I'm currently in the process of switching from Fruity loops, which I have used for about a year and a half, maybe more, to Ableton. This has been result of my friend urging me to try it out, and almost right away, I have noticed ableton seems to be much more powerful as far as the native effects plugins and a few other things. Producing vertically is what has me STUMPED. My friend is gonna show me around thouroughly tomorow, but I just wanted to here some opinions from anyone who has used fl and ableton. FL is so fucking easy to navigate through and so easy to structure a track in, and the interface of the mixer is awesome (in my opinion). I understand Ableton is a very powerful DAW, but it has a bit of a "learning curve". Do you think ableton is more powerful than FL, do you perfer one over the other, if so why?

I've always stuck with FL, hasn't failed me yet.

it's going to be said eventually so I'll just say it first, it doesn't really matter what we think and you should use whatever works best for you. though it might be good to hear some opinions from either side so you get an idea of what ableton can do that FL can't and vice versa, though that's probably not a very long list of things.

It is totally down to the user (you in this case)..

Personally I've tried FL a few times now and could never get my head round it. Ableton I found it easy to use right from the start and have used this for a good few years now. Im not using it because I think its a more powerfull Daw but because I like it, I find it easy to use and it suits me, it works well for me. I prefer the way it looks as opposed to FL, which tbh I've never liked the look of.

I'd say FL has more of a "learning curve" as you put it but thats me. Can you see what I'm getting at here??

Really? I've had the opposite experience. FL is piss easy to use.

I've the same opinion about ableton

Its a personal thing can't really explain it.. I did briefly try FL again in the last year or so, not because I wanted to switch but through a couple of offers to collab I had at the time from FL users. I gave up on it in the end just didn't have the patience to start from scratch with a new daw, it was taking me ages to do simple tasks and it just pissed me off in the end.

I could never wrap my head around FL Studio either. I took to Reason real quick. And Ableton definitely took some getting used to.

Each to their own I suppose.

FL for me is the quickest and easiest workflow. Everything is also very intuitive once you're used to it.

When I work on ableton I spend way too much time looking for the things that I need. While this will get easier over time, the slowdown is a really hinders me.

I've considered changing to ableton plenty of times. There are aspects to it that I love. But I cant get away from how easy FL is for me to use.

___________________
Its beer appreciation month. Send me beer, I'll appreciate it.

Soundcloud

quote:

Originally posted by Andy28 I gave up on it in the end just didn't have the patience to start from scratch with a new daw, it was taking me ages to do simple tasks and it just pissed me off in the end.

Yeah I've given Ableton a shot before, I realized I'd have to spend upwards of a few months just to get used to the program and to be able to do what I can already do in FL.. didn't seem worth it and it was frustrating as all hell.

FL was the first DAW i used, and I found it was very easy to learn, and best of all very fast at getting ideas down.

I switched to Ableton and the learning curve was not to bad, but its a totally different DAW work flow wise.
Also ableton is a CPU + ram whore.

Stick to what your comfortable with (or get logic ) haha jk

quote:

Originally posted by Pagan-za Each to their own I suppose. FL for me is the quickest and easiest workflow. Everything is also very intuitive once you're used to it. When I work on ableton I spend way too much time looking for the things that I need. While this will get easier over time, the slowdown is a really hinders me. I've considered changing to ableton plenty of times. There are aspects to it that I love. But I cant get away from how easy FL is for me to use.

I here ya on that one lol. Anyway, thanks everybody for your input. I obviously feel much more comfortable with FL but I think im gonna learn Ableton aswell

quote:

Originally posted by sicc I here ya on that one lol. Anyway, thanks everybody for your input. I obviously feel much more comfortable with FL but I think im gonna learn Ableton aswell

Very smart of you deciding to learn Ableton aswell cause it's a sick daw.. it's exactly what I did.. I worked in both for a long period, meaning my transition period was long but now I only work in ableton.. it's swirl-tastic workflow wise.. I just don't have words for it.. There's nothing you can't do with ableton.. Also I started to dislike the "no-boundaries" thing with the new playlist in FL cause it halted my effectiveness.. In my opinion a daw only has benefits from having boundaries and strict rules to the playlist.. If you can throw clips wherever and automation clips whatever, things just tends to get messy and confusion arise... The Arrangement View in Ableton is very well laid out and clever as opposed to FL, and all automation to all plugins already has its place, easily accessible on the corresponding track... In FL it's just clumsy if you're to automate several things on one synth for example, it alone would take up several lanes in the playlist (if you don't want to stack them all on top of eachother that is)..

Also I remember before, the session view in Ableton used to scare me but now its just unreal workflow wise.. It's the core thing about Ableton that makes it the unique and user optimized daw it really is. There's just something about Ableton that makes you click alot less, than if you were to do the same thing in FL.. Also dragging plugins around and making complicated plugin chains, serial or parallell, is a pleasure in Ableton. You can't even drag a plugin around in FL.. You'd have to save plugin preset or mixer channel preset and open it on a new channel or plugin, which takes several more clicks and keyboard typing than just dragging a plugin around where you want. All this workflow and live capability of Ableton makes it a CPU hog, but thats absolutely worth it if you have a CPU to tackle it

Btw it can sound like I'm bashing FL here.. It has many good features to it aswell, but I'm just stating some benefits of Ableton over FL for the thread starter to get a grip I've used FL for 6 years myself. It's a beatiful DAW.

Last edited by lenieNt Force on Sep-12-2011 at 17:37

For FL I always put all my automation into one pattern (the first pattern). It just solves all my problems. Whatever I want to automate, I right click on it and with pattern 1 selected, I click edit automation. For VST's, you will have to click on the top left screen of the VST window, browse all automation, and right click on it to edit.

Once again, it's the workflow, but try different ways of doing your track and when you find something that works, stick with it.