Am I The ONLY Person Who Finds FL Studio EXCEEDINGLY HARD To Understand And Use?

[jancivil]

I reckon that most vigorous advocates of this program have little clue what I'm even saying [...] It's a very clunky design [...] It's nothing special

If you don't like it, then don't use it, but please don't go talking about it in factually incorrect ways like "it doesn't show dB level". I'd hardly claim

I didn't say that. I said the other things above it, though. I think you probably don't understand the context. They were in response to you telling me I had something wrong then, misconstruing those remarks.

And here you're snipping remarks that were specific to make them look like general remarks. After I said, whatever one likes about it, great.
For tempo work such as is really kind of essential for orchestral type of, living breathing music, it's nothing special, in context to someone that went 'Here's what it can do:' a piano-roll midi with a flat tempo track. Please do not go talking about what I said out of school like that. Thanks.

[SoundGoddess]

You can do a lot more with FL than with many other DAWs.

We're still waiting for you to prove this assertion, LOL.

I don't have to "prove" anything to you, I'm just basing this on my own observations and experiences. The opinion is my own, and YMMV.

Ok then all that remains is to show where you said this outrageous claim was your opinion. If this was not really said and you can't really back up the claim, you have to say it was a silly, elitist thing to say. Remember "the best artists don't focus on stroking their own egos but rather on creating music that forms emotional bonds with those who listen to it." LOL

LOL indeed...I read your paragraph and visualized this:

[SoundGoddess]

I reckon that most vigorous advocates of this program have little clue what I'm even saying [...] It's a very clunky design [...] It's nothing special

If you don't like it, then don't use it, but please don't go talking about it in factually incorrect ways like "it doesn't show dB level". I'd hardly claim

I didn't say that. I said the other things above it, though. I think you probably don't understand the context. They were in response to you telling me I had something wrong then, misconstruing those remarks.

Well if I misinterpreted what you said then I apologize.

[musikmachine]

This is what you can do with FL

Ok, if you want to press on with this area...
I was aware FL has a piano roll.

I don't know how that is particularly impressive. It's music that that sits there on a grid, as a quantized sounds-totally-like-a-midi, made-in-a-DAW thing. This is well illustrated by the flat tempo track.

And I would have to argue that this type of thing follows the limitations of the program - it seems to me like this is music made to conform to a flat tempo, which doesn't happen in reality - rather than the program being designed to meet more musical needs.
If you take any living, breathing, let's go with orchestral music, in the real world and compare it with the grid, here is an eye-opener.

here's the first few bars of Debussy, 'Rondes de Printemps'. Montreal - Charles Dutoit. I called it 3/8 & made the barlines conform to the music. There are 3 places with a ritenuto at the end, I don't have the score but 50, 49 is indicative...
I'll enclose a video with audio so you can judge. Except for that, and I didn't notice it really as I selected this as something with a steady pulse, it's more or less a steady beat, not terrifically rubato. 56, 62 to 59, seems like a lot of variance but listen to it. If I did that with a Pretender's song, such as the tutorial when this was a new feature, the same kind of thing appears, several BPMs inside a bar for a normal rock beat. This is how people are.



that's just the deviations at the barline. Inside the bar there is more. Music does not need to conform to a machine's clock. When it does, well that video you shared is illustrative.




That is what I mean by a program meeting more, well, musicianly needs. If we want to get into what FL is really good for, this isn't it.

I wasn't trying to impress anyone, simply trying to show what i can be used for, if you want to transcribe classical music you can but the intricacies of a violin solo may be beyond it's means but as said there is edison for that. I don't claim to know everything about it or advocate using FL above anything else; use whatevers suited to what you're doing. FL has a great piano roll which is important for what i do so i spent time learning FL Studios unique paradigm.

The way it handles certain things is unintuitive but there is usually a way to things with the included tools and it's improving with each version. Anyway i'm farked so i'll leave it there. No dog in this fight just trying to show that it's not for loops and people with learning difficulties and you can produce full arrangements with it but it does need improvements. However i doubt it will ever be the goto for classical composers!

[aciddose]

... but please don't go talking about it in factually incorrect ways like "it doesn't show dB level".

I didn't say that. I said the other things above it, though.

I think he may have become confused after I pointed out that fl does indeed show only a percentage for send levels. I threw in a comment about the arbitrary choice of the range of the parameter (125% = 1.9?) which I'm sure really made it hard on him.

In addition to that I pointed out the fact that the authors of fl have said that "decibels are stupid" and that "nobody uses decibels and they serve no useful purpose" despite an entire industry having used them for about one hundred years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

[SoundGoddess]

I wasn't trying to impress anyone, simply trying to show what i can be used for, if you want to transcribe classical music you can but the intricacies of a violin solo may be beyond it's means but as said there is edison for that. I don't claim to know everything about it or advocate using FL above anything else; use whatevers suited to what you're doing. FL has a great piano roll which is important for what i do so i spent time learning FL Studios unique paradigm.

