Doing The Unthinkable - Trying FL Studio

[bassg]

Nice tip, thanks! I've never tested Mixcraft, might be worth a try. So far the best contender for replacing Orion in the future is MuLab for me, I liked it a lot. I use REAPER for recording, but not so much for song sketching (that's where Orion excels, MuLab was getting close in terms of fast workflow, once I created some presets).

[bones]

I've tried a few more - Bitwig, Mixcraft and Studio One - but I didn't like any of them. Their UIs are just so uninspiring, with crap popping up all over the place and no way to organise any of it properly. I'll definitely be sticking with Orion for a long time yet.

[megawattt]

I've tried a few more - Bitwig, Mixcraft and Studio One - but I didn't like any of them. Their UIs are just so uninspiring, with crap popping up all over the place and no way to organise any of it properly. I'll definitely be sticking with Orion for a long time yet.

Hi Bones.

I feel your pain, i have been learning the ropes in Reaper and although it was hurting in the beginning i am now starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel,i have configured Reaper to my taste and made a song file for when i start to make a tune, i must say that this program is very stable and light on the CPU, there are loads of tutorial videos on Youtube that helped a great deal, also just like here on the Synapse forum the Reaper forum have some helpful people, it's worth giving Reaper a shot Bones.

[nix]

what about energyXT?

[Teksonik]

It appears to be abandoned as well. XT 1.4 VST version was a brilliant tool. Anything after that for some reason was a downgrade and a huge step backwards in my opinion. Better to stick with Orion. At least it is stable.

[bones]

Yeah, I still install EnergyXT 1.4 on my new PCs but I've only ever used to test out new VSTi. I made a skin/theme for it that I really, really like but I've never actually got around to making a whole song on it.

it's worth giving Reaper a shot Bones.

Reaper has grown from an audio editor, it's basic workflow just isn't suited to the way I like to do things.

[megawattt]

Reaper has grown from an audio editor, it's basic workflow just isn't suited to the way I like to do things.

I have to agree with you on that one Bones and eat my words, i have battled with Reaper and i have been defeated, Reaper is very stable and efficient but because of the different workflow it's killing my creativity, i have gone back to Orion (My first love ) and will tolerate her temperment we're going to make sweet music together!

[Teksonik]

I use Reaper with great pleasure for my guitar based stuff and for that task it excels. But it is not my first choice for synth based stuff. I don't think there is one DAW that does it all perfectly.

[Boreal Music]

With all due respect I say give it some more time. Coming from Orion, FL Studio seems to "fight" you. The conversion is not easy. FL Studio is deep and has a lot of great features as he saw in the videos. I'd say spend some more time with it and after a reasonable amount of time you still don't like it then indeed trash it and move on. One thing FL has over Orion is it's constant development. FL will continue to grow while Orion is what it is and will forever be so. I still have a soft spot for Orion but for me it's just time to move on. If development ever does restart on Orion I'll be right there but at this time it appears to be done. I've owned FL since version 3 and have used it off and on going through periods of loving it and hating it over the years. I'm still learning new things about FL 12 on a nearly daily basis so I imagine just a few hours with the demo is insufficient to really tell if it will work for you or not.

I'm thinking in a same way. But. It's so pathetic that we long time Orion users are doing FLS promotion here , but I must admit that it has been the second best choice to me. I rather would like to continue working with ORION, like I've done over the past ten years, but because Synapse has buried alive the best workhorse there is, I'm forced to look the second best alternative for the future. It seem to be FLS to me.
Sad to say this, but it's realism. RIP Orion, I miss your clear user interface, simplicity in working process, your cool native synths, wonderful creative musical moments with you over the years. But I must carry on as a music maker and look to the future. Do I feel like Synapse had let me down? I don't know. Someone might... But I still love the new synths of Synapse-Audio, I've purchased them all and I give my full support and respect to the fine work of Synapse in creating the finest and coolest VSTis in the world.

P.S.
RIP Orion...? Frankly, I still hope not. "Never give up, Never surrender! "

[terminalman]

I hate FL it' does my head in the way you have to use patterns its so counter intuitive to me

[Christophe]

it is the reason, i prefer Ableton, furthermore, you have a perfect midi controller support + Max for Live

[Teksonik]

I tried Ableton Live and hated it.......so to each his own. Thankfully there are enough choices that everybody can find what works for them.

[Tux]

Mu Tools was the only thing I sort of clicked with when I was flirting with other DAW's. It has a similar look to Orion in some respects, but I kept trying to open the instruments to record patterns. I do that with every DAW I try. It only works in Orion though. . .

[heks]

Mu Tools was the only thing I sort of clicked with when I was flirting with other DAW's.

I'm finding MuLab the nearest thing to Orion for me. It has a single developer who responds quickly to bug fix's, how to's? and wish lists. It still has a learning curve and its easy to try and do things Orions way, which can be frustrating when "its different". One thing that may interest you Bones is the ability to assemble instruments and effects, i remember you made some nice little Killers.

[bones]

Six months on and things have changed. My Roli Seaboard Rise came with a limited version of Bitwig, because Bitwig supports the MPE stuff the Roli needs to work its magic. Anyway, unlike last time, I took it a bit seriously and watched a few getting started videos and read the manual as I played around with the demo material (which is not in any way straightforward to find/use).

Once I got my head into it, I started to see a way forward for us. In fact, there are a few things in there I really like, like the hybrid MIDI/audio tracks and the way the Looper/Launcher thing works like Pattern Mode in Orion, with the main sequencer being more like Song Mode. As I said, the pattern based workflow was never a really important thing to me, it's more about the overall workflow and I can see how I might be able to get Bitwig to work for me.

It feels very modern and strikes a really good balance between being straightforward and complicated, in that you can add as much complexity as you need, without having to jump through hoops to do simple things (you don't even need to look at the complicating stuff if you're not using it).

So I ordered a boxed version today from my local retailer (way cheaper than buying it from Bitwig on-line) and I should have it on Monday. I think the changeover will be a very slow process but, going forward, I want to do any new material in Bitwig and port existing songs across as we need them to play live. It turns out that the thing I couldn't see changing was my controller keyboard.