Design.... it's everywhere

So as I woke up the other day and began brushing my teeth I was thinking about what my next topic would be for my blog... As I bent down to rinse my mouth out something became clear to me. Design is everywhere. OUCH! For some reason I had accidently turned on the hot water and let it run for a while before burning the heck out of my mouth as I tried to rinse. I thought, hmmm.... "this has happened to me before. What if they put little l.e.d lights inside the nozzle that were activated by the faucet handles being turned to on? That way when the hot water is on the water will appear red and when the cold water is on the water will appear blue... if they're both on the water would appear purple, or whatever the combination of the blue and red would be." Now maybe I'm the only person that has had this happen, but probably not. Little things like this are everywhere. Even well designed things are constantly redesigned with minor improvements.

Shortly after burning my mouth I went to go have a glass of water with my daily vitamin supplements... Every different vitamin container has a different lid. Some pop open, some must be twisted open, some are child proof... they possibilities are endless.

Much of my day continued like this. Just noticing the differences between each thing I use or interact with on a daily basis. The reality is that before I even turn on my computer I'm faced with thousands of design issues that typically go unnoticed.

The New Face of FL Studio

Being an audio software/hardware enthusiast I'm constantly evaluating and wishlisting products that I deem essential to my collection. Typically, I'm most interested in the newest and most cutting edge products so when a friend recently told me to check out the newest release of FL Studio 7 I was skeptical. Fruity Loops was the program that initially sparked my interest in audio production and the like... But over time, with the addition of items like Reason and my Korg Triton studio, it just seemed inadequate... especially in regards to audio quality.


Having last used FL Studio before it was even called FL Studio.... like version 2 or 3, I was immediately surprised by general pleasantness of the new interface and the plethra of synths, effects, and miscellanious other tools. Within minutes I knew that this was not the Fruity Loops I had used in the based and prematurely written off.

One of the nicer new features is the Edison. It replaces the old wave editor and allows for fully integrated audio editing and recording. One of the biggest things I was turned off by in previous versions of FL was the inability to easily record guitar, piano, or voice... now it appears that this can be done quite easily and with much higher audio quality. From what I've read some of these recording issues had been addressed in previous versions but the Edison is a feature especially new to FL 7. It also appears the FL 7 supports all the latest Midi Controllers so I can finally use my MicroKONTROL to play my instruments rather than have to sequence them.

Though not new to FL 7, the mixer as well as pretty much every other feature has been reworked since I last used FL Studio. Wave editing seems much more intuitive and follows the conventions of industry leaders like Stienberg and Ableton. I also have to offer kudos to the makers of FL 7 for leaving some of the older aspects of the program unchanged such as the pianoroll. This was my favorite feature of Frutiy Loops years ago and it still looks exactly the same. Also, fruity loops still incorporates modified versions of older instruments such as the SimSynth.

Until I really get to try FL 7 out for a while I won't know how great the strides made in it's the development truly are but based off of what I've seen thus far I think FL 7 has finally become a very compentent tool for audio production. And since it's significantly more cost efficient than many other programs I use such as Nuendo, Reason, Guitar Rig, Ableton Live etc I very tempted to give it another shot.