Once upon a time, making music on a computer didn't go much further than a few clicks, whirs and beeps that sounded something similar to C3PO, Johnny 5, and R2D2 on steroids!..
Now in 2009 it seems like anyone with any musical talent can jump on a pc or laptop/mac and make the magic happen!..
The question we all want to know though is, what is the best piece of software for the job?
Now as a producer myself, I am fully prepared to try any piece of software that promises me some form of drum machine with the option of a few synths and some fx.
I have tried everything from Reason to Sony Ericsson's poor attempt at a piece of loop software, 'Music Dj'. (They have never updated it or added any new instruments since day one! Poor :(
Anyway regardless of Sony's poor mobile attempt at bringing portable sound production to us, one program has dominated my life of music for the last 5 years and that is FL STUDIO (formerly known as Fruity Loops).
This piece of software started humbly in 1998 with version 1.0 only using midi and has developed rapidly and consistently till today where it is a fully fledged multi purpose Digital Audio Workstation, allowing users to manipulate sounds in an untold number of ways including chopping, slicing, re sampling and reversing. To go through all of the capabilities would just be ludicrous!
Currently FL Studio is on version 9 and it is by far the best piece of software I have used to date for music production with it's friendly and easy user interface, so easy in fact that you can drag a sound file off of your desktop straight into a channel and it is ready to go as a sample for full manipulation!
Making patterns with FL Studio is as easy as 1,2,3, simply drag your instruments into their channels, click on the little activate buttons in the drum pattern and hit play; you will have a simple drum loop inside 30 seconds!
FL Studio provides support for mics and recording, midi controllers, direct recording of live instruments such as guitars etc (you need a compatible sound card or I/O audio interface) and so much more.
FL Studio also has an unlimited capacity for expansion with its ability to use REX2 files, ogg, mpw, wav, midi and Vst's and more, so you can just keep adding more and more samples and instruments as you find them, wherever you find them!
When your done arranging your track FL Studio has a full range of FX and Mixing tools such as full band EQ's and Vocoders to Reverbs and Flangers which will add clarity and depth to your productions as well as bringing each individual instrument to life...
The Program has a huge range of subtractive and additive synths such as its famous 'Sytrus' and poizone and sawer, Morphine and Toxic bio hazard as well as a huge range of different other FM instruments too!
There are pads, drum packs, drum loops, vocals, Fx, strings, Rhodes, Pianos, Sax's, You name it, it's in there!
Aside from Fl Studio having all these great sound producing capabilities, it is also one of the cheapest DAW's retailing at just $49 for the standard 'Express edition' (It is the full version) Dollars which is a mere £29 in the UK! Plus you can get a further 10% off if you buy through an affiliate like myself! If you wish you can go through my site http://www.soulnectar.co.uk and get your 10% off now...
So in conclusion, FL Studio has the productivity, it has the power, and it has them all at the right price...NICE!
Check it out @ http://flstudio.image-line.com/index.html and download a full feature demo (The only limitation is saving)
Or buy it now at the 10% Discounted rate @ http://www.soulnectar.co.uk
Saturday, 24 October 2009
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