How to assign multiple audio channels to mixer tracks in FL Studio

After knowing how to easily make and arrange beats in FL Studio, the next knowledge you will crave is how to mix your beats and songs to make them sound professional. That is why I made this tutorial to put you through on how to assign multiple audio channels to mixer tracks in FL Studio. To get that professional sound, it is better to have total control of every instrument in your song composition. So the best practice is to assign every instrument to its own mixer track. With this you can manipulate every instrument to your taste without any hindrance. The only exception is if you are working with drum loops or loops generally. Even if you are layering stuffs like kicks for example, it is better to route every layered kick to their own mixer channel so you can EQ and process for better gelling. Unless of course the layered sounds just happen to blend so well without any sort of phasing or muddiness, then you can send them to a single track.

For the newbies that do not know how to route sounds to mixer tracks, there are two simple ways to do this. The first one is routing single channel to a mixer track and the other is routing of multiple channels to multiple tracks at once. You will often use the single routing method if you mix as you arrange. While multiple routing tend to be used when totally starting a mixing session as a separate stage entirely.

Routing single audio channel to FL Studio Mixer

This is very obvious and intuitive. But for those who have never done this before, just hover your mouse over the mixer track selector. That is the little box by the left side of the channel tab as seen in the image below. Then scroll the mouse wheel to assign desired track number. Another method is to just click on the channel tab to bring up the sampler or inserted plugin. Then press Ctrl+L, or click on the little arrow on the top left corner and select “Assign free mixer track”. You should stick to using the first method because it is obviously the easier option.

Routing multiple audio channels to FL Studio mixer

First, you can rearrange the position of each channel on the channel rack to suit your workflow. To do this, Select the channel or channels, hold Alt key while scrolling up and down with your mouse or the up and down arrow keys. To route multiple channels to the mixer all at once, right click on the active channel selection led. That is the little green light in between the channel tab and step sequencer as seen in the image above. You can keep right clicking on each one, or just right click and drag up or down to select many channels. To select all channels at once, just double click on the led on any of the channels. After selecting multiple tracks as desired, just go to track number one on the mixer. Next, right click on it and go to “channel routing” in the “Routing section”. Select “route selected channels starting from this track”. That is as simple as it is.

Simple mixer management tips

After routing to multiple tracks as explained above, the tracks are automatically tagged with the names on the channel s. Renaming and coloring each mixer tracks can help you keep more organized, help you locate instruments faster and in turn work faster. A good practice is to give similar instrument groups the same color. For example; you can color all drums blue, color all guitars red, and synths green. To rename and color, right click on each track and select rename and color. Or just select a track and press the F2 shortcut on your keyboard. In order to arrange similar instrument groups side by side according to their colors, you may need to shift their positions around on the mixer. To do this, click on the channel you want to move and press Alt key + right or left arrow.

To select and move multiple tracks around, press and hold Ctrl+Shift buttons to select multiple tracks. Now you know how to do this, you will have total control of processing every component of your songs to taste. You can now learn how to use compression, EQ and other basic effects in music mixing to polish your sound. For detailed insight on FL Studio mixer functions, check mixer explained on the official Image Line site. Have fun making music!