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Latest reviews of Image Line products

FL Studio All Plugins Edition

Reviewed By FireRaid20 [all]
April 14th, 2024
Version reviewed: 20+ on Windows

Let me mention the complaints in comparison to other daws that I see and why they don't bother me:

  1. FL doesn't play notes directly from the instrument track in the playlist like all the other DAWs.

    This is because if you need to add more notes from other instruments into a singular pattern, you can.
  2. The step sequencer is "too rigid".

    Every step sequencer I've seem is very rigid and simple.

    Use the legendary piano roll if you still have a problem, you can go stupid with that beast.

    Regardless, I still heavily rely on the step sequencer for my drum samples -I love it, it's quick and easy. (This is really biased though cause I mainly make music with 4-on-the-floor beats).
  3. It doesn't look professional/looks too kid like.

    Personally, even before the theme update was introduced, I do not think so at all. You show any simpleton any track mixer and their brains implode.

    Set aside from looks, the technicality and complexity goes WAY further than most, if not THE most with the introduction of patcher and its accommodating mods in recent updates.

Personally, I do not have any qualms against FL Studio nor the community it fosters. So, now I will mention what I love about it and why:

  1. Perpetual license with lifetime updates. Not to mention the archived older versions of FL available.

    You own it forever, and get free current updates always. YOU WILL FOREVER OWN WHAT YOU BOUGHT. Hate the new update? ROLL-BACK! Get and stay in your zone! This is an anti-"Forced Arbitration" product and I'm all here for it.

  2. Legendary piano roll with scale selection.

    Image-line made it easy for people who know little to nothing about music theory to be able to write some sick chords and melodies like myself. This is my biggest praise about the piano roll, but there are far too many great things to mention here about it.
  3. Incredible stock plugins!

    Here are the EPIC plugins that I feel have changed the music production industry simply because FL Studio exists:
    • Slicex.
    • Harmor.
    • Morphine.
    • Sakura.
    • Sytrus.
    • Patcher.
    • Maximus.
    • Edison.
    • Fruity WaveShaper.
    • Vocodex.
    • ZGameEditor.
    • Fruity Dance.
  4. You can buy it on amazon!

    I used my birthday money on amazon to get Fruity Edition. No other DAW is available on amazon, which makes sense due to soft and hard subscription models that basically all other DAWs have.

Everything that I mentioned liking about FL above is the reason I chose FL AFTER trialing Ableton, Bitwig, Reaper, and many others.

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Sytrus

Reviewed By viraven8 [all]
May 2nd, 2023
Version reviewed: fl 21 on Windows

THIS SYNTH NEEDS A SEQUEL.

This is a super old plugin that has definitely stood the test of time. This plugin has a high skill ceiling due to it's many features and poor outdated UI, but sounds crystal clear and is still very useful for producing just about anything a producer of today would want. I still use Sytrus alongside with newer VSTs such as Serum/Pigments, and will continue doing so as this synth is unique in the way it produces sounds. I really hope we get a Sytrus 2 one day that fixes all the outdated problems Sytrus currently has.

This synth has a fixed modulation setup that cannot be altered, and can be viewed by one of the icons in the top right corner. First a waveshape is generated additively through an Oscillator's wave editor. You can choose between analog sine/tri/square waves, and then edit those waves by shaping them with the tools provided. The real unique and amazing part of Sytrus is that you can then add non-Sine harmonics based on the waveshape you created. You can even wave-edit a 4 harmonic oscillator and then "convert to sine-harmonics" to further edit the spectrum, however this process becomes laggy with more than 4 harmonics (imagine if Sytrus 2 allowed for endless harmonic edits). No other additive synth I've seen can do this while ALSO being able to FM/RM between the 6 oscillators. After FM/RM, you can further edit the sound through 3 subtractive filter oscillators which are each equiped with a powerful editable Waveshaper. Unfortunately the modulation ends with filters and FX, so you cannot FM a filtered wave (FM8 and most other FM synths can do this). The FX are limited to a metallic reverb, a decent 3 layer delay, and a decent chorus. I personally don't care for VST fx as I usually use other fx anyways, but others might find this limitation a problem for sound design.

