Why do people say Fl Studio is the best DAW?

ls2013

New member
I have seen many top 10 list of people putting FL Studio at the top saying it's the best. Usually when I talk to other producers about DAW's they regard FL Studio as an amateur software and say it's what they used to start off with but once they could afford better software they bought it. I have messed around with FL Studio before on a friends computer before I was serious about producing music but I never really used it to a full extent. I don't understand why these top 10 lists put FL Studio above even Logic and Pro Tools if so many people regard it as amateur.
 
This is a subject that always will have some controversy. And the truth is: there's no DAW better than other. All DAWs can do the same. What matters is the producer him/herself.

Image-line even adress the "DAW wars" on their website, you should check.
 
Because it's the easiest to crack and hands down is the easiest to use.
Clicking on boxes is A LOT easier than having to program drums or create a melody.
So,in the age of "microwave beats",the easiest to use will be regarded as the best.

Peace
 
I have seen many top 10 list of people putting FL Studio at the top saying it's the best. Usually when I talk to other producers about DAW's they regard FL Studio as an amateur software and say it's what they used to start off with but once they could afford better software they bought it. I have messed around with FL Studio before on a friends computer before I was serious about producing music but I never really used it to a full extent. I don't understand why these top 10 lists put FL Studio above even Logic and Pro Tools if so many people regard it as amateur.

Well, take a look at who is choosing the list. Is it ordered by the staff of the publication, or is it selected by popular votes? MusicRadar (Computer Music Magazine) has people VOTE on it, and people usually vote for whatever they use. If the market is saturated with amateurs using FL Studio, doesn't it make sense that it would be toward the top?

Each of these "expensive" DAWs comes with its own problems. Logic can only be used on a Mac. Pro Tools LE used to require that you used their horrible MBox interface (and Pro Tools HD was WAY out of the price range of the average producer).

FL Studio is actually excellent for creating trap and dubstep music.
Its workflow is designed to be mouse-and-keyboard-friendly. Let's face it -- when you're making trap music, you're not going to actually play-in those 64th-note snare rolls. You're going to click them in.
It also has an excellent clip system for automation, great for trap (pitching and panning a snare roll) and dubstep (modulating almost everything).

I don't like FL's mixing workflow -- not happy with how each channel isn't assigned a separate mixer channel by default. Also, there is no direct way to copy plugin settings from one channel to another. Wish it was 64-bit, too -- then I'd look at ReWiring/VSTing it into REAPER.

-Ki
Salem Beats

---------- Post added at 08:41 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:38 AM ----------

Image-line even adress the "DAW wars" on their website, you should check.

Googled that for you:

DAW Wars

-Ki
Salem Beats
 
every DAW has a piano roll... therefore you can "click" those boxes in any of them to create those "microwave bests"!!!

not sure what you are talking about here!!!

FL's Piano Roll is designed around point-and-click creation from scratch.
Many other DAWs (especially heavyweight linear sequencers like Cubase, Pro Tools, Logic) have piano rolls which are designed around modifying recorded MIDI.

The difference manifests itself in numerous small feature/workflow differences, which make a big difference once combined. If you don't have a controller, FL's workflow is the way to go.
A few of the tiny differences:
- In many DAWs, "Quantize" is a single keystroke: "Q". In FL, Quantize is "Alt+Q", and is buried amidst several options in the menu. FL has fewer Quantize options than many other DAWs. Quantization simply isn't treated with the same sense of importance.
- FL's Piano Roll starts out in Pencil Mode. Left click to create a note. Right click to delete it. Other DAWs usually start out in selection mode. Left-click-dragging immediately upon opening the Piano Roll in other DAWs usually creates a selection rectangle.
- In FL's Piano Roll, you hear a note preview every time you create or drag a note. Some other DAWs don't do this, or offer this behavior as an optional feature that is turned off by default.
- FL's Piano Roll comes with a ridiculous amount of MIDI modification tools for humanizing and adding interest to clicked-in notes - Strum, Flam, Pattern Chop, Arpeggio, Articulate, etc. You can even select chords to click-in, so that you aren't required to know how to form them. Some other DAWs have some of these features, but not to FL Studio's extent.

Conversely, the same interface/features/workflow which make FL great for "click-and-create" production make it somewhat undesirable for using with a controller. Its a set of tradeoffs created by design.

-Ki
Salem Beats
 
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every DAW has a piano roll... therefore you can "click" those boxes in any of them to create those "microwave bests"!!!

not sure what you are talking about here!!!


