FL Studio 10: Weaknesses
by John Judd
Here is the follow up to my first review FL Studio 10 – Part 1: Strengths. It is written from the standpoint of a professional composer work flow and considers reliability, speed, interaction with 3rd party plugins, and more. Please read the first review for strengths, as here I will be focusing on the weaknesses of FL. {Note and correction: in the first review I mentioned that the Direct Wave sampler could be purchased for additional functionality. This is incorrect for the Producer Edition, which has the full version of the plugin.} After one has learned a new program inside out, there are features that either help work flow or issues that hinder it. Below are issues that I believe are from the latter category. One last thing before I start…..I love FL and it is my workstation of choice over anything else, so all critical comments are tempered by an adoration of Image Line’s D.A.W.
Time Signatures
Yes, you can set beats per bar. Yes, you can set steps per beat. No, you cannot automate it or change it in the middle of a track. I would argue that this needs to be fixed if composers will ever invest time and money into a program that could potentially cripple them while working with film.
Video Player
It plays videos, as the moniker implies. Got Quicktime? Nope. Even though this is usually what is sent to me for scoring from various sources, you had better find a fast way to convert Quicktime into a more Windows friendly format such as AVI. There are some existing bugs that have yet to be addressed: one of which is that automating time will yield an incorrect clock display if the track is started after the automation point. Lastly, lining your video up with the grid can be a challenge. My workaround was to add additional video on the beginning of the given footage to align things more easily. I’m guessing that most workstations have video capabilities that far exceed this player. Again, we need some help in this area.
Audio Importing
Just a small one, but it would be nice to be able to import AAC files.
Volume
Some of the volume displays are in percentages rather than dB, such as the channel volume knobs in the step sequencer and volume automation. I always thought it would be easier to relate to the concept of dB (as this is the industry standard) rather than percentages, since dB gives a more concrete idea about volume changes. That said, I have gotten used to it and did find that the use of percentages helped me rely on ears more than a preconceived idea of what volume change should be happening.
Audio Quantization
Audio quantization is done with Slicex, a tool that chops the audio according to transients. Despite this being an amazing and useful tool (which I use in every project), I do feel that it works best for drums/percussion. Guitar parts or other audio are a bit more difficult to deal with. It would be useful to have a quantization tool in addition to Slicex that is similar to what Pro Tools uses. Fewer tools are available to the composer working with audio and getting this audio to groove (with itself and other audio/grooves). Once again, the lack of a Pro Tools style quantizer/stretcher does make one rely on ears rather than tools….usually a good thing in the end, considering it is music that humans will listen to.
Platform
PC only right now, although I do believe that a fully functional Mac version is on the way.
Placebo
Lastly, FL users do seem to suffer from an inferiority complex as this workstation has yet to have arrived/be accepted into the mainstream. ‘Oh, you mean Fruity Loops?’…..yes, misconceptions about the quality/functionality of FL from non-FL users are probably more the rule than the exception.
Summary
In discussing these weaknesses, all of the above can be fixed. None of these are purchase stoppers, but they are big enough to warrant serious contemplation from anyone considering FL as their main D.A.W. These kinds of issues do take time to fix, so perhaps we will see some of these changes in FL 11. While we all know that every workstation has positives and negatives, perhaps it is the program with which you are most familiar that really counts. Knowing the program really well will help you overcome some of the weaknesses of said program. Haven’t tried the demo yet? What are you waiting for? Give it a chance and you just might have discovered your new home. And do stay tuned, as FL11 has some new live mode features that promise to be game changers.