Fruity Edition £89
Producer Edition £199
Signature Edition £279
All Plugins Edition £469
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FL Studio 2024 replaces version 21.2, with Image-Line now choosing to name its flagship DAW after the year of its release. Presumably, point updates (e.g, version 21.3) will no longer have new headline names but all updates will remain free for life, continuing the brand’s generous policy.
FL Studio has had cool stuff added recently, notably stem separation for unpicking mixed tracks into their constituent parts and, while there’s nothing in this update that’s quite as eye catching as that, the no-cost update policy means all the new stuff is free for whatever version you own anyway. So what does it offer the curious DAW newbie or prospective switcher?
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FL Studio is a well-established and popular DAW that runs on Mac or PC and also works as a plugin inside other DAWs, bringing all its instruments, sequencing and mixing tools into your Logic Pro, Cubase, Ableton or other projects. Its design and workflow are a bit of a departure for anyone coming from one of those other DAWs – a modular and highly configurable system based around sequencers and plugins. It’s not really like anything else around so there is something of a learning curve for new users though once you get used to the concepts of extensive right-clicking and submenus, things speed up a lot.
There’s heavy emphasis on MIDI programming and sequencing, with many tools for creating and editing beats and melodies. And full digital audio tracking and editing too of course, with a more conventional linear sequencer as well as playlist feature for arrangement. In addition to supporting VST plugins, FL Studio comes with a ton of its own unique instruments, effects and generators and these are the main differentiator of the various versions. Fruity has the fewest, Producer is most popular, and the All Plugins Edition being fairly self explanatory.
In late 2023, Image Line added the FL Cloud service as an expansion option for users and in this update it brings a core of 10 free Cloud plugins and extra sounds to all customers, while subscribers get access to more. A subscription of £5.59 a month gets you all the sounds, 18 plugins and 16 presets and controls for the DAW’s cloud mastering tool, while the Pro service (currently on sale at £7 per month) has all 65 plugins, plus more as they’re added over time. Paid tiers also include distribution of your music to popular social platforms and online stores like iTunes and Spotify. A 30-day free trial is available in which you can decide if the Cloud extras are for you.
New plugins introduced in the 2024 update include Kepler Exo, a lush and retro-sounding soft synth based on the Roland Juno 6 and Jupiter 8, a Low Lifter effect that adds harmonics to bass frequencies, perfect for electronic music, and Spreader which enhances the stereo effect. In the Edison audio module you’ll now find an improved AI-powered de-clipper and a vocal denoiser.
Elsewhere there’s a whole bunch of tweaks and additions, notably new support for CLAP plugins, a non-proprietary format created by Bitwig and u-he, an AI-powered chord progression tool in the Piano Roll, improvements to sample previewing in the Browser and many smaller changes.
As noted, all of this new stuff is free when you update the edition you currently own. Bringing some free cloud content to all users seems like a good way to encourage people to at least explore expanding their sonic library that way and potentially to subscribe. Since Image Line offers lifetime free app updates it’s fair enough that they need to make money via alternative avenues, and ones that are entirely optional for users. There’s an impressively varied selection of plugins available and this will grow over time.
FL Studio’s reliance on plugins and modules to do things that most other DAWs integrate more naturally – audio editing, step sequencing – can take some getting used to. It’s mostly there, but you need to add a thing to be able to do it rather than having this already at the core of the app. There are also some gaps if you’re thinking about more heavyweight composition and production tasks. There’s no native support for musical scoring for example. Surround sound is achievable but it’s a bit of a workaround. Video is via an add-on floating module, though in fairness that’s true of most of the competition too.
The extent to which these factors bother you depends on what you’re trying to do. FL Studio started life as Fruity Loops, a fun and accessible tool for making beats and loops. It’s matured hugely since then of course but its core direction hasn’t changed as dramatically as its feature set. It’s still geared up for making beats, patterns, loops and processing everything through cool effects. It has one of the most comprehensive and wide-ranging collections of native plugins of any DAW, especially if you opt for one of the larger versions.
Could you record an orchestra on it? Technically yes, but really there are better options. On the other hand, does it let you put together beats, songs and patterns quickly in a way that is more performer-oriented than a more conventional DAW? Arguably it does.
That’s not to sell FL Studio short. It’s much more than a way to make beats. Indeed, for programming and MIDI editing its features run very deep. The developers have stuffed a huge number of tools in and for the most part kept it pretty approachable. There’s also the selection of plugins with the bigger versions, which outguns most other DAWs save perhaps for the Ableton Live Suite. Logic Pro’s selection is also excellent though Windows users need not apply, so it’s not quite a direct comparison.
For many users, FL Studio offers a fun and sensibly-priced package for everything from cooking up loops and simpler tracks all the way to more fully fledged recording and arrangement of songs. Expandable via the FL Cloud, it also integrates mastering and distribution services as well as creative new features like stem separation. It will probably always have its own way of doing things but that’s just one of the things that makes it one of the most-used DAWs around. Clearly, Image Line is doing something right.
Key features
- Audio and MIDI recording, editing and mixing
- Mac and Windows
- Works as a VSTi plugin in other hosts
- Bundled effects, instruments and generators
- FL Cloud expansion for more plugins
- Mastering and distribution features baked in
- Piano roll and sequencer-based programming
- Playlist and linear arrangement
- Drag and drop of plugins and samples
- CLAP open-source plugin support
