FL STUDIO CHOIR TUTORIAL | How to Make Choir in FL Studio | Choir Hardstyle Choir Effect Choir Sound

In this lesson you’ll learn how to make choir in FL Studio with Sytrus. This FL Studio choir tutorial will show you how to get a hardstyle choir effect or choir sound. It actually works for any EDM genre.

You’ll also learn how to fit the choirs underneath a melody. Just like matching a string or pad with a melody, this sometimes seems to be a problem for some people.

For this lesson it’s important that you have an idea what chords are and that you have an idea how melodies are made (following a musical scale). That’s why I highly recommend you check out my How to Make a Melody in FL Studio lesson and the How to Make Chords in FL Studio lesson.

How to make a choir sound

To make a choir sound we’re going to use Sytrus. Sytrus is an FL Studio stock plugin, so you don’t need any third-party software. Simply add Sytrus to your Channel Rack and select its “Choir 2” preset. The “Choir 2” preset already sounds like a choir sound, but it’s a bit weak. It needs some tweaking.

To find out all my Sytrus settings, please watch the video and model me. But let me share the most important tips here:

• Oscillator 1 actually isn’t active. Oscillator 2 is the only active oscillator. Look in the video at the waveform (at the top left) of oscillator 2. The settings next to it, create the shape of that waveform. Model these settings to recreate it. There are no other settings being changed.
• Only filter 1 is enabled and active. So, go to filter 1 for the settings. It’s set to a “LP3” (x1) type of filter (Low Pass 3). Also open up the “DRIVE” knob to boost the signal.
• In the FX section, only the chorus is enabled. It’s set to 4 voices with quite some depth and speed. This helps to add some fullness and movement to the sound.

As far as the Sytrus choir sound goes, this is it. Only a few settings are changed. But we’re not done yet…

Add effects to your choir sound

The choir sound isn’t finished, because it needs some mixer effects for a fuller and more balanced sound. So, make sure you route the Sytrus to a free mixer track. Now you can add effects. Just follow these guidelines:

• The first effect in the chain is an equalizer. With the EQ, shape the sound to remove some mid frequencies and add some high frequencies.
• The second effect is a waveshaper. The waveshaper doesn’t really do much here. It just slightly boosts the volume and cuts off peaks.
• Finally, give you choir sound some reverb. This gives it a sense of space. Just set it by taste. I used the Valhalla reverb here and shaped it with some effects.

This is all as far as the choir sound goes. There’s not much that you have to do. Keep in mind that you can always tweak it however you want. It’s a matter of taste and what sounds good in your mix.

Make choir chords

Now it’s time to play some chords with your choir sound. Again, please make sure to learn my How to Make Chords in FL Studio lesson. In that lesson, I’ll explain the basics about chords. I don’t do that here.

To keep it simple and very pad-like or string-like, just draw long notes with your choir sound. Choir sounds are very well suited for a pad or string.

The longer notes you draw should of course match your melody. In my example, I used a hardstyle/rawstyle melody. But how do you get it to play well with the melody?

How to match choirs, pads or strings with your melody

In my example, the notes of the choir sound follow the exact same chords as the melody. You can clearly see this when I place the choir sound on top of the melody (watch the video). The grey notes on the Piano Roll represent the melody (they’re ghost notes).

Again, please take a look at my How to Make Chords video. There you’ll learn more about this. Each first note of a chord-change is always your starting point. Just draw longer notes from there and they automatically fit.

Know how to make choirs, pads and strings

When you listen to the choir sound and its chords, it really adds something to the melody. It fills up the sound and it plays well with the melody. It creates a special atmosphere, also in the break.

It’s really an important part of having this knowledge in your “toolbox” as a producer. Just take the time to absorb all the information and  make it your own. It’s not utterly complicated, but it can give you amazing results.

Feel free to leave a comment and share your work. Let us know how this is going for you!

Plugins

In this lesson, the following plugins were used:

• Sytrus
• Fruity Parametric EQ 2
• Fruity Waveshaper
• ValhallaRoom (reverb)