FL Studio

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FL Studio

FL Studio 8 Producer Edition XXL running on Windows XP
Developed by Image-Line Software
Latest release 8.0.2 / Aug 11, 2008
Written in Delphi
Operating system Microsoft Windows
Type Digital Audio Workstation
License Proprietary
Website http://www.flstudio.com

FL Studio, formerly known as FruityLoops and colloquially as simply Floops, is a digital audio workstation (DAW), developed by Belgian company Image-Line Software. FL Studio was originally the creation of Didier Dambrin, who is now the lead programmer responsible for the overall development.

FL Studio features a fully automatable workflow centered around a pattern-based music sequencer. The environment includes MIDI support and incorporates a number of features for the editing, mixing, and recording of audio. Completed songs or clips may be exported to Microsoft WAV, MP3, and the OGG Vorbis format. FL Studio saves work in a proprietary *.flp format, inadvertently sharing the same extension as a filetype created by Adobe Flash CS3.

The program is acclaimed for its professional DAW features at an attractive price point. Scoring to video is possible using the video-player plugin, but there is no support for traditional music notation.

FL Studio is written in Borland Delphi and thus there are no finalized plans to develop a native Linux or Mac OS X port. As of September 2008, the Image-Line website indicates that the company supports users running FL Studio on Intel based Apple hardware via Boot Camp.

FL Studio has been the start for many of today's electronica artists.

Contents

[edit] Lifetime free user updates

Image-Line is unique among many DAW developers in providing lifetime free updates (via internet download) for FL Studio users who have directly purchased the program from Image-Line. Once a user purchases the current version of the program, subsequent new releases can be downloaded free of charge. According to Image-Line, this discourages piracy and simplifies technical support.

[edit] Editions

FL Studio is marketed with multiple versions, each representing a feature set at a specific price point. Basic features of FL Studio are available in the Express Edition, the use of which is reduced to a simple drum-machine. The Fruity, Producer, and XXL editions further introduce more features, such as the ability to use the DAW itself as a VST plugin. The most complete edition, XXL, comes with many bundled effects and synthesizers which Image-Line normally sells separately as VST plugins. Complete comparisons of the various editions are provided at a link at the bottom of this article. Most of the editions of FL Studio also have a boxed sold online and stores of music retailers.

[edit] User interface

The FL Studio user interface is composed of five freely movable windows, plus a static transport bar positioned at the top of the screen. Each part of the transport bar can be undocked by clicking the left side of a single part, dragging it to any other portion of the screen and then dropping it. Once all parts in a row of the transport bar are undocked , the gray rail for that row underneath completely disappears. In this way the transport bar may be made completely modular and can be placed anywhere the user wishes (including on separate monitors). FL Studio supports the use of dual and tri monitor configurations.

  • Channel Window
allows the user to insert generator plugins (VST instruments, audio tracks, samplers etc.) and assign them to a mixer track. The channel window also contains the Step Sequencer which 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. There is also another grid for note intensity.
  • Playlist
allows the arrangement of sets of patterns and audio files for assembling a complete song.
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).

[edit] 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 limited multi-threading and multi-core support for some generators. Effects cannot be threaded in the present version.

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 a variety 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.

FL Studio 8 Producer Edition includes a version of SynthMaker, the popular graphical programming environment for synthesizers. Support for the software is found in the extensive guides that are provided as HTML help documents. Users may also register for the official Image-Line forums, which are commonly recognized as a focal-point for the FL Studio community.

FL Studio also comes with a variety of sound effects, some of which include:

[edit] Recent Personification

A Japanese artist by the name Uruido created a moe anthropomorphism of FL Studio called FL-Chan. Image-Line has adopted the character as a form of mascot, providing an array of purchasable merchandise and a dedicated page on the Image-Line website.

[edit] Notable users

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FL_Studio"
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