What is your FrankenDAW? (i.e. what do you like about every DAW more than others?)

[Fornicras]

I just need FL Studio One. FL's browser, channel rack, and piano roll, Studio One for everything else.

Is FL Studio's Browser really that good? I've always found it kind of rudimentary even compared to S1's. My favorite browser is Bitwig's just because it's so powerful and has imo one of the most complete search, collections and tagging systems I've seen in a DAW browser (I haven't used Cubase but I heard it's media bay thingy was good too). Bitwig is the only DAW I use where I don't feel like I need to use a sample manager (I use ADSR Sample Manager). I just add the folder and it automatically puts stuff into my smart collections.

Agree with the Channel Rack, S1 has something like it but's nowhere near as nice to use. Piano Roll. I like the tools in FL, but I personally like the feel of S1's better.

I don't know if it is better than Bitwig's but it's way better than S1's. And it even got better with FL 21 while S1 6 did almost nothing about it. S1's browser is hard to read, slow to move around and clicking into folders feels I'm inside Windows' Explorer (which is really bad).

S1's sequencer mode feels like it is just there to say "we have it". Not fun or intuitive to use as channel rack. I think it's mainly because it's not easy to drag a sample and put notes in as is in FL Studio. And you need to use sampler/drum rack plugin to do that. And by the way official presonus sampler and drum kit plugins are thrash. Time stretching, unusual pops at the attack or release etc... I use XO and CR8 to handle samples.

Piano roll in FL feels smooth and easy to use and also looks gorgeous. S1's roll is clunky and tiresome to put some drums in. (unless it's in Drum Mode, which is still not as fast as FL IMO)
I almost never want to use Piano Roll in S1 and try to record everything into it, including the drums. While in FL, I can make a whole song quickly and without being annoyed without a controller.

[NikkiA]

If I could have Cakewalk's sequence/pattern editor, FL's piano roll, Ableton's ability to create generative setups*, Acid's time stretching and groove tools, all crammed into Reaper, that'd be great, thanks.

* Technically this isn't really much of a feature, Reaper has an equally - if not more - powerful FX chain system, it's just vertical instead of horizontal, the real issue is that Ableton has a wealth of mini devices that JS *could* provide but doesn't. Although ableton's ability to fork the FX chain (ie, have different FX after a drum rack, or on individual sampler zones, etc, would be nice.

[ralfrobert]

If I could have Cakewalk's sequence/pattern editor, FL's piano roll, Ableton's ability to create generative setups*, Acid's time stretching and groove tools, all crammed into Reaper, that'd be great, thanks.

* Technically this isn't really much of a feature, Reaper has an equally - if not more - powerful FX chain system, it's just vertical instead of horizontal, the real issue is that Ableton has a wealth of mini devices that JS *could* provide but doesn't. Although ableton's ability to fork the FX chain (ie, have different FX after a drum rack, or on individual sampler zones, etc, would be nice.

Have you looked for Reaper extensions that give you exactly what you want? Could be interesting...

[SamDi]

Reawigfruity Livebase Performer for me…

[apoclypse]

I just need FL Studio One. FL's browser, channel rack, and piano roll, Studio One for everything else.

Is FL Studio's Browser really that good? I've always found it kind of rudimentary even compared to S1's. My favorite browser is Bitwig's just because it's so powerful and has imo one of the most complete search, collections and tagging systems I've seen in a DAW browser (I haven't used Cubase but I heard it's media bay thingy was good too). Bitwig is the only DAW I use where I don't feel like I need to use a sample manager (I use ADSR Sample Manager). I just add the folder and it automatically puts stuff into my smart collections.

Agree with the Channel Rack, S1 has something like it but's nowhere near as nice to use. Piano Roll. I like the tools in FL, but I personally like the feel of S1's better.

I don't know if it is better than Bitwig's but it's way better than S1's. And it even got better with FL 21 while S1 6 did almost nothing about it. S1's browser is hard to read, slow to move around and clicking into folders feels I'm inside Windows' Explorer (which is really bad).

S1's sequencer mode feels like it is just there to say "we have it". Not fun or intuitive to use as channel rack. I think it's mainly because it's not easy to drag a sample and put notes in as is in FL Studio. And you need to use sampler/drum rack plugin to do that. And by the way official presonus sampler and drum kit plugins are thrash. Time stretching, unusual pops at the attack or release etc... I use XO and CR8 to handle samples.

Piano roll in FL feels smooth and easy to use and also looks gorgeous. S1's roll is clunky and tiresome to put some drums in. (unless it's in Drum Mode, which is still not as fast as FL IMO)
I almost never want to use Piano Roll in S1 and try to record everything into it, including the drums. While in FL, I can make a whole song quickly and without being annoyed without a controller.

Well to to each their own then. I personally don't like FL Studios PR and never have. It's slow and clunky for me since it uses a lot of what I consider non-standard keyboard shortcuts and modifiers. I can work ten times faster in S1 than in FLStudio.

I've never had an issue with S1's browser. At least not in-terms of performance. I'm on a Mac though. Don't know if there is a difference on PCs. My only real issue with it is that there are no smart collections or Smart Folders. Other than that I personally don't find the browser in FLStudio to be all that much better, but then again I don't like just a long list of folders that I have to constantly drill down through just to get to some snares. Either way I think they both aren't great though FLStudio is taking some nice steps with FL 21.

As for the sequencer. Do you mean the pattern sequencer? I wouldn't go as far as to say its just there but FL Studio was built around the pattern sequencer so it makes sense that its more complete than what's in S1. S1 is a traditional tape style DAW through and through and I don't think Presonus is particularly keen on straying too far from that. On the flip side that kind of workflow (traditional tape style sequencing) kind of sucks hard on FL Studio imo.

Either way I wasn't trying to make this into an S1 vs FL Studio debate. I just wanted to know what in particular about FLStudios browser made it "good" compared to other DAWs like Ableton or Bitwig.

[Raddler1]

The creativity of FL Studio combined with the summing engine of Logic. FLogic.

[kperry]

The creativity of FL Studio combined with the summing engine of Logic. FLogic.

Please shoot me now...

[whassup]

Just Reaper 9. Will do the job.

[BKSchatzki]

The creativity of FL Studio combined with the summing engine of Logic. FLogic.

I think Flogic is a Reaper theme, iirc. This thread is giving me a lot of inspiration; I'm test-driving Reaper and looking for ideas on how to mess it around.

[Zoiper]

Bitwig with a third view, tracker view, that’s basically Renoise

[xbitz]

The creativity of FL Studio combined with the summing engine of Logic. FLogic.

+1, I'm using Logic with FL theme and Voltage2 as Patcher (+ LFOTools in MIDI fx slots)

FLogic is the best (pro tipp https://github.com/sbmpost/AutoRaise able to change the focus between apps using only hovering, must have one)

btw. "Voltage Modular and Voltage Module Designer have been updated to 2.7.0 for Windows and macOS. The update includes various fixes and performance enhancements, macOS Ventura compatibility, and more."

[jonston1]

Rewire still a thing? If so, anyone do it?

[NikkiA]

Rewire still a thing? If so, anyone do it?

Some DAWs still support it for the time being, but Reason Studios themselves has dropped it completely.

[NAD]

ReapNoise, stability of both, everything from Reaper, plus the functional GUI that I really like from Renoise, and the tracker added to Reaper. Oh my!

Have you tried hackey trackey?

[ralfrobert]

ReapNoise, stability of both, everything from Reaper, plus the functional GUI that I really like from Renoise, and the tracker added to Reaper. Oh my!

Have you tried hackey trackey?

No. This looks great. Will try on the weekend. Thanks a lot.