Ableton or FL Studio ?

[MathieuHouse]

Hey guys, thanks all of you for the help, i tried both and they are perfect, but i think i will pick Ableton 11

[moonwalker]

If you are looking to do a lot of midi composition, I'd go with FL Studio. The piano roll is the best out there. So easy to work with. It's fantastic.

Ableton is also amazing, but trying to compose in the piano roll is annoying and is ultimately what kept me going back to FL studio.

[kae]

I love Ableton's pianoroll. Not sure what makes FL studio's PR better. I know it miss absolute snap, which is annoying.
Fl studio needs to fix mousewheel actions. It behaves different in every window and in a non standard way. In playlist alt+wheel is zooming, in pianoroll it's velocity, in mixer it's fader/knob adjustment. And where is the wheel action for horizontal scrolling in any of them? I constantly slide patterns, notes, faders, velocities by mistake
FL is fun though. Quick results up to a certain point. But I always end up in Ableton because of all the small weird things that get really frustrating after a while.

[jaydog4]

fl studio is bombb

[Atlatnesiti]

Hello friends,

I'm interested in starting to produce electronic music, but I'm still unsure about which DAW to choose. As a beginner, could anyone suggest which one would be a good option for me?

Thank you!

Chalk and cheese…
Totally different.
Download demo for both and decide yourself

[smoofy]

I am using FL for a little over 6 years now. It supports my creative worklflow really well which was the most important factor when I started out. Now that I have advanced from beginner to intermediate I am bothered by its limitations. The record and edit audio function is very barebone and not very practical at all. I had to get Reaper for that task. It doesn't support ARA for Melodyne, I can't change the export sample rate. Small things that add up and the developers don't prioritize, as there are very few professional producers using FL and their target audience is impressed more by flashy new plugins. Many start out there but move on to other DAWs.

[liquidsound]

fl studio is bombb

Don’t step on it!

[Trancit]

...
Fl studio needs to fix mousewheel actions. It behaves different in every window and in a non standard way. In playlist alt+wheel is zooming, in pianoroll it's velocity, ...

That´s a bit of nonsense...

In both (Playlist and PR editor) CTRL+mousewheel zooms horizontally ...like it most other programms too...it´s just that the Playlist has ALT+mousewheel as zooming vertically because it makes sense there...
How often do you need to zoom vertically in a PR editor??? There it can make more sense to use the shortcut for something more meaningful like: change velocities...

Scrolling horizonatlly is done by hovering over the scroll bar and just use your mousewheel with any modifier...
To me it makes sense... but everybody is different so perhaps you should request this on the IL forums if you would like to have a seperate mouse modifier for scrolling horizontally...

It´s a matter of what is needed more in the single sections and not inconsistency... this is somewhat true for some keyboard shortcuts but actually not for the mouse modifiers...

[Trancit]

nevermind...

[lotus2035]

You'll only have to pay for Froopy Loops once though.

[donkey tugger]

I am using FL for a little over 6 years now. It supports my creative worklflow really well which was the most important factor when I started out. Now that I have advanced from beginner to intermediate I am bothered by its limitations. The record and edit audio function is very barebone and not very practical at all. I had to get Reaper for that task. It doesn't support ARA for Melodyne, I can't change the export sample rate. Small things that add up and the developers don't prioritize, as there are very few professional producers using FL and their target audience is impressed more by flashy new plugins. Many start out there but move on to other DAWs.

Well, I wouldn't fancy recording a whole drumkit with it, but for recording and editing vocals, acoustic and electric guitars basses, mandolin etc, and percussion it's absolutely up to the task if you know what you're doing. Been at it for years.

[smoofy]

I am using FL for a little over 6 years now. It supports my creative worklflow really well which was the most important factor when I started out. Now that I have advanced from beginner to intermediate I am bothered by its limitations. The record and edit audio function is very barebone and not very practical at all. I had to get Reaper for that task. It doesn't support ARA for Melodyne, I can't change the export sample rate. Small things that add up and the developers don't prioritize, as there are very few professional producers using FL and their target audience is impressed more by flashy new plugins. Many start out there but move on to other DAWs.

I am not really with you on these arguments...

