I just bought my Maschine MKII and however awesome it is by itself, the main reason for getting it was using it in my live setup: Traktor - 2 normal decks with X1 - 1 remix deck with F1 - one live input deck, the maschine controlling FLStudio 12's performance mode. In FL MIDI settings set a Performance mode MIDI channel. Say you set this to 10. Then when you set your controller keyboard to output on MIDI channel 10 it will trigger clips in Performance mode. Set it back to a different MIDI channel to play notes instead.

Sure FL Studio is a great tool to use to build up patterns for your samples and instruments, and then combine these up in the Playlist view to arrange your song. But how can you use FL Studio in a live context to perform your songs? Well that's where the Performance Mode comes in handy. With this feature you can convert you song into a format that can be used to perform your songs in an interactive way. The Performance Mode will break the patterns down into different pads that can be triggered so that you can change up the arrangement on the fly bringing new life to your songs in front of your audience. Let's check at how to use Performance Mode.

Step 1 ' Playlist to Performance Mode

Before getting into the Performance Mode, save out your song as a new file or version as the Performance Mode will make changes to your song playlist and you cannot undo this.

Once you saved your song, it's time to convert your song. Go to Tools > Macros > Prepare for Performance Mode.

A dialog box will come up warning you that you cannot undo these changes. That's why it's best to save your song out as a new version. This version will be the Performance version of your song. You could even save out the new version with '˜Performance' in the name so that you can distinguish the difference between the two files.

Then you are brought up with the new Performance Mode version of your song. The Playlist is broken down into two sections now. On the right of the playlist is your arrangement as you had it before. What's different is a box at the top stating the '˜Start' of the song.

Fl Studio Performance Mode Recording

On the left is the performance mode section. At the top, you have these blocks labeled '˜Pad'. These are reference points for the patterns that you will trigger. And then under these Pads is where you can add patterns to be triggered. Add the patterns in anyway that makes sense to you. But the best would be to lay them out in a similar fashion as your arrangement in the playlist.

Step 2 ' Assigning Clips to Pads

When you add your patterns to the performance mode you may notice that your pattern is longer than the Pad. Don't worry about this. Just shorten the length of the pattern clip so that it sits in a pad area.

Now when you play back your song it will start from the start point on the right and play through.

You can trigger the pads by clicking on the pad header. This will start the playback of all the patterns under that pad. Or you can click on the play button on each pattern to just initiate that pattern. And if you click it again, it'll mute that pattern. On each pattern you'll see a progress bar as it moves through, and on the track is a circular progress bar showing you which tracks are being used in the performance.

What you'll notice is this can get a bit messy as you'll hear your song arrangement playing back plus you'll be triggering the different pads and patterns. What I find works best is to Start the playback of the song after the end of your arrangement. Or better yet, you can delete the patterns in the song playlist area on the right and just make up an arrangement on the fly by triggering the different pads and patterns.

Step 3 ' Different Trigger Modes

You can set different trigger modes for the tracks. Right-click on the track and then under the Performance Mode are the different options you have available to you.

You can set some of the patterns as one-shot trigger hits. Maybe you want to create some sound effect one-shot hit patterns. Then you can play back your song as the normal arrangement, but trigger some one-shot sound effects as the song plays back. Or change the Trigger and Position sync length for different start points and lengths that the clip plays back for as you launch it.

Automation clips can also be added into the performance mode. They can be assigned to tracks and then triggered at specific points in the live performance. This gives you some great flexibility in a live context on changing up your song and the way it sounds with different automation clips happening at different times.

Fl Studio Performance Mode

Step 4 ' Using an External Controller to Trigger Pads

I highly recommend using an external MIDI controller to trigger these pads and patterns, such as the APC40, Launchpad, or MPC devices. Make sure you have set this device up under the MIDI options as a MIDI input device.

Now you can trigger these pads and patterns in a more tangible way than using a mouse and looking at your computer screen. You can really get into your performance now. So take note of how many trigger pads you have on your MIDI device. I have stuck with using 8 pads in FL Studio as I have 8 pads going horizontally on my Launchpad. Sure you can use the scroll keys to scroll around to see more, but I like to keep things simple especially when it comes to live performances where things can quickly and easily get more complicated. But I'll leave this up to you.

Try this out and see how it works for you, but I really feel that working with an external device in this way feels more like an instrument than an electronic device in front of my eyes.

Conclusion

That's how to convert your FL Studiosongs to the Performance Mode and use them in a live context. So get in there and convert your songs and play them out in a different ways at your next gig!

For further FL Studio Tips and Techniques check out the following tutorial:

Fans of Ableton Live or Bitwig are going to like this one, as well as anyone that does live performance.

I’ll be covering FLStudio’s “Performance Mode”, which is similar to Live/Bitwig’s session mode, and I’ll be discussing the Video FX in FL.

Other posts in this series:

• Performance Mode

What is Performance Mode

Live Video Generation brought to you courtesy of the ZGameEditor.

You can do some amazing stuff with ZGameEditor, and subsequently import that in to FLStudio to use in the ZGE Visualizer. Obviously I don’t have much use for this, but having experimented with it I’m quite impressed with its existence.

ZGameEditor Visualizer allows you to create video output that interacts with your project. Most of the controls are automatable (and thusly can be modulated). By utilizing things like envelope controller you could easily create a video that reacts to notes, velocity, peaks etc…

There’s up to 70 cue points available that can be triggered via MIDI externally or from inside your project (which means it works with performance mode too)

Fl Studio Performance Mode Midi Mapping

You can add up to 50 layers, all of which have a wide variety of presets (with automatable/modulatable controls!) that output video in some specific manner. ZGE also happily interfaces with DMX based hardware, which makes outputting or receiving data for an existing lighting setup easy.

Guitar Hero 3 Performance Mode

You can add text to your videos, which can be done via HTML to give you more control over formatting.

Of course, if you don’t like what’s already available for you in FL, you can go and create your own things in ZGameEditor, and do some really complex stuff, afterall it’s basically a game engine.

Fl Studio Declicking Mode

This isn’t just for live performances either! You’ve probably seen those music videos on Youtube with video moving to the music, just a simple ball or some visualization. ZGEV can export your video and project together to create your Youtube video. Work with some modulation, some automation and layer things as you need to create a high quality video for your project.

Even if you don’t use FLStudio for music creation at all, ZGameEditor Visualizer can be a powerful tool for creating algorithmic and responsive video for your music.

If you’re a live musician, then you really should investigate FLStudio. If you just enjoy tinkering with things, then it’s even more fun.

While FLStudio doesn’t have something like max for live, there’s a good deal of functionality here, especially combined with the controller linking.

Fl Studio Performance Mode Launchpad

This post took 6 hours to research, screenshot, write and edit. If you appreciate the information presented then please consider joining patreon or donating!