FL Studio 21 RC is out!

[Bartone]

But FL Studio 21 has much more than just new colors/themes!

Easier sample editing (volumes etc). New plugins. New browser stuff. tags.

And this is FREE if you own ANY older version of FL Studio... I mean FREE! 0 money! Compare it to Studio One's latest version upgrade prices and what do you get compared to what FL 21 brings.

[MJACau]

More Bing and...
* CPU - Improved CPU usage associated with Mixer processing improvements.

[Trancit]

... Do you have the same opinion regarding the clothes you wear?

You are right... I care much more about clothes being comfortable and functional than how they look...

Esthetics may not be important to you but does that give you right to decide what is important for everyone else?

I don´t!
I just name the obvious ... and I have the right too to stand for what I want... and I want meaningful functionality instead of toys!

I want the programm to come out of the stoneage Gol has brought us into with his stubbornness...

How many Text Editors have you seen where people can edit the GUI??
None??
How can this be if so many people write book after book in them?? I thought using default colors wouldn´t be a "comfortable and efficient workspace"??

How many Video Editors have deeper theming??
None??
How can this be if people working with them creatively to edit all the movies we see??
Especially those, whose main job it is to be creative on visuals...

How many proffessional music producers have you seen sharing their DAW which was heavily different to the default theme??
None??
How can this be??
And none of them I heard ever whining they couldn´t be creative because they need the meters to be in light blue to dark blue instead of yellow to orange...

Where are the "esthetics" here which are so important?? Somehow it doesn´t affect the people who just use software to be creative

Perhaps it´s time to understand that toys like that are nothing but time killers... it kills your time as when toying around with colors and looks you cannot create some music... but that´s actually the purpose of this programm... not to give you a toy to play around...
It´s a creative music programm and not a paint box for the kindergarten...
It kills time of me and others who rather like to have some advanced functionality/stability having to wait for further development until you kids have got your toys!

It´s not important how a programm looks like as long as it doesn´t cause eye cancer...
It´s important that it offers you the functionality that you need to get your work done...

And that, one can hardly state about FL Studio atm compared to it´s competition...

We are not able to select a few tracks and adjust their volume together without destroying the mix relationship between them... but you prefer changing colors...
We don´t have groups in groups... not to speak about grouping in the mixer... and you tell me colors are more important??

ARA...MPE... more than 125 mixer channels... more than 10 inserts... Midi latency compensation... visual latency compensation... user keyboard shortcuts... user macros... better modulation... better Midi implementation... changes in the stupid PPQ behaviour... scale highlighting per project... better zooming (especially when reverting zoom) ...you name it!

FL Studio lacks of for sure hundred features all others have already which can really help producing... not to speak about what´s broken and need workaround after workaround ...
And instead putting the time and effort into catching up we are better off to toy around with some colors to make it "comfortable and efficient workspace"??

Oh... how smart we are... nothing is really working well and we fail with many things but at least we are looking great while failing??
Great philosophie... but I am sure it doesn´t help!

How many enthusiastic craftsmen have you seen, who enjoy more to sit at home and paint their broken tools pink instead of getting what they need to be efficient again??

You blame me I would want to decide what´s important for other people??
The same goes the other way round and I can accuse you and your kind to hinder people liking to work seriously with the programm to get the features we need and want with your ridiculous nonsense!

[Unaspected]

My right eye hasn't twitched for years but it's suddenly started doing it again.

[Bartone]

... Do you have the same opinion regarding the clothes you wear?

You are right... I care much more about clothes being comfortable and functional than how they look...

Esthetics may not be important to you but does that give you right to decide what is important for everyone else?

We are not able to select a few tracks and adjust their volume together without destroying the mix relationship between them... but you prefer changing colors...
We don´t have groups in groups... not to speak about grouping in the mixer... and you tell me colors are more important??

ARA...MPE... more than 125 mixer channels... more than 10 inserts... Midi latency compensation... visual latency compensation... user keyboard shortcuts... user macros... better modulation... better Midi implementation... changes in the stupid PPQ behaviour... scale highlighting per project... better zooming (especially when reverting zoom) ...you name it!

These are ALL great things and they would be a HUGE help to make FL Studio so much better. I totally agree.

[Bartone]

One thing I am little bit confused: FL Studio did have themes in history… then FL studio didn’t support themes anymore - and now the themes are back and they are like a big new thing?

