Click Track in FL Studio: Metronome, Count-In, a Click You Can Export and the Split File
· 6 min read
FL Studio is built for making beats on a grid, so its metronome is one shortcut away: Ctrl+M on Windows, Cmd+M on Mac. It counts you in before recording and clicks on every beat while you play. For a backing track with a click in it, the file a drummer plays to on stage, the click needs to be a channel of its own that you can see in the Playlist. If the term is new, what a click track is is the short version. This page walks the route from Image-Line's FL Studio online manual, which currently covers FL Studio 2024 to 2026.
If the song is on your computer, hear CountIn put a click on every beat of it. Listening is free and needs no account.
The metronome and the count-in
| Control | Where | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Metronome (Ctrl+M) | Transport panel | Plays a click on each beat, with an accent at the start of each bar |
| Recording Count-in (Ctrl+P) | Transport panel | Metronome ticks before recording starts; right-click to choose the number of bars |
| Wait for Input (Ctrl+I) | Transport panel | Pressing Play puts FL Studio in waiting mode until input arrives |
| Change sound | Right-click the metronome button | Picks another metronome sound |
| Metronome track | Options > Audio Settings | Selects the mixer track that receives the metronome |
The Options menu calls the count-in "Recording precount"; it is the same switch. The manual describes the metronome as "a short "metronome" sound at the beginning of each beat and an accent at the beginning of each bar", so beat one is already audible as different.
The metronome follows the project tempo, which you set in the Tempo display on the Transport panel, anywhere from 10 to 522 BPM.
A click you can export: a channel of its own
The manual's Export page says that "by default, the Master Mixer track is rendered", and lists the file formats, bit depths and tail options. It says nothing about the metronome. Rather than rely on a setting you cannot see, build the click as a channel. It then sits in the Playlist like any other part, and you know it is in the file.
- Add a sampler channel to the Channel rack and load a short, dry sound: a rim click, a side stick, a closed hi-hat or a woodblock.
- In the Step sequencer or the Piano roll, put a note on every beat of one bar. Give beat one a higher velocity, or a higher note, so the bar line is audible.
- Place the pattern in the Playlist and repeat it to the end of the song. Patterns follow the project tempo, so the clicks stay on the grid.
- For a count-in inside the file, start the click pattern one or two bars before the song, and move the song's audio clip so that its first beat lands exactly on a click. At 120 BPM in 4/4 one bar is two seconds, so a two-bar count puts the song at four seconds. If you do not know the song's tempo, the free BPM finder reads it from the file.
Drop the backing track into the Playlist as an audio clip and leave its time stretching on the default. The manual describes that default as "(none)", in which "Audio Clips maintain a constant pitch and duration regardless of Project Tempo". That is what you want: the song plays exactly as recorded, and only the click follows the project tempo.
Click left, music right
A click through the whole song only works where the audience cannot hear it, so the file bands use has the click on the left channel and the song on the right. In FL Studio:
- Route the click channel and the song to two separate mixer tracks with the Mixer Track destination in the Channel rack (for the audio clip, its channel settings).
- Pan the click's mixer track fully left and the song's mixer track fully right.
- Choose File > Export > WAV or MP3, render the whole Song, and export.
One detail of FL Studio's panning works in your favour here. The Mixer page explains that the pan control mixes one side of the stereo track into the other, "so a 100% pan is the mono-sum of the Left and Right channels". A song panned fully right is therefore the whole song in mono on the right channel, guitars and keys from both sides included. That is exactly what the PA side of a split file should carry. Keep the Export tail on "Leave remainder", the default, so the last chord rings out instead of being cut. How the split file works and how to wire it has the diagram.
A song that was not recorded to a click
FL Studio offers two tools for tempo, and neither makes the click follow a song that moves.
Detect tempo in the audio clip's menu "opens the Tempo Detection Wizard which asks you to select one of several tempo ranges the sample might be in", then offers to set the project to that tempo. That is one number for the whole file. It is right for a track made on a grid, and wrong for a live recording whose tempo rises through the chorus.
Tempo automation is the other route: right-click the Tempo display and choose "Create automation clip", then draw the tempo curve over the song. The manual notes the clip's default range is 60 to 180 BPM. The click pattern follows that curve, so the click will follow the song once the curve matches it. Matching it is a job done by ear: play, listen where the click starts to lead or lag, move a point, repeat. For a song that drifts a few beats per minute over a chorus, that is a point every few bars. We measured how far famous records move: Stairway to Heaven goes from 71 to about 102 BPM, Honky Tonk Women from 113 to 126.
The click track maker does that measuring for you: it reads every beat from the recording, puts a click on each one with beat one tuned higher, adds the count-in and exports click left, music right, in about a minute. Step by step: how to add a click track to any backing track. FL Studio stays the right place for everything you build on its grid in the first place.
Other DAWs
The same job in Logic Pro, GarageBand, REAPER, Ableton Live, Pro Tools and Audacity.
Frequently asked questions
How do I turn on the metronome in FL Studio?
Click the metronome button on the Transport panel, or press Ctrl+M (Cmd+M on Mac). Right-click the button to change its sound. The mixer track it plays through is set in Options > Audio Settings.
How do I get a count-in before recording in FL Studio?
Turn on Recording Count-in on the Transport panel, or press Ctrl+P. Right-click it to choose how many bars it counts.
Does FL Studio export the metronome?
The manual's Export page does not mention the metronome at all; it renders the Master mixer track. For a click you know is in the file, put it on a channel with a note on every beat and place it in the Playlist.
Can FL Studio make a click follow a song that changes tempo?
Only by hand. Detect tempo gives one tempo for the whole clip. To follow a song that moves, draw a tempo automation clip until the project tempo matches the song bar by bar, and leave the song's audio clip unstretched.
If the song is on your computer, hear CountIn put a click on every beat of it. Listening is free and needs no account.
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