Return to site

Fl Fruity Edition Review

broken image


FL Studio Fruity Edition by Image Line (@KVRAudio Product Listing): FL Studio Fruity Edition features FL Studios powerhouse virtual studio with limited playlist features and no audio recording functionality. Representing more than 20 years of innovative development it has everything you need in one package to compose, arrange, record, edit, mix and master professional quality music. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for FL Studio 20 Fruity Edition (Boxed) at Amazon.com. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users.

Always wondered about FL Studio and whether it might be the right DAW for you? In this article, we'll have a look at FL Studio 20 to bring you a tutorial and a review. Keep reading to find out more.

Fl Studio Fruity Edition Review

What is FL Studio?

FL Studio is a digital audio workstation developed by the Belgian software company Image-Line.

It started almost like a game in its infant stage. FL Studio is a DAW that is easier to navigate and create music quickly. It features a graphical user interface based on a pattern-based music sequencer.

FL Studio was first known as Fruity Loops but they changed the name to FL Studio (Fruit Loops Studio) because the former name seems professional and less childlike. FL Studio can also be used as a VST instrument in other audio workstation programs and it also functions as a ReWire client.

Image-Line, who owns the software, also offers other VST instruments and audio applications. But it was the simple interface of FL Studio that brought it a huge number of fans, in particular the States. It is quite popular in the hip-hop community.

FL Studio has been used by countless Hip-Hop, Beat Makers and EDM producers and has established itself as one of the top five most popular DAWs on the market.

What can you do with FL Studio?

FL Studio allows you to load instruments and samples, including the ability to play these instruments live

or you can manually enter the notes and record external sounds. You can save the completed project and export to a Wav, MP3 or OGG audio file.

Although FL Studio had capabilities to run on Mac, it was quite glitchy and complicated. In 2018, Image-Line finally created a compatible version FL Studio for Apple Mac users. Therefore you can now run FL Studio on your Mac Book Pro with full VST and AU support!

|cta-link type='producers'|

Getting Started & Pricing

At the entry-level, you have FL Studio Fruity Edition. This is a great way to start out with a DAW such as FL Studio. It features a limited playlist, no audio clips and no audio recording. But it is a great price at only $99.00

FL Studio Producer Edition is an All-in-one virtual studio. This edition will cover all your music production needs in one simple to use location. For a budding or seasoned music producer with a bit of a budget, I would strongly suggest this edition.

It has full song creation & mic recording features including audio recording full playlist and 7 additional native plugins. This edition goes for $199 with a lot provided for your buck.

Next is the FL Studio Signature Bundle, which is a combination of FL Studio Producer Edition including some signature plugins. It features audio recording with full playlist and an increased 14 additional native plugins for $299.

If you are a producer that likes to collect countless synths and plugins, the All Plugin Bundle would work for you. It is priced at $699.

If you want to try out FL Studio before purchasing, you can try their free demo version which includes all of the program's features. It includes all VST plugins and allows users to render project audio to WAV, MIDI, MP3, and OGG.

Download the free version here.

Setting Up

MIDI

Setting up MIDI to FL Studio can seem a bit daunting at first but it is quite simple once you become familiar with the interface. First, FL Studio needs to recognize that your MIDI keyboard is connected to your computer before you will be able to use it. If needed, you will be prompted to install the latest drivers for your keyboard and follow the instructions in the owner's manual before proceeding.

To manage MIDI connections for FL Studio, you need to navigate to the MIDI Device menu. From this point, you can activate or deactivate the MIDI ports or channels of your hardware.

First, you need to click the 'Options menu' from the top toolbar, then click MIDI Settings.

The next step is to go in the MIDI Options window, go to the Input settings section. You can select your MIDI keyboard and click Enable. If you happen to see the input named USB Audio Device, you should enable that, and change the controller type to Generic Controller. Finally, you should press a key or pad to confirm you're getting a MIDI signal.

Audio Interface

Fl Fruity Edition Review

To set up an audio interface with FL Studio, you will need to connect the cable that came with your audio interface to the interface and to your computer. Next step is to set your sound settings. You can do this by going to the same drop-down menu by going back to 'Options' then select Audio.

