FL Studio is full of features that every serious professional or hobbyist needs and wants - from the wave editor and piano roll to oscillators and sequencers. FL Studios is already set up as soon as the installation is finished so that it's ready to work; a user can begin to create loops and beats immediately.
16 Alternatives To Pro Tools Posted October 14, 2013 by Philip Pro Tools is an effective, robust and popular digital audio workstation (DAW), but it is not the be-all and end-all in the world of audio software. If Pro Tools does not live up to your standards for one reason or another, several other choices are available. Some of these other audio platforms are free, some have interesting and unique features but all of them are worth exploring. To help you get started in finding the platform that is right for you, following are the top 15 alternatives to Pro Tools. Additionally, you can check out our list of the top. Remember that. Logic Pro X Apple $199.00 for Mac Logic Pro is straight from the Apple iTunes store and is made for macs.
It comes equipped with many awesome features for making beats and is perfect for EDM and hip hop. It has time-saving beat making tools and allows you to have complete control over every last aspect of what you create. Ableton $99.00 – $749.00 for Windows and Mac Ableton Live 9 is a strong alternative to Pro Tools, and it is available in three versions, depending on your specific needs: Intro, Standard and Suite.
The features of Intro are limited, but Live 9 Standard includes an 11 GB library of more than 1,100 sounds and 37 effects for three instruments. Key Feature: Works on both Mac OS and Windows. Sony Creative Software $149.95 for Windows Acid Pro 7 is a comprehensive DAW that can be used to produce 24-bit, professional-quality audio in both live and studio settings.
It is also an excellent piece of software for loop-based music because of its MIDI sequencing and native support for virtual studio technology (VST) instruments. Ardour The Ardour Community $1.00 for Mac and Linux Ardour is an open-source DAW, and a ready-to-run version can be purchased for a donation of only $1.00.
Subscriptions are also available that include automatic updates for $1 – $10 per month. Ardour offers flexible recording options, unlimited tracks with multiple channels and soundtrack mixing.
Hundreds of free plug-ins are also available for further customization. Audacity The Audacity Development Team Free for Windows, Mac and Linux Audacity is the most popular open-source DAW on the market today. It is easy to learn and use, includes a multi-track editor/mixer and can record live audio. Some of the files supported by Audacity are WAV, FLAC, MP3, AIFF and Ogg Vorbis, and sound quality ranges from 16 bits to 32 bits for floating-point samples. Audiotool Audiotool.com Free for any Web browser If you just need the basics, you might want to consider Audiotool, a free, open-source application that operates through any browser.
Audiotool has a modular design that allows you to input unlimited audio devices through a virtual desktop, and it includes a polyphonic synthesizer, a sample player, a rhythm generator and the Tonematrix sound generator. Audition CC Adobe $19.99 per month for Windows and Mac Audition CC is Adobe’s powerful DAW offering that is part of the company’s Creative Cloud suite. Audition allows you to create, mix, enhance and repair audio through several state-of-the-art features, such as Preview Editor, Noise Generator, Pitch Bender and Sound Remover. Special pricing is available for teachers and students. Cubase 7 Steinberg Media Technologies $99.99 – $499.99 for Windows and Mac Cubase 7 is a popular DAW that is available in three versions: Elements, Artists and Full. The Elements version is great for basic composing and editing while the Artists version includes sequencing tools, better performance and a larger selection of instruments and effects. The full version is a professional-grade package that can be used for both live and studio sound.
FL Studio 12 Image-Line Software $99.00 – $910.70 for Windows, Android and iPhone FL Studio is a professional DAW that can be purchased in one of four versions: Fruity Edition, Producer Edition, Signature Bundle or All Plug-Ins Bundle. In addition, separate mobile versions are available for both Apple and Android devices. FL Studio 11 can be used for audio editing, sound recording, enhancing live performances and sound creation. Frinika Open Source Free for Windows, Mac and Linux Frinika is a free, no-frills DAW that runs on Java. It can be used to create sounds through an included soft synthesizer, add real-time effect to live or studio audio and record audio. Some of the notable features of Frinika are an Amiga-style tracker, mixing board, notation viewer and piano roll. GarageBand ’11 Apple $14.99 for Mac, iPhone and iPad GarageBand is a full-featured recording studio developed by Apple that can be used in conjunction with a USB keyboard, electric guitar and more than 100 software instruments, including drums, guitars, strings, brass and woodwinds.
