This FL Studio tutorial will teach you how to use make unique in FL Studio.
Make Unique essentially clones your pattern to a new pattern, allowing you to quickly make a change to that new pattern to variety in the beat.
However, if you use an audio clip, like a vocal, using Make Unique will create a new instance in the Channel Rack.
Pro-tip: Use a darker or lighter color on the cloned pattern to easily identify it in the playlist.
Where is Make Unique in FL Studio
Make unique can be found in the Playlist when you RIGHT-CLICK the top-left corner of a pattern.
You are presented with a drop-down menu that says “Make Unique”:
Make sure that you have at least two instances of that same pattern in the Playlist, otherwise a pop-up window will appear warning you:
“This clip is not used anywhere else in the playlist, do you want to make it unique anyway?”.
Best Practices of Make Unique
A common question is how should you use make unique, and where to actually apply it?
Building a drum loop all inside one pattern is by far the easiest way to make a drum loop, but you will quickly find out it gives you the LEAST flexibility in terms of arranging your song.
Using Make Unique in these cases is a EASY, simple, and lazy way to quickly clone the pattern, change up one or two sounds, and it immensely brings variety to your song’s arrangement.
Any producer knows, arrangement is the secret to a good beat. A good arrangement is the difference between a SONG and a “loop”.
Another real-world example of using make unique in FL Studio is if you have a drum pattern, with just drums playing, you can simply clone that pattern, and change up one or two sounds.
Why Can’t I Use Make Unique
The main reason you can’t use make unique in FL Studio is because you are using the trial version of FL Studio.
So if you’re wondering why the make unique option is greyed out in the FL Demo, or why you cannot make a pattern unique, now you know what make unique is, and how to use it!
Image-Line has a support doc on why make unique does not work in FL Studio. They explain it’s because “Make unique is directly related to the opening of saved project data”.
Wrapping Up: Using Make Unique in FL Studio
Using make unique in FL Studio is such a powerful tool, if done right, however make unique can also be a very lazy way of making beats, where you can fall into an uncreative workflow.
Make unique is best used if you want to take that a pattern, clone it, and spice it up a little bit.
When using make unique, I often refer to End Loop Bring-Ins, and Extending Pattern Bars, which you can learn more about in my premium SAFE SPOTS Drum Loop Training.
If you don’t have FL Studio yet, learn what version of FL Studio to Buy.
Need FL Studio Lessons or have questions? Contact GratuiTous!