From the drop-down box similar to the MIDI set up box, you can select your interface. Bend allowance calculator. Example, Focusrite or other default settings, including FL Studio. Although I am connected to my Focusrite, I tend to keep it on FL Studio. But you can play around with it and listen to the difference in the sounds.

Once your keyboard is set up, you can select it in FL Studio, and start working with FL Studio.

Let's Talk Main Windows Flexibility

The FL Studio DAW has numerous windows. Most of these windows are movable, resizable, zoomable and easily interchangeable.

The main windows in FL Studio music creation are as follows:

  • Playlist (F5)
  • Channel rack ( F6)
  • Piano roll (F7)
  • Mixer(F9)

The Browser is used to access audio files, plugins & presets. You can press Alt+F8 to access the browser. The flexibility with the windows makes it quite easy to navigate between the different sections while creating – ideally have a large monitor screen or dual screens are best so you don't have to keep flicking between windows and set up everything so essential gear can be accessed quickly.

Powerful New Features In Version 20

FL Studio recently celebrated their 20th anniversary.

To celebrate their 20th anniversary they skipped versions 13-19 and went straight to 20. With their 20th version came countless new features. Including the ability to render (freeze). You can create and save complete multi-track music projects & arrangements with their complete layouts of automation and pattern clips.

In addition, there is Plug-in delay compensation that ensures a smooth mixing experience. You'll also enjoy an updated version of Graph Editor, Precomputed FX, an upgraded Channel Sampler, including a variety of new and updated plug-ins.

Powerful & Convenient

Image-Line FL Studio 20 has a full-featured melody and loop creation capabilities.

This includes audio sends, sidechain control, advanced automation, multi-touch support, and much more to boot.

The Piano Roll makes arranging and sequencing quite easy to accomplish. The playlist is very flexible and allows you to use Automation and Note data. Workflow is super-fast due mainly to FL Studio's browser. A unique capability of FL Studio is the ability to use third-party VSTs.

Therefore making it extra powerful beyond its already powerful capabilities. This is quite an impressive quality and another selling point.

Advanced MIDI Music Production Capabilities

It's very flexible loop-creation tools let you time-stretch, beat-slice, chop and edit mix your audio with ease.

Including, up to eight different effects can be added to each track, in addition to being routed to any of the other audio tracks.

There are a wide variety of effects that are already added to spark instant inspiration. Including effects such as:

Fl Fruity Edition

  • Delay
  • Distortion
  • EQ
  • Filtering
  • Reverb
  • Phasing
  • Flanging
  • Chorus
  • Vocoding

You can use the software just as a drum machine, beat maker or access the drum samples in conjunction with other high-quality instrumentals such as transistor bass and lead synths. Easy access to mastering tools like multiband compression/limiting and parametric EQ are also included.

Automation & Music Production Support

Fl Studio also has very slick automation features. It's quite fluid with various ways to manipulate automation to allow you to breathe life into your songs and musical creations.

Among the other new features, FL Studio 20 also updated several of its signature features and plugins.

  1. You can customise the browser to make it easier to navigate back and forth during the creative process.
  2. Fruity Reverb 2 now includes a modulation section that adds some of that cool classic metallic ring modulation to your sound.
  3. FL Studio's very unique sample chopper and beat arranger Slicex has been updated with new slicing and send options.
  4. The main window features such as Channel rack, Playlist and Browser can be clicked on or off. Therefore decluttering the DAW's creative workspace is much easier to accomplish.
  5. Automation can be added to the Playlist later.
  6. The mixer in FL Studio is customisable with channel width and number of controls on display.
  7. FL Studio 20 Producer version comes with 80 VST plug-ins which can be added to the Channel rack by hitting the + button and then selecting from a drop-down menu. This cool new feature makes it easier to add plugins rather than navigating away from the Channel rack.
  8. Piano roll editor now features plenty of melodic editing options within the Piano Roll editor.
  9. All of the settings are in one window via lots of tabs. Therefore you can set up everything you need for more fluidity.

FL Studio vs Ableton vs Logic

FL Studio is a quality DAW that's not in question, with easy accessibility to numerous sounds in addition to ease of use to quickly create a musical idea.

