Soundflow is the flow of the sound in a specific environment, from where it begins and where it goes, all the different stages that modify it in some way are going to be explained here.
Soundflow in FL Studio begins in the channel window, more specifically in the step secuencer or alternatively the piano roll.
The sound in FL Studio is produced by "channels", and these can be samplers, VST instruments or internal generators. Each channel can be assigned to a specific mixer track, from wich the sound will go to the main mixer track called Master and then to the soundcard output(after the main volume and main pitch steps), but if you don't route the channel to a mixer track the sound will directly go to the Master, leaving you without the possibility to add effects to that specific channel, but you can still generally add the effects along with all the other channels that weren't assigned to a mixer track.
At the end of the soundflow we got the main volume and main pitch sliders at the top of the main panel, you can manipulate the main volume at will while working on your project, but you must reset the slider to default position to render your work. For the main pitch you may do as you please.
Step secuencer
Audio data in FL studio is introduced via the step secuencer or alternatively the piano roll.
Both data inputs do the same work, but providing easy interfaces to aproach the music cration in different ways depending on what your needs are.
Step secuencer makes it really easy to create percussion loops, it's as simple as clicking some dots on the screen and then click play or (spacebar) to hear it. Of course, making music is actually more difficult than that, but the main procedure is the same.
To add some complexity to your loops you can click on the "Graph editor" icon (G) to show an array of properties that can add new dimentions of depth to really simple loops. Those properies are: note panning (Pan), note volume (Velocity), note release velocity (Release), cutoff (Filter cut), resonance (Filter res), pitch (Pitch) and shifting (Shift). Lets say you fill completely all the steps in a hi-hat sample, and let it play just like that. Pretty annoying in my opinion. Now open the "Graph editor" icon (g) and randomly modify the pitch sliders, nothing special, just enough to hear how the same steps sound very different with little effort.
If you think about it, messing with the pitch in this way is not very musical, in the sense that you can't make a note progression by modifying only this property, or at least it will be more difficult than using "Keyboard editor" (k).
"Keyboard editor" is a micro piano roll embedded in the step secuencer, more inmediate to use than the actual "Piano roll" and with a few characteristics to have in mind:
1)you can traspose the notes you draw in it by pressing and holding ctrl key.
2)notes can slide by pressing the slide button at the top of the "Keyboard editor".
3)making chords is not an option, for that is the actual "Piano roll"
You must remember the general law of VSTi and DX instruments: they don't natively support FL Studio slide feature. This is solved by the use of portamento in each VSTi and DX instruments individually.
The maximum lenght of a pattern made in the step secuencer is 64 steps, if you want more space...just make another pattern!
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