FL Studio thread

[Limo]

So it turns out there is no thread about this DAW yet …

On a lark I installed the demo version a few days ago and I have been having so much fun with it. Sequencing samples is a breeze and because the main pattern view is rows of buttons, it’s still fairly close to forcing you to listen instead of look at waveforms.

Part of the enjoyment is doubtlessly nostalgia: decades ago I upgraded to FruityLoops from Impulse Tracker (and a brief spell with (IIRC) Digital Orchestrator) and spent a few years with it in what is the closest thing I ever had to a music career.

But, like I said, other than that really *is* fun and fast to work with and it turns out all the (dark! patterned!) floating windows don’t bother me all that much. Points also to the playlist that allows you to create a song by *arranging* existing patterns instead of by *copying* them (looking at you, Ableton!). It’s almost like a tracker workflow with less typing. Or something.

Anyone here use FL Studio? Any workflow tips?

[dcom]

I bought Fruityloops before the turn of the millennium, and got lifetime upgrades, so it's been my go-to DAW for about 25 years. I've gradually upgraded it up to the max, i.e. All Plugins Edition. I come from an Amiga tracker background, so FL seemed like a step up from all the tracker clones, and felt really natural to me as an environment. I agree with your points, my biggest complaint is that after 25 years there's still no better support for polyrhythmic/polymetric patterns. Otherwise, if I weren't in the throes of going DAWless with HW only, I'd have a FL Studio setup. I have one AKAI Fire, but I'd like to have at least another and/or a Novation FLkey 37. The tracks below were all made with Fruityloops around 1999-2000.

 

[Limo]

3 hours ago, dcom said:

The tracks below were all made with Fruityloops around 1999-2000.

Ooh … right in the 1999 / 2000 feels. They’re pretty good, too. Thanks for sharing.

And also definitely very FruityLoops. Like tracker music with the harshness polished off if you know what I mean.

 

[TubularCorporation]

I haven't sued Fruity Loops in a long time (the last version  used was either the last one before it became STUDIO, or the first one after) but it was definitely really fun.

 

EDIT: I'd been using Impulse Tracker in DOS before that.

Edited August 4, 2023 by TubularCorporation

[hoggy]

I like it, but I haven't used any others except a super old version of Cubase that was pretty confusing to me at the time, been thinking about buying it - I had a cracked version but I think that's a bit silly considering the risk of malicious stuff getting installed with it (I don't have it on my computer these days) - I'd also get a decent interface - putting stuff in piano roll with a mouse makes it too soulless for me

Edited August 4, 2023 by hoggy

[hoggy]

made these bits (and pretty much everything else on my soundcloud) in FL - always had the idea to turn them into full tracks at some point - if there's anything you wanna know about how I did them I'll try to remember, I know they are really amateurish but still

Edited August 4, 2023 by hoggy
superfluous linebreak removal

[Crazing]

For the life of me do not get this software. So many weird quirks. Would love to know how the f to use it as easily as cubase though 

[Limo]

On 8/5/2023 at 5:19 PM, aderei said:

For the life of me do not get this software. So many weird quirks. Would love to know how the f to use it as easily as cubase though 

It's not Cubase, that's maybe the point. It's a sampler with a DAW bolted on. Kinda like an MPC, but not as good a sampler. Better DAW, though (because you can use VSTs).

[Crazing]

Yea never quite clicked with me. Finally started messing around with Maschine which has been sitting there ignored for years. Could be so much better but is still a very enjoyable live tool for messing with patterns.

[Mr.Sensi]

On 8/4/2023 at 4:10 AM, dcom said:

The tracks below were all made with Fruityloops around 1999-2000.

 

CicadAe is really nice, bass sounds really fat. Was that just in Fruityloops or did you have some outboard synth you used with it? Nice tune.

 

I started off with Fruityloops around 1999. It was the only music software I knew at the time (was only about 13 years old). I wanted to make some jungle so I used that. I haven't used it since around 2004 when I switched to Renoise. I learned how to sequence breakbeats on the step sequencer since it didn't have the Piano Roll when I first started using it. Used to have to double the tempo to get enough ticks for notes. Would put a chopped up section of a break on an individual track and set it to have the same "cut" channel as the other break track snippets coupled with an empty file that I could use to stop the tracks when needed. Had no idea how jungle or any music was actually made so I just had to figure it out on my own and be creative. I loaded up FL Studio a couple years ago and felt joy for that little step sequencer and that not much has changed about it. Being able to easily input pitch, filter, and volume edits for drums was awesome.

