I love FL Studio and have used it for years, but my patience is up with trying to get Kontakt to run in it without crashing. I have lodged enquiries with Image-Line but it went nowhere - adding to the mountainous pile of unresolved issue threads on their Technical Support forum.
My requirements:
- Windows 10 64-bit compatible
- Runs all VSTs without a hitch, especially Kontakt
- As intuitive as possible - something that rivals FL Studio's sequencer/Piano Roll
- Playlist handles midi and/or wav samples + automation
- Under $200 US preferably
- Futureproof: I like Image-Line "Free updates for life" ethos.
So what am I looking at.... Reaper? Studio One? FL Studio is all i've ever used since cutting my teeth on FastTracker 2 on the Amiga back in the day (1990s), so I'd appreciate some help here please...
(On a side note: I may consider sticking with FL Studio in the main but using a second DAW just to work in my Kontakt layers and bounce them back into FL Studio - a pain in the rear I know, but might be a workaround option)
Best alternative to FL Studio?
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- KVRAF
- 4720 posts since 26 Nov, 2015 from Way Downunder
Last edited by MogwaiBoy on Mon Jan 18, 2016 2:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
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- KVRian
- 943 posts since 11 Dec, 2014 from one rocky mountain to another
In terms of sequencers Renoise has one you might feel more at home with. - https://www.renoise.com/tools/step-sequencer-lauflicht
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- KVRian
- 806 posts since 18 Apr, 2011
From one FL studio user to another, I will just say:
I started on fl studio, and fell into the whole inferiority complex surrounding it and learned how to use a rediculous amount of other daws looking for one I liked better. It was a huge waste of my time. Every time you learn a new saw there is a significant adjustment time. If at all possible, I always recommend that people stay with their daw unless there is a serious reason to switch.
That said, other than Fl studio, I would reccomend studio one. It has a quick no frills interface with a lot of great features. I love the ability to easily edit multiple instruments in one piano roll. A few daws do this, but it's most elegantly implemented in S1 IMO.
I started on fl studio, and fell into the whole inferiority complex surrounding it and learned how to use a rediculous amount of other daws looking for one I liked better. It was a huge waste of my time. Every time you learn a new saw there is a significant adjustment time. If at all possible, I always recommend that people stay with their daw unless there is a serious reason to switch.
That said, other than Fl studio, I would reccomend studio one. It has a quick no frills interface with a lot of great features. I love the ability to easily edit multiple instruments in one piano roll. A few daws do this, but it's most elegantly implemented in S1 IMO.
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- KVRian
- 806 posts since 18 Apr, 2011
Also, if you are a dedicated piano roll wanker like myself, you will never find anything as great as FLS
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 4720 posts since 26 Nov, 2015 from Way Downunder
Thanks for the suggestion!
Holy hell the Renoise interface takes me straight back to thr FastTracker days
I am researching Reaper at the moment. Small harddrive footprint, free trial and cheap price makes it very attractive.
And yeah... I almost can't bare the thought of living without Piano Roll.
Holy hell the Renoise interface takes me straight back to thr FastTracker days
I am researching Reaper at the moment. Small harddrive footprint, free trial and cheap price makes it very attractive.
And yeah... I almost can't bare the thought of living without Piano Roll.
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 4720 posts since 26 Nov, 2015 from Way Downunder
Do Reaper or Studio One Artist have anything like Piano Roll?
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- KVRAF
- 35729 posts since 11 Apr, 2010 from Germany
Looking at your requirements, i don't think such a replacement exists. :/ Reaper will be quite a culture shock coming from FL Studio, and with the requirements you mentioned i'm afraid. But then, worth a look for you anyway i guess.
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 4720 posts since 26 Nov, 2015 from Way Downunder
I might give Reaper a shot - with a view to it being my go-to for Kontakt... then freezing/bouncing it back into FL Studio. In the meantime (*Helmet riffage*) I'll hold out for an NI or Image-Line update that fixes Kontakt - for me. I'm such a Fruity Loop.
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- KVRist
- 84 posts since 26 Jul, 2014
I wound up sticking with FL but I recently took a look around other DAWs myself, under $200 is tricky as a lot of DAWs are well above that. Though for your criteria it kind of works, Reaper and Renoise are two of the most stable programs out there, Reason is the only more expensive program I see mentioned with the same bulletproof reputation but that won't host Kontakt anyway.
Studio One seems like it is very intuitive(piano roll isn't quite as good but otherwise solid), but I have questions about it's stability and resource usage. It's also $500 for the full version
Reaper might be your best bet here, I didn't have the patience to dig all the way through it's customization options any further after I found out there was no simple way to disable or modify MIDI input velocity(my MIDI keyboard sucks) and instead you have to load a plugin for every instrument manually to do that(knowing Reaper there may be a way around this), but supposedly it's so highly customizable that you can fix practically anything to your liking. It's also only $60 and is pretty much the gold standard for efficiency and reliability, funny how programs costing nearly 10x as much also have 10x the memory footprint and likelyhood of crashing...
