Novation FLkey Mini, User Manual

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

Page 2: ...on 10 Transport controls 11 Preset Navigation 12 External Connections 12 MIDI Out with External MIDI Instruments 12 Sustain Input 12 Pad Modes 13 Channel Rack 14 Instrument Pad Mode 15 FPC 16 Slicex 16 Fruity Slicer 16 Default Instrument 16 Sequencer 17 Channel Rack Graph Editor 18 Custom Pad Mode 18 Pot Modes 19 Plugin 20 Mixer Volume 20 Mixer Pan 21 Banking 21 Custom 22 View Channel Rack Selecti...

Page 3: ...hits 26 Standalone Features 27 Transpose 27 Octave Buttons 28 Scale Mode 29 Shift Button 31 Latching Pages 32 Control Pages 32 Transpose Controls 32 Shift Controls 32 Custom Modes and Components 33 Custom Modes 33 Pots 33 Pads 33 Settings 34 Pad Velocity 34 MIDI Clock output 34 Vegas Mode 34 Easy Start 35 Weight Dimensions 35 Troubleshooting 35 ...

Page 4: ... FL Studio s step sequencer and build beats fast and fourv 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 Mini also brings FL Studio s Mixer off the screen and into your hands so you can mix create and automate with ease and browse presets in you...

Page 5: ... Channel Rack playability Play directly into the Channel Rack from FLkey s pads Instrument control Trigger FPC and SliceX with the pads for more expressive beats and melodies Get creative Never hit a wrong note with Scale Mode Expression 25 velocity sensitive mini keys and 16 velocity sensitive RGB pads Preset browsing Find your favourite presets from Image Line plugins directly from FLkey Mini Cu...

Page 6: ...th 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 follow the instructions and step by step guide to install and use your FLkey Alternatively if you don t wa...

Page 7: ...your FLkey 1 Go to components novationmusic com 2 Click on FLkey Mini 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: ... Buttons on page 28 Shift Octave navigates FL Studio s presets 5 Pots Control parameters using four available modes Plugin Mixer Volume Mixer Pan and Custom 6 Pads Access and control over Channel Rack Instrument Sequencer and Custom modes 7 Scale Button Turns on and off FLkey s Scale Mode Choose the scale and root note using the Scale button and the corresponding key below the text above the keybo...

Page 9: ...ain pedals 14 MIDI Out MIDI Type A 3 5mm jack connector for connecting to external MIDI hardware See Connecting FLkey with a Computer on page 6 15 Kensington Lock Port Use a compatible Kensington lock to secure your FLkey to your workstation 16 13 14 15 16 ...

Page 10: ...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 11: ...d choose FLkey Mini MIDI Click on the DAW input click the controller type drop down and choose FLkey Mini 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 wind...

Page 12: ...e FLkey with a standard USB power supply 5V DC minimum 500mA The MIDI Out is a 3 5mm jack using MIDI Type A You can purchase MIDI adaptors separately or use direct jack to jack MIDI connections 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 ...

Page 13: ...ode 9 Press a pad to select the pad mode you 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 Instrument mode allows you to control the currently selected instrument certain instruments have special layouts like FPC Slicex and Fruity Slicer Sequencer In Sequencer mode you can create and edit steps Y...

Page 14: ... pad is assigned to When you press a pad FL Studio selects the channel and triggers audio The pad then lights white to show the selected channel 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 Press Channel Rack or Channel Rack to shift the selection to the previ...

Page 15: ...dapting 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 Hold or double press Shift or under the Octave label to scroll thr...

Page 16: ...nk to 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 Press the page left Shift Channel Rack up or page right Shift Channel Rack down to get to the next 16 slices to be able to trigger them with the FLkey pads Default Instrument This layout is availa...

Page 17: ...16 In sequencer mode the pads display the steps for the selected Channel Rack track active steps appear in bright track colour inactive steps in dim track colour You can toggle steps by pressing the pads Press Channel Rack and Channel Rack to scroll through the instruments The pads update to match the colour of the Channel you re controlling In the following graphic and FL Studio screenshot the Ki...

Page 18: ...annel Rack Channel Rack Graph Editor This incorporates the pots into the pad mode This allows you to edit properties of steps set in sequencer mode They map to the eight graph editor parameters from left to right see table below for more details To edit steps with additional parameters hold the desired step on the pads and then turn the appropriate pot When you move a pot the graph editor shows in...

Page 19: ...e you want to use The table below lists FLkey s pot modes When you enable Pickup takeover mode inside FL Studio s MIDI settings the pot needs to reach the original value before the changes apply to the parameter connected to the current pot Mode Use Plugin Plugin mode controls eight parameters dependent on the plugin in focus Mixer Volume Mixer Volume mode maps the mixer faders in banks of eight t...