It has more than enough effects to perform the highest level tasks. As a long time owner and user of FL Studio, there are so many other segments to this all in one powerful DAW.

You can keep discovering something new, years after owning it. One of their best synthesizers and my go-to synth in FL Studio is Systrus. This is a hybrid FM and additive synth with a wide sound palette.

FL Studio might best be compared to other DAWs such as Ableton or PreSonus but its features are more flexible. Download apps for facebook chat. There isn't the go-to DAW for producers or composers of a certain genre of music.

Therefore it might not have the unlimited number of track capabilities such as Logic, but it has both PC and MAC capabilities.

While Ableton seems to have a better MIDI controller support and less learning curve with most of its synths, FL Studio 20 has a lot of easily accessible sounds. Including easy to navigate windows to quickly come up with creative ideas.

There are so many sounds in the earlier edition of FL Studio and with FL Studio 20 there is a lot more to choose from.

Specs

  • Bit Depth:
  • 64-bit
  • Format:
  • VST2, VST3, AU
  • Hardware Requirements – Mac:
  • Intel Core Duo or higher, 4GB RAM or more recommended
  • Hardware Requirements – PC:
  • Intel Core Duo / AMD Athlon 64 or higher, 4GB RAM or more recommended
  • OS Requirements – Mac:
  • macOS 10.13.6 or later
  • OS Requirements – PC:
  • Windows 8.1 or later.

Conclusion

It would take you a while to even begin to scratch the surface. Another bonus and reason to get FL Studio 20. It has free updates for lifetime use, which other software brands don't offer as you only normally get discounted upgrades from the purchase price, which some people criticise and stop them from upgrading.

FL Studio 20 is a great DAW for both, beginners and professional producers. Especially if you are into making beats and genres such as Hip Hop & EDM productions. You should definitely get this super cool All-in-one DAW by Image-Line.

Get ahead.
'Making it in this business, means making sure you have everything you need to succeed.'
What you can expect from our newsletters:
  • Industry news and tips
  • Opportunities to submit your music and collaborate with others
  • Free software and resources
  • Free membership to Music Gateway
Thank you! Newsletters will be sent to: .
Is this the right email address? If not, you can correct it.
Junk mail? Hell no - we hate that stuff too!
News and opportunities
Thank you! Newsletters will be sent to: .
Is this the right email address? If not, you can correct it.
Everything you need to promote and earn.
Sign up today for a completely free 14 day trial to Music Gateway.
  • Licence your music to Films, TV and Ads
  • Manage your music and metadata
  • Submit music to labels and publishers
  • Create playlists to showcase to A&R reps
  • Collaborate with others and pitch for work
  • .and so much more!
No credit card needed.
Download your FREE artist pack.
Get your free artist pack when you sign up to a completely free 14 day trial to Music Gateway.

Fl Studio Fruity Edition Review

  • 5GB+ of samples
  • VST plugins
  • Midi production files and templates
  • Industry guides and how-tos
  • Spotify curator list
  • .and so much more!
No credit card needed.
Promote, licence, collaborate and earn.
Promote, licence, collaborate and earn.
0 COMMENTS

One of the most fascinated DAWs has reached and impressive version number: 12. Obviously, Image Line never gets tired improving their main product, adding new features and capabilities.

by Alex Arsov, July 2015

FL Studio has massively gained popularity in the last two years. I joined some EDM related groups on Facebook lately where members are showing off what they are doing or what they have done, exchanging tips and tutorials or simply asking for advice. The most fascinating thing is that more than 90% of them use FL Studio as their main DAW. Somehow FL Studio has become the number one DAW where EDM music is concerned. Of course, by searching for additional tutorials I found that people use FL Studio for almost all genres. Endless numbers of Hip Hop producers use it, even Metal folks, and all other genres and subgenres. I presume the main reason for such popularity is the fact that Fl studio is very flexible, well equipped and relatively easy to use, and what's more, it's so easy to get excellent results in no time, just by drawing clips in the arrangement window with the paint tool and deleting them with a left click. If you are skilled, you can finish the basic arrangement in 15 to 30 minutes.

