FLStudio 6: How limitied?

[BondExtreme]

Later this year when I get the money I will be purchasing FL Sudio 6. The $150 version. My question is how limited is it? Like how much is on it? How far do the sound effects go, are there a decent ammount of instruments, etc.

Thanks

[the_nihilist]

If you use what's included with it, FL is very limited.

However, if you expand and augment the capabilities of the sequencer, you get something that's pretty comparable to anything else out there.

I would really recommend finding a decent set of compressors and a better EQ than what FL offers, though. Luckily there are quite a few really great free ones availible. Also, there are alot of free instruments out there that are of quite high quality.

My main problem with FL is that I find it imposes too much of itself on my workflow. The pattern based workflow makes me want to think in patterns, which results in anything I make with it being a bunch of patterns piled on top of eachother rather than a song.

[Kittie Rose]

The patterns do heavily influence the style of the music produced.

What i hate about FL is that you can't really do odd timings, and not even 1/3 time - making Doctor Who theme remixes neigh on impossible :/

[lazygecko]

Uh, you can switch the time signature to whatever you want in Options > Project general settings.

[Kittie Rose]

I tried, doesn't work very well for certain timings.

[Nase]

Uh, you can switch the time signature to whatever you want in Options > Project general settings.

Not in the middle of a song though. One of the few major drawbacks imo. They really should've included a type of markers for the playlist that changes the signature beginning from a certain point.

I agree with the nihilist that the pattern based structure might influence your workflow, but it's entirely your choice if you consider that to be a bad thing. It might just give you a new perspective on how music can be sequenced. You might learn that thoughtful automation of synth parameters might be enough to give life to a seemingly dull repetetive phrase.

I'm also saying that because to my knowledge no program makes automation easier and more fun than FL.

On to your questions: The basic plugins of FL are, well, basic. The samples are few and not great. The sound effects are very good though, and if you use them cleverly, you might be able to even produce tunes with the basic fruity synths and samples that people don't recognise as "default fruity stuff".

[Kanjika]

If you really know what you're doing, the samples and plugins included in FL can do a lot of great things. They don't just 'suck', theyre plenty usable, but once you see better VSTs, samples, effect plugins, it becomes less useful to you because you have higher quality sounds to replace the old stuff. I'd reccomend starting out using the FL 'crap', and go from there. When you first start using FL, you will suck at it, and the music you output will be very poor, and it takes a considerable amount of time to improve your skills.

And why do you guys feel that FL makes you compose in patterns? I don't ever feel limited my FL Studio's layout. I tend to compose my music in large 16 or 8 measure sections, and sometimes all im the piano roll on pattern 1. You dont have to make everything in patterns.

And, you CAN change time signatres somewhat. You guys just completly dismiss the possibility to since theres no definite time signatre option. If you want to go from say, the default 4/4, to fast 6/8, just change the number in the corner to 6, and change the snap to 1/2 beat. Same if you wanted to do 7/8, 11/8, hell, you could do 34/16 if you just change snap to whole beat and set the number in the corner to 34. And if it looks messed up when in the piano roll, you can just change the zoom, and avoid using the step seqencer. When you change from quarter note to eighth note pulse you will have to double the tempo though, and thats not hard to do at all.

[Nase]

And why do you guys feel that FL makes you compose in patterns? I don't ever feel limited my FL Studio's layout. I tend to compose my music in large 16 or 8 measure sections, and sometimes all im the piano roll on pattern 1. You dont have to make everything in patterns.

Absolutely right, but humans are lazy.

Although most sequencers have pretty much the same functions included and could theoretically produce the exact same compositions, they still have their own character. There's always an interaction between the tool and the person using it, and even the most aware composer would probably do things slightly differently if he switched sequencers.

FL simply somewhat encourages loopism, it doesn't force you do to anything.

And, you CAN change time signatres somewhat. You guys just completly dismiss the possibility to since theres no definite time signatre option. If you want to go from say, the default 4/4, to fast 6/8, just change the number in the corner to 6, and change the snap to 1/2 beat. Same if you wanted to do 7/8, 11/8, hell, you could do 34/16 if you just change snap to whole beat and set the number in the corner to 34. And if it looks messed up when in the piano roll, you can just change the zoom, and avoid using the step seqencer. When you change from quarter note to eighth note pulse you will have to double the tempo though, and thats not hard to do at all.

Uh. yeah, I'm sure it's possible to work your way around it. There'd just be way too much thinking involved if you wanted to do something extreme like 4/4->7/8->5/4->3/4. I could imagine signature changes to be the easiest thing in fruity.

[Navi]

And, you CAN change time signatres somewhat. You guys just completly dismiss the possibility to since theres no definite time signatre option. If you want to go from say, the default 4/4, to fast 6/8, just change the number in the corner to 6, and change the snap to 1/2 beat. Same if you wanted to do 7/8, 11/8, hell, you could do 34/16 if you just change snap to whole beat and set the number in the corner to 34. And if it looks messed up when in the piano roll, you can just change the zoom, and avoid using the step seqencer. When you change from quarter note to eighth note pulse you will have to double the tempo though, and thats not hard to do at all.

Uh. yeah, I'm sure it's possible to work your way around it. There'd just be way too much thinking involved if you wanted to do something extreme like 4/4->7/8->5/4->3/4. I could imagine signature changes to be the easiest thing in fruity.

http://www.mythrilnazgul.com/Shnafu.mp3

[Nase]

Hehe, this is pretty fun. Does the "Shna" stand for Shnabubula? Somewhat sounds like him.

I'd like to see the playlist of the song.

[Navi]

Hehe, this is pretty fun. Does the "Shna" stand for Shnabubula? Somewhat sounds like him.

I'd like to see the playlist of the song.

Unfortunately, that will most likely not be happening. My hard drive is slowly dying and when i tried to save the file, it corrupted the save, and corrupted each subsequent backup save I tried to open. I'll probably be redoing it at some point, but it would mean starting all over from scratch and working from the rendered mp3.

[Chavous]

Well, FLSudio in general is not really limited...I'm learning new things everyday. One of your best tools is layering effects (you can find some pretty damned cool things by doing this). Also, do you use different patterns and then line them up in the "song" display? If you do, this can be one of the reasons that it sounds loopish. I usually just write everything in one pattern. Personally, I don't know how FL6 is, but I'm getting it too.

[Navi]

I usually just write everything in one pattern.

I do this on occasion (bad habit) but then I ALWAYS end up wanting to change around a middle section or add in a bridge somewhere...and realise that I have to manually move each instruments notes over x amount of bars in order to fit in a new part. When you work with 20-30 instruments, that becomes a severe pain.