FL Studio 20.5 | Introducing a new free plugin FLEX

[phreaque]

What happened in 2018 that caused such a drop (for all hosts), just curious...

Several DAWs launched at that time caused disappointment (either expensive to upgrade or the upgrade doesn't worth).
NI Komplete started to support non NKS plugins.
The launch of DAWless Akai Force.

[Totolitoto]

Nope, as said in the previous post by ictools:

"8/5/2017 they made an improvement to their data collection system"

[mladi]

Then I did a little research of their relevance in the audio world over at google trends. It makes more sense now why they are giving away free stuff to make their software package more appealing.

Lets dig a little deeper perhaps Edward.



The reason we can give away FLEX free, including about 2 years development is because we can. Not because we have to.

So by your logic, you agree we are outselling all our competitors now. Looks like we can keep the lights on for a while longer.

Yep, he brought up Google Trends but FL Studio is doing very well compared to others. What was his point again?

[ictools]

Yep, he brought up Google Trends but FL Studio is doing very well compared to others. What was his point again?

There's a clear indication that their popularity is on a downhill trend and their claim of 30,000 downloads a day should reflect this, but it doesn't in their literature on their web site, that has been posted for years. A little clarity and honesty is in order here, that's all.

Also, try to remember that those graphs aren't accurate because of the change to their data collection system. So we really don't know how severe it is, we do know it wasn't on an uphill trend like the youtube searches have proved.

[bmanic]

Did you notice that most of the other audio hosts were on a downward trend too? In fact, the general shape of the data looks pretty much the same for all the DAWs you listed in the graph. FL studio is still doing better than all the others.. better than many of the others combined.

The only one with a slow but steady upwards trend seems to be Studio One.

[robotmonkey]

There's nothing wrong in IL putting FLEX in all the Fruity Loops versions as a freebie. They have added some nice stuff for free before to lower tier versions.

As far as the plugins itself is concerned, it's kinda ho-hum. Interface is Synthedit ugly/non-existent like all the recent IL vectorized plugins. It does sound ok, I guess, and has that very characteristic IL sound and patches that take up a whole mix. Overall left me totally cold.

I find other improvements in 12.5 much more useful.

[gentleclockdivider]

I think you two are a bit out of touch with reality. FL Studio is _the only_ DAW that I actually hear friends of my kids actually mention in school. I've never heard any kids or teens mention anything else. I think I might have once heard somebody ask something about Ableton live but FL studio is where it's at with the younger audience. Mostly because their heroes and idols are using it (or at least marketed as such).

It's also amusing to still see people think Image-Line are the "small guys".. the tiny company. They've been king of the hill for a ridiculously long time and nicely kept quiet about it all.

The image line hq's is literally a 10 min walk from my home , ( they used to reside in one the richest neighboorhouds in belgium aka st-martens latem ) , now they are located in the city .
But that is of course of no relevance , fl studio has never been king of the hill ,seriously
The only reason why kids talk about it it's because it's the most easily to grab cracked software , and once they are comfortable with the workflow ..they keep using it .
Once the kidos realise that studio one has a step sequencer (polyrytm and polymeter in one sequencer ) they wil just jump ship
I still defend my point they have not been doing any serious dsp development since gol left , the days that I.L. housed talent like arguru and gol are long gone .

[mladi]

Well, i have Cubase as main DAW but FL Studio with free lifetime updates is still also installed and i use it too. I'm okay with the updates. The thing is working.

[xbitz]

I would gladly use any other DAW only problem that FL(together with the integrated built-in plugins) has simply the best workflow currently ... but dear Image Line please please please kill the repetitive MIDI workflow from the piano roll, why I have to do

check of Nora, ANA2 and add the tools of the piano roll to it thx

btw. who cares with the DAW, song making is like the lottery if u have lucky ... then

bang choose and use whichever u like

ps. another help

[JunSev]

I still defend my point they have not been doing any serious dsp development since gol left , the days that I.L. housed talent like arguru and gol are long gone .

Since gol left they continue delivering nice updates and cpu optimization, whether you don't want to accept it is one thing, the reality is other.

By the way gol is not like the only figure that has developed in FL Studio, Reflex always has been there (this guy know how improve everything in FL), also shyniless, nucleon, maxx... But yeah continue in your blindness, I already suspected someone would mention gol is not there.

Actually, many of the cpu improvement, improvement in workflow, nice updates during these last years in FL, gol has been not there, and FL is still doing very well without him, some people even say better. So with all respect to him of course, but fl is not gol.

[bmanic]

I think you two are a bit out of touch with reality. FL Studio is _the only_ DAW that I actually hear friends of my kids actually mention in school. I've never heard any kids or teens mention anything else. I think I might have once heard somebody ask something about Ableton live but FL studio is where it's at with the younger audience. Mostly because their heroes and idols are using it (or at least marketed as such).

It's also amusing to still see people think Image-Line are the "small guys".. the tiny company. They've been king of the hill for a ridiculously long time and nicely kept quiet about it all.

The image line hq's is literally a 10 min walk from my home , ( they used to reside in one the richest neighboorhouds in belgium aka st-martens latem ) , now they are located in the city .
But that is of course of no relevance , fl studio has never been king of the hill ,seriously
The only reason why kids talk about it it's because it's the most easily to grab cracked software , and once they are comfortable with the workflow ..they keep using it .
Once the kidos realise that studio one has a step sequencer (polyrytm and polymeter in one sequencer ) they wil just jump ship
I still defend my point they have not been doing any serious dsp development since gol left , the days that I.L. housed talent like arguru and gol are long gone .

If Gol ever reads your comment he'll be quietly chuckling in his 5th Ferrari.

..and yes, I know he ain't with the company any more since forever.. this just highlights my point. IL have been doing extremely well forever. Much better than most of the "established" big companies. Only exception being obviously the mega corporations who have bought out the smaller original teams.

Seriously. You have absolutely no clue.

[bmanic]

Actually, many of the cpu improvement, improvement in workflow, nice updates during these last years in FL, gol has been not there, and FL is still doing very well without him, some people even say better. So with all respect to him of course, but fl is not gol.

As a customer of Image-Line since version 1.2 of FL Studio I say with no small uncertainty that things ramped up and improved vastly after Gol left. Weirdly enough they finally started adding some basics that users had been asking forever and the whole operation became a lot more professional on all levels.

Don't get me wrong, Fruityloops wouldn't be what it is today without Gol but it also wouldn't be what it is now with Gol. Could be it'd be better but I suspect it'd be way worse.

[gentleclockdivider]

That''s not my point .
I used F.L studio on and off since version 2.0 , and they majority of the effects/generators has either been third party licensed ( paul kellet now working for air tech amongst others ) , rephlex reverb , liquidsonics and mostly generators and fx by gol .
Then along came arguru who did some great stuff and sadly passed away too soon
Now there is maxx claster , and the dsp side of f.l studio has not seen any major developments aside from a few effects and a (imho a mediocre ) 303 emu
Workflowwise f.l. studio is and has been a great program , no doubt about that

[JunSev]

and the dsp side of f.l studio has not seen any major developments aside from a few effects and a (imho a mediocre ) 303 emu 

Not only you are trying to find something negative to say and create bad perspectives of everything, but you also are trying manipulate your own reality in delusion (gentleclockdivider?).

And that is not a mediocre emulation, is actually a very good one, here is the video of the FL version vs the original:



To be honest it does a good job doing what is supposed to do.

[gentleclockdivider]

Well maybe they did improve the accent , afaik it did not sound good when I demoed it