[Unaspected]

One thing I am little bit confused: FL Studio did have themes in history… then FL studio didn’t support themes anymore - and now the themes are back and they are like a big new thing?

Skinning was never officially supported - Then it was absolutely not supported (after FL11) - Then Gol left and now themes are a thing.

[Dionysos]

For me it´s a big difference if further development is on halt for 2 days or half a year!

...

without blocking the development completely and keeping the whole staff busy

You're throwing a hissy fit based on assumptions that have no grounds in reality. Theming is being worked on by a single dev, and in no way is it holding up all other feature development.

The fact that lots of bugs are being reported is good, it means they'll be fixed and soon theming will be in the same stable condition as toolbar customisation is, and you can use it or ignore it if you don't need it. Stop whining.

EDIT: It's worth mentioning that theming is not just for aesthetics, it's a HUGE boon for accessibility, and the many people with visual impairments that may have had trouble using FL due to its in some places very low contrast UI. Your eye sight is probably not going to get any better with age either, is it?

[Dionysos]

One thing I am little bit confused: FL Studio did have themes in history… then FL studio didn’t support themes anymore - and now the themes are back and they are like a big new thing?

FL's UI used to be largely based on bitmaps up until v12, so it could be skinned fairly easily by swapping out the graphics in the program folder. From v12 onwards, changing the theme required hacking the app's binaries, which understandably was discouraged.

[Teksonik]

...(Reaper's full on skinning for instance) so adding a theme feature to FL Studio is "keeping up" with other DAWs.

This is a complete different topic... Making a DAW look completely like something else is quite different to toying around with some colors...

No it's the same subject. It's all about user customization capabilities and just a matter of degrees between color changes and full on themes.

Second was FLS the absolute pioneer about this kind of color scheme which every other DAW has taken over because it was so popular... so it´s hard to believe for me that some color changes were really that necessary...

Nonsense. Most DAWs don't look anything like FL Studio's tilted to green color scheme. Please try to understand the difference between necessary and desirable. Could I keep working with FL Studio's color scheme? Yes of course. Am I happy that I now have choices? Absolutely yes. Just because you don't understand the value of user customization doesn't mean we are all so myopic.

The reason this topic was so hugely requested is a different problem of FLS...
Too many users which prefer toying around instead of working with it seriously

More utter nonsense. It's because people want to work in FL Studio that they want the ability to customize the workspace to their personal preferences so they can work more comfortably.

But FLS was always appealing on the eyes... again there was logically no need for this mess which happens now...

You're projecting your own opinion as fact. Although it's been my DAW of choice for over twenty years FL Studio was never visually appealing to me. I've tolerated it and now I don't have to. That's a win to me. The new theming is not a "mess" and quite frankly it's coming along very well.

You really want to compare an addition which was implemented very quickly and since then has never caused any trouble with what happens now in the FLS forums??

What are you talking about? All I see is people contributing their themes and yes some of them are going to be eye searing ugly but to their creators they are appealing. To my understanding ZXDunny is doing the theme work and if you've been paying attention you'll know that several new features and plugins have been added to FL Studio 21 so work has not stopped just for theming.

You're way over dramatizing a simple feature addition that you are free to ignore. I have no need whatsoever for more Mixer Strips but some people have been asking for them for years but if more strips get added I won't go on another forum and cry about all the "wasted time" adding a feature I don't need as you have done here.

For me it´s a big difference if further development is on halt for 2 days or half a year! And we will be lucky if they will be able to sort this out in really "just" 6 month!

Again more nonsense. They have made great strides in just a couple of months. There is nothing to "sort out". Color themes work fine here and take mere minutes to set FL Studio to look like we want.

They opened pandorra´s box here and I am sorry... somebody for whom the look of his/her DAW is more important than actually using it is not a good reference to take for further development decisions.

You're failing to grasp the fact that it's possible to set up a custom color scheme in a few minutes and still want to use FL Studio, perhaps even more, because of the new custom interface.

It's not an either/or proposition.

I cannot remember having seen any YT videos from people actually releasing music that they have shown their DAW in any different look than the default!

I cannot emphasize enough that your personal YT views are only a tiny fraction of what's going on in the real world. Most people are busy making music and not silly YouTube videos.

It´s quite rare that all people being busy to use the software for it´s purpose do not need to change any colors or skins to be productive and find their DAW a comfortable and efficient workspace!