Effects can be added to guitar through virtual foot pedals, and access is granted to Apple Loops to create new music or enhance live performances. Mixcraft 6 Acoustica Inc. $74.99 for Windows Mixcraft 6 is a basic yet powerful DAW that is also reasonably priced. The software allows you to record and remix audio while adding effects, sounds and music from virtual instruments. In addition, it comes with an assortment of music loops numbering in the thousands.
Mixcraft 6 also includes several features for working with video files. Reaper DAW Cockos Inc.
$60.00 – $225.00 for Windows and Mac Reaper DAW only comes in one version, but it has two price points. For $60, individuals can purchase the software for private use, but using it commercially requires the full $225. Two major-release upgrades are included in the price. All this software requires to become a full-featured recording studio is a hardware audio interface and a microphone. Reason 7 Propellerhead Software AB $449.00 for Windows and Mac Reason 7 is a complete music-production system that comes with everything required to write, record and mix music tracks. It includes three synthesizers, a drum machine and a loop player, and new instruments can be added from third-party developers.
Reason also includes more than 20 effects racks, a robust mixer and a customizable recorder and sequencer. Sonar X3 Cakewalk $99.00 – $499.00 for Windows Sonar X3 from Cakewalk is available in three versions: Standard, Studio and Producer. The user interface provides the look and feel of actual hardware, and it is both fun and easy to operate. The software can be used to enhance live performances, record sound, edit tracks, remix tracks and create professional masters.
Traverso DAW Open Source Free for Windows, Mac and Linux Traverso DAW is another free, open-source program that is worth checking out if money is an issue. It has a clean, simple interface, supports dual-channel tracks and works with most audio formats. A few of the great features of Traverso are its non-destructive editing, unlimited track count and full editing history. That is one of the most idiotic comments about Reaper I have seen for a long time.
If you don’t understand Reaper’s workflow, well, that is your personal problem. I use Reaper as a Cubase replacement, when I don’t like Cubases’ workflow, and Ableton when I don’t like Reaper’s workflow and vice versa. And I find Reaper’s workflow the easiest of all three. Every DAW has it’s pros and cons. Reaper’s pros (amongst others) are lightweightness, low CPU demand, easy vst/vsti stacking, stability, notation, integrated 32/64 Bit bridge, unlimited undo, unlimited unrestricted demo, a lot of configuration possibilities including interface style (you may have overseen that, it’s only two clicks away), and a very user-friendly dev-team.
It may not look as stylish as Ableton, but come on, it looked like Cubase from the beginning. And the look is the most unmportant thing, since I want a software to do what I demand and not that I am just being excited about its style. I did try to use Flstudio in the past, but even as I wasn’t very happy with its workflow and look, I would never complain about it like you complained about Reaper, since I know that it fulfills the demands of many others quite fine. So either you are so arrogant that you didn’t try to find your way into Reaper, or didn’t even try the program at all, or you were simply drunk, when you wrote your little rant here.
Few software applications can claim the sort of cultural cachet that FL Studio has. Originally launched as FruityLoops - a title it’s often still colloquially known by - and inspired by Propellerhead’s much-loved Rebirth app, the loop-sequencer-turned-DAW holds a near-iconic status for a certain generation of producers, particularly in hip-hop and EDM realms. However, while it undoubtedly has legions of fans, historically FL Studio has been a PC-only affair. All that changes with FL Studio 20 (which, confusingly is actually version 13, but titled for the software’s 20th anniversary).
