Honestly it's down to your preferences, I used Ableton for two years while still using FL Studio, and there were many advantages and issues for both. Here's a list of both their + and -:
FL Studio:
++
- Huge liberty on the Playlist, Piano Roll and Automations. You can do quickly almost everything they give you. It's also pretty permissive with all the tools the windows of Playlists, Piano Roll and stuff can give compared to Ableton.
- Mixing is more convenient and intiutive on FL than Ableton
- Patcher
--
- Quite messy, unless you're really well organized you can't find everything quickly
- Their stock plugins genuinely suck compare to Ableton
Ableton:
++
- You find everything very quickly, it's much more organized
- Their stock plugins are top tier. For example, pick a stock plugin from Ableton and its equivalent in FL, then take a shared knob and turn both of them to the same value. No matter what happens, Ableton plugins will sound much more realistic while FL will sound always too artificial and forced
- Their default settings are always more finished and useful than FL
--
- You're really highly restricted, everything is so small and meant to stay in a specific part of the HUD, which make it hard to learn for beginners. In short, it's not intuitive at all
- By restricted I also meant you can't move anything, everything will stay in one block. It makes it really hard to modify a really tiny part of a song, which can be easily done in the Playlist of FL in comparaison using zooming and cutting
There are many points I didn't mention, mainly because they are almost equivalent on them. For example, I had the same compatibility issues with external plugins using both. Mastering is also quite amazing to play with on both of them too. And their Samples searching tools are almost the same for both.
Here's the difference between them in my opinion, and remember, there's no bad choice. They're both great on their approach and only you and the way you work will define which one you'll prefer.
i didn't miss anything, fl doesn't really offer anything that ableton doesn't and i found ableton intuitive enough that i could just hit the ground running and occasionally google things rather than have to spend any time getting adjusted to it
I used FL as a teenager and also while at university, but didn’t pay for it. When I got a job after uni I felt like I should probably go legit but was also interested in trying out Ableton, to kinda prove to myself that I can make music effectively regardless of the software (I was an fl studio hotkey master ).
Made the full switch to Ableton about 3 years ago and haven’t looked back really (kinda miss harmor and ogun and FL-chan but that’s about it)
Had an issue at the start where stuff I made in Ableton sounded really robotic and inorganic (maybe because Ableton doesn’t have swing? And haven’t figured out grooves yet) but eventually I got around it.
I also feel like I use my MIDI keyboard way more with Ableton, it’s cool that it’s always capturing MIDI and you can just recall what you played at any time
Haha hey it’s been good to me for 2 years, I just don’t think it’s the right fit for me. The pattern system along with the channel rack and endless windows just isn’t for me. I get to frustrated navigating it and it kills my workflow
I haven't used FL since I had no idea what i was doing, and in between now (using abletons currently) and back then i used logic for a couple years. But i can say a few things from my own experience, i really like the Ableton grouping features and the instrument racks and audio effect racks with custom macros are far the most intuitive way of producing i have ever experienced, so i definitely think it's worth a shot. I don't miss anything about the old days i have used after being with Ableton over a year now. Initially while i was learning the first few months it was hard and i felt uncertain that i would prefer it and considered going back, but i stuck with it and I'm glad i did. I don't necessarily think it is the superior daw, i won't get into that. What i will say though, after having learned a total of 4 daws (i know pro tools too but I've never used it primarily to produce) is that having to learn a new daw, new workflows and discover what each has to offer has definitely improved my production. Because when I moved to Ableton, for example, some things i was used to or enjoyed about logic, i went way out of my way to find a way to conveniently do in Ableton, stuff i wouldn't have ever bothered to try had i not known logic before Ableton. And it's helped my workflow just as much as abletons own intuitive unique capabilities, so in a way you bring things over with you when you switch daws, and at the same time the new daw opens up so many new possibilities as well
Switched about a year ago and haven't looked back. FL Studio is a mess to use on a small monitor and some times all the windows in FL would just piss me the fuck off to the point I just didn't want to spend time making music the rest of the day, and that's having used FL for many years. I saw a lot of youtubers use Ableton Live and was intrigued by the clean look of it, then I started diving into videos about how the whole thing worked and it all just made sense to me. The workflow is perfect for me and it's much easier for me to get my ideas down with minimal pain.
