Image-Line’s FL Studio is a huge underground “cult” hit for digital music making. It’s Windows-only, and it seems to get more love from the European press than the US writers for some reason (maybe because Image-Line is stingy with free press copies). But it’s got some great pattern-based features for those of you who like making quick-and-dirty dance music, as well as an elegant set of synths that could appeal to just about anyone.
Here’s what new in the long-awaited FL Studio 6:
New mixer: Bigger, resizable, and with more flexible routing (at long last)
More MIDI controller support including foot-pedal support (very cool, as FL already has some nifty options like out-of-the-box game controller support)
New sampler: DirectWave
New effects: “Morphing” graphic EQ, delay/filter bank, three-band stereo compressor/limiter, new reverb, new “Squeeze” bit reducer slash distortion slash filtering (I’ll, uh, have to see that in action to understand that), visualization, and envelope controller
Sytrus 2 synth in XXL edition (see previous report)
Lots of enhancements including plug-in delay compensation and a better browser
Sounds like a fantastic upgrade to an already-great value. It’s not going to tear me away from Ableton Live, Reason, and my other apps, but I definitely understand the appeal for its devoted fans.