AKAI FL Studio Fire

Supported Since: FL Studio 20.0.5

For more information see the Akai FL Studio FIRE - FL Studio Fruity Fire Edition Registration & FAQ

AKAI FL Studio Fire With Mac Desk.jpg

AKAI FL Studio Fire Front.jpg

Setup:

If this is the first time you are using the FIRE, close FL Studio
Connect the AKAI FL Studio Fire to your computer via USB and wait for it to be detected and the startup sequence on the FIRE to complete. Normally, the pads will light in this configuration when ready.

FireBoot.jpg
Open FL Studio and the device should be automatically detected and enabled in MIDI Settings. It should appear with the settings as shown here:

AKAI FL Studio Fire MIDI Settings.png

Layout:

AKAI FL Studio Fire Layout.png

Knob Mode: Channel, Mixer, User 1, User 2. Press this button to cycle through the modes for controlling parameters of the current Channel, the current Mixer track or two linkable User banks.
Display: Shows various information including the current mode, Channel, Mixer track, Pattern or controlled parameter.
VOLUME Knob: Adjusts the volume of the current Channel or Mixer track.
PAN Knob: Adjusts the pan of the current Channel or Mixer track.
FILTER/LOW EQ Knob: Adjusts the filter cutoff frequency of the current Channel or the Low EQ level of the current Mixer track.
RESONANCE/HIGH EQ Knob: Adjusts the filter resonance amount of the current Channel or the High EQ level of the current Mixer track.
PATTERN Buttons: Navigate up and down in the list of patterns to select the one you want to step sequence. Hold to navigate quickly.
BROWSER: Enable Browser mode to navigate and load samples, presets, plugins or projects from the Browser using the Select Knob. (Push in Select Knob to open or close folder or to open a menu to decide what to do with an item).
SELECT Knob: Rotate to control various functions including what 4 Channels the pads will show in Step Sequence mode. Push in to activate other functions.
GRID : Move the step or Performance mode view horizontally. Transpose Note or Drum modes.
MUTE/SOLO: Mute or unmute the corresponding Channel. (Hold Shift and press to solo).
Button Pads: Press pads to add or remove steps in a sequence, play melodic or drum notes or trigger clips in Performance mode.
STEP/ACCENT: Enter Step Sequence mode. Sequence steps in the channel rack. (Hold Shift and press to enable toggle Accent mode).
NOTE/SNAP: Enter Note mode. (Hold Shift and press to toggle Snap mode). Play melodic notes with a representation of a keyboard or harmonic note layouts.
DRUM/TAP: Enter Drum Sequence mode. (Hold Shift and press to tap tempo). Play drum notes with an FPC, Slicex or Omni layout where each channel is assigned a pad.
PERFORM/OVERVIEW: Enter Performance mode. Trigger clips in the Performance zone of the playlist by pressing pads. (Hold Shift and press to toggle Overview mode, a view of all sets of 4x16 clips you can then navigate to by pressing pads).
SHIFT: Press and hold and press other buttons to access additional functions. See below for details.
ALT: Press and hold and press other buttons to access even more additional functions. See below for details.
PATTERN/SONG/METRONOME: Switch between Song or Pattern mode.
PLAY/WAIT: Play or pause FL Studio. (Hold Shift and press to enable Wait for input. Playback will start when you press a pad for example).
STOP/COUNTDOWN: Stop FL Studio. (Hold Shift and press to enable countdown before recording).
RECORD/LOOP REC: Enable recording mode. (Hold Shift and press to enable loop recording mode).

Control and shortcut functions:

Knobs 1 to 4 = Set current Channel's parameters
Knobs 1 to 4 when pad(s) held = Set individual steps parameters
Knob 1 + ALT = Pads brightness
Knob 2 + ALT = Pads saturation
Knob 3 + ALT = Pad visualizer mode (default: off) (Note: Visualizer mode needs the Monitor on FL Studio's main toolbar to be set to Spectrogram)
Knob 4 + ALT = Screen visualizer mode (default: off)

SELECT Knob + SHIFT = Select mixer track.
SELECT Knob + ALT = Select Channel (NOT in performance mode)

BROWSER = Enter/leave Browser mode
BROWSER + SHIFT = Undo

GRID Left/Right + ALT = Switch FL Studio windows (PL, CR, Mixer etc)

PATTERN/SONG button = Switch playback modes
PATTERN/SONG button + SHIFT= Engage Metronome

PLAY button = Start playback
PLAY button + SHIFT = Wait for input

STOP button = Stop playback
STOP button + SHIFT = Engage countdown

RECORD button = Begin recording
RECORD button + SHIFT = Begin loop recording

Mode button = Switch modes (Channel rack, Mixer mode, User 1, User 2)
SHIFT + Mode button = Switches between channel rack and mixer mode
ALT + Mode button = Switches between user 1 and user 2 modes

STEP button = Step sequencer mode
STEP button + SHIFT = Accent mode on/off

NOTE button = Set piano playing mode (Note mode)
NOTE button + SHIFT = Set Snap (Line or None)

DRUM button = Set Drum mode
DRUM button + SHIFT = Start tempo tapping

PERFORM button = Set performance mode

Step sequencer mode:

SHIFT + STEP = Accent mode on/off

SELECT Knob press = Mixer track selection mode

SELECT Knob in Mixer track selection mode = Select Insert for Channel
SELECT Knob in accent mode = Select default note pitch
SELECT Knob with pad(s) held = Change note property in graph editor
SELECT Knob in default mode = set Channel rack offset

Knobs 1 to 4 in accent mode = Set accent note parameters
Knobs 1 to 4 in Knobs mixer mode = Set mixer insert's parameters in Mixer

MUTE buttons 1 to 4 = Mute selected Channel
MUTE buttons 1 to 4 + Shift = Solo selected Channel
MUTE buttons 1 to 4 + Alt = Select current Channel in Channel Rack
MUTE + SELECT Knob (turn) = Set the Channel's loop length
MUTE + SELECT Knob (click) = Burn the Channel's loop
MUTE + STEP = Set the Channel's loop length (use Step 16 to disable loop).