Page 20: ...ugins support FLkey s pot mode Note The parameters the FLkey maps to in FL Studio s plugins are fixed preset mappings For third party plug ins you can use the Custom pot mode to create your own mappings Mixer Volume In Mixer Volume mode the FLkey s eight pots map to the mixer faders in FL Studio You can control mixer track volumes in groups of eight ...

Page 21: ... the mixer track s panning in groups of eight Banking When you re in the pot modes for the Mixer Volume and Mixer Pan you can bank in groups of eight Press Shift Scale or Note Repeat to move the selection to the previous next group of eight tracks The red selection in FL Studio shows you which bank the pots control ...

Page 22: ...t click 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 parameter s instance 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 de...

Page 23: ...ys the selected mixer bank Loop Record on first boot You can t toggle Loop Record from FLkey it s set to ON the first time you connect the FLkey to 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...

Page 24: ...Rack Pad Modes Channel Rack Sequencer 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 25: ...I clock to the FLkey by default so it synchronises to this tempo Hold any pad and they repeat at the set Rate and Tempo In Sequencer mode the Note Repeat function doesn t affect the pads In Sequencer mode the pads assign notes to the sequencer Change the Rate To change the rate hold the Note Repeat button or double tap to latch and press a key labelled 1 4 1 8 1 16 1 32 Triplet The Triplet option ...

Page 26: ...nitial velocity is set as you press the pad As you hold it you can increase pressure to increase velocity or reduce pressure to reduce velocity etc You can disable Velocity in the Settings menu see Settings on page 34 If you reduce pressure after the initial hit the note repeat output keeps the initial velocity constant and only changes velocity if you increase the pressure above the initial veloc...

Page 27: ... light white the keyboard is at standard pitch with no transposition You can transpose the keys using any of these methods Enable Transpose and press pads 1 11 to transpose the keyboard by 1 11 Semitones The number of green pads lit shows the number of semitones of transposition In the image below the six green pads show you ve transposed the keyboard 6 semitones Hold Transpose and press the Octav...

Page 28: ...same time To reset the keyboard transposition to 0 shift press the Octave buttons at the same time or press any of the pads 12 16 Hold Shift and press the Octave buttons to go to the next previous preset on the currently selected native FL Studio plugin Hold Transpose and press Octave to transpose the keyboard up or down in semitones The pads light green to show semitones up or red to show semiton...

Page 29: ...ut ever hitting a wrong note Press the Scale button to activate this mode the button lights to show the mode is active There are two elements to a scale the root note and the Scale Mode To change the Scale s root note hold the Scale button or double tap to latch and press the corresponding key in the FLkey s lowest octave C D E F G A B C D F G A ...

Page 30: ...30 To change the Scale Mode hold the Scale button or double tap to latch and press the key under one of the Modes the four modes available are Minor Major Dorian Phrygian ...

Page 31: ... pads light red with the brightest pad showing the current MIDI channel press a pad 1 16 to change the MIDI channel Preset Octave Buttons Hold Shift and Press the Octave up and down buttons to step up and down FL Studio native plugin presets The buttons LEDs light to show if preset navigation is available Page Channel Rack Up Down buttons Press these buttons to page left and right in FL Studio Mix...

Page 32: ...trol Page button again Transpose Controls To latch the Transpose controls double press Transpose The Transpose controls open and remain accessible on the pads The Transpose button pulses to show it is open To return to normal operation or to exit the Transpose controls press Transpose or Shift Shift Controls To latch the Shift controls double press the Shift button The Shift controls open and rema...

Page 33: ...s Without customising anything the default custom pot mode already sends messages You can use FL Studios Multilink to Controllers function to assign the pots to parameters in FL Studio In standalone operation Channel Rack Instrument Sequencer Plugin and Mixer Volume Pan are not available Pots FLkey has one Pot Custom Mode To access these Custom Modes hold Shift and press the Pot Mode Custom button...

Page 34: ...age When dimly lit the pads output a consistent velocity of 127 When the pad is fully lit the full velocity range is sent from the pads MIDI Clock output You can choose to enable disable a MIDI Clock signal from the FLkey s MIDI output This is useful for removing unwanted tempo clock signals when using the FLkey Mini as a controller keyboard for external MIDI equipment such as drum machines synthe...

Page 35: ...ad is dimly lit Weight Dimensions Weight 0 69kg 1 52lbs Height 31mm 41mm 1 61 including knob caps Width 330mm 12 99 Depth 172mm 6 77 Troubleshooting For help getting started with your FLkey please visit novationmusic com get started If you have any questions or need any help at any time with your FLkey please visit our Help Centre Here you can also contact our support team Support novationmusic co...

Page 36: ...s document may be changed at any time without warning Specifications and appearance may differ from those listed and illustrated Copyright and Legal Notices Novation is a registered trademark of Focusrite Audio Engineering Limited FLkey is a trademark of Focusrite Audio Engineering Plc 2022 Focusrite Audio Engineering Limited All rights reserved Caution A strong electrostatic discharge ESD may aff...