The truth is, especially if you're familiar with another DAW, that you'll need a bit more time to get familiar with FL Studio as it doesn't run exactly on the same tracks as some others. It is definitely not just another variation on an old story. It's certainly one of the most unique, interesting and unusual DAWs on the market. It has quite a different workflow compared to most other digital audio workstations. Different, but still very detailed, with an enormous quantity of implemented options, an impressive number of tools such as automation curves, and many other goodies hidden in the submenus. There are also all sorts of MIDI tools inside the Piano Roll editor, some of them allowing you to build interesting and fairly professional harmonies, even if you slept through all your music theory training.

Edition

To set up an audio interface with FL Studio, you will need to connect the cable that came with your audio interface to the interface and to your computer. Next step is to set your sound settings. You can do this by going to the same drop-down menu by going back to 'Options' then select Audio.

From the drop-down box similar to the MIDI set up box, you can select your interface. Bend allowance calculator. Example, Focusrite or other default settings, including FL Studio. Although I am connected to my Focusrite, I tend to keep it on FL Studio. But you can play around with it and listen to the difference in the sounds.

Once your keyboard is set up, you can select it in FL Studio, and start working with FL Studio.

Let's Talk Main Windows Flexibility

The FL Studio DAW has numerous windows. Most of these windows are movable, resizable, zoomable and easily interchangeable.

The main windows in FL Studio music creation are as follows:

  • Playlist (F5)
  • Channel rack ( F6)
  • Piano roll (F7)
  • Mixer(F9)

The Browser is used to access audio files, plugins & presets. You can press Alt+F8 to access the browser. The flexibility with the windows makes it quite easy to navigate between the different sections while creating – ideally have a large monitor screen or dual screens are best so you don't have to keep flicking between windows and set up everything so essential gear can be accessed quickly.

Powerful New Features In Version 20

FL Studio recently celebrated their 20th anniversary.

To celebrate their 20th anniversary they skipped versions 13-19 and went straight to 20. With their 20th version came countless new features. Including the ability to render (freeze). You can create and save complete multi-track music projects & arrangements with their complete layouts of automation and pattern clips.

In addition, there is Plug-in delay compensation that ensures a smooth mixing experience. You'll also enjoy an updated version of Graph Editor, Precomputed FX, an upgraded Channel Sampler, including a variety of new and updated plug-ins.

Powerful & Convenient

Image-Line FL Studio 20 has a full-featured melody and loop creation capabilities.

This includes audio sends, sidechain control, advanced automation, multi-touch support, and much more to boot.

The Piano Roll makes arranging and sequencing quite easy to accomplish. The playlist is very flexible and allows you to use Automation and Note data. Workflow is super-fast due mainly to FL Studio's browser. A unique capability of FL Studio is the ability to use third-party VSTs.

Therefore making it extra powerful beyond its already powerful capabilities. This is quite an impressive quality and another selling point.

Advanced MIDI Music Production Capabilities

It's very flexible loop-creation tools let you time-stretch, beat-slice, chop and edit mix your audio with ease.

Including, up to eight different effects can be added to each track, in addition to being routed to any of the other audio tracks.

There are a wide variety of effects that are already added to spark instant inspiration. Including effects such as:

Fl Fruity Edition

  • Delay
  • Distortion
  • EQ
  • Filtering
  • Reverb
  • Phasing
  • Flanging
  • Chorus
  • Vocoding

You can use the software just as a drum machine, beat maker or access the drum samples in conjunction with other high-quality instrumentals such as transistor bass and lead synths. Easy access to mastering tools like multiband compression/limiting and parametric EQ are also included.

Automation & Music Production Support

Fl Studio also has very slick automation features. It's quite fluid with various ways to manipulate automation to allow you to breathe life into your songs and musical creations.

Among the other new features, FL Studio 20 also updated several of its signature features and plugins.