Sytrus really needs an update, after 10 more years this plugin probably should deserve 4 stars instead of 5. For now it certainly deserves 5 stars.

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Harmor

Reviewed By viraven8 [all]
January 18th, 2023
Version reviewed: FL 21 on Windows

My absolute favorite plugin. I really regret putting off buying this while using more recent versatile wavetable plugins such as Serum or Harmless via Image-Line's signature bundle. When I finally got this from the end of year sale, I stopped using most of my other plugins because my ears are too addicted to Harmor. The sound is more than just luscious, it is crisp additive ecstasy.

Speaking of additive, this plugin is advertised (as well as Harmless) as a combined additive-subtractive engine synthesizer. Coming from subtractive and wavetable synthesis, I was skeptical how Harmor could compete with other plugins. Why not just use Sytrus to add edited waveshapes and them FM / filter them through a matrix? Why would I care about a plugin that just "adds" and "subtracts"? I was gravely mistaken.

Combining additive+subtractive engines is actually extremely powerful. You aren't just adding harmonics and passing it into a filter, rather the filter is WITHIN the additive engine. These spectral filters are special as the filter has a custom and crude cut off that directly subtract the "additive" harmonics, which creates a clean, fat, and crisp filter sound. Normal plugin filters and post FX filters have various slopes and are imperfect are filtering the sound perfectly. Harmor on the other hand essentially acts as a pure additive engine, where you create harmonics (starting from the classic all over-tone Saw wave or any other custom variation of sine harmonics) and pass them through two additive spectral filters/two spectral resonators/spectral phaser/blur (additive preverb)/pluck (time-controlled spectral filter) and perhaps add more harmonics through the harmonizer and special distortion effect while controlling the inputs for all additive engines and effects. Not to mention the powerful remappable Unison pitch and Prism harmonic detune. Additionally, Harmor has a unique image synthesis, which basically takes an image or sound and creates a spectral additive wavetable. All engines including the image synthesis engine can by modulated and there are remap features to create custom additive engines. The power and crisp of sending additive wavetable into the other additive-subtractive engines elevates the possibilities beyond infinity. Harmor is it's own unique plugin, you have complete control over the power of sound by adding and subtracting harmonics to shape perfect crisp high quality sounds.

I use to use all kinds of other plugins, but I can't imagine I'll stop using Harmor soon, the possibilities of doing additive subtractive at the same time are limitless. I love this beautiful piece of art instrument.

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FL Studio All Plugins Edition

Reviewed By Chipi [all]
May 12th, 2021
Version reviewed: 20 on Windows

FL Studio is a tremendous piece of software to musically create any song in any genre imaginable. Those who lock it down to one musical style don't know what they are talking about. The interface is flawless, fast, lightning fast, intuitive and modern. One of the best on the market, above Pro-Tools, which is an old and boring dinosaur. Creating a good sounding track, cutting it and editing it is so easy in FL Studio! The editing and sound modules, compressors, limiters, etc. are excellent! When you first open FL studio it takes about 3 seconds, Mixcraft 9 takes three times as long, Studio One takes almost 30 seconds or more. There are many who say that a DAW has no sound of its own, but the FL Studio console lives when you add editors, compressors, etc., the sound shoots up to an incredible quality. In Mixcraft for comparison, it sounds flat and muffled, the same as in Studio One or Bitwig. In FL Studio the sound is fat, creamy and dense, modern and elegant at the same time, making the producers ears can have a close vision of what the final master will sound like. What I don't like about FL studio is that sometimes the mouse click behaves unpredictably, the synths you assign are not automatically associated to a channel and that's a bit confusing. Some of the built-in synthesizers are mediocre sounding and unintuitive, not all of them...Directwave sounds like Kontakt the same, Sytrus sounds incredibly clean and analog at the same time, it's like having a Korg Chrome inside FL Studio. FLEX is great for pads and atmospheric sounds. The Patcher where you can mix anything you can think of responds like a tool out of this world! The piano-roll that works here works wonders and there is no current DAW that can come close in its performance and versatility, a marvel for composing well and fast. If you don't use any DAW yet and you are thinking about one, don't hesitate with FL Studio, it's a dream DAW, it's perfect? NO, but it will make you smile in every song you compose, produce and listen to with it.

