The new Akai Professional Fire represents the first of its kind, a dedicated hardware controller for the FL Studio Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) platform. Created in close partnership with Image-Line, Fire is a high-performance tool designed to enhance the workflow and music-creating experience for all FL Studio producers.
"...it just makes me feel closer to the music"
- Steel Banglez
Steel Banglez is the UK's top Grime/HipHop music producer, bringing a mainstream sound blended between his HipHop and Garage influences in production.
Fire features a dedicated browser function to navigate, audition and load your audio samples, recall project files and open plugins. Simply select browser and use the Select rotary encoder to preview and load content and devices within FL Studio - The graphical OLED display makes for easy browsing and controlling the various files, menus and parameters within your session a breeze.
Featuring plug-and-play integration, within seconds you’ll be creating patterns and building tracks using Fire’s 4 x 16 velocity-sensitive RGB pad matrix, designed for immediate interaction with FL Studio’s celebrated step sequencer.
Get hands-on with your production with everything you need to control FL Studio’s channels and patterns. With direct hardware control over your session, you can easily mute and solo channels, expand the grid matrix, select new channels, navigate through patterns and much more without touching a mouse.
"...it sped up the production process a lot, enabling me to be a bit more creative"
- Sean Murdz
Sean Murdz is a record producer, artist and songwriter from the UK, most well known for being behind the beat creation of “Whipping Excursion” for Giggs along side Scott Styles.
From searing synth leads to lush pads, Fire’s Note mode provides the ultimate platform to add melody and harmony to your production. Simply push the Note button and Fire’s RGB pads switch-up to a MIDI keyboard giving you three octaves of note data, perfect for playing all of your instruments hosted in FL Studio.
Fire’s pad matrix features an MPC-style 16-pad layout for seamless integration with FPC and SliceX. This is great for FL Studio producers who want a traditional beat-making experience or want to use their finger-drumming chops on the track.
Whether you’re a studio producer refining an arrangement or live performer looking to take your sessions to the stage, Fire’s Performance mode provides the ideal platform to remix and reimagine your tracks. Simply select Performance mode and launch MIDI clips and audio directly from Fire’s RGB pad matrix for a truly inspiring live production experience.
Fire also provides immediate access to transport controls straight from the hardware. Record, Stop, Play, as well as a button to instantly switch between Pattern and Song mode are intuitively placed for mouse-free control of FL Studio. Plus, these all double up with secondary controls providing access to Loop Record, Countdown, Wait and Metronome.
Bringing a tactile, mouse-free mixing solution to the FL Studio environment, Fire includes 4 banks of 4 touch-capacitive knobs that enable the user to instantly see and adjust parameter values. Providing control over channel, mixer and user-assignable parameters, this enables a more intuitive and enjoyable workflow. From tweaking volume and pan within FL Studio’s mixer to adjusting filter controls within the selected channel and recording automation, you’ll spend less time clicking and more time executing.
Speed is power. Up to four Fire devices can be connected at once, enabling unprecedented hardware control over the FL Studio mixing and production workflow. Expand channels or make more in the sequencer accessible by selecting Multi-Device Mode from the OLED display. Instantly expand the 4 x16 matrix of one Fire unit to an 8 x 32 workflow.
Enter the ground-breaking, high-powered workflow heard all over the charts with the FL Studio Fruity Fire Edition software, included with Fire. FL Studio is a complete software music production environment, the culmination of more than 20 years of innovative development. The software features everything you need in one package to compose, arrange, edit, mix and master professional quality music. With access to FL Studio’s piano roll editor, step sequencer, playlist, VST instrument support, full automation functionality, plus 18+ virtual instruments and over a dozen built-in effects and processors, FL Studio Fruity Fire Edition provides the ultimate platform to spark that initial idea, ignite your creativity and complete your masterpiece – all in an ultra-intuitive, inspiring environment engineered to keep you tuned in to what’s important, your music.
In this video tutorial series, we take you from unboxing to making beats, showing you how easy it is to play with Fire. Featuring Michael Wynne.
Video 1: Unboxing
Video 2: Overview
Video 3: Making beats with FPC
Video 4: Slicing loops with Fire
Video 5: Mixing with Fire
Video 6: Automating with Fire
Video 7: Linking FX with Fire
Video 8: Making trap beats
Video 9: Navigating the modes
Video 10: Connecting multiple devices
Michael Wynne is a a recording artist and mixing engineer with a passion for teaching. In 2016 he founded "In The Mix", an audio community where he teaches music production and mixing to over 125,000 members.
Some of Michael's videos covering the Akai Fire and how it improves your creative workflow in FL Studio are featured below.
Video 1: Unboxing - Akai Fire
Video 2: Complete Overview - Akai Fire
Video 3: Making Trap Music With Fire
Video 4: Making LoFi Hip Hop with Fire
Video 5: Connecting 2 or 4 Fire units together
Midi Controller
OLED Display
Software Included
Please note: The more powerful your CPU, the more instruments and FX you can run.