Novation FLKEY 37, User Manual

Page 1: ...1 User Guide Version 4 0 ...

Page 2: ...l Installation 11 Transport controls 12 Preset Navigation 13 External Connections 13 Connecting FLkey MIDI Out with External MIDI Instruments 13 Sustain Input 13 Pot Modes 14 Banking 15 Plugin 15 Mixer Volume 16 Mixer Pan 16 Channel Volume 17 Channel Pan 17 Custom 18 Pad Modes 19 Channel Rack 20 Channel Rack Banking 21 Channel Rack Groups 21 Instrument Pad Mode 22 FPC 23 Slicex 23 Fruity Slicer 23...

Page 3: ... Loop Record on first boot 31 Focusing FL Studio s Windows 32 Standalone Features 33 Navigation Mode Button 33 Scale Mode 33 Octave Buttons 34 Fixed Chord 35 Note Repeat 36 To use Note Repeat 36 Change the Rate 36 Set the Tempo 36 Change the note drum hit velocity 36 Pot Pickup 37 Custom Modes and Components 38 Custom Modes 38 Pots 38 Pads 38 Settings 39 Vegas Mode 39 Easy Start 40 Weight Dimensio...

Page 4: ...nd four Pad modes give your rhythms a real human feel Play straight into the Channel Rack or FPC and trigger slices in Slicex and Fruity Slicer or use Note Repeat to make perfect beats every single time FLkey 37 also brings FL Studio s Mixer and Channel Rack controls off the screen and into your hands Mix create and automate with ease using the eight pots and essential transport buttons Get access...

Page 5: ...trol Trigger FPC and Slicex with the pads for more expressive beats and melodies Never hit a wrong note with Scale Mode Creativity with chord modes Fixed Chord mode User Chord Mode and Scale Chord mode allow you to assign custom chords play chords from scales and store chord progressions for rapid song building and easy performance with just one finger 37 velocity sensitive keys and 16 velocity se...

Page 6: ...ey This online tool guides you through FLkey s registration process and accessing the software bundle On both Windows and Mac computers when you connect FLkey to your computer it appears as a Mass Storage Device like a USB drive Open the drive and double click FLkey Getting Started html Click Get Started to open the Easy Start Tool in your web browser After you ve opened the Easy Start tool please...

Page 7: ... your FLkey 1 Go to components novationmusic com 2 Click on FLkey 37 3 Click on the Updates tab at the top of the page 4 Follow the instructions for your FLkey If your FLkey needs to update Components will tell you how to do this Support For more information and support visit the Novation Help Centre Support novationmusic com ...

Page 8: ...he device status parameter values and lets you navigate through menus 7 Settings Button Opens the settings menu on the screen Settings on page 39 8 Preset Buttons Navigates through FL Studio native plugin presets 9 Pots Control parameter preset mappings for FL Native generator plugins control Mixer Volume pan Channel Rack volume pan or assign your own parameters with custom modes 10 Mixer Buttons ...

Page 9: ...mode Transpose in User Chord or Custom mode and adjust the pad octave in Instrument mode 18 Note Repeat Button Enables the pads to send continuous notes at various rates specified using the Shift function on the keyboard Note Repeat on page 36 19 Pads Audition and select channels in Channel Rack mode Use integrations with FPC Slicex and Fruity Slicer in instrument mode Sequence beats using Sequenc...

Page 10: ...in pedals 24 USB Type B port 25 MIDI Out 5 Pin MIDI Din connector for connecting to external MIDI hardware Getting Started on page 6 26 Kensington Lock Port Use a compatible Kensington lock to secure your FLkey to your workstation 23 24 25 26 ...

Page 11: ...teps on how to do this please see Connecting FLkey with a Computer on page 6 To use the FLkey you need to be running FL Studio version 20 9 2 or above After you ve connected the FLkey to your computer open FL Studio and the FLkey is automatically detected and set up in FL Studio s MIDI settings Manual Installation In the MIDI Settings window Options Settings MIDI make sure it is set up like the fo...

Page 12: ...37 MIDI Click on the DAW input click the controller type drop down and choose FLkey 37 DAW 4 Click the output ports in the upper Output panel and set the Port numbers to match the inputs FLkey MIDI In FLkey DAW In named MIDIIN2 on Windows The scripts you set in step 3 automatically link 5 Select the DAW output upper panel and enable send master sync 6 Near the bottom of the window enable Pickup ta...

Page 13: ...socket for MIDI output on your FLkey without a computer you can power the unit with a standard USB power supply 5V DC minimum 500mA 5 Pin MIDI DIN Cable USB Cable and USB Power Supply Sustain Input You can connect any standard sustain pedal via the TS jack input Not all plugins support sustain pedal signals by default so you might need to link it to the right parameter inside the plugin The FLkey ...