1. record and audio editing functions are more barebone in FLS as the initial idea was completely different by using Edison which is an inbuild beast of a recording place and editing monster...
But because many people were complaining because of either being too silly or not understanding what oportunity Edison is they kept crying like you for standard less flexible options which get implemented now more and more but because of the time delay they are not there yet...

2. ARA is still not a high priority because FLS had since ages it´s own inbuild system which is good enough for most tasks...

3. Changing sample rates on export has for sure nothing to do with having many "pro customers" but mostly with audiophile nonsense... a trap many people getting into but which brings in 99.9% of the cases absolutely no hearable improvement in a DAW...
No wonder that this is not high priority for IL and it shouldn´t be for any DAW developer...
But even if... what holds you back to set the samplerate for the project to your target one, export and change it back again??
Yes, it´s 3 or 4 mouse clicks extra... but hardly a showstopper...

None of these reasons have anything to do with having more or less "pro customers" ... i.e. Ableton doesn´t have any of these features either and for sure even if you have just advanced to an intermediate (your words, not mine), you don´t want to tell me that they wouldn´t have enough professional producers as customers, do you???

I am with you that many started out with FLS and have moved on but I am pretty sure they didn´t do it mostly because of the from you named reasons...

They were just the things that came to my mind first. If you are happy with the process of recording into Edison and then importing to the Playlist good for you. Most of the users however where not so they thankfully implemented some direct editing options. Hopefully they'll expand from there.
Same goes for Newtone, if they integrated it and Edison into the Playlist, I woulnd't need to rely on Meldonye ARA. Cubase did it well with VariAudio. I didn't know that Ableton also doesn't support ARA.
What you said about sample rates is ignorant and I won't comment on it.
Honest question, have you ever worked with a DAW with proper Playlist Audio Editing Functions? I had no idea how complicated many things regarding editing in FL really were until I started using Reaper.

[Seelachsfilet]

im an ableton fanboy. the last time i tried fl was like more than a decade ago, im still calling it fruity loops! obviously by now with all the changes its a difference like night and day. that being said, i love everything about ableton. the whole modulation system is awesome, in my opinion it is kind of a modular system. i can easily map any LFO or step sequencer to any parameter of any vst. i also love the stock effects, using them more than other 3rd party plugs. delay, reverb, filters and what not. only instrument wise i am not using that much of ableton, i got used too much to certain vsts that i always come back to. also love the session/arrangement view mix. for someone like me whos making techno its just a super fast workflow to get some basic ideas down.

[francisfortevgm]

If you're starting, FL Studio might be a good option. As far as I have heard, FL Studio is the best DAW for beginners.

Not saying that Ableton do not have tremendous abilities, but in terms of ease of production/composition, FL Studio offers you the best way to achieve quick results with not so much effort.

The key word is that you want to "start" doing something, hence the reason of why I'm recommending you this path.

[kae]

...
Fl studio needs to fix mousewheel actions. It behaves different in every window and in a non standard way. In playlist alt+wheel is zooming, in pianoroll it's velocity, ...

That´s a bit of nonsense...

In both (Playlist and PR editor) CTRL+mousewheel zooms horizontally ...like it most other programms too...it´s just that the Playlist has ALT+mousewheel as zooming vertically because it makes sense there...
How often do you need to zoom vertically in a PR editor??? There it can make more sense to use the shortcut for something more meaningful like: change velocities...

Scrolling horizonatlly is done by hovering over the scroll bar and just use your mousewheel with any modifier...
To me it makes sense... but everybody is different so perhaps you should request this on the IL forums if you would like to have a seperate mouse modifier for scrolling horizontally...

The "more sense to use the shortcut for something more meaningful like" is what makes it inconsistent. I like consistency across all windows.

Everybody *is* different so I'm talking mostly subjectively of course, but horizontal scrolling is where FL is different.
Scrolling with shift+wheel is pretty universal. I think most apps I use does this (yeah, I'm sure there are lots that don't). So everytime I'm in FL I keep moving things around because it's a so incorporated method in my workflow across most applications.
I'm sure the wheel to change controls are something long time FL users are used to have, but an option to turn it off would be nice. Let the wheel control the window content, nothing else.

Well, enough rant about this from me
Bottom line is FL is awesome, but for me Ableton comes out at top. Less quirks on my way.
Both of them are excellent options for a beginner. Either/any option requires investing the time though.