PATTERN Up/Down = Change current pattern

GRID Left/Right = Move four steps left/right in Channel Rack for pads layout
GRID Left/Right + SHIFT = Move one step left/right in Channel Rack for pads layout

Note Mode:

SELECT Knob press = layout selection mode

SELECT Knob in Layout selection mode = Change note layout
SELECT Knob in default mode = Set Channel Rack pads offset

MUTE buttons 1 to 4 = Mute selected Channel
MUTE buttons 1 to 4 + SHIFT = Solo selected Channel
MUTE buttons 1 to 4 + ALT = Stop playback, Select current Channel in Channel Rack

PATTERN Up/Pattern Down = Change current pattern

GRID Left/Right = Change octave up/down
GRID Left/Right + SHIFT = Offset pitch up/down one note
SHIFT + ACCENT = Accent mode on/off (Allows a hard pad hit to send a high velocity)

Drum Mode:

SELECT Knob press = Layout selection mode
SELECT Knob in Layout Selection mode = Change drum layout

MUTE buttons 1 to 4 = Mute selected Channel
MUTE buttons 1 to 4 + SHIFT = Solo selected Channel
MUTE buttons 1 to 4 + ALT = Stop playback, Select current Channel in Channel Rack

SHIFT + ACCENT = Accent mode on/off (Allows a hard pad hit to send a high velocity)

Browser Mode:

SELECT Knob = Move Browser/context menu selection up/down
SELECT Knob press = Open selected folder, open context menu for current item or select current menu item

GRID Left = Close current item context menu
GRID Right = Select current menu item, or preview current item if applicable

Performance mode:

SELECT Knob = Set Playlist pads offset
MUTE buttons 1 to 4 = Stop current playlist track's playing clips
PATTERN Up/Pattern Down = Change pad layout position in Playlist (in steps of four tracks)
PATTERN Up/Pattern Down + SHIFT = Change pad layout in steps of 1 track

GRID Left/Right = Move 16 clips left/right in Playlist
GRID Left/Right + SHIFT = Move 1 Clip left/right in playlist

PERFORM button + SHIFT = Set overview mode
ALT + Clip = Trigger scene
SHIFT + Clip = Trigger same mode clips
ALT + SHIFT + Clip = +Scene
SHIFT + SNAP = Global snap on/off. (When on all tracks trigger sync use the current FL snap setting).

Overview mode:

Overview mode is effectively a zoomed out version of Performance mode, showing you all 4x16 sets of clips you have currently setup. Each pad in Overview mode represents one set of 4x16 clips. Press one to jump to that set of 4x16 clips in Performance mode.

Multi-device mode:

Up to 4 FIRE units can be used independently. Typical uses are 2 side-by-side or one above the other. 4 in a 2x2 matrix.

On the MASTER device hold ALT + Hold SELECT Knob Press for 2 seconds: Enters Master (main) device mode. The OTHER devices will enter "layout selection mode". From these choose their position relative to the MASTER device (turning the Select Knob, Select Knob and then press to confirm selection). Options are - Right, Bottom or Bottom Right (for a 4x4 matrix)

Color customization:

You can customize piano keyboard, drum pad and spectrogram colors by creating and editing a FLFireColors.txt file that you place in the exact location as shown below. The customization file and folder location is NOT created by default - You will need to create it as follows:

macOS - /users/(username)/Documents/Image-Line/FL Studio/Settings/Hardware/Akai FL Studio Fire/FLFireColors.txt
Windows - \Users\(username)\Documents\Image-Line\Data\FL Studio\Settings\Hardware\Akai FL Studio Fire\FLFireColors.txt

NOTE: In both cases, replace (username) with your username.

Colors are specified in the format color=value. The value may be in decimal format, hex format ($RRGGBB, 0xRRGGBB or #RRGGBB), or R,G,B format (eg. to make root notes red, use RootNote=255,0,0). You can also use another colors name in place of the value, eg. BlackNote=RootNote.

Start by pasting the following text into the FLFireColors.txt file to match the default setup colors:

Cut and paste this text wrote:[colors]
RootNote=$9CFF00
BlackNote=$FF4000
WhiteNote=$FFFFFF
PlayingNote=$0F0F0F
PlayingNoteUser=$7F7F7F
SpectrogramRow1=$FF0000
SpectrogramRow2=$FFFF00
SpectrogramRow3=$00FF00
SpectrogramRow4=$00FF00
DrumBankA=$000080
DrumBankB=$0060FF
Slicex=$000080
[altcolors]
RootNote=$FF4000
BlackNote=$00FFFF
WhiteNote=$FFFFFF
PlayingNote=$0F0F0F
PlayingNoteUser=$7F7F7F
SpectrogramRow1=$FF0000
SpectrogramRow2=$FFFFFF
SpectrogramRow3=$7FFFFF
SpectrogramRow4=$00FFFF
DrumBankA=$000080
DrumBankB=$0060FF
Slicex=$000080