Page 14: ...ds to reach the original value before the changes apply to the parameter connected to the current pot Pot Mode Use Plugin Plugin mode controls eight parameters dependent on the plugin in focus The screen shows the parameter name together with the new value temporarily Mixer Volume Mixer Volume mode maps the mixer faders in banks of eight to the pots Mixer Pan Mixer Pan mode maps the Mixer Pan pots...

Page 15: ...vious next track s The red selection in FL Studio shows which bank the pots control In Channel Volume or Channel Pan pot modes press the Channel Rack or Channel Rack to move the selection to the previous next track s The red selection in FL Studio shows which bank the pots control Plugin In Plugin mode you can use the FLkey s pots to control eight parameters in the plugin you have in focus Most na...

Page 16: ...t pots map to the mixer faders in FL Studio You can control mixer track volumes in groups of eight Mixer Pan In Mixer Pan mode the FLkey s eight pots map to the pan controls in FL Studio s mixer You can control the mixer track s panning in groups of eight ...

Page 17: ... Volume In Channel Volume mode the FLkey s eight pots map to the Channel Volume control in groups of eight Channel Pan In Channel Pan mode the FLkey s eight pots map to the Channel Pan control in groups of eight ...

Page 18: ...lick a parameter in FL Studio 2 Select one of two remote control modes explained below 3 Move a pot to map the parameter to the pot you moved Remote control modes Link to controller creates a link between one instance of the parameter and the pot regardless of focus This link works ProjectWise Override global link creates a link across all projects unless overwritten by a per project link As this ...

Page 19: ...u want to use The table below lists the FLkey s pad modes Mode Use Channel Rack The Channel Rack mode lets you audition and select channels Instrument You can control the selected instrument FPC Slicex and Fruity Slicer have special layouts Sequencer In Sequencer mode you can create and edit steps You can also edit the whole graph editor Scale Chord You can play predefined chords in your set root ...

Page 20: ...n you press a pad FL Studio selects the channel and triggers audio The pad then lights white to show the selected channel and the channel s name shows momentarily on the screen You can select one channel from the hardware at a time The FLkey shows when you have no channel selected in FL Studio The pad layout is left to right bottom to top in two rows of eight The channels in the lower row align wi...

Page 21: ...anking does not affect the selected channel You can hold down the Channel Rack Channel Rack buttons to auto scroll through the Channel Rack Channel Rack Groups The Channel Rack pad layout follows Channel Rack groups When you switch Channel Rack groups in FL Studio using the drop down at the top of the Channel Rack window the pad grid refreshes to display the new bank within the group you select se...

Page 22: ...ds adapting special instrument layouts FPC pads Slicex Fruity Slicer A Default Instrument layout By default Instrument Pad mode displays a chromatic keyboard across the pads shown below When you have Scale mode enabled in Instrument mode the MIDI data sent from the pads maps to the eight notes in the scale you select across two octaves The Preset or Preset buttons allow you to scroll through the i...

Page 23: ...o the next 16 slices and trigger them with the FLkey s pads Fruity Slicer You can playback slices using the FLkey pads while in instrument mode when you select a Channel Rack channel with this plugin You can press the page left or page right to get to the next 16 slices to be able to trigger them with the FLkey pads Default Instrument This layout is available for a Channel Rack track with any othe...

Page 24: ...Channel Rack and Channel Rack to scroll through the instruments The pads update to match the colour of the Channel s sequencer you re controlling In the following graphic and screenshot of FL Studio you can see the Kick channel has four active steps in the sequence and four lit pads on the FLkey s pads While the transport is playing the currently playing step Step 6 is lit in bright white When you...

Page 25: ...ameter colour This means you can release steps before setting their parameters with a pot movement Press any step to add or remove it from the selection of latched steps Any parameter change affects all selected steps To exit latch edit mode press the pulsing Channel Rack button Quick edit Hold a step and move a pot within a second to enter quick edit mode Press and hold a step pad and move one of...

Page 26: ...vigation buttons This mode has three pages with predefined chords Triads 7ths 9ths 6 9ths Visible on screen Page 1 Illustrated above Top Triads Light blue Bottom 7ths Dark Blue Page 2 Top 7ths Dark Blue Bottom 9ths Purple Page 3 Illustrated below Top 9ths Purple Bottom 6 9s Pink When you press a pad it lights green and returns to its original colour when released To change the chord s octave hold ...

Page 27: ...he Shift button and press the User Chord pad 6th pad To assign a chord to a pad press and hold a pad and press the notes you want to assign from the keyboard You can assign up to six notes to each pad using individual key pushes you do not need to hold all the notes at once if the pad is held When you assign a chord the pad lights up blue When you press it plays the chord and lights up green If a ...

Page 28: ...eset button the pads with assigned chords turn red Press a red pad to delete the assigned chord once deleted the pad is no longer lit The Page buttons transpose the chord bank in semitones between 12 and 12 the FLkey s screen displays any changes you make ...