Really? I've made a new color scheme and find it has enhanced my appreciation for all the time that I....still....work with FL Studio every day. You're failing to understand that making a new color scheme is at best a five minute task and then you're right back to making music...and enjoying it more. You just need an open mind and a little creativity.

FLS was already very comfortable and equally efficient as it was before... without blocking the development completely and keeping the whole staff busy with bugs/problems and millions of feature requests which detail they want to change the color on now...

Again you're projecting your own opinion as fact. Obviously other people disagree or themes wouldn't have been such requested feature over the years. The "whole team" is not working on theming. Just look at all the new things that were added to FLS 21 for proof of that fact.

Look, it's really quite simple, you're mad and acting like a spoiled child because a feature that you don't understand was added and you didn't get the toy you wanted for Christmas. Then you came here to cry about it and insult everyone who is enjoying the new customization abilities.

That's the nature of lifetime free updates. Sometimes you get what you want and sometimes you don't. I didn't get my number one request granted, a feature that is so important to me it's caused me to work in Bitwig more but you don't see me complaining that other features and plugins I don't want or need were added.

You take what you get and either use and enjoy what was added or you simply ignore the new things. What is not needed is for you to come here and trash users and Image-Line over a simple feature that you don't understand.

To ridicule people who are enjoying the new themes is arrogant, abrasive, and quite frankly incredibly immature and that's why I'm pushing back against your posts on the subject.

[sQeetz]

edited to: FL is great

[Trancit]

...To ridicule people who are enjoying the new themes is arrogant, abrasive, and quite frankly incredibly immature and that's why I'm pushing back against your posts on the subject.

This discussion leads to anything... you think you are right... I think I am right... but this one I want to correct (even if I think it´s a completely unnecessary feature but well... as you said... that´s my opinion...):

At the very end I don´t blame the people... I blame IL for priosizing such a feature over the hundreds and probably thousands of more urgent and important things which imho need to be done before they should start to concentrate on gimmicks...

So much of this whole system is broken ...I just stumbbled over a nice feedback loop trap which can occur very easily and I do honestely not even remember in how many shortcomings, broken routings, unnecessary workarounds and nasty bugs I fight against over and over again...

If you're sitting in a house with massive rain coming through the roof, you don't go out and get the paint to repaint the walls...

You start to repair the roof... but they say f**k the roof and rather paint the walls and let all the neighbours tell them which colours should be in which corners...

And after painting, when some neighbours say they would rather have the other colour, then they just do it all over again...
But the roof stays as it is... sorry... but that´s ridiculous!

And let´s say it´s just one dev doing all this stuff (while then I wonder why many others are responding to bug reports/comments of this theming nonsense) I don´t want even to think about what he could have created meaningful in all this time as nobody can tell me that was something easy and quick to realize... and it´s still far from over...

To cut a long story short... the child has already fallen into the well and I can only hope that this nonsense will come to an end at some point and we can turn to more meaningful things again.

These are my last words on this topic... I just wanted to get sure you don´t get the feeling you would have won anything...

[apoclypse]

For me it´s a big difference if further development is on halt for 2 days or half a year!

...

without blocking the development completely and keeping the whole staff busy

You're throwing a hissy fit based on assumptions that have no grounds in reality. Theming is being worked on by a single dev, and in no way is it holding up all other feature development.

The fact that lots of bugs are being reported is good, it means they'll be fixed and soon theming will be in the same stable condition as toolbar customisation is, and you can use it or ignore it if you don't need it. Stop whining.

EDIT: It's worth mentioning that theming is not just for aesthetics, it's a HUGE boon for accessibility, and the many people with visual impairments that may have had trouble using FL due to its in some places very low contrast UI. Your eye sight is probably not going to get any better with age either, is it?

While I don't care about theming myself you point about accessibility is a good one. One thing that a lot of software developers don't take into account is accessibility, be it a high contrast mode for the visually impaired, a mode for those who are color blind, or a scale mode for those with with aging eyes. So even though I'm not personally going to sit there messing with colors in my DAW, I do appreciate that there are people out there in which this is absolutely necessary to have a good experience.

[Trancit]

nm

[careyletendre]

I am so tired of people whining about what a DAW doesn't have instead of enjoying what is does have. Far too much cynicism and negativity.

FLS is a fantastic piece of software. And so is Cubase. And so is Reason. And so is ...