DAW Thread

[Doktor Grimm]

If you’re comfortable with using FL - use it. Generally speaking, use tools that you’re most comfortable with, unless there are other tools available that could make your production process more efficient. In that case you should consider a switch, even if it demands readapting to a completely different environment.

Thanks -- I've been pondering it for a while (esp. since after having switched from mainly composing to mainly live recording, and from Windows to Linux) but I'm about a decade deep into FL & every other DAW makes me feel like a stroke victim.

The whole pattern system is just so intuitive. I wish there was some alternative with a similar core design but better recording functionality.

 

[ssaneenah]

The whole pattern system is just so intuitive. I wish there was some alternative with a similar core design but better recording functionality.

If you like writing tracks in patterns, you can check out trackers - though completely unsuitable for working with live session recordings, some people use them in a combination with a streamlined DAW where they either make separate loops or complete audio material in a tracker, then export it as audio bits or full multitracks and then dump them into a streamlined DAW for further production. OpenMPT is a popular one, with many supported module formats. Renoise is an attempts to turn a tracker into a DAW, with a mixer, ReWire, effects and plugin support. Buggy as hell and rarely updated, but I still have a soft spot for it after using it for almost my entire life.

There’re also Ableton Live and Bitwig Studio - the latter one is available natively for Linux. Both are quite similar and frankly include the code written by the same people. Haven’t used any of those myself, though I’ve heard that their workflow is somewhat similar with Live being better suited for performances and BS for production.

 

[astrohairlip]

I've heard good things about Bitwig, but I already have FL Studio and am acclimated to using it in my workflow. I'm mildly curious to see what it would be like trying to use Bitwig on Linux, but I'm positive all of the libraries, VSTs, and hardware I have would either not work or be a huge pain in the ass (and have issues), so I've never taken the time to bother setting all that up.

Having also used Pro Tools, it would definitely be nice if FL Studio had a more streamlined solution for live sound and performance, but I would guess Image-Line's customer base is 10-1 comprised of people who have no use for that.

 

[Srumab]

I'm using Dorico, but that was because I was already in the Steinberg ecosystem. It's alright, but the devs are the same people who helped make Syballeus so it uses the same Syballeus type shit that Syballeus grew past. So it's Old Syballeus in a new dress without any of the quality of life upgrades. I mean it took them until 4 or maybe 3.5 before they even added a piano roll for when you're working with drum kits. Note input on the drums has always been hilariously bad if you're in the write dock.

Still it comes with some sweet mastering fx. If you do decide to get it also get the Note Performer vst to go with it. Halion symphonic is not good. Especially the brass.

 

[Deckard Bane]

I’m currently using Bitwig after switching over from Ableton Live. There are a few things I miss about Ableton, more because I was really used to them, but Bitwig is a little more stable with my setup. I use a lot of hardware synthesizers, some of which are a bitch to set up and might decide to randomly not sync (looking at you, SH-201) so I like having a very easy to setup hardware instrument. I tried Cubase but I found it too confusing compared to Ableton and Bitwig.

I have FL Studio but don’t use it. I got it at a massive discount with proof of my purchase of Logic Pro X but the workflow put me off and setting up external instruments is a massive pain. It’s pretty much designed for a mostly virtual instrument or sample based environment.

The Bitwig tools are kind of hit or miss, but they are decent. I usually wind up using their EQ, compressor, and tool more than anything. Maybe reverb or delay if I want something quick and simple.

 

[coof coof]

Making electronic music in 2025 be like

Spoiler: wut

 

[hesaback]

I’m currently using Bitwig after switching over from Ableton Live. There are a few things I miss about Ableton, more because I was really used to them, but Bitwig is a little more stable with my setup. I use a lot of hardware synthesizers, some of which are a bitch to set up and might decide to randomly not sync (looking at you, SH-201) so I like having a very easy to setup hardware instrument. I tried Cubase but I found it too confusing compared to Ableton and Bitwig.

I have FL Studio but don’t use it. I got it at a massive discount with proof of my purchase of Logic Pro X but the workflow put me off and setting up external instruments is a massive pain. It’s pretty much designed for a mostly virtual instrument or sample based environment.

