FL Studio: Automation

In this blog I will be following up on the “How to Add Effects,” blog that I did several posts prior. I will be showing how to use automation on an effect. Automation is basically a way to automatically bring an effect into a song. For example, say I wanted to slowly increase the volume of a snare roll during the song, I would use balance automation.

The first thing to do is open up the mixer to add a new effect. To view the mixer press F9. Now that your mixer is open, add a new effect as in the master channel as I showed in the prior blog. Add the effect “Fruity Balance,” and turn the volume all the way down. Your effect channel should look like this:

Now, go back to the mixer, right click the volume knob on your effect insert and click, “Create Automation Clip.” Follow the picture.

That will create a new automation channel in the mixer as well as an automation envelope in the playlist. The automation envelope will enable you to set how quickly and in what way your automation will come in. We will just make it come in gradually on a diagonal slope. It should look like this:









That’s it. Now play your song, or pattern the length of the automation envelope and you can hear the volume gradually increase.