FL Studio Mobile, previously announced for iOS, is now available for iPhone, iPod touch, and, in an “HD” edition, on iPad 1 and 2. The biggest feature: if you’re an FL Studio user, you can take your projects and load them on the mobile version for on-the-go editing. That makes FL the first major, non-Apple studio app to do round-trip workflows between mobile and desktop.
The release is also causing some mainstream outlets to notice, like BetaNews, who suggest this breaks a 13-year, Windows-only FL Studio run. That’s not entirely fair: Image-Line have released cross-platform software. The issue is that the full-blown FL Studio desktop version is deeply tied to Windows. FL Studio Mobile is a ground-up app. But it’s still big news.
BetaNews notes that the round-trip isn’t as easy as you might like:
Like Garageband for iPad, pulling files off of the iPad is kind of a chore. In order to load FL Studio Mobile projects into FL Studio for Windows, users need version 10.0.5 or later of FL Studio, and files must be dragged and dropped from the FL Studio Browser (or Windows folder) to the desktop one by one. There’s not yet an easy export feature for fast file sharing.
That could change, though, if the application adds iCloud support – and even this, as described, sounds easy enough to me.
Other features:
- Piano keys, drum pads with flexible layouts – so you can arrange, say, multiple stacks of keys or drums the way you like.
Instruments, kits, and loops included. - 99-track sequencer, piano roll and step sequence editing.
- Import/export not only FL Studio projects, but WAV and MIDI files, too. Unfortunately, sample loading isn’t available yet, but is coming.
An Android version is also in the works:
What about Android OS? It’s on the roadmap, stop nagging! We have a development team working on a low-latency Android audio-engine and there are many screen resolutions and device specifications to consider, it’s not as simple as you may think 🙂
FL Studio for Mac is still in the “forget about it and stop asking” category, so no change there:
Does this mean FL Studio on Mac OSX soon? FL Studio Mobile is not a port of the Windows version of FL Studio. It is the product of a completely separate development team, and code, so FL Studio Mobile, while compatible with FL Studio has no impact on FL Studio development and vice versa.
Just expect to read about this everywhere, thanks to a viral contest Image-Line is running. Guys, take it easy: I think people would blog your FL Studio Mobile without having an iPad to win.
FL Studio Mobile News