How to Recover MIDI Performances in FL Studio Using Score Logger

More than likely, there will come a time when you play something amazing on your MIDI keyboard or perform a perfect drum pattern with a drum pad controller while FL Studio wasn’t recording. Either you forgot to hit record, or simply wasn’t expecting to have a “happy accident” while you were jamming out on your MIDI controller. Luckily, there is an option in FL Studio that allows you to recover MIDI performances that you played without hitting the record button.

If you find yourself in that scenario, go to Tools from the main menu. In the third section, labeled “Score Logger,” you’ll see an option called “Dump score log to selected pattern.” Make sure you’ve selected the pattern and channel you want to recover you MIDI with. In previous versions of FL Studio, this option was only able to recover just a few minutes of your MIDI performance. Now, in FL Studio version 20, you have the option to recover 2, 5, 10, 20 or even a half hour worth of your previous MIDI input without recording.

After recovering your MIDI, you might find there are still some things you’d like to alter to perfect the timing and overall performance. First, you’ll want to select only the section of notes that you want to keep, or depending on how much time you recovered, it might be easier to select the notes you don’t want to keep and delete those. Once you’re left with only the notes you want to use, highlight all of your notes by pressing CTRL + A. Drag the first note into its proper position in the piano roll.

Now you can adjust the timing of the notes with the quantization options. Click the magnet icon to select the snap settings you want to apply the quantization to for your note alignment. You can use SHIFT + Q to snap only the beginning of the notes to the grid, or use CTRL + Q to snap both the beginning and end of the notes to the grid. Another option that can fine tune the quantization is ALT + Q.

Here, you can manually adjust the strength level of the quantization with the Start Time, Duration, and Sensitivity knobs. You can click the dropdown menu next to the Duration knob for the options to “Leave Duration,” “Leave End Time,” “Quantize Duration,” and “Quantize End Time.” You’ll also have the option to use preset templates from the menu above by clicking the folder to browse through quantization settings, or click the dropdown menu next to the folder to quickly select different preset templates.

You can even add your own quantize templates by saving MIDI and adding it to any of these folders or making your own folder of presets. FL Studio will use the timing of those MIDI notes, no matter the pitch, to determine the quantization settings applied to your new MIDI.

Now you’ll never have to worry about losing a performance without the record button enabled. This will allow you to jam freely without worrying about deleting or undoing recordings over and over again. You’ll be able to simply play your MIDI controller and use the Score Logger’s “Dump score log to selected pattern” up to the last 30 minutes of your performance, which should leave you with more than enough time to recover anything you’ve played.