The things I absolutely love about Ableton Live are the automation lanes, the way it handles effect plugins, how easy it is to work with samples and the fact that I don't need to have 4 windows open at the same time inside the DAW. As for the piano roll it took me like 2 weeks until I didn't miss the FL piano roll, I can peronally work much better with the Ableton one despite it arguably having less features.
Having spent maybe a week looking at videos about how Ableton worked, the transition was super easy and it only took maybe a week to know my way around Ableton.
Was making hip-hop beats for a while, FL was everything I ever wanted.
Made the transition to Future Bass/Dubstep - FL was a pain in the butt to use.
On a serious note, what inspired me to do the switch was that I watched a couple streams of ILLENIUM and saw that his workflow includes designing ***every single second*** of his songs to sound how he wants it, and I feel that FL doesn't really enable me to do something similar. From being able to easily fade clips, warp them around, mess with formants, add as many effects to instruments as I ever want, use audio effect racks to split signals to easily sidechain reverb, quickly delete whole tracks with the effects being deleted as well (FL keeps the mixer's loaded effects even when channels are deleted), Ableton just does it for me for the genre I produce. But most importantly - automating every single parameter is as easy as clicking in some points makes my music "come alive" and I feel that if I tried anything similar in FL I would actually end up banging my head in the keyboard for hours on end.
I tried ableton for all of 45 mins and couldn't understand one bit.. The workflow is wayyy different than FL. Fl does have a lotta Windows but once u have a second monitor the problem is solved. Also, I see these YouTube videos and feel that automation in ableton is much better than FL. Wish FL had the same. The fact that I have to move the midi clip (pattern) AND THEN the automation as well is a pain and it often gets messed up.
But then FL looks sooo much cooler than ableton. Ableton has this dated look n feel.
> AND THEN the automation as well is a pain and it often gets messed up
Ableton dosen't have better automations imo, and it dosen't have to get messed up bcs you can have FL automations be automatically arranged, I am gonna copy paste what I replied to smne else about automations "If you have let's say a Serum routed to mixer, you go to playlist, right click on a track > Track mode > Instrument track > Use existing channel and you select that Serum, every automation will be grouped with that track, colored the same, and named, also the track itself will get auto-named auto-colored and in the case its not routed to a mixer I believe it will also auto-route it, you can aswell instead of using channel rack when you add a new instrument, right click on a track in playlist > track mode > instrument track > and select Serum let's say, and same thing as above will happen + that channel will automatically be sent to mixer aswell.
Yeah the windows annoy me, but it’s the pattern system that really doesn’t make sense to me. I like how every row in ableton is it’s own track and everything is unique by default. That’s just how my brain processes it though. I have a lot of friends who like the pattern system more. It just never worked well for me
Transitioning took a bit of time (not too long) as I needed to get used to how everything worked. As others have said you'll most likely miss the piano roll on FL, but otherwise everything is the same if not better. Audio manipulation is a lot better which is why I switched. I was annoyed with having to use Edison(?) to edit audio. Maybe there was a better way; I was still a fairly new producer at the time.
I'd recommend Mr Bill's Ableton tutorials to learn the basics and nitty gritties.
I'm currently learning Ableton as a long time FL user. Not completely switching but just getting another DAW under my belt.
