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.