  1. You can customise the browser to make it easier to navigate back and forth during the creative process.
  2. Fruity Reverb 2 now includes a modulation section that adds some of that cool classic metallic ring modulation to your sound.
  3. FL Studio's very unique sample chopper and beat arranger Slicex has been updated with new slicing and send options.
  4. The main window features such as Channel rack, Playlist and Browser can be clicked on or off. Therefore decluttering the DAW's creative workspace is much easier to accomplish.
  5. Automation can be added to the Playlist later.
  6. The mixer in FL Studio is customisable with channel width and number of controls on display.
  7. FL Studio 20 Producer version comes with 80 VST plug-ins which can be added to the Channel rack by hitting the + button and then selecting from a drop-down menu. This cool new feature makes it easier to add plugins rather than navigating away from the Channel rack.
  8. Piano roll editor now features plenty of melodic editing options within the Piano Roll editor.
  9. All of the settings are in one window via lots of tabs. Therefore you can set up everything you need for more fluidity.

FL Studio vs Ableton vs Logic

FL Studio is a quality DAW that's not in question, with easy accessibility to numerous sounds in addition to ease of use to quickly create a musical idea.

It has more than enough effects to perform the highest level tasks. As a long time owner and user of FL Studio, there are so many other segments to this all in one powerful DAW.

You can keep discovering something new, years after owning it. One of their best synthesizers and my go-to synth in FL Studio is Systrus. This is a hybrid FM and additive synth with a wide sound palette.

FL Studio might best be compared to other DAWs such as Ableton or PreSonus but its features are more flexible. Download apps for facebook chat. There isn't the go-to DAW for producers or composers of a certain genre of music.

Therefore it might not have the unlimited number of track capabilities such as Logic, but it has both PC and MAC capabilities.

While Ableton seems to have a better MIDI controller support and less learning curve with most of its synths, FL Studio 20 has a lot of easily accessible sounds. Including easy to navigate windows to quickly come up with creative ideas.

There are so many sounds in the earlier edition of FL Studio and with FL Studio 20 there is a lot more to choose from.

Specs

  • Bit Depth:
  • 64-bit
  • Format:
  • VST2, VST3, AU
  • Hardware Requirements – Mac:
  • Intel Core Duo or higher, 4GB RAM or more recommended
  • Hardware Requirements – PC:
  • Intel Core Duo / AMD Athlon 64 or higher, 4GB RAM or more recommended
  • OS Requirements – Mac:
  • macOS 10.13.6 or later
  • OS Requirements – PC:
  • Windows 8.1 or later.

Conclusion

It would take you a while to even begin to scratch the surface. Another bonus and reason to get FL Studio 20. It has free updates for lifetime use, which other software brands don't offer as you only normally get discounted upgrades from the purchase price, which some people criticise and stop them from upgrading.

FL Studio 20 is a great DAW for both, beginners and professional producers. Especially if you are into making beats and genres such as Hip Hop & EDM productions. You should definitely get this super cool All-in-one DAW by Image-Line.

Get ahead.
'Making it in this business, means making sure you have everything you need to succeed.'
What you can expect from our newsletters:
  • Industry news and tips
  • Opportunities to submit your music and collaborate with others
  • Free software and resources
  • Free membership to Music Gateway
Thank you! Newsletters will be sent to: .
Is this the right email address? If not, you can correct it.
Junk mail? Hell no - we hate that stuff too!
News and opportunities
Thank you! Newsletters will be sent to: .
Is this the right email address? If not, you can correct it.
Everything you need to promote and earn.
Sign up today for a completely free 14 day trial to Music Gateway.
  • Licence your music to Films, TV and Ads
  • Manage your music and metadata
  • Submit music to labels and publishers
  • Create playlists to showcase to A&R reps
  • Collaborate with others and pitch for work
  • .and so much more!
No credit card needed.
Download your FREE artist pack.
Get your free artist pack when you sign up to a completely free 14 day trial to Music Gateway.