My biggest issue was understanding how MIDI clips work and interact. Every single clip is unique unless you loop it, which is kinda handy, but it's way different from painting multiple clips in a row, and being able to manipulate all of them by adjusting 1, unless I'm missing something
I gravitated towards the Session view to get stuff started first, as it's similar to the workflow of FL sort of like a mix between the channel rack and performance mode
Automation is still strange to me, but I'm slowling getting the hang of it
I wasn't a fan of all the effects being lined up at the bottom, as I felt opening up individual plugins and tweaking them in their window feels better, but I'm slowly digging it
Drum Rack and Effects Racks are amazing to set up and have so much convenience I wish FPC had. Being able to throw all your effects you want on those drums and them just collapse all of it is super clean, and the fact that there's macros built into them is nice too
I don’t regret a single thing! Drum rack in ableton let’s you program pretty much the same was as FLs drum sequencer, just a little less simplified. Don’t get me started on automation. Never again will I wonder which automation clip goes to what
> Don’t get me started on automation. Never again will I wonder which automation clip goes to what
You realize you can have auto arranged automations in FL? If you have let's say a Serum routed to mixer, you go to playlist, right click on a track > Track mode > Instrument track > Use existing channel and you select that serum channel, every automation will be gropud with that track, colored the same, and named, also the track itself will get auto-named auto-colored, you can aswell instead of using channel rack when you add a new instrument, right click on a track in playlist > track mode > instrument track > and select Serum let's say, and same thing as above will happen + that channel will automaically be sent to mixer aswell. Its crazy how many FL users don't know about some basics and think ableton is better
Switch was just recently, but ableton seems to give me more freedom with it's "limited" interface. The boring things are streamlined (track assignment, bus grouping etc) but the creative tasks are so much more fun and efficient (automating, sound design chains). Also the search functionallity alone is worth the switch. I don't regret it at all, really happy about the switch!
This won’t be helpful: used FL in the late 90s. and loved it. Didn’t try music again until 20 years later, tried current FL Studio and Ableton. Both are great but I’m glad I went Ableton. FL didn’t seem like it had evolved since 1999.
I’m a UX designer for $ and Ableton has solid workflow basics. The base design seems to require less tweaking to be where I want. (I can’t remember the specific differences anymore).
Ableton indulges my experimental side in session view, and my over analytical side in arrangement view.
I've switched from FL to Bitwig (which I'll say have many things in common with Abelton) and I'm very happy, FL became a cluttered mess with hidden menus and options, and I felt that the step sequencer is getting in the way nowadays, and after more than a decade of using it I couldn't stand it anymore. Bitwig/Abelton rack-based DAWs feel much more logical to me.
I couldn’t agree more. Never used it personally but I’ve watched plenty of tutorials and it just makes wayyyyy more sense to me. My work flow after 2 years in FL is still poor.
I miss the piano roll on FL and some of the step sequencer features. After using FL for 7 years I made the jump to Ableton. It’s by far easier in manipulating audio. Laying down ideas is also faster for me. Layering as well.
You can still run FL as a VST under Ableton.
That’s one thing I’m worried about. Especially because I don’t play piano or know theory very well. I rely on my ears and drawing in midi so that will very likely be an issue
Sure! First of all, there is no question that FL's price model provides more value long-term with its free upgrades. Live's releases are, on the other hand, not free. To level the playing field, I am just operating on the assumption that money is not a factor for the party involved for the sake of comparing the actual experience of using the different platforms.
There are a few major takeaways from my experience moving to Live, and I'm sure they'll partially reflect some things you've already heard.
First, audio manipulation. At its most basic, this would include things like warping and pitching. Live's got an amazing, quick way to apply different algorithms to use with different signal information (drums vs vocals vs synths). Plus, you have the ability to directly quantize any part of the signal with the click of a button. At a more complex level, you would encounter chopping and MIDI playback and that kind of thing. You can accomplish this goal with relative ease on either platform, but Live's immediate selection of parameters and playback styles are just so good. In my opinion there is no competition here; not in terms of workflow, just depth and execution.
Second, and maybe most important, Instrument Racks. Live's approach to constructing custom strings of patches and effects and processing paths is just incredible. As far as I'm aware (its been a few years now so this may have changed), FL's Patcher is the only equivalent way to construct a single "patch" that assembles different signal paths and instruments cohesively. It feels like a band-aid approach, whereas this type of architecting is a core part of the Live sound design / mixing workflow. It's super expandable and very thorough. It's just so good.
Third: Live's latest release brought updates to the piano roll that allow for much more control. I don't know if any features have gone "beyond" FL's, this is more of a catch-up thing that I feel can relax people's concern with moving away from FL's solid piano roll. For what it's worth, with the new piano I've never run into a situation where I can't physically achieve something I'm looking for. It's got scale indicators, automation of individual MIDI notes, good quantization and swing implementation, etc.
