Step Sequencer
The Step Sequencer is the main part of FruityLoops' interface. It contains
a button for each channel in your song, from which you can call its Channels
Settings, Piano Roll etc. It also contains a
pattern grid, where you can create drum loops and simple melodies.


- Main Shuffle - Slide it to right to add
"swing" to the notes you write in the Step Sequencer.
- Graph Editor Button (
G) - Shows/hides the Graph
Editor.
- Keyboard Editor (
K) - Shows/hides the Keyboard
Editor.
- Channels Area - Contains the channels and
the pattern grid.
- Pattern Title - Here you can see the name
of the current pattern. Right-click to edit it.
- Playing Step Leds - These leds will show
the current playing step in the pattern.
- Channel Panning Wheel - Use this wheel to
set channel's panning.
- Channel Volume Wheel - Use this wheel to
set channel's volume.
- Channel Settings Button - Displays the channel
name & shows/hides Channel Settings window,
where you can set how the channel should sound.
- Channel Selector - When this led is turned
on, the channel is considered selected (used in cut, copy etc. operations
- see Edit menu).
- Sequence Steps - Each step represents a
16-th note in the pattern. You can turn on and off those step buttons to
create the desired loop.
- Mute switch (
0-9 to mute/unmute;
Ctrl+0-9 to solo/unmute
all) - Turning this led off will mute the channel. Clicking it again
unmutes it. You can also quickly solo channel - right-click the led and
from the pop-up menu select Solo. Repeat that
action to unsolo the channel (unmute all).
- Piano Roll Preview- If you don't have active
steps in the current pattern and you have notes in the Piano
Roll, the steps are replaced by a preview of the Piano Roll, so you
are aware of how your pattern looks without opening each time the Piano
Roll view. However, you can not edit notes in that preview. Click it once
to show/hide the real Piano Roll window.
Each line in the Step Sequencer represents a single channel with its pattern
dots. Each dot represents a 16-th note. The default pattern length is 16 dots,
but you may change this setting from the Song
Settings window. Left-clicking a dot turns it on; right-clicking turns it
off. Note that if you have turned off Use Both Mouse
Keys option in the General Settings
page, left-clicking turns both on and off a dot. You can also set the pitch
of dots using the Keyboard Editor view.
Each note has some additional properties (panning, volume etc.) that you can
set using the Graph Editor view. Right-clicking
the channel settings button (9)
brings up a menu that provides some commands for managing channels (see Channel
Menu). This menu also provides access to the Piano
Roll window that lets you create much more complex melodies than using the
Step Sequencer's grid. The main Edit menu also contains
menu commands for working with Step Sequencer.