The headline feature here is a native 64-bit Mac version, meaning that FL Studio can now be used on OS X/MacOS without the need for a clunky work-around. Pleasingly, licenses are shared between both Mac and PC versions. Image-Line already offers lifetime free upgrades to all FL Studio users, meaning that all existing users of the software now automatically own upgrades to version 20 on both platforms. Because of this - and some excellent new features, which we’ll come to later - version 20 is a complete no-brainer for existing users.
What about newcomers though? In 2018, does the DAW formerly known as FruityLoops still have enough about it to tempt Mac users into the fold?
Coming to FL Studio for the first time from another DAW can be a slightly jarring experience. While the application has come on a long way from its early days as a basic loop sequencer - it easily holds its own against rival DAWs on the feature front - it still shows its roots in its layout and work flow. Whereas the bulk of mainstream DAWs see users work across a single timeline or workspace, FL Studio splits creative, mixing and arrangement duties into independent sections, each with its own UI window. The main arrangement space is known as the Playlist, which is used to sequence patterns of audio, MIDI and automation which are created in the Channel Rack.
This latter section is also used for selecting instruments and plugins as well as routing audio to the Mixer. Each instrument in the Rack gets its own simple X0X-style step sequencer, which can be expanded to a pop-out piano roll for more complex sequencing duties. FL Studio 20 is available in four different versions: Fruity, Producer, Signature and All Plugins Bundle. The Fruity edition is the cheapest at 89 euros, and contains the core functionality but lacks audio capabilities and some of the more advanced plugins. The Producer and Signature edition cost 189 and 289 euros respectively - both have full audio capabilities, but the latter comes with an increased selection of plugins, including things like the Pitch & Time editor and Harmless additive synth. Finally, the All Plugins Bundle comes in at 826 euros and comes with Image-Line’s entire arsenal of instruments and effects, including things like the Drumaxx drum machine and Harmor, Morphine and Toxic Biohazard synths - all of which are excellent, even if they’re a little on the old side now. Most of the plugin instruments are available for purchase individually too.
Audio from the Channel Rack is then routed to the Mixer, where each track gets its own channel strip complete with insert plugin slots for effects processing. Unusually, Mixer tracks in FL Studio aren’t bound to specific tracks in the Playlist, but are only linked to instrument routings coming from the Channel Rack. Similarly, Patterns aren’t limited to making use of just one instrument in Rack, but can sequence multiple elements across a single clip. As a result, it’s possible to think of arrangement, creation and mixing as independent work flow elements. This fragmented creative approach has pros and cons. For one, it means there’s a lot going on within the FL Studio interface.
Fortunately, things are very flexible, so each window element can be hidden as needed. The DAW got a major visual upgrade for version 12, with a switch to vector graphics throughout, and the ability to smoothly resize windows is great.
We must admit though, we still find FL Studio’s pop-up heavy interface somewhat stress-inducing. From a work flow point of view though, it can prove inspirational in certain situations. It’s no coincidence that FL Studio is popular with hip-hop and dance music producers.
Its focus on Patterns, acting like building blocks to arrange with, really suits genres with an emphasis on loops, builds and breakdowns. It encourages a work flow focused on grooves and riffs more than long recordings. There are certain elements of the work flow that those used to rival DAWs may find clunky.
The need to load up new windows for many sequencing and editing duties, for example, rather than simply make edits within a timeline. There’s a heavy emphasis on toolbars and menus too, so those not fully schooled on their keyboard shortcuts might find tweaking and editing a little slow to begin with. Workspace aside, FL Studio is a very well-equipped DAW. The selection of included effects plugins is excellent, with highlights including the Convolver convolution reverb and a strong selection of delay tools. New users will find a lot to like in the great sequencing and MIDI creation touches too, such as the inspirational Riff Machine, and the neat Graph Editor - which makes a welcome return for this version, having been dropped from FL Studio 12. These are just a few features from a comprehensive list though.
