Doing The Unthinkable - Trying FL Studio

[bones]

A couple of weeks ago I watched a video showing the new features in FL Studio 12 and some of it seemed pretty slick, so I thought I'd download the demo and have a look at it. As a former demo artist, I should have remembered how misleading a slick demo can be. I've probably spent three or four hours playing around with FL12 and it seems that none of the things I hated about it in 1999 have been fixed.

The workflow is so clunky and unintuitive. e.g. The mixer has 103 channels, even if you are only using four, and you still need to have the ancient Channels window there to work from (the window cannot be closed). That means that all this other stuff has just been bolted on to the original drum machine interface, instead of replacing it with something more useful for what FL has become. And each mixer channel has a label at the top, beside a long window, that says "Insert" and the channel number. You'd think that would be where you add insert effects, right? It's not, it's actually the default name for each channel and the window is a VU meter. I can't work out where or how you add insert effects. There are no tooltips to help you work out what any of the hundreds of visible controls are for and almost nothing is labelled, either. Depending on how you add a new instrument, it may or may not be automatically assigned to a mixer channel. Sometimes it will just exist there somewhere, without being tied to your mix. It's very weird.

I can see how FL would appeal to beginners - people with no expectation of what "Insert" should mean on a mixer strip - but for someone like me, maybe looking at something to replace my current software, it just feels awful. The UI looks really slick and does some pretty cool tricks but none of it feels musical to me. It doesn't make me want to explore or play around with it because I can't even work out how to do the basic things. But it does make me feel like continuing to use Orion is a smart choice.

[Teksonik]

I can see how FL would appeal to beginners.........I can't even work out how to do the basic things.

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Ok I'll take the bait....

As a professional you should know that any new piece of software comes with a learning curve. Three or fours hours may not be enough for you. For example Effects are added in the Track Inspector either on the right or left of the mixer depending on user preference (Slot 1....Slot 10), F6 Closes the Channel Rack and so on.......

I can understand why FL isn't for everyone and I'm still trying to bang out a workflow with it that is as comfortable as Orion's Pattern Per Generator.

I can no longer use Orion because some of my favorite plugins will not load in it and it's been crashing lately with tasks that are easily handled by my other DAWs. I came close to removing the Orion icon from my desktop the other day but didn't. I won't ever uninstall it but I don't think I'll be using it going forward.

So I've settled on Reaper for my Guitar work and when I just want to load up some synths and play them without sequencing, FL Studio for electronic stuff and Sonar for the rare occasions I power up my hardware. Each DAW fits it's assigned task pretty well for me. I'm not buying any more DAWs because I don't want to go through another learning curve. So FL has taken over Orion's duties for me, I just have to adapt. It's slowly becoming more comfortable since version 12 was released.

Spend some more time with FL and keep an open mind. The workflow is really different than Orion but it does have some nice tools such as performance mode which I don't use but may interest you. If you still don't like it after a fair trial then send it to the trash..........

[Yorrrrrr]

It's the same feeling I get when I go the other way around...I've tried every other DAW under the sun, to see for myself what's the fuss about what is so 'pro' about others, and why FL Studio is, somehow, still seen as an amateurish choice, despite numerous artists making huge success in the music business with it. I always failed miserably and came back running to FL Studio, gladly. Now, I don't care about any other DAW. I don't even try and don't care. It feels amazing to me, it does everything I need.. so.. YMMV.. It just seems FL Studio is not for you, so, move on.

That said, cool story man.

[Teksonik]

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.

[dmassive]

I also fight with the Mixer . Ok, after some time you get "the trick", but... if you don't use Fl Studio after a while, you must learn again "the trick", especially shortcuts, because with the mouse is not enough.

[Teksonik]

Yes FL runs so counter to Orion that you'd almost be better off starting brand new with FL rather than coming from Orion first. The "conversion" of learning a new system that's rather different than other methods is somewhat confusing.

It's like when they tried to teach us the Metric System here in the US. It wasn't the Metric System itself that was hard because it's quite logical but it was the conversion that was hard. How many Pints in Liter ? How many yards in 27 Meters ? When you grow up using one system, converting to a new system can be harder than learning the new system from the start.

[fea]

Which DAW you find to be closest to Orion?

[Andy-b]

Which DAW you find to be closest to Orion?

Really similar Orion workflow http://www.singlecellsoftware.com/caustic made for tablets (Android and Ios) free wind version,sadly no vst support,but really easy workflow

[Kriminal]

Which DAW you find to be closest to Orion?

Really similar Orion workflow http://www.singlecellsoftware.com/caustic made for tablets (Android and Ios) free wind version,sadly no vst support,but really easy workflow

Well yes, its the only other pattern based app around. Its good, tried it a few years ago, and seems to be still getting updates.

[Teksonik]

You don't consider FL to be Pattern Based ? Anyway I just tried Caustic. It had serious graphics performance issues on this system so I had to trash it..........

[Christophe]

what about bitwig ?

[cosmicrain]

what about bitwig ?

HI ALL...
I give it a try ...looks very nice build solid but definably not easy as Orion.Im lost about one hour to figure out how the plugin management work and some things still don't understand!
I find the built in synths flat and unusable (as the Orion built in synths are)
I think I must spend again Days for learning basic things to do in BitW..
Or some one explain me (Any teacher here?)

[HYPNAGOGIA]

what about bitwig ?

What bothers me with other DAWs is that they're mostly linear and "playlist/arrangement centric". I feel like they don't allow me to just plop an idea in there, and just keep fiddling with looping the playlist. So, if you feel that a certain part should be somewhere in the middle, I always felt like I need to drag along what I've already done as I build before it. That's why I never really bothered with other DAWs. Ableton sort of relieves that feeling with clips you can make in the mixer section which you can later insert wherever you want. I can't say how FL works in that regard knowing that it has patterns, but to my understanding, it works more like old trackers did - or Orion's live sets - one pattern can hold any number of instruments playing at the same time. I could be wrong.

[Teksonik]

The main difference in workflow between Orion an FL Studio is that Orion has Patterns Per Generator and FL allows multiple Generators Per Pattern. That seems like a simple difference but the end result is like night and day. You can emulate Orion's workflow to a degree by only using one Generator per Pattern and Locking that Pattern to a Playlist Lane in FL. But trying to assign certain Patterns to a single Generator can get messy pretty quickly, again if you're used to Orion. The other difference is Orion's Playlist has one Generator Per Lane while FL's can obviously have any number of Generators in one Playlist Lane. I can understand that coming from Orion it's hard to make the conversion. I'm still trying to find my perfect workflow in FL even after all these years. Anyway I'm dedicated to using FL Studio going forward but I can understand someone holding on to Orion as long as possible if it fits all of their needs. I'd love for development of Orion to start back up again but I'm going assume it will not and move on.......

[Christophe]

This is exactly what i dislike in FL Studio, i am using Ableton and appreciate it