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FL Studio All Plugins Edition

Reviewed By psyyps [all]
April 17th, 2020
Version reviewed: 20.6.2 on Windows

I use this Daw from the version fl loops 4, .

I like this Daw, are interface is not frozen, these keyboard shortcuts, these synths particularly Harmor.

and Patcher to mix the VST is super powerful.
I also like the Fruity peak controller and the envelope controller to control our virtual instrument and effect
we have everything with this software, we can even make videos with ZgameEditor it's perfect.

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FL Studio All Plugins Edition

Reviewed By Music Bird [all]
April 7th, 2020
Version reviewed: 12 on Windows

I use FL Studio 12 to make all of my music. It has so many great plugins and sounds and lots of lovely effects and features that I feel like anyone would like.

Instruments: 100/100:

Sytrus is one of my favorite softsynths for synth sounds. It is good because it can do anything ranging from subtractive, to FM, to additive. Minisynth and GMS are good subtractive synths, as is SimSynth. DX10 is good for randomizing patches because you can get amazing results.

DAW features: 100/100.

It is full of features that many people would like.

I think FL is very flexible, it has tons of piano roll stuff like quantization.

Quality: 100/100.

I love the quality of this DAW. It has tons of nice features. I am able to use Synth1, Dexed, Korg Legacy, and others seamlessly.

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Sytrus

Reviewed By CyberJunkie [all]
June 1st, 2019
Version reviewed: latest on Windows

Great VST, great price.

Has a bit of everything and controls to modify/manipulate to the users desire in order to create an abundance of musical yumminess :).

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Harmor

Reviewed By sjm [all]
December 22nd, 2017
Version reviewed: 1.3 on Windows

Harmor's biggest strength is also it's greatest weakness, and probably why there are so few reviews for such an amazing synth. You can use Harmor for years, and still feel like a noob only scratching the surface. That makes writing a review difficult. How can you give an in-depth review, when you feel so green behind the ears? You only need to watch a few YT videos (e.g. Seamless) or chat with another user to discover yet another side to this truly versatile beast.

To start off with, Harmor is an amazingly capable subtractive synth. It might be billed as an additive synth, but you can drag in your own waveforms without having to worry about setting any partials. You can completely ignore that side if you want to. You get 4 oscillators split over 2 parts, and you get to choose the mix between the 2 oscillators per part, as well as the mix between the two parts. Where Harmor comes into its own here is in the modulation options. If you've used FL Studio or Sytrus, this part will probably make sense immediately. If you haven't, you'll probably have a bit of a learning curve. Essentially, you can draw any envelope curves you can dream up, including loop points, for pretty much any parameter. Or you can just draw a standard ADSR instead. You also get an LFO for each parameter that is much more versatile than just a simple repeated wave form. Again, you can draw your own and do weird and wacky things. All envelopes and LFOs can be tempo synced or retriggered globally when you play another note.

I find the UI intuitive with drop-down menus to select the parameter you want to modulate (there must be around 70 to choose from) and another drop-down to select the source (envelope, LFO, keymap, velocity etc.). It keeps everything uncluttered while giving you access to a huge number of options.

This makes it extremely easy to create organic and evolving sounds. You also get 2 filters to play with that you can route in series or parallel. And in addition to the standard filter options you'd expect, you can also draw your own filter and resonance curves.