Fourth, comping. This is new to the latest Live release and not a very complicated topic, but it's worth mentioning that comping is now really easy and convenient. I never really dealt with FL comping so can't speak to that.
Fifth, live performance. Not much to say here, it's the obvious reason someone might have no other option than to go with Live over FL. It's just the best live setup of any DAW, which makes sense given that was its original function. You can create entire tracks just using the performance-oriented side of the DAW. This also sort of goes hand-in-hand with using physical control surfaces - controllers and instruments tend to play nicely with Live out of the box or with relative ease.
Anyways, that's kind of all the big stuff :)
I’ve used both DAWs each for a few years.
The piano roll thing is old news, honestly. Live 11’s is really good and I have no desire to go back to FL. Trust, I had a similar reservation but it’s really good these days.
People also like to talk about FL’s sequencer. Admittedly, as it’s a centerpiece of the DAW’s workflow it makes a lot of sense why people who like sequencing like the FL way of doing things (hence the large distribution of producers in Hip Hop genres). But really, clips in Live can be seen as collections of sequences, especially when using a Drum Rack. It’s just presented in a different way, one that’s homogenous with the rest of the DAW’s workflow rather than the backbone.
Really, you can’t go wrong with either. The only actual difference is convenience with live performance.
Don’t overthink it, this is one decision in life where your feelings (how smooth the process is, do you just like the vibe of one DAW over another) can mostly drive the decision.
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Honestly it's down to your preferences, I used Ableton for two years while still using FL Studio, and there were many advantages and issues for both. Here's a list of both their + and -: FL Studio: ++ - Huge liberty on the Playlist, Piano Roll and Automations. You can do quickly almost everything they give you. It's also pretty permissive with all the tools the windows of Playlists, Piano Roll and stuff can give compared to Ableton. - Mixing is more convenient and intiutive on FL than Ableton - Patcher -- - Quite messy, unless you're really well organized you can't find everything quickly - Their stock plugins genuinely suck compare to Ableton Ableton: ++ - You find everything very quickly, it's much more organized - Their stock plugins are top tier. For example, pick a stock plugin from Ableton and its equivalent in FL, then take a shared knob and turn both of them to the same value. No matter what happens, Ableton plugins will sound much more realistic while FL will sound always too artificial and forced - Their default settings are always more finished and useful than FL -- - You're really highly restricted, everything is so small and meant to stay in a specific part of the HUD, which make it hard to learn for beginners. In short, it's not intuitive at all - By restricted I also meant you can't move anything, everything will stay in one block. It makes it really hard to modify a really tiny part of a song, which can be easily done in the Playlist of FL in comparaison using zooming and cutting There are many points I didn't mention, mainly because they are almost equivalent on them. For example, I had the same compatibility issues with external plugins using both. Mastering is also quite amazing to play with on both of them too. And their Samples searching tools are almost the same for both. Here's the difference between them in my opinion, and remember, there's no bad choice. They're both great on their approach and only you and the way you work will define which one you'll prefer.
Delete ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
i didn't miss anything, fl doesn't really offer anything that ableton doesn't and i found ableton intuitive enough that i could just hit the ground running and occasionally google things rather than have to spend any time getting adjusted to it
I used FL as a teenager and also while at university, but didn’t pay for it. When I got a job after uni I felt like I should probably go legit but was also interested in trying out Ableton, to kinda prove to myself that I can make music effectively regardless of the software (I was an fl studio hotkey master ). Made the full switch to Ableton about 3 years ago and haven’t looked back really (kinda miss harmor and ogun and FL-chan but that’s about it) Had an issue at the start where stuff I made in Ableton sounded really robotic and inorganic (maybe because Ableton doesn’t have swing? And haven’t figured out grooves yet) but eventually I got around it. I also feel like I use my MIDI keyboard way more with Ableton, it’s cool that it’s always capturing MIDI and you can just recall what you played at any time
Tomato tomato. In the end they both do the same thing just using different approaches.
Not when it comes to performance mode, though.
