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FL Studio, formerly known as FruityLoops, is a digital audio workstation, developed by Belgian company Image-Line Software. FL Studio was originally the creation of Didier Dambrin (aka "gol"), who is now the lead programmer responsible for the overall development of the program and some instruments & effects. Other staff working on FL Studio include: Fréderic Vanmol (VST & wrapper development), Scott Fisher (User manual/s) and Ammeris Gill [aka "Buckskin"] (sample & loop content). Jean-Marie Cannie & Frank Van Biesen provide management oversight to the team.
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 as of FL Studio 8, the OGG Vorbis format. FL Studio saves work in a proprietary *.FLP format (Fruity Loops Project). This can cause confusion with Macromedia Flash CS3, which also saves as *.flp (Flash Project).
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 develop a native Linux or Mac OS X port. As of September 2008, the Image-Line website indicates that the company will fully support users running FL Studio on Apple computers via Boot Camp. A native Mac FL Studio Suite (Universal Binary) could follow in 2009, if appropriate developers can be found.
Lifetime free user updates
Image-Line is unique among the popular DAW developers in providing lifetime free updates (via internet download) of FL Studio for users who have purchased the program online direct from Image-Line. Once a user purchases a version of the program, they receive all updates to that version free of charge for the life of the FL Studio product. This arrangement has been working for approximately 10 years. According to Jean-Marie Cannie this discourages the user-base from downloading warez versions, as is often the case when users are charged for updates, and simplifies technical support. Image-Line make money by selling add-on content to the existing user-base (approximately 200,000 registered users as of 2008), and FL Studio to new users.
This business model means that Image-Line prefer direct sales to customers through their online store rather than packaged product in traditional stores. If users purchase FL Studio from a traditional store then they can purchase lifetime free (downloaded) updates for a nominal fee.
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. A popular feature of the downloadable versions include lifetime upgrades to major updates (including new version releases) of the software. 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 version.
User interface
The FL Studio user interface is composed of five main windows. With the exception of the sample browser which remains anchored to the left-side of the interface, all windows are re-positionable to create a custom workspace. The use of dual-, tri-, and quad- monitor configurations are supported.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- allows for quick access of audio samples, plugins, presets, and other FL Studio song files (FLPs).
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 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.
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.
The adoption of FL-Chan has generated significant turbulence in the community of users who feel the addition of the character stalls efforts to bring the perception of FL Studio into the range of professional sequencers & DAWs.[citation needed]
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