Of course, you can instead create your own waveforms from partials. Under the hood, Harmor works exclusively with partials, which is where it shows its additive nature. If you load a waveform, it will be analysed and broken down into the corresponding partials (which you can view and edit if you want). Everything Harmor is doing is happening at the partial level. Your filter curves are actually being applied directly to the appropriate partials' levels, not to the final audio output resulting from all partials being added together.

Now you can manipulate these partials in various ways, blurring them together or using the prism function to spread the partials across the frequency spectrum so they no longer act as harmonics. This can create all sorts of metallic and weird sounds. Of course, you can modulate the prism and blur settings using envelopes and LFOs. To help you understand what is going on, Harmor has a visual representation of the partials that are playing, and you can see how they drift and blur with your settings. This is immensely helpful. I suggest that you type "can i haz moar view" into the preset description box to make this visual element bigger (hidden Easter egg).

It's very easy to make ugly sounds by manipulating the partials this way. Quite a few of the presets that use these features in more extreme ways fall into the "weird sound fx" category. But they are actually great for creating more metallic tones, where not all the partials are harmonics. The right custom filter curve, and/or partials, and you are good to go! At less extreme setting they can also add bite or grit to the sound.

There's also a unison function, again applied to the partials, as well as a hamonizer that allows you to clone partials and add copies elsewhere in the frequency spectrum, either using addition or multiplication. But there's no way I can list every feature you get. Suffice to say, you can spend hours twiddling knobs just to see/hear what happens.

But that's not all! You can load audio and image files to use as your sound source instead of the oscillators. The audio or image is analysed, and broken down into partials. This means you can play any audio as a pitched instrument, and manipulate the partials. It can be fun to load random images, but I've found that algorithmically generated designs can work really well - things similar to the classic geometric screen savers that just drew coloured lines to make interesting patterns such as spirals. If you load an image, you can actually see the image in the view on the right as your audio plays, which is neat.

There are various ways you can interact with images/audio (which are essentially treated as the same thing). There are various speed settings as well as options for how to map content to partials. Different options here give very different results. You can use envelopes and LFOs to scrub through the image/audio and set an offset/play position. In theory, you can set the speed to 0, and load an audio file consisting of several single cycle waveforms and use the time offset to scan through the waves. I've only done this with images, but I can't think why it won't work for audio too, essentially giving you wavetable scanning as well.

The last section I need to mention are the in-built FX. Harmor has a nice selection of FX, and my god, do they sound luscious. You get distortion, chorus, delay reverb and compression to choose from. And because Harmor can never give you too many options, you get to choose not only the order in which the global FX are applied, but also the order in which the different sections of the synthesizer are applied. So you can first apply EQ, then use the pluck, then apply the prism effect and then filter the result. Or filter first, then phaser, then harmonizer. It's crazy.

As you can probably tell, Harmor is a crazy beast of a synth, and I'm actually trying to keep this relatively brief...

So is Harmor for you? If you are a sound designer, most definitely. If you like experimenting and making your own presets from time to time, it's a wonderful synth to do that on. Harmor is one of those synths I sometimes fire up just to see what sounds will come out. You can easily futz around for an hour without noticing how much time has passed. But if you are a heavy preset user, and the thought of doing more than tweak the odd knob is a turn off, Harmor is not for you.

Because it's so versatile, you could probably use it to replace a large number of synths. On the other hand, nothing can come close to replacing Harmor. That's why it's my desert island synth. It's the one that can do almost everything. I can make beautiful pads, punchy basses, silky leads. I can make ugly metallic clangs, dirty gritty soundscapes. I can sample myself going "ooh" and play it as a choir. Backwards.

I think there are too many 10/10 ratings on KVR, but Harmor is the one synth I have that deserves it. Well done Gol.

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before and after on mixer tracks in fl studio 20
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