Page 29: ...uick Quantise start times function in FL Studio This quantises all notes start positions in the piano roll for the currently selected Channel Rack channel to the current piano roll snap setting Metronome The Metronome button toggles FL Studio s metronome on off Undo Redo Functions You can press the Undo and Redo buttons on FLkey to trigger FL Studio s undo and redo functions The FL Studio setting ...

Page 30: ... overwrite the notes This button is identical to using the Tools menu Dump Score Log to Selected Pattern option in FL Studio View Channel Rack Selections Hold Shift in any pad layout mod while the FL Studio Channel Rack is visible to see the current selection This applies to Channel Bank Selection Channel Rack Pot Control and Channel Selection If you select a Mixer Pot Mode this displays the selec...

Page 31: ...o FL Studio This ensures your current pattern loops when recording and doesn t extend infinitely To disable Loop Record to the left of FL Studio s main clock is an icon with a keyboard and circular arrows If you disable Loop Record it stays disabled even if you disconnect and reconnect FLkey Loop Record On Loop Record Off ...

Page 32: ...nnel Rack Sequencer Pot Modes Channel Volume Channel Pan Paging left or right on the Sequencer Selecting a channel in the Channel Rack The following actions focus the Mixer Pot modes Mixer Volume Mixer Pan Moving a Mixer Volume or Pan pot Banking in the mixer The following actions focus the plugin for the selected channel Moving a Parameter in Plugin Pot mode ...

Page 33: ...on keys are useful for stepping through samples in the Browser and pressing Enter the green pad to load your sample to the Channel Rack Scale Mode In Scale mode you can set the entire keyboard or the pads in instrument mode to only play notes in a scale you select Press the Scale button to activate this mode the button lights showing the mode is active The screen displays a message to show the act...

Page 34: ...keyboard octave by 1 The available octaves range from C0 to G10 in FL Studio C 2 G8 with other software Shift pressing the Octave buttons transposes the keyboard up or down by one semitone After you change the octave the screen displays the current Octave range for five seconds You can tell if your keyboard is in a different Octave as either the Octave button lights The brighter the button the mor...

Page 35: ...w stored The FLkey sets the first note you input into the chord as the chord s root note even if you add notes lower than the first note Press and hold the Fixed Chord button press and release C E and finally G a C Major chord The FLkey stores this as the Fixed Chord Release the Fixed Chord button Major chords now sound on whatever key you press For example you can now press F to hear an F Major c...

Page 36: ...led 1 4 1 8 1 16 1 32 Triplet The Triplet option sets the Rate to a Triplet feel for the currently selected rate e g if the Rate was set to 1 8 enabling Triplet sets the rate to 1 8t With Note Repeat held or latched you can change the Rate as you play the pads too In Note Repeat settings the button pulses to show the keys are controlling the Rate and Tap Tempo Set the Tempo In Note Repeat settings...

Page 37: ...up from the settings menu When Pot Pickup is on FLkey saves the various pages for the Pot s states The control only outputs MIDI when it moves to the position of the saved state This prevents sudden jumps in the control s value When you move a pot and it s not yet picked up the value the screen displays the saved value until you ve moved it to the pick up point ...

Page 38: ...on Components We refer to these custom message configurations as Custom Modes To access the custom modes press Shift and the Custom Mode Pad buttons Pots FLkey has one Pot Custom Mode To access Custom Mode hold Shift and press the Pot Mode Custom button You can set a pots CC numbers using Components Without customising anything the default custom pot mode already sends messages You can use FL Stud...

Page 39: ...in which the aftertouch kicks in Low Normal High Normal Pot Pick Up Turn pot pick up on off for standalone mode This does not affect FL Studio Off On Off MIDI Clock Out Turn MIDI Clock out on off Off On On Brightness Adjust the pad and screen brightness 1 16 9 Vegas Mode Turn off on Vegas Mode Off On Off LED Brightness You can adjust all the FLkey s LEDs to suit your environment for example you ma...

Page 40: ...sit our Help Centre Here you can also contact our support team Support novationmusic com Trade Marks The Novation trademark is owned by Focusrite Audio Engineering Ltd All other brands products and company names and any other registered names or trade marks mentioned in this manual belong to their respective owners Disclaimer Novation has taken all steps to ensure the information given here is bot...

Page 41: ...ivision of Focusrite Audio Engineering Ltd Windsor House Turnpike Road Cressex Business Park High Wycombe Buckinghamshire HP12 3FX United Kingdom Tel 44 1494 462246 Fax 44 1494 459920 e mail sales novationmusic com Web novationmusic com Caution A strong electrostatic discharge ESD may affect the normal operation of this product If this happens reset the unit by removing and then replugging the USB...