The way it handles certain things is unintuitive but there is usually a way to things with the included tools and it's improving with each version. Anyway i'm farked so i'll leave it there. No dog in this fight just trying to show that it's not for loops and people with learning difficulties and you can produce full arrangements with it but it does need improvements. However i doubt it will ever be the goto for classical composers!

So if FL isn't the goto, then what is?

The main point i was trying to make really is that it's a high-end DAW that you can do a hell of a lot with, and a lot of people seem to dismiss it because of its humble beginnings, but frankly I'm impressed with what Image-Line has done as a company.

I'm currently making DirectWave patches from the free Philharmonia soundbanks because I find Sonatina too limiting, but I don't feel like FL is too limiting. I'm quite surprised at what it can do, and here I was losing years of my life not composing anything because I felt like the tools I had at my disposal were insufficient to even get started, when they're more than adequate for the level of skill I'm at now.

To your example specific example of a violin solo...why would FL be insufficient? For $99 I can get the eastwest solo violin pack: http://www.soundsonline.com/QL-Solo-Violin ... wouldn't that provide me with the tools necessary to achieve the elusive intricacies of a decent violin solo, at least as good as one could get without hiring an actual violinist and recording them?

I really would like to know, why it would be insufficient enough to allocate that money instead towards a new DAW? Extrapolating even further, why would another DAW for $499+ be a better investment than EW's composer collection bundle that starts at $799? Is FL really that limited, or is it just a matter of having better quality instruments?

I understand about having the right tools for the job...but sometimes it seems like the reason why some tools don't seem like they can do the job is that people haven't put in enough effort to learn them. In my case, I did not have the patience to learn GIMP, so I spent money on Photoshop...but if I had spent as much time with GIMP as I do with FL, I could probably achieve sufficient proficiency to still have a high-quality end result.

At the end of the day, I'd much rather do business with companies like Image-Line and KV311 than companies like Adobe and reFX...when you start paying more for the brand then for the experience then it starts feeling too much like "keeping up with the joneses".

[SoundGoddess]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

...that feeling I get when people in online forums assume I'm male.

[aciddose]

You're unspecified just like everyone else. It's a music forum, not a dating site.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-spe ... l_pronouns

[jancivil]

This is what you can do with FL

Ok, if you want to press on with this area...
I was aware FL has a piano roll.

snip - /several BPMs inside a bar for a normal rock beat/ is how people are.

Music does not need to conform to a machine's clock. When it does, well that video you shared is illustrative.

That is what I mean by a program meeting more, well, musicianly needs. If we want to get into what FL is really good for, this isn't it.

The way it handles certain things is unintuitive but there is usually a way to things with the included tools and it's improving with each version. Anyway i'm farked so i'll leave it there. No dog in this fight just trying to show that it's not for loops and people with learning difficulties and you can produce full arrangements with it but it does need improvements. However i doubt it will ever be the goto for classical composers!

So essentially you agree. Sorry if I overinterpreted your intent, there are two things I wanted to do there: one is I've bit my tongue some on seeing advocates of this thing or the other making equations that don't work - like I wouldn't tell people that Cubase will go at Live for its handling of scenes - and I think that bit is instructive about making virtual music, there is a very intuitive smooth workflow made to suit live-performance-quality, convincing-sounding things today. Since C4.

[SoundGoddess]

It's a music forum, not a dating site.

Oh I see. In your world women aren't important, unless you're actively trying to get laid. Good luck with that; I'm muting you.

[jancivil]

Everyone is assumed to be a he here except for Deb. That's the way it's been always, and that can never ever change.
I think you have to talk about sex as a female to be absolutely known as one here.

I've been in music all my life, and there is some value to that distinction being forgotten, running a band, say. Sometime you have to develop a good left jab, additionally.

[hibidy]

I'm trying to figure out which previously banned sock puppet would resurrect this thing just to purposefully get into it with others

[SoundGoddess]

I think you have to talk about sex as a female to be absolutely known as one here.

LOL that describes most forums online. I'm pretty much used to it

What I'm not going to put up with is the idea that gender only matters in the context of getting laid, so I should care less about being improperly classified because of some archaic, misogynistic literary device.

[worstcaseontario]

This thread has taken a truly odd turn.
I am new here.
Is this normal?

[spaceman]

FL Studio needs some effort to get your head around it if you're coming from a conventional, linear sort of host. You do get used to it though, and quickly so if your mind is used to patterns.

I'm terribly sorry for being on topic btw, I don't want to derail the derailment.