Omni Preview in FL Studio triggers notes in the Channel Rack to treat your MIDI Keyboard like a Drum Pad without needing FPC.

Omni Preview plays white notes starting from C5, then D5, E5, etc.

For the best workflow in FL Studio, I recommend turning Omni Preview on while using it, but turning it off when done, if you haven’t set your MIDI Keyboard’s drum pads to a unique MIDI Channel.

Omni Preview is covered at the end of this video (which I fast forwarded for you 🙂):

What is Omni Preview
Video taken from What is “Omni Mode”.
Note: Omni Mode is much different than Omni Preview!

What You Will Learn:

  • What is Omni Preview in FL Studio Settings?
  • How to Setup Omni Preview MIDI Channel in FL Studio
  • Set Omni Preview to Play Piano Keys and Drums Separately on MIDI Controller in FL Studio

What is Omni Preview in FL Studio Settings?

Omni Preview triggers channel rack sounds from MIDI Keys or Drum Pads, in respective order, without using FPC plugin.

What makes Omni Preview really powerful is that you can set drum pads to a unique MIDI Channel to trigger drum samples, while still using piano keys to play piano in FL Studio!

For myself as a producer, I prefer clicking sounds in, then using the FREE ORGANIC TOOLS (mentioned in my SAFE SPOTS Book) to fine-tune drum loops.

Setup Omni Preview MIDI Channel in FL Studio

Omni Preview MIDI Channel in FL Studio Settings
Omni Preview MIDI Channel in FL Studio Settings
I’ve set it to MIDI Channel 1!

Set a MIDI Channel on Omni Preview MIDI channel in FL Studio Settings (F10).

By default, a MIDI Keyboard is set to “global midi channel”. This means only highlighted sounds in the Channel Rack trigger notes!

If you set Omni Preview MIDI Channel to 1, your MIDI Keys trigger Channel rack sounds starting at C5, and only the white notes work (D5, E5, F5, etc).

Note: your MIDI Keyboard keys will be unusable for playing piano if you choose Omni Preview MIDI Channel 1 because of this reason.

The order your sounds are in the Channel Rack is how your MIDI Keyboard keys will trigger them.

If you want to learn how to assign individual sounds to drum pads and keys on a midi keyboard, then keep reading.

How to Play Piano Keys and Drums Separately on FL Studio MIDI Controller (Omni Preview)

Here’s how to play drums on pads while using keys for piano!

The answer is setting drum pads to a unique MIDI Channel, then setting Omni Preview to that MIDI Channel! This allows us to assign samples to drum pads without the FPC, while still using our MIDI Keys to play virtual instruments!!

We setup MIDI Channels either on the MIDI Controller itself, or through your MIDI Keyboard’s software editor!

The M-Audio Oxygen Pro Preset Editor MIDI Editing software easily allows assigning drum pads to a different MIDI Channel in FL Studio!

Example: Put Omni Preview to MIDI Channel 2, then in your MIDI Keyboard software, assign your drum pads to play on Channel 2.

Note, from my testing, when setting my MIDI Keyboard drum pads to Channel 2, FL Studio recognized Note 48 (C2) as C5. Then white notes up work from there. (D3, E3, F3, etc).

Most new MIDI Keyboards come with MIDI Editing software to select drum pads to assign them to MIDI Channel 2.

There’s 16 MIDI Channels available in 1 MIDI Port. Don’t worry about a MIDI Port in this tutorial; it’s only useful if you have A LOT of MIDI Keyboards and MIDI Drum Pads going on.

Remember, start the first drum pad at note C5, then work your way up with white notes only (D5, E5, F5, etc).

This allows you to use MIDI Keys on the “global midi channel” (which I think is Channel 1 by default), then your drum pads play Channel 2. Since you set Omni Preview MIDI Channel to 2, the drum pads and midi keys don’t conflict, and are free to operate as intended!

What is Omni Mode vs. Omni Preview?

Please view What is Omni Mode in FL Studio tutorial.

Omni Mode is a way to map a knob in FL Studio to similar parameters which can be re-used on highlighted channels in either the Channel Rack or FL Studio Mixer!

Omni Preview is what is discussed in this article about mapping sounds to drum pads and still use piano keys in FL Studio!

Conclusion: How to Map Channel Rack Drums to Drum Pads, While Still Playing Keys (Omni Preview)

So that’s it! Visit the shop for amazing drum samples!

To recap..

Omni Preview allows you to use MIDI Keys to play drums on the Channel rack, or you can set a unique Omni Preview MIDI Channel to have drum pads play drums in the Channel rack only, and still have MIDI Piano keys play piano!

Omni Preview is helpful if you don’t have drum pads, or want to play drums live in FL Studio from your MIDI Keyboard.

I suggest learning about the best MIDI Keyboards for FL Studio.

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