocals in FL Studio is with Edison in the Mixer. Edison is an audio editing and recording plugin by Image-Line and is included as a default with FL Studio Producer Edition. It enables better control during recording and is better suited for sampling than recording into the Playlist.
To start with, add an Edison to the microphone input Mixer track. Ensure that it appears above any effects that have been added the track. This enables a “dry” recording, which permits more control and flexibility in the mix at a later stage.
The next step is to ensure that the microphone input signal into Edison is a maximum of -10 dBFS. This can be achieved by executing a few test runs within a desirable range from the microphone, with the loudness of the voice in consideration. Regulate the microphone input gain so as to maintain the shrillest portions of the test runs are around 10 dBFS. Start the Record button in Edison. If the trigger is set to “On” as Input, Edison will automatically start recording once it senses an input signal. In order to stop recording, click the Record button again.