Jump to content

FL Studio

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Sakamura (talk | contribs) at 01:22, 9 December 2007 (→‎Notable musicians who use FL Studio: reference does appear in wiki article.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

FL Studio FL Fruit Logo
Developer(s)Image-Line Software
Stable release
7.4 BETA 1 / 15 November 2007
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows
TypeDigital music workstation
LicenseProprietary
Websitehttp://www.flstudio.com

FL Studio (formerly Fruity Loops) is a digital audio workstation, developed by Belgian company Image-Line Software. Didier Dambrin, the lead programmer of Image-Line, is responsible for the development of the program.

FL Studio features a fully automatable workflow centered on a pattern-based music sequencer. The environment includes extensive MIDI support and incorporates numerous features for the editing, mixing, and recording of audio. Completed songs or clips may be exported to Microsoft WAV or MP3 formats. In version 7, FL Studio began to support the popular open source Ogg Vorbis format for some of the internal plugins. FL Studio saves work in a native *.FLP format.

The program is well known among hobbyist and amateur artists for professional DAW features at an attractive price point. The pattern-based sequencer in FL Studio is especially sympathetic to creating music in electronic genres, but artists have successfully adapted the program to produce everything from classical to country music. Scoring to video is possible using the video-player plugin, but there is no support for traditional music notation.

Because FL Studio is written in Borland Delphi, there are no known plans to develop a native Linux or OSX port.

Editions

FL Studio comes in multiple versions. Each edition is available as a download or in a box (with the exception of the express edition). Unlike many commercial DAWs, any downloaded edition comes with free lifetime upgrades and updates.

  • FL Studio Express: Offers drum-machine-like functionality with many features disabled. Only a few built-in effects and sound generators are available.
  • Fruityloops Edition: Introduces the piano-roll editor and the ability to use FL Studio itself as a plugin for other VST compatible hosts.
  • Producer Edition: As the most popular edition, it offers full audio editing and producing capability. This edition also enables automation envelopes.
  • FL Studio XXL Edition: The XXL edition combines all features of the producer edition with the addition of many extra plugins, such as the video player. Plugins included in this version offer a 40% price reduction over their normal price.

User interface

The FL Studio user interface comprises 5 main screens:

  • Step Sequencer - enables quick assembly of drum patterns and short melodic parts.
  • Piano Roll - a two dimensional grid for composing purposes. The vertical axis represents pitch, and the horizontal axis represents time.
  • Playlist - allows the arrangement of sets of patterns and audio files for assembling a complete song.
  • Mixer - used for balancing audio levels, adding effects processors (VST plugins, etc.), and recording audio input.
  • Sample Browser - allows for quick access of audio samples, plugins, presets, and other FL Studio song files (FLPs).

Functionality & Features

FL Studio processes audio using an internal 32-bit floating-point engine. It can support sampling rates up to 192kHz using either WDM or ASIO enabled drivers. The audio engine in version 7 introduces multithreading and multi-core support.

The mixer interface allows for any number of channel configurations. This makes mixing in 2.1, 5.1, 7.1 surround sound possible, granted the output hardware interface has an equal number of outputs. The mixer permits audio-in, enabling FL Studio to act as a multi-track audio recording solution.

FL Studio comes with many plugins and generators (software synthesizers) written in the program’s own native plugin architecture. This API has a built in wrapper for full VST, VST2, DX, and ReWire compatibility.

An included plugin called Dashboard allows users to create full automation-enabled interfaces for their hardware MIDI devices. This allows FL Studio to control hardware from within the program.

An expected feature of version 8 is the inclusion of a popular graphical programming environment for synthesizers, SynthMaker.

Notable musicians who use FL Studio

Sources

References

  • Feature Comparison of the different FL Studio editions available
  • KVR User Reviews of FL Studio
  • [1] - FL users community founded in 1997 currently home to over 4000 FL Studio projects
  • [2] - Free video tutorials instruction on FL Studio usage and general music production. Over 100 free FL Studio project files for study.
  • FL Studio Tutorials - Providing community-driven tutorials and live online help for new artists.
  • FL Studio Video Tutorials - Home of the alternative video tutorials for FL Studio.
  • FL Studio Wiki - The Wiki for everything on FL Studio
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=FL_Studio&oldid=176680688"