The Bitwig tools are kind of hit or miss, but they are decent. I usually wind up using their EQ, compressor, and tool more than anything. Maybe reverb or delay if I want something quick and simple.

Have you tried the SH-201 editor? A mate uses it with his software to dig into the parameters.

https://en.freedownloadmanager.org/Windows-PC/SH-201-Editor-FREE.html

 

[Ibanez RG 350EX]

Feel free to call me a retard, but I just found out that newer versions of Ableton Live create automatic "take lanes" that it very thoughtfully hides from the user - I think it was introduced in Ableton 10. In recent years, my projects had EXPLODED in file size for reasons I couldn't understand and I was also experiencing a lot of what I believed were weird bugs.

All of it was because I had a huge number of tracks hidden behind take lanes that I didn't even know existed. And of fucking course, there's no automatic way to deal with them, so this weekend I manually went through multiple years of old projects and cut out tens of gigabytes of useless audio tracks I never knew were there.

I really need to start looking at alternatives to Ableton. It's a bloated piece of shit that just adds more bloat with every version and I'll never use any of it.

 

[Deckard Bane]

Have you tried the SH-201 editor? A mate uses it with his software to dig into the parameters.

https://en.freedownloadmanager.org/Windows-PC/SH-201-Editor-FREE.html

Yep, I have it installed but I rarely use it. The SH-201 is crazy simple to program, usually I just sync it with a HW Instrument plugin over MIDI. I use the librarian editor more just to save and load patches since you can only have 32 custom.

I like Roland synths but their drivers are terrible. Yamaha has used the same MIDI drivers since 1999 and have no problems, but Roland stuff is very hit or miss. For two different pieces of hardware I had to use hacked drivers to get them working with Windows 11, while two others worked the second I plugged them in. Also, for some reason they refuse to let you download the Gaia editor software as they used to sell it, but it’s OOP and real copies are hundreds of dollars. Fortunately someone ripped it to ISO and uploaded it, but still it’s annoying behavior.

 

[hesaback]

I've been using MIDI stuff for over 30 years and I used to be really good at it but now I'm out of the box. I use Audacity as a 2 track recorder if I want to record something.

At a synth show last year I had a few beers with people who are working on MIDI 2 implications and backwards compatibility. Interesting times ahead.

 

[ssaneenah]

I use the librarian editor more just to save and load patches since you can only have 32 custom.

Can’t you use a SysEx librarian instead and just save your patches as .syx files?

 

[Deckard Bane]

Can’t you use a SysEx librarian instead and just save your patches as .syx files?

That’s basically all the SH-201 Librarian is, a proprietary Sysex editor. I can export the patches off of the synth and save them to the drive, and then open then so I can pick and choose which ones I want to save. I usually have to just memorize what’s in what bank since there’s no way to tell without the editor or librarian.

 

[deeman]

Maybe there is a better place for me to send this but i have tried to find a designated FL Studio thread... Does me suck at searching?

So... it happened... about a decade after doing any music i got the brilliant idea to teach my lady how to do music in Fruity Loops (I think i used like 9) before it was renamed. And looking at the new market of VST(i) s and shit i got hooked myself.

So i'm trying to make my studio as physical as possible, both for me and my girlfriend, so i gotten the FL Keys mini and AKAI Midimix for using as a mixer, but then i remembered my old dusty Behringer BFC 2000 and thought; "I could skip using the MIDIMIX as a mixer and use it as a VST knob controller instead (taste that sentence).

I have downloaded a script for the midimix, had to assign the low row of knobs so i got the hang of that, but as i plugged in the BFC and put it on the correct controller (namely the BFC 2000) but the faders refuse to work, all the buttons play different keys on the piano and dragging a fader just makes it slide down again, for those who don't know the BFC uses mechanical sliders so when shifting banks it automatically slides the faders)

Is it because i got the MIDIMIX already allocated to it? if so, how do i delete it's presets? I mean it has the BFC2000 to choose from drivers from the get go...