So what’s new? Most of the headline features for version 20 come to the software’s Playlist section. The highlight here is the addition of multiple Arrangements. This gives each project an unlimited number of alternative versions of the Playlist, which users can flip between to use as sketchpads or create variations on their current track. It’s a really nice bit of functionality that makes it very easy to experiment with arrangements without worrying about breaking existing compositions. It’s easy to copy an existing Arrangement, and you can even consolidate multiple arrangements to bring your favourite elements into a single Playlist space.
The Mac version of FL Studio is 64-bit only, and requires OS 10.11 or later - not great for older Macs, but a fair compromise at this point in time. Stability wise, FL ran solidly on my mid-2015 MacBook Pro, though we noticed some playback glitches when changing plugin presets.
Setup and registration was easy. On Mac, FL supports VST and AU plugin formats, and we had no problems with any of the third party instrument or effects. There are a few elements of FL Studio yet to be ported across for the Mac version. At the time of writing, Mac users can’t load FL Studio 20 as a VST client in a third party host, unlike on Windows systems. Rewire support is absent too. Image-Line says the former is currently being worked on.
Several plugins are currently unavailable. Some, like the FL Studio Mobile plugin, Dashboard and Blood Overdrive are being worked on; other older tools, like Fruity LSD or the WASP synth won’t be making the jump at all. Some other Image-Line plugins are available on Mac within FL Studio, but are yet to be made available as standalone VSTs.
For details of what is/isn’t available, head to: On that subject, flexible consolidation capabilities are another highlight of this version. This gives users several options for bouncing instruments or samples down to single audio les. There are options to bounce down full Playlist tracks, selections from the Playlist or individual Patterns from the Rack.
There are further tweaks to the Playlist too. For one thing, the number of available tracks has increased with this version, from an already fairly generous 199 to a maximum of 500. To help keep those masses of tracks getting too cluttered, you can now hide track groups.
FL Studio also now presents a visual representation of audio when recording into the Playlist. On the recording front, when recording in looped mode, multiple takes are now automatically copied to new tracks and grouped, which is handy for keeping track of multiple variations. Multiple time signature options for both the Playlist and individual Patterns is another welcome new feature. This allows users to add markers to the Playlist which initiate a shift in time signature. You can also set time signatures for individual Patterns, and even change timings mid Pattern using the Piano Roll. Patterns can be set to follow time sig changes marked on the Playlist too. While there’s not much in the way of new sounds or effects, a few plugins have been updated, such as Fruity Reeverb 2, which gets a Speed control for refining the sound, and the Convolver, which gains a pair of presets allowing it to act as a Linear Phase EQ.
There are a good number of other small tweaks and quality of life improvements across the board, from an improved plugin delay compensation system to general bug fixes for a host of FL Plugins and numerous other small changes. The question of whether these changes make FL Studio 20 a worthwhile upgrade for existing users is a moot point; thanks to Image- Line’s excellent policy of giving all users free lifetime upgrades, all existing users automatically get the new versions for free.
That aside though, while some longtime users may bemoan a lack of major new plugins or tools, the Playlist and Pattern improvements are excellent, and make this a really worthwhile update. The Arrangements feature in particular is a bit of a revelation, and really suits FL’s work flow, making it more flexible and fun than ever to throw together patterns and loops in weird and exciting ways. As for new users, FL Studio is very much worth your attention.
It makes a great addition to the Mac realm too. It’s a slight shame that you can’t currently use FL Studio as a VST or Rewire client on Mac, or use it with the FL Studio Mobile companion - the flexibility brought by these three features is one of my favourite things about FL Studio. The VST capability in particular makes it a great choice for a secondary DAW, allowing it to be used as a sketchpad in a manner similar to NI Maschine.
Most of these are all things Image-Line is working on, and there’s still a lot that’s appealing about FL Studio. Plus, the offer of a lifetime of free upgrades once you’ve bought in once is very tempting.