Fl Studio Fruity Edition Review

  • 5GB+ of samples
  • VST plugins
  • Midi production files and templates
  • Industry guides and how-tos
  • Spotify curator list
  • .and so much more!
No credit card needed.
Promote, licence, collaborate and earn.
Promote, licence, collaborate and earn.
0 COMMENTS

One of the most fascinated DAWs has reached and impressive version number: 12. Obviously, Image Line never gets tired improving their main product, adding new features and capabilities.

by Alex Arsov, July 2015

FL Studio has massively gained popularity in the last two years. I joined some EDM related groups on Facebook lately where members are showing off what they are doing or what they have done, exchanging tips and tutorials or simply asking for advice. The most fascinating thing is that more than 90% of them use FL Studio as their main DAW. Somehow FL Studio has become the number one DAW where EDM music is concerned. Of course, by searching for additional tutorials I found that people use FL Studio for almost all genres. Endless numbers of Hip Hop producers use it, even Metal folks, and all other genres and subgenres. I presume the main reason for such popularity is the fact that Fl studio is very flexible, well equipped and relatively easy to use, and what's more, it's so easy to get excellent results in no time, just by drawing clips in the arrangement window with the paint tool and deleting them with a left click. If you are skilled, you can finish the basic arrangement in 15 to 30 minutes.

The truth is, especially if you're familiar with another DAW, that you'll need a bit more time to get familiar with FL Studio as it doesn't run exactly on the same tracks as some others. It is definitely not just another variation on an old story. It's certainly one of the most unique, interesting and unusual DAWs on the market. It has quite a different workflow compared to most other digital audio workstations. Different, but still very detailed, with an enormous quantity of implemented options, an impressive number of tools such as automation curves, and many other goodies hidden in the submenus. There are also all sorts of MIDI tools inside the Piano Roll editor, some of them allowing you to build interesting and fairly professional harmonies, even if you slept through all your music theory training.

FL Studio always was and still is one of the best tools for manipulating loops and combining them with MIDI clips. The only drawback is that it still has problems recognizing tempo for non-Acid loops. In the past I also missed having the tools for fine-tuning longer audio clips (pitch editing or audio clip quantization in the arranger view), but with the Newtone plug-in that comes with Signature Bundle this is finally solved. Even if you don't have Signature Bundle there are still more than enough additional tools inside FL Studio for manipulating shorter vocal clips. Actually, there is no better tool on market for getting all sorts of impressive, wild or even silly results out of separate vocal samples. There are a bunch of video clips where users have sampled words from popular TV shows or even from real life, turning them into whole songs.

So, What's New?

The most noticeable thing is a fancy new modern look. FL Studio 12 is eye-catching and up to date, and what's more, the whole graphical interface is scalable. It is possible to scale the whole DAW or just a few elements. This especially comes in handy with the mixer, which now looks much better, having the option to automatically show or hide certain elements just by resizing it vertically. Also, it has a fancy new ability to show various routings between channels with virtual patch cables shown at the bottom of the mixer window (similar to those in Propellerhead's Reason). There is also an option to separate groups of channels with new lanes, called separators. Also, we can now select channels and group them, and adding a group channel automatically routes all selected channels to this new channel. One of my favorite new additions is a row of switches for bypassing insert effects. More good news is the option to select and change the volume for any number channels with just one click. FL Studio had and still has one of the most advanced MIDI editors on the market (I know, David, I'm also an old Cubase user, and yes Cubase has every possible MIDI tool, but trust me, FL Studio goes even further, offering many solutions tucked away in lots of Piano Roll menus and submenus, all of which can drastically speed up your workflow).

There are also a few changes to some of the other FL Studio windows and menus. Some options have been switched between windows and it takes some time to get acquainted with these new locations, but I presume Image Line know why they did it this way. Also, no longer are there two different windows for imported samples, so now each parameter can be set in a new, unique window. Click on any sample on Channel Rack… Well done. Not to mention that FL Studio 12 gives us a pile of new or redesigned colored buttons for additional editing windows that are shown almost everywhere, in every FL Studio editor, providing a much more pleasant and user friendly working experience.

Linux mts to mp4. The next noticeable thing is a redesigned Tool Bar with some new buttons and the option of adding extra ones. That feature was missing in previous versions, while many other DAWs already offered it.

I forgot to mention that FL Studio uses ASIO drivers, offering the same low latency as is the case with the 'ASIO For All' driver – with one significant difference: FL Studio doesn't lock audio exclusively to your DAW, allowing you to use other audio programs at the same time. So, we are no longer forced to quit FL Studio whenever we want to watch a tutorial video clip or listen to an MP3 through Winamp or some other player. Maybe this doesn't sound revolutionary for you, but after some time you will wonder how you could ever have lived without this solution.