Coming from a tracker background Renoise is also something to consider. There are some things I dislike about it compared to other trackers even like lacking measure highlight or the mixer being tied to pattern columns so you can wind up with dozens and dozens of columns when your polyphony is never anywhere near that, losing the condensed overview that is so awesome about classic trackers(same reason I don't like sunvox or buzz that much, though I love the modular machine overview). But Renoise is the only tracker that is really modern and stable and somehow the entire DAW market other than FL got piano rolls horribly wrong, so there is no perfect sequencer out there. Renoise can also load plugins in a sandbox, so that if the plugin crashes the host doesn't.
Studio One seems like it is very intuitive(piano roll isn't quite as good but otherwise solid), but I have questions about it's stability and resource usage. It's also $500 for the full version
Reaper might be your best bet here, I didn't have the patience to dig all the way through it's customization options any further after I found out there was no simple way to disable or modify MIDI input velocity(my MIDI keyboard sucks) and instead you have to load a plugin for every instrument manually to do that(knowing Reaper there may be a way around this), but supposedly it's so highly customizable that you can fix practically anything to your liking. It's also only $60 and is pretty much the gold standard for efficiency and reliability, funny how programs costing nearly 10x as much also have 10x the memory footprint and likelyhood of crashing...
Coming from a tracker background Renoise is also something to consider. There are some things I dislike about it compared to other trackers even like lacking measure highlight or the mixer being tied to pattern columns so you can wind up with dozens and dozens of columns when your polyphony is never anywhere near that, losing the condensed overview that is so awesome about classic trackers(same reason I don't like sunvox or buzz that much, though I love the modular machine overview). But Renoise is the only tracker that is really modern and stable and somehow the entire DAW market other than FL got piano rolls horribly wrong, so there is no perfect sequencer out there. Renoise can also load plugins in a sandbox, so that if the plugin crashes the host doesn't.
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- KVRian
- 806 posts since 18 Apr, 2011
I found the piano roll in reaper atrocious. That's the main reason I gave up on it. Want to like it, but the piano roll was like the opposite of fl.
Studio one, on the other hand, I find to have a pretty fast one. Here's a tip that made it work a lot better for me (and more FL like): instead of using the pencil tool, use the arrow tool and cress ctrl to add notes. This allows you to move them around as soon as you lay them down. It may seem small but jts something that I grew accustomed to in fl. I don't feel like using music theory in the piano roll so i generally have to drag them around to find the note I'm looking for.
Studio one, on the other hand, I find to have a pretty fast one. Here's a tip that made it work a lot better for me (and more FL like): instead of using the pencil tool, use the arrow tool and cress ctrl to add notes. This allows you to move them around as soon as you lay them down. It may seem small but jts something that I grew accustomed to in fl. I don't feel like using music theory in the piano roll so i generally have to drag them around to find the note I'm looking for.
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Winstontaneous Winstontaneous https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=98336
- KVRAF
- 2598 posts since 15 Feb, 2006 from Another Green World
What is it about FL Studio's piano roll that people like so much?
I keep hearing about it.
I'm either a "play it live" or step sequencer kind of guy...maybe I'd be more into piano rolls if they were rotated 90 degrees clockwise to match all the pianos I've ever played. Would be much more appropriate to call them "accordions"...then you should have a bunch of chord buttons too. Maybe I'm on to something here!
I keep hearing about it.
I'm either a "play it live" or step sequencer kind of guy...maybe I'd be more into piano rolls if they were rotated 90 degrees clockwise to match all the pianos I've ever played. Would be much more appropriate to call them "accordions"...then you should have a bunch of chord buttons too. Maybe I'm on to something here!
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- KVRAF
- 5710 posts since 24 May, 2004 from []1
I used FL for several years; now I rewire my old FL projects into Studio One and have best of both worlds; works great
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- Banned
- 581 posts since 25 Jun, 2003 from Seattle
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- KVRAF
- 1524 posts since 6 Nov, 2012
I think its spot on between simplicity and complexity. You can draw, move or delete with a single click without changing tool. And it can chop, articulate, strum and flam existing notes.Winstontaneous wrote:What is it about FL Studio's piano roll that people like so much?
I keep hearing about it.
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- KVRAF
- 5144 posts since 3 Oct, 2013
... and can duplicate, resize(multiple), zoom-in-out(with memory), audition(chords too), slice (diagonally too) flip (vertically/horizontally) randomize notes(and their parameters) using only one tool(+ctlr/alt/shift modifiers) can be done with ghost notes too(in other generator), has a quite nice step recorder too(stepping with sustain pedal)
etc.
etc.
Last edited by xbitz on Mon Jan 18, 2016 1:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Where we're workarounding, we don't NEED features." - powermat