Did i say piano roll?
you might want to read first,then comment.
And by microwave beats,i mean cats bragging about taking 5 or 10 minutes to make a beat.
That's nothing to brag about.

Peace
 
I have heard people make bangers from almost every DAW out there. It's the man behind the machine that makes the music. not the other way around.
 
FL's Piano Roll is designed around point-and-click creation from scratch.
Many other DAWs (especially heavyweight linear sequencers like Cubase, Pro Tools, Logic) have piano rolls which are designed around modifying recorded MIDI.

The difference manifests itself in numerous small feature/workflow differences, which make a big difference once combined. If you don't have a controller, FL's workflow is the way to go.
A few of the tiny differences:
- In many DAWs, "Quantize" is a single keystroke: "Q". In FL, Quantize is "Alt+Q", and is buried amidst several options in the menu. FL has fewer Quantize options than many other DAWs. Quantization simply isn't treated with the same sense of importance.
- FL's Piano Roll starts out in Pencil Mode. Left click to create a note. Right click to delete it. Other DAWs usually start out in selection mode. Left-click-dragging immediately upon opening the Piano Roll in other DAWs usually creates a selection rectangle.
- In FL's Piano Roll, you hear a note preview every time you create or drag a note. Some other DAWs don't do this, or offer this behavior as an optional feature that is turned off by default.
- FL's Piano Roll comes with a ridiculous amount of MIDI modification tools for humanizing and adding interest to clicked-in notes - Strum, Flam, Pattern Chop, Arpeggio, Articulate, etc. You can even select chords to click-in, so that you aren't required to know how to form them. Some other DAWs have some of these features, but not to FL Studio's extent.

Conversely, the same interface/features/workflow which make FL great for "click-and-create" production make it somewhat undesirable for using with a controller. Its a set of tradeoffs created by design.

-Ki
Salem Beats

All those things can be adjusted/turned on/off in FL. I'm on a Mac so I'm not sitting in front of it, but you can turn auto quantizing on(I always do when I use it, it sets funny like 1/16ths are 1/4 whatever measurement FL uses). I do agree none of this stuff works right by default, can't remember if you have to save a template or if it just saves your settings, but I always setup an FL template before using it and it stays set afterwards.

---------- Post added at 10:43 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:37 AM ----------

Did i say piano roll?
you might want to read first,then comment.
And by microwave beats,i mean cats bragging about taking 5 or 10 minutes to make a beat.
That's nothing to brag about.

Peace

Let's be fair, have we not all(who've been doing this since the 90s at least)seen the guy who'd jump behind a Triton or Motif and go from nothing to a finished beat in 20 minutes? Or the guy who finds a sample and wrecks it on the MPC in seconds?This in all fairness isn't rocket science regardless of the tool used.

Seems to me that people feel you should have to work harder to arrive at the same idea.

I'd hope anyone who owns an MPC has made a 20 minute beat on it before. I've made my share, it just happens sometimes. Hell, I've even made 10 minute beats in Logic...and I don't know how to use Logic completely, lol.

---------- Post added at 10:50 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:43 AM ----------

I have seen many top 10 list of people putting FL Studio at the top saying it's the best. Usually when I talk to other producers about DAW's they regard FL Studio as an amateur software and say it's what they used to start off with but once they could afford better software they bought it. I have messed around with FL Studio before on a friends computer before I was serious about producing music but I never really used it to a full extent. I don't understand why these top 10 lists put FL Studio above even Logic and Pro Tools if so many people regard it as amateur.
Best is a subjective word. What's best for some may not be best for others. I will give my opinion on the subject. For what I do, IMO FL Studio is the best program on the market for production. The day they release a Mac version with the same functionality as the PC version, it will be the only program I use(doubt that day will come though).

I'm just confused to why people put so much energy into downplaying any music tool. Real drummers will say using a drum machine is "cheating". My thing is, if the finished product is up to par, who gives a f**k?
 
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All those things can be adjusted/turned on/off in FL. I'm on a Mac so I'm not sitting in front of it, but you can turn auto quantizing on(I always do when I use it, it sets funny like 1/16ths are 1/4 whatever measurement FL uses). I do agree none of this stuff works right by default, can't remember if you have to save a template or if it just saves your settings, but I always setup an FL template before using it and it stays set afterwards.

Well, to go into more detail about FL's quantize:
It doesn't have non-destructive quantize (the ability to undo or modify quantize without undoing several other project changes).
It can't differentiate between a partial quantize (% toward a target) and a no-quantize zone ("Don't quantize if note is already within X ticks of the target."). There is only a "sensitivity" knob.
In other DAWS (i.e., REAPER) you can tell it, "Hey, it's OK to move a beat forward, but not OK to move one backward". These advanced features are often useful, and don't exist in FL because FL users don't "need" them.