FL Studio also brings many changes to the browser, making search more advanced while remaining user friendly at the same time. The great news is that now you can select several streams or audio clips from Windows Explorer and drag them directly to the Playlist. There they will be automatically sorted onto different tracks. Those tracks can then be routed with one click to a different output in the mixer.

As soon as you become familiar with the various options that FL Studio has to offer, you will be able to finish your track far more quickly than in most other DAWs.

Is There More?

Some effects and instruments are redesigned, some just improved. Almost everywhere you'll find something added or at least slightly changed. At first glance you might get the wrong impression that this isn't such a major update, but the list of small improvements, along with the big changes, can almost go on forever. New colors and icons in the Mixer window. In the Channel Rack editor, swing settings are now available for every separate channel. Changing the view in Channel Rack between Piano Roll and note sequencer is now just a click away (those are just two of many other improvements inside Channel Rack). Workflow is now much more user friendly. Deleting notes in the step-sequencer will now affect notes directly in Piano Roll, where they'll be shown as muted (letting you experiment with different rhythms or melodies). A nice new feature is the option to insert markers inside the Piano Roll editor to define a new loop. Some functions are now updated with new additions, like the ability to edit ghost notes even without bringing up the ghost channel and making it active – of course, we are talking about Piano Roll editor. Those are some of the new functions that just crossed my mind while writing this article – there are plenty of other small improvements literally everywhere inside FL Studio 12.

The End of the Endlessness

Even in previous versions, FL Studio was a very powerful DAW. Now, with all these new features it has become even better, more user friendly, and with a very polished futuristic look. In FL Studio 12 we get most of those functions that maybe some users yearned for after seeing some of the other bestselling DAWs. It is not my first version of FL Studio and have to say that from version to version it has become harder and harder to find flaws. The only thing that annoyed me at first was the fact that FL Studio doesn't use the standard set of shortcuts that most other DAWs use, but when you become familiar with the FL Studio shortcuts there are no other bigger differences. For newcomers to the DAW world such things don't matter. For others it can take a week or two to adapt to the inner logic of this DAW. After all, there is an impressive number of video tutorials at the Image Line site, same as on the YouTube channel. It so happens that I didn't find a video that explains if it's possible to freeze tracks, so I asked about this option on an Image Line forum and got an immediate response with link to a video.

If you're ever thinking of changing your main DAW I recommend you check this one out. It is almost impossible to find another DAW having such an enormous number of options, tools and included high quality effects and instruments. Fruity Parametric Equalizer 2 and some internal synths, like BassDrum and Sytrus, are actually on the same level as some well-known third party tools that cost almost the same as the entire FL Studio Producer edition. The other high quality tools that were already in previous versions are Maximus – a top notch multiband mastering multieffect – and Vocodex – one of the best vocoders on market and, as far as I know, there is only one better and it's the same price as FL Studio Producer. Talking about the price, at least in my honest opinion, Logic is the only other DAW that offers so much for such a low price. Of course, there is one main difference – Logic is Mac only and FL Studio is supported only on the PC platform for now.

FL Studio Fruity edition costs $99 USD, but it doesn't support audio recording.

FL Studio Producer edition costs $199 USD. It has everything you need to produce professionally sounding tracks (including a lifetime of free updates – for all versions actually).

Fl Signature Bundle costs $299 USD, bringing some extra tools like Newtone for audio pitch editing and Fruity Video Editor, Hardcore (a rack of guitar effects), Gross Beat (a glitch, scratching and repeat tool) and Harmless (a very powerful virtual synthesizer). (But you still get enough quality instruments even in the Producer version. The only thing I couldn't live without is Newtone. If you are working with vocalists it's a pure lifesaver.)

That should be all. I know that you remember this DAW from the early days of Fruity Loops, but don't overlook it or underestimate it. I will definitely use my spare time this summer to finally finish off a few songs with this DAW. I like the sound, I like the workflow, and finally I also like the brand new up-to-date look of FL Studio.

You may also be interested in:





broken image