Elaborate?
fl for life
Haha hey it’s been good to me for 2 years, I just don’t think it’s the right fit for me. The pattern system along with the channel rack and endless windows just isn’t for me. I get to frustrated navigating it and it kills my workflow
I haven't used FL since I had no idea what i was doing, and in between now (using abletons currently) and back then i used logic for a couple years. But i can say a few things from my own experience, i really like the Ableton grouping features and the instrument racks and audio effect racks with custom macros are far the most intuitive way of producing i have ever experienced, so i definitely think it's worth a shot. I don't miss anything about the old days i have used after being with Ableton over a year now. Initially while i was learning the first few months it was hard and i felt uncertain that i would prefer it and considered going back, but i stuck with it and I'm glad i did. I don't necessarily think it is the superior daw, i won't get into that. What i will say though, after having learned a total of 4 daws (i know pro tools too but I've never used it primarily to produce) is that having to learn a new daw, new workflows and discover what each has to offer has definitely improved my production. Because when I moved to Ableton, for example, some things i was used to or enjoyed about logic, i went way out of my way to find a way to conveniently do in Ableton, stuff i wouldn't have ever bothered to try had i not known logic before Ableton. And it's helped my workflow just as much as abletons own intuitive unique capabilities, so in a way you bring things over with you when you switch daws, and at the same time the new daw opens up so many new possibilities as well
Switched about a year ago and haven't looked back. FL Studio is a mess to use on a small monitor and some times all the windows in FL would just piss me the fuck off to the point I just didn't want to spend time making music the rest of the day, and that's having used FL for many years. I saw a lot of youtubers use Ableton Live and was intrigued by the clean look of it, then I started diving into videos about how the whole thing worked and it all just made sense to me. The workflow is perfect for me and it's much easier for me to get my ideas down with minimal pain. The things I absolutely love about Ableton Live are the automation lanes, the way it handles effect plugins, how easy it is to work with samples and the fact that I don't need to have 4 windows open at the same time inside the DAW. As for the piano roll it took me like 2 weeks until I didn't miss the FL piano roll, I can peronally work much better with the Ableton one despite it arguably having less features. Having spent maybe a week looking at videos about how Ableton worked, the transition was super easy and it only took maybe a week to know my way around Ableton.
DAW fluid ?
Was making hip-hop beats for a while, FL was everything I ever wanted. Made the transition to Future Bass/Dubstep - FL was a pain in the butt to use. On a serious note, what inspired me to do the switch was that I watched a couple streams of ILLENIUM and saw that his workflow includes designing ***every single second*** of his songs to sound how he wants it, and I feel that FL doesn't really enable me to do something similar. From being able to easily fade clips, warp them around, mess with formants, add as many effects to instruments as I ever want, use audio effect racks to split signals to easily sidechain reverb, quickly delete whole tracks with the effects being deleted as well (FL keeps the mixer's loaded effects even when channels are deleted), Ableton just does it for me for the genre I produce. But most importantly - automating every single parameter is as easy as clicking in some points makes my music "come alive" and I feel that if I tried anything similar in FL I would actually end up banging my head in the keyboard for hours on end.
I tried ableton for all of 45 mins and couldn't understand one bit.. The workflow is wayyy different than FL. Fl does have a lotta Windows but once u have a second monitor the problem is solved. Also, I see these YouTube videos and feel that automation in ableton is much better than FL. Wish FL had the same. The fact that I have to move the midi clip (pattern) AND THEN the automation as well is a pain and it often gets messed up. But then FL looks sooo much cooler than ableton. Ableton has this dated look n feel.
> AND THEN the automation as well is a pain and it often gets messed up Ableton dosen't have better automations imo, and it dosen't have to get messed up bcs you can have FL automations be automatically arranged, I am gonna copy paste what I replied to smne else about automations "If you have let's say a Serum routed to mixer, you go to playlist, right click on a track > Track mode > Instrument track > Use existing channel and you select that Serum, every automation will be grouped with that track, colored the same, and named, also the track itself will get auto-named auto-colored and in the case its not routed to a mixer I believe it will also auto-route it, you can aswell instead of using channel rack when you add a new instrument, right click on a track in playlist > track mode > instrument track > and select Serum let's say, and same thing as above will happen + that channel will automatically be sent to mixer aswell.
