--- title: 'how to make a beat on FL STUDIO (Beginner)' source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=a8hCQESLPeI' video_id: 'a8hCQESLPeI' date: 2026-06-30 duration_sec: 429 --- # how to make a beat on FL STUDIO (Beginner) > Source: [how to make a beat on FL STUDIO (Beginner)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=a8hCQESLPeI) ## Summary This tutorial teaches beginners how to make a beat in FL Studio. It covers the basic interface, downloading sounds, and constructing a simple beat with hi-hats, claps, and 808s. ### Key Points - **Introduction** [00:00] — The video will teach how to make music on FL Studio, covering basics to make a first beat. - **Getting FL Studio** [00:14] — Download FL Studio (trial or buy producer version). - **Interface overview** [00:26] — FL Studio has tabs like Google Chrome: Playlist (drawing beat), Piano roll (melodies), Channel rack (add sounds), Mixer (effects). - **Getting sounds** [01:25] — Download a drum kit (search 'drum kit') and a melody loop from Looper Man. - **BPM** [02:08] — BPM = beats per minute; default is 140. Higher BPM = faster beat. - **Adding drum kit** [02:22] — Go to Options > File settings > set path to folder with kits. Click refresh to see kits. - **Creating hi-hat pattern** [02:49] — Start with pattern 1 on channel rack, delete other sounds. Add hi-hat in piano roll, follow grid lines, duplicate to fill 8 bars. - **Adding clap** [04:02] — Claps go in the middle of bars. Extend pattern, duplicate to 8 bars. - **Adding 808s** [04:38] — Drag 808 to channel rack, remove 'cut itself' option in the wrench menu. Adjust velocity and ensure notes are in key (C8/C9). - **Structuring the beat** [05:35] — Split pattern by channel, arrange parts, build an intro with fade-in (triangle). ### Conclusion By following these steps, you can create your first beat in FL Studio. Practice and experiment with sounds to improve. ## Transcript What is going on guys, today we're gonna teach you how to make music on FL Studio. We're gonna cover some of the basic stuff on FL Studio to help you make your first beat and it's gonna sound fire. First you wanna get FL Studio, so make sure to go in the description and go crop FL Studio or download the trial version. If you're gonna buy it and you wanna be serious about this, I really recommend the producer version. And once you have FL Studio, this is what's gonna pop up. So here, it's like Google Chrome tabs, okay? So you're clicking things and it's opening different things. The first one is the playlist. This is like drawing the beat. It's where you're gonna lay out the patterns. You're gonna put things in. So if I put a random effect and I drag it into the playlist, and then I click play or a space bar, it's gonna play the audio. This one is the piano roll. This is where you're gonna use a piano to make melodies, eight away, to lay out patterns. So if I just left click, and I click pattern all the way here, so it only plays a pattern. Here you're gonna hear the notes, I just... We're back. We're back. This is the channel rack where you can add sounds and this is the mixer. So the mixer is where you can adjust and mix and master and do a bunch of effects and cool stuff. Here on the left, it's like folders. This is where you keep out the audio, the preset. Before we start making the beat, we're actually gonna go get some sounds. First, we're gonna get a drum kit which is gonna contain a bunch of drum sounds that we can make the beat. So I really like heat, so we're gonna search, eat drum kit, read it. There's a lot of them. But usually you just click them and then just click open on the link and then you can download it and have the kit. I'm also going to find like a melody, like a loop. So we're gonna go to looper, man. Go to looper, man. Click loops and samples. Go to by keyword and then search up the artist or an instrument that you like. I really like this one. So we're gonna download it. But before we download it, we're actually gonna keep track of this, the BPM. And we're gonna make sure it's the right BPM, which by the fault is 140. So perfect. Basically BPM sends for beats per minute, which is how fast your beats play. Like a 300 BPM, your beat's gonna be very, very fast. But if you have one at like 80, it's gonna be very slow. Now we're gonna add the drum kit. So we're gonna click options, file settings, and then here we're gonna put out the path of a folder where you keep all the kits you want to download in the future. So just go to your desktop, make a folder called kits and then just add all the kits there. Now you're gonna click here on refresh and wherever you save, they should pop up on this kit. Looks crazy. So first, we're gonna start off with the high hats. So we're gonna click on pattern one, go on the channel rack, I'm actually gonna delete all this other stuff by right clicking, just using my arrow keys to go down this fast. I like this one, very simple. Now we're gonna right click this, go to piano roll. Now in the piano roll, I'm actually going to just add one high hat. And I'm gonna follow this line here, fill in these right here. And I'm gonna highlight this and I'm gonna hold control, press B, and I'm gonna do it until I hit the five mark, which it actually stands for four bars. Usually you wanna lay out something for at least four bars, which ends at five, but a lot of producers wonder working with things that usually do it for eight bars. Just so I had some more flow to it, so I'm gonna cut this, I'm going to go like this and go here. And even change how the lines are cut inside the bar, we're gonna pull a half step so you can even go faster by doing like this. Now we're gonna add a clap. Like this one, usually claps are in the middle of the bars, so here I'm actually gonna extend this and then I'm gonna hold control to highlight it, hold shift, boom, and we're gonna follow that same thing until it hits eight bars. I need to hear how this sounds with the beat, so I'm gonna click on pattern one, I'm gonna paint it over, and then make sure you click song on the top here, and then we play it. Now we need some 808s, and drag it here, actually want to left click it, open this thing. For every 808, you actually want to make sure to remove this option, click on the wrench, click cut itself. Now, it's going to piano roll, we can actually turn up the velocity so it's louder a little bit. Too loud. I want to make sure it's in key, you want to highlight it, hold control, press up arrow key, until you go to C8 or C9, whatever, you want to make sure that note is hitting the same as the melee. Now, I want to copy this over, because I don't want to be too creative, and then select everything by control A, control down key, until it hits the fives. Let's structure the beat a little bit, we're going to right click the pattern one, click split by channel, we're going to actually delete everything, now we're going to select all these things by holding control, and clicking on them, then just drag them over. Now what I want to do is I want to build a little intro, so hold shift, bring this over to the left, see this little triangle here, it's actually going to make the audio fade in. While it's fading in, I'm actually going to play the hi-hat, let's listen to this. That's it, you got your first beat, I hope you guys enjoyed watching this, but if you guys have any questions please put them down below in the comments, go make some fire beats bro, join the discord, show me the beats, eyepiece.