The userbase overwhelmingly "clicks-in" notes, and the workflow reflects that. There's nothing wrong with that. Once it goes 64-bit, I'd really like to use FL alongside REAPER and Maschine for clicking-in complicated 64th-note drum fills and the like.

-Ki
Salem Beats
 
^^^I'm not sure about all that, but I'm not in front of FL to check and challenge it, so I'll take that as truth. I will add that alot of FL's potential is hidden until the user sets out looking for more professional features. They are however there with a few tweaks.

Back when I was running FL the ONLY thing I "clicked in" was drums in the sample cell/step sequencer. I never clicked anything into a piano roll. That seemed way too tedious of a task for me. I use Reason the same way to this day. That's why they were both easily interchangeable programs for me. Taking a guess...I'd think more guys are using FL alongside keyboards as I do than clicking in notes unless guys are watching too many Lex Luger vids... Which I can't say is not happening, lol. :cheers:

EDIT: Just the other day I was shocked to see that Avicii clicks in his patterns. I thought he played all that stuff. Kinda weird to watch. To each their own though...if it works...
 
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top 10 daws... are there even 10 out there? lol and i'd say it's most popular because its def the easiest daw once you learn what your doing...
 
top 10 daws... are there even 10 out there? lol and i'd say it's most popular because its def the easiest daw once you learn what your doing...

There are SO MANY. Much more than 10.

There are probably 30 or so commonly-talked about ones on the Wikipedia page for "Digital Audio Workstation":

Digital audio workstation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Off the top of my head, some of the most popular:

1 Reason
2 REAPER
3 FL Studio
4 Pro Tools
5 Cubase
6 Studio One
7 Logic
8 Sonar
9 Audition
10 GarageBand
11 Nuendo
12 Live
13 Samplitude
14 Digital Performer
15 Sequoia
16 Maschine (borderline DAW/sequencer, debatable, but popular nonetheless)

-Ki
Salem Beats

---------- Post added at 12:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:39 PM ----------

EDIT: Just the other day I was shocked to see that Avicii clicks in his patterns. I thought he played all that stuff. Kinda weird to watch. To each their own though...if it works...

Were you just as shocked to find him using a pirated copy of Sylenth?

Lol...

-Ki
Salem Beats
 
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^^^That's what that was? lol. Wow. For some reason I thought more of that guy because of his genre of music. Guess you can't judge a book... :cheers:

His PR people quickly came out with a "spin" statement saying that the reason he was using a cracked copy was that it had a nicer-looking GUI than the "official" version.

His FutureMusic interview was one of several where high-profile producers were spotted used cracked plugs by observant viewers. You'd think that one of these guys would be clever enough to rename his production company to "Team AiR 2010" or something. Then, it wouldn't look so shady. ;)

I remember a Swedish House Mafia interview where they were quick to backpedal, saying something like, "Yeah we had to download... I mean BUY!... That plugin." Not an admission of guilt, but a weird time to pause and back up. Seems a little shady. I wouldn't have felt the need to "correct" myself.

-Ki
Salem Beats
 
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I don't use it but the reasons I think it is up there is because it is cheap, works well, easy to learn and Image-Line guarantee updates.
 
its all in the flow in the process trust fl studio in 2-5 years will be prominently up there with pro tools and logic ask ur self what producer hasnt discoverd or adapted to the most inovative software since cool edit and acid pro ,calkwalk ..hands down vsti all day .
 
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My theory is this.
FL Studio runs on PC and is not demanding when it comes to specs. Every household has a PC that has at least Windows Xp running which requires a minimum of 700mb of ram, this on it's own is enough to run FL Studio.
With a simple torrent search people can get a cracked copy of Fl Studio for free and run it on their PC, then just get some free .wav samples from forums.
So already they have the means to make a beat with spending any money.

Then when it comes to the program itself you don't really need any knowledge of music because it was built to click in notes, you don't even need any midi controllers.
This makes it even easier to make a beat (especially trap beats which only use a few chords).

I think the userbase skyrocketed after Lex Luger Started making millions off his traps beats and people figured out they could make the same type of beats with no hassle.

I think that FL Studio can be used to make professional music just like the other DAW's but it caters more towards amateurs which is why it's a lot of peoples first DAW.
That's just my theory though, let me know what you guys think.
 
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