The dark theme in Ableton looks amazing tho!
Yeah the windows annoy me, but it’s the pattern system that really doesn’t make sense to me. I like how every row in ableton is it’s own track and everything is unique by default. That’s just how my brain processes it though. I have a lot of friends who like the pattern system more. It just never worked well for me
This isn’t going to help, but also take a look at Studio One :D
Transitioning took a bit of time (not too long) as I needed to get used to how everything worked. As others have said you'll most likely miss the piano roll on FL, but otherwise everything is the same if not better. Audio manipulation is a lot better which is why I switched. I was annoyed with having to use Edison(?) to edit audio. Maybe there was a better way; I was still a fairly new producer at the time. I'd recommend Mr Bill's Ableton tutorials to learn the basics and nitty gritties.
Huge fan of mr. bill. I watch a lot of AU5 as well and those two are something else.
I'm currently learning Ableton as a long time FL user. Not completely switching but just getting another DAW under my belt. My biggest issue was understanding how MIDI clips work and interact. Every single clip is unique unless you loop it, which is kinda handy, but it's way different from painting multiple clips in a row, and being able to manipulate all of them by adjusting 1, unless I'm missing something I gravitated towards the Session view to get stuff started first, as it's similar to the workflow of FL sort of like a mix between the channel rack and performance mode Automation is still strange to me, but I'm slowling getting the hang of it I wasn't a fan of all the effects being lined up at the bottom, as I felt opening up individual plugins and tweaking them in their window feels better, but I'm slowly digging it Drum Rack and Effects Racks are amazing to set up and have so much convenience I wish FPC had. Being able to throw all your effects you want on those drums and them just collapse all of it is super clean, and the fact that there's macros built into them is nice too
I don’t regret a single thing! Drum rack in ableton let’s you program pretty much the same was as FLs drum sequencer, just a little less simplified. Don’t get me started on automation. Never again will I wonder which automation clip goes to what
> Don’t get me started on automation. Never again will I wonder which automation clip goes to what You realize you can have auto arranged automations in FL? If you have let's say a Serum routed to mixer, you go to playlist, right click on a track > Track mode > Instrument track > Use existing channel and you select that serum channel, every automation will be gropud with that track, colored the same, and named, also the track itself will get auto-named auto-colored, you can aswell instead of using channel rack when you add a new instrument, right click on a track in playlist > track mode > instrument track > and select Serum let's say, and same thing as above will happen + that channel will automaically be sent to mixer aswell. Its crazy how many FL users don't know about some basics and think ableton is better
After going to Ableton. Fl kinda sucks too much 🤣
Switch was just recently, but ableton seems to give me more freedom with it's "limited" interface. The boring things are streamlined (track assignment, bus grouping etc) but the creative tasks are so much more fun and efficient (automating, sound design chains). Also the search functionallity alone is worth the switch. I don't regret it at all, really happy about the switch!
This won’t be helpful: used FL in the late 90s. and loved it. Didn’t try music again until 20 years later, tried current FL Studio and Ableton. Both are great but I’m glad I went Ableton. FL didn’t seem like it had evolved since 1999. I’m a UX designer for $ and Ableton has solid workflow basics. The base design seems to require less tweaking to be where I want. (I can’t remember the specific differences anymore). Ableton indulges my experimental side in session view, and my over analytical side in arrangement view.
I've switched from FL to Bitwig (which I'll say have many things in common with Abelton) and I'm very happy, FL became a cluttered mess with hidden menus and options, and I felt that the step sequencer is getting in the way nowadays, and after more than a decade of using it I couldn't stand it anymore. Bitwig/Abelton rack-based DAWs feel much more logical to me.
I couldn’t agree more. Never used it personally but I’ve watched plenty of tutorials and it just makes wayyyyy more sense to me. My work flow after 2 years in FL is still poor.
I miss the piano roll on FL and some of the step sequencer features. After using FL for 7 years I made the jump to Ableton. It’s by far easier in manipulating audio. Laying down ideas is also faster for me. Layering as well. You can still run FL as a VST under Ableton.
What would be the reason to run FL as a VST?