If that fails i still have trouble making the BANK LEFT + RIGHT to function on the MIDIMIX, so i only got 8 channels :/

 

[Srumab]

Maybe there is a better place for me to send this but i have tried to find a designated FL Studio thread... Does me suck at searching?

So... it happened... about a decade after doing any music i got the brilliant idea to teach my lady how to do music in Fruity Loops (I think i used like 9) before it was renamed. And looking at the new market of VST(i) s and shit i got hooked myself.

So i'm trying to make my studio as physical as possible, both for me and my girlfriend, so i gotten the FL Keys mini and AKAI Midimix for using as a mixer, but then i remembered my old dusty Behringer BFC 2000 and thought; "I could skip using the MIDIMIX as a mixer and use it as a VST knob controller instead (taste that sentence).

I have downloaded a script for the midimix, had to assign the low row of knobs so i got the hang of that, but as i plugged in the BFC and put it on the correct controller (namely the BFC 2000) but the faders refuse to work, all the buttons play different keys on the piano and dragging a fader just makes it slide down again, for those who don't know the BFC uses mechanical sliders so when shifting banks it automatically slides the faders)

Is it because i got the MIDIMIX already allocated to it? if so, how do i delete it's presets? I mean it has the BFC2000 to choose from drivers from the get go...

If that fails i still have trouble making the BANK LEFT + RIGHT to function on the MIDIMIX, so i only got 8 channels :/

It sounds like overlapping CC numbers. It's a "feature" in MIDI to allow one controller to operate multiple thing with one controller.

 

[hesaback]

Maybe there is a better place for me to send this but i have tried to find a designated FL Studio thread... Does me suck at searching?

So... it happened... about a decade after doing any music i got the brilliant idea to teach my lady how to do music in Fruity Loops (I think i used like 9) before it was renamed. And looking at the new market of VST(i) s and shit i got hooked myself.

So i'm trying to make my studio as physical as possible, both for me and my girlfriend, so i gotten the FL Keys mini and AKAI Midimix for using as a mixer, but then i remembered my old dusty Behringer BFC 2000 and thought; "I could skip using the MIDIMIX as a mixer and use it as a VST knob controller instead (taste that sentence).

I have downloaded a script for the midimix, had to assign the low row of knobs so i got the hang of that, but as i plugged in the BFC and put it on the correct controller (namely the BFC 2000) but the faders refuse to work, all the buttons play different keys on the piano and dragging a fader just makes it slide down again, for those who don't know the BFC uses mechanical sliders so when shifting banks it automatically slides the faders)

Is it because i got the MIDIMIX already allocated to it? if so, how do i delete it's presets? I mean it has the BFC2000 to choose from drivers from the get go...

If that fails i still have trouble making the BANK LEFT + RIGHT to function on the MIDIMIX, so i only got 8 channels :/

What I use to do with the BFC was right click the bit of the vst I wanted the BFC to control and then move the knob or slider. That should assign the CC value to match the BFC to the software.

I gave mine to a mate and I know he still uses the BFC for Cubase and soft synths. I'll ask him how he does it tomorrow.

not sure if this will help. I used and early version that was useful but then I went down the Zaqencer route.

https://mountainutilities.eu/bcmanager

 

[deeman]

It sounds like overlapping CC numbers. It's a "feature" in MIDI to allow one controller to operate multiple thing with one controller.

What I use to do with the BFC was right click the bit of the vst I wanted the BFC to control and then move the knob or slider. That should assign the CC value to match the BFC to the software.

I gave mine to a mate and I know he still uses the BFC for Cubase and soft synths. I'll ask him how he does it tomorrow.

not sure if this will help. I used and early version that was useful but then I went down the Zaqencer route.

https://mountainutilities.eu/bcmanager

Thank you guise <3 , i guess i can use it for VST's worst case scenario but i don't know about the buttons, they refuse to be tweaked so one button can make the switch for wavelenghts for example. Tough for a Swenglish idiot to explain but when i do the assigning one button for a switchknob it goes up and instantly down :/

And i have googled it and apparently in FLStudio you can't assign like drumpads to respond to like shortcuts for Piano Roll / Mixer etc. I guess that is a no no? Retarded for a software that's been around since the dawn of the century...