I have a lot more fun in FL, to be quite honest. However, even after runnning through the tutorials about three times each, I found that Ableton is too 'technical' for me(zero understanding of music theory, looking to just play around, needs a simple DAW that can do basic things) so I asked one of my friends who has been on-off producing for a few years now what he thought, and he recommended FL Studio. I love that it has tutorials that will walk you through, step by step, to give you a basic understanding of what the flying fuck you're doing. You could use it for drums, but it also allows you to place whole instruments on a drum pad, endless possibilities (given you have enough CPU)) and Operator, which is a trimmed down but very powerful FM synth.ĭo a bit of research but if I were you I'd start with FL and change to Ableton along the way, when you get a bit more comfortable with technique and want to go a bit more in depth in mixing etc.Īs an actual total newbie at this, I started out with the Ableton Live 9 demo. They are still 'ok' to work with, but not compared to what Ableton can offer).Ībleton has Drum Rack, (which IMO is one of the most versatile instruments that a computer could offer. It's just very clumsy and counterintuïtive, compared to Abletons mixer that is.Ībleton's pro's include user friendliness and a relatively easy learning curve (for the basics, as Ableton does go a bit deeper into more technical stuff than FL does, such as advanced routing and rerouting of mixertracks), there is no DAW that has a quicker and easier method for resampling than Ableton.Īlso, Ableton's effects and instruments are way better than FL's (not counting Sytrus and Harmor, FL has literally no interesting or 'good' built in effects and instruments COMPARED with Ableton. Effects is not really that much of a problem because you're most probably going to use plugins anyway, but I changed to Ableton because I HATED FL's mixer. The cons of FL lie mainly in it's effects and mixer. It has TONNES AND TONNES of tutorials on youtube, is very user friendly, and if you don't know music theory you'll probably learn some anyway with FL. Then I switched to Ableton which I still use today.įirst of all I want to say that for a real beginner, FL is probably the best DAW out there. I started producing with FL studio in 2007 and did this until 2011. The major DAWs are all good, some are just better at certain things and some are more expensive than others, you just need to find what works for you (and hopefully this thread will help you find out what that is). Watch the tutorials online, download the demos, try both for a while (a few months at least) until you get stuck, try and get answers to your questions (letting you judge support and test your own resourcefulness) then see if either one has become your clear favourite. The MIDI and automation/modulation is easier to learn on something else once you already understand the concept thoroughly.Īnother thing worth noting is that FLStudio used to have a reputation of being a bit of a toy (from its visuals, branding and early limitations), almost all of those problems have been fixed or addressed to an acceptable degree but many people like to bash it not knowing how much it has improved. Once you've been going for a few years a lot of people tend to head more into using audio clips (as they will have a huge collection of things they've made/found that work in their style), this is what Ableton excels at. It also has a very crude but simple to understand audio clip sequencer which is very easy to learn on (especially visualising drum patterns). It's got a superb help file and there is a lot of very good youtube tutorials made by the company. FLStudio is trying to go down this road as well and will eventually catch up but it is unlikely that many will convert as Ableton was already established (and in something where reliability is key) before FLStudio began working on competing in that area.įLStudio is insanely fast/easy at working with MIDI and automation/modulation which is something a lot of people will use at first (because it's something you should have at least a basic understanding of and takes a while to learn). People who use it to perform live have to learn it and it will massively streamline their work if they produce in it as well as perform. One thing that gives Ableton a huge advantage (demonstrated in terms of its popularity) is how good it is for performing live. The thing is, they excel in different areas and peoples workflows change over time, you're just seeing responses from people who have needed/wanted to focus on things that Ableton excels at as they have progressed from novices. It sounds like FL is for newbies, while Ableton is for experienced users?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |