SETUP WIZARD

Audio Setup

Select a soundcard driver and optimize the settings

What is a soundcard and driver?

The term 'soundcard' is used rather loosely, you may have a soundcard in your PC, a chip on your motherboard or it may be an external device connected by USB/FireWire/Bluetooth etc. The soundcard is any device that makes the sound you hear from your PC speakers. The soundcard driver is the software interface between the Windows operating system and the soundcard.The driver tells FL Studio what inputs/outputs the soundcard has and what sample-rates it can support.

Soundcard driver selection & settings

1. Start FL Studio and press the F10 key on your keyboard to open the System Settings. Alternatively choose Audio settings from the Options Menu (from the FL Studio Menu Bar).
2. Click the Audio tab (shown below) in the System Settings window.
3. In the Input / output section there is a drop-down menu with a list of audio drivers installed on your system. If you have more than one soundcard then you can use the Input / output menu to swap between them, however only one soundcard driver can be used with FL Studio at a time. ASIO and DirectSound drivers are supported, drivers are sorted by type with sub-menu headings in the drop-down list. Select preferably -

An ASIO driver: Assuming you don't have a particular ASIO driver in mind, we recommended you use ASIO4ALL. This should be in the list as it is part of the default FL Studio install, if not, you can download an installer from the ASIO4ALL website (www.asio4all.com). After installation restart FL Studio. ASIO drivers give the better performance in terms of CPU efficiency. ASIO is also a prerequisite for audio recording. Note: Some soundcards, such as the Creative Audigy series, can only run ASIO with a sample rate of 48000 Hz (or higher). You may see a message to change to another sample rate when you select the ASIO driver for your soundcard. There will be another warning when you change the sample rate to 48000 Hz, it's safe to ignore these warnings and press OK.

OR

Direct Sound: If ASIO4ALL does not work then select the Windows 'Primary Sound Driver' as shown below.

4. Mixer - If possible, set the Sample rate to 44100 Hz (alternatively use 48000 Hz, click OK to any warnings) and Interpolation to Linear. Leave the switches in the default positions for now.

NOTE: Select ASIO drivers if available for your sound card.

Your 'Output' options may be different, they depend on your brand of soundcard and installed drivers. Not all cards have ASIO driver options.