Here's a little clip of one of the last things I did in Fruityloops, think it was 2002 or 2003. I slowed it down a little bit since it was 190+ bpm at the time.

 

 

[jaderpansen]

i "compose" all my metal tracks with FLSlayer to this day.

[springymajig]

Been using it for I guess 23(!!!) years now and I still feel like a noob but I still love it, almost everything I do is 100% FLStudio.

[Crazing]

There's the step sequencer, the pattern sequencer, the playlist, the piano roll

How many sequencers do u need 

I'd like to get back into more happy accident stuff rather than hyper controlled produced tracks

Perhaps fl is a way

 

[Crazing]

On 8/4/2023 at 4:17 PM, hoggy said:

made these bits (and pretty much everything else on my soundcloud) in FL - always had the idea to turn them into full tracks at some point - if there's anything you wanna know about how I did them I'll try to remember, I know they are really amateurish but still

Yea I'd be interested. They're a lot of fun. 

[Mr.Sensi]

9 hours ago, aderei said:

There's the step sequencer, the pattern sequencer, the playlist, the piano roll

How many sequencers do u need 

I'd like to get back into more happy accident stuff rather than hyper controlled produced tracks

Perhaps fl is a way

 

I just re-installed the demo and am getting back into it. Last time I installed it I didn't really go deeper than what I had remembered from the early 2000s. It's pretty nice so far. Gonna muck about with the piano roll and event automation to see how well I get on with that.

[ambermonk]

FL Studio...my primary music tool for the past two decades.

So far I'm liking v21 and some of the newer plugins, like Sawer, Sakura, Toxic Biohazard, and Harmor. But I can't help but feel a sense of loss from the fact that WASP and WASP XT are no longer available.

Even after all this time, I don't think I'll ever fully master this DAW. But I will say that Piano Roll makes sequencing an absolute breeze.

[hoggy]

13 hours ago, aderei said:

Yea I'd be interested. They're a lot of fun. 

So for "My Arm" - it's the basic FM synth, with arpeggiator, and I recorded myself playing with various things by turning the knobs in record mode, since I don't have an external controller - I was altering aspects of the envelope and the modulating oscillator mainly I think. There is a percussive synth which I think is also FM, and some other rhythmic sounds which I just made in another basic synth plugin. The chords are just some that I kinda improvised in my head and then put into the piano roll.. there's a break which is chopped up and going through a delay used like a comb filter to give it a melodic tone..

For "Walking through the foxgloves" - I may have used Massive or Citrus for one of the synths, and the chimey one is FM. There's an arpeggiated FM synth which may be in Citrus since it sounds a bit more complex where I think I cut off the attack here and there to make it ring out. Drums I think are random free samples from somewhere but not sure, again may have made those in a synth. I think for this one I made a few nice synth patches and then put in a melody I improvised in my head

"Blurred bedroom" has I think a fast arpeggiated synth but with long overlapping decays and I just recorded myself moving the cutoff knob like with "My arm". The drum pattern I imagined in my head then programmed in. I might have started with the drum pattern, again I think it's just random free samples or maybe some I recorded ages ago on a snare drum, I basically started by picking out samples that sounded interesting to work with. The single line synth I think might be Massive, but not sure, obviously there's an LFO on the cutoff that comes in on the decay, I think that synth might be distorted a bit.

"Sore hazel eyes" - the melody is a bitcrushed synth, with some slides, not sure what synth I made it in, the drums/percussive sounds are all being made in synths, again I made some interesting percussive sounds in various synths and used them to build a rhythm. I think I heard the melody in my head and it included some out of tune notes so I manually adjusted the pitch of the notes in piano roll. Yeah not sure about the bass/kick drum sound. Would have to install FL again and see if I can open the old files for that one.

Hope some of that is useful.. I can buy FL again and open the files up if you want to know anything more specific, I am planning to work on some tracks again soon anyway, since I know someone who might do some kinda operatic gothy vocals with me. (fingers crossed)

[Crazing]

Since this thread I've got into fl and honestly find all other daws clunky as hell now....it has such a smooth work flow when u get into it.