Help, FL Studio only records one bar!
Maybe this is you. You’ve set up everything correctly. You know that your midi keyboard is working correctly, you’ve armed the track to record.
But when you press record, it only records one bar.
That can really frustrating.
I’m going to walk you through 3 common problems that are usually associated with the dreaded one bar recording problem.
PROBLEM 1 – Check to see if you are in Loop Mode
There is a button up at the top of the transport controls that looks like this.
That is probably the biggest culprit with the dreaded one bar loop in recording.
When you have this option selected, the program will record only as long as the loop is designated for. By default, the pattern is 1 bar.
You can change this by clicking and then dragging up on this section.
That will increase the length of the pattern in FL Studio. Which means when you are recording, it will go as long as what you chosen.
If you really want to get rid of the problem, make sure to uncheck the loop recording option.
PROBLEM 2 – Make sure you do not have record to step sequencer selected
You can see this option by right clicking on the record button in the transport bar.
There is an item that says record to step sequencer. This can be alright if you are doing a single note or single hit instrument, but this can cause some weird problems if you are using something like a piano.
The strange thing that happens is the notes you play are all recorded on the piano roll, but the notes are only represented at a single highlighted button on the pattern window.
When you are dealing with an instrument like the piano, this can cause some strange glitches in the playback.
PROBLEM 3 – Check to make sure there are no other instruments recorded on the pattern
Another common problem can occur when you already have, say, a drum pattern programmed.
This existing pattern can dictate the length of what you can record.
So make sure you go to an empty pattern.
You can do this by pressing F4 on your keyboard. This will take you to the next blank pattern and bring up a dialog box so you can name it.
I recommend you get in the habit of labeling your patterns.
This will save you a lot of headache as you start to build out all the elements of your song.
CONCLUSION
I think that these three items are the root causes of FL studio only recording one bar.
The recording modes and options can be a little bit confusing at first when you start using FL Studio. This can create some midi issues when using FL Studio.
If you want to find out more about each of the recording options, you can check out this article about the midi recording options in fl studio.
I hope this helped solve a problem for you, and got you on the way to recording