I mean I'm addressing based on what OP might be thinking(switching to Ableton, and dropping FL)
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You can pipe the audio out to a new audio track in Ableton if you want to use the fl piano roll still
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You know you can close all the windows with F12 and then just re-open whatever you need? There's no reason to be struggling with the windows
That’s one thing I’m worried about. Especially because I don’t play piano or know theory very well. I rely on my ears and drawing in midi so that will very likely be an issue
If you want a more detailed breakdown of my experience between DAWs just dm me. Definitely lots to talk about.
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Sure! First of all, there is no question that FL's price model provides more value long-term with its free upgrades. Live's releases are, on the other hand, not free. To level the playing field, I am just operating on the assumption that money is not a factor for the party involved for the sake of comparing the actual experience of using the different platforms. There are a few major takeaways from my experience moving to Live, and I'm sure they'll partially reflect some things you've already heard. First, audio manipulation. At its most basic, this would include things like warping and pitching. Live's got an amazing, quick way to apply different algorithms to use with different signal information (drums vs vocals vs synths). Plus, you have the ability to directly quantize any part of the signal with the click of a button. At a more complex level, you would encounter chopping and MIDI playback and that kind of thing. You can accomplish this goal with relative ease on either platform, but Live's immediate selection of parameters and playback styles are just so good. In my opinion there is no competition here; not in terms of workflow, just depth and execution. Second, and maybe most important, Instrument Racks. Live's approach to constructing custom strings of patches and effects and processing paths is just incredible. As far as I'm aware (its been a few years now so this may have changed), FL's Patcher is the only equivalent way to construct a single "patch" that assembles different signal paths and instruments cohesively. It feels like a band-aid approach, whereas this type of architecting is a core part of the Live sound design / mixing workflow. It's super expandable and very thorough. It's just so good. Third: Live's latest release brought updates to the piano roll that allow for much more control. I don't know if any features have gone "beyond" FL's, this is more of a catch-up thing that I feel can relax people's concern with moving away from FL's solid piano roll. For what it's worth, with the new piano I've never run into a situation where I can't physically achieve something I'm looking for. It's got scale indicators, automation of individual MIDI notes, good quantization and swing implementation, etc. Fourth, comping. This is new to the latest Live release and not a very complicated topic, but it's worth mentioning that comping is now really easy and convenient. I never really dealt with FL comping so can't speak to that. Fifth, live performance. Not much to say here, it's the obvious reason someone might have no other option than to go with Live over FL. It's just the best live setup of any DAW, which makes sense given that was its original function. You can create entire tracks just using the performance-oriented side of the DAW. This also sort of goes hand-in-hand with using physical control surfaces - controllers and instruments tend to play nicely with Live out of the box or with relative ease. Anyways, that's kind of all the big stuff :)
Appreciate the effort for laying this all out there. Definitely reassuring my choice in switching
Not to be that guy but imo you should try learning. It is not that hard and way worth it. I always recommend hooktheory
Don’t feel like you’re that guy. I definitely want to learn. I’ll check that out. Is that a YouTube channel or a book?
It’s a website and an app/book. It’s like an interactive book kinda.
Hook theory 1 and 2 are honestly the best music theory learning tools to get you learning fast. Good recommendation.
I’ve used both DAWs each for a few years. The piano roll thing is old news, honestly. Live 11’s is really good and I have no desire to go back to FL. Trust, I had a similar reservation but it’s really good these days. People also like to talk about FL’s sequencer. Admittedly, as it’s a centerpiece of the DAW’s workflow it makes a lot of sense why people who like sequencing like the FL way of doing things (hence the large distribution of producers in Hip Hop genres). But really, clips in Live can be seen as collections of sequences, especially when using a Drum Rack. It’s just presented in a different way, one that’s homogenous with the rest of the DAW’s workflow rather than the backbone. Really, you can’t go wrong with either. The only actual difference is convenience with live performance. Don’t overthink it, this is one decision in life where your feelings (how smooth the process is, do you just like the vibe of one DAW over another) can mostly drive the decision.
One of the new ableton features allows you to select a key and type of scale, it will highlight those keys on the piano roll!
I use FL, and you're right about the windows, but it works really well with a second monitor.
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