FL Studio (formerly Fruityloops) is a music production software package created by Image-Line Software. FL Studio is a pattern based music sequencer and software synthesizer, which allows internal mixing of sounds and advanced MIDI support. It comes with the option of rendering a track into several different audio formats such as WAV and mp3. Instrumental effects include reverb, chorus, flanger and the like. It uses internal 32 bit floating point audio mixing, at 44 or 48 KHz stereo sampling frequency.

The original name "Fruityloops" was a take-off on a commercial brand of breakfast cereal, Froot Loops. This was abandoned in favor of "FL Studio" in order to promote a more professional image and to remove the possibility of a trademark infringement lawsuit from Kellogg's.

FL Studio has become widely used by both amateur musicians and professionals alike, because of its easy-to-use step sequencer and piano roll, its good monetary value, its wide support of industry standards, its extensive automation abilities, and its quality effects. One progressive feature of FL Studio (of the online version) is that all upgrades are free.

The step sequencer includes a graph editor and keyboard editor while the Piano roll includes a Chopper and LFO tool. These tools are intended to make it simple for a user to create a track, and assist in the creation of musical notation. The play list is a sequencer window where you can arrange sets of patterns to assemble a complete song.

The demonstration version of FL Studio includes quite a number of generators (software synthesizers). Some of these must be purchased separately. Generally, these additional plugins are inexpensive. The "Producer Edition" includes a mixer and multi-track audio recording capabilities for sound hardware with ASIO drivers. The "FL Studio XXL" offer includes all optional components witha 40% price reduction. FL Studio uses its own plugin API but it can use VST, Buzz, ReWire and DirectX plugins via adapter plugins, allowing it to work with a gigantic amount of synthesizers and effects processors.

As of version 5.00, FL Studio supports integrated time stretching and pitch shifting utilizing the 'Elastique' set of algorithms. Shifted audio is pre-rendered and then dynamically managed, being restretched only when necessary (for example, after a song's tempo has been changed).

Features

Included generators

• 3x OSC - a flexible 3 oscillator virtual analog synth with custom wave-shapes, a tempo-synced DAHDSR envelope and LFO for Volume, Filter, Resonance, and Pitch, an LFO for panning, a pitched MIDI delay for unison effects
• BeepMap - generates unusual sounds based on an image
• BooBass - a realistic bass guitar simulation
• Buzz Generator Adapter - used to run most Buzz plugins
• Dashboard - customizable interface for controlling external MIDI hardware
• FL Slayer - an electric guitar simulator
• FL Keys - a multi-sampled synth for various piano sounds
• Keyboard controller - internal controller for patterned based filter applications, trance-gates, etc.
• Fruit Kick - for generating synthesized kick-drum sounds
• Fruity Granulizer - for applying granular synthesis effects to a sample
• Fruity Slicer
• WaveTraveller - spline-based playback of samples, useful for record-scratch effects
• MIDI Out - provides MIDI control of external hardware
• Plucked - a Karplus-Strong plucked string generator
• Sampler - a simple but flexible sampler than has the same envelopes, LFOs, and MIDI delay as the 3x OSC described above

Optional generators (require additional purchase)

• Sytrus - a powerful and versatile FM synthesizer featuring 6 customizable operators for FM and RM synthesis, plucked strings synthesis, 3 SVF (filter) & distortion modules, a unique programmable unison mode, and an effects module with chorus and 3 delay lines.
• Slayer II - an improved guitar simulation
• SimSynth Live - 3 oscillator MiniMoog simulation combined with Oberheim style SVF filters
• Wasp - a broad analog emulation synth with an aggressive distortion effect
• DX10 - FM sound with a simpler, more intuitive interface
• Soundfont Player - gives the ability to load, play and render soundfonts (.sf2 files)
• DrumSynth Live - a complex drum synthesizer
• BeatSlicer - easily 'slice' any wav file (not only loops) into its specific parts and edit those slices
• EZ-Editor - An audio editing program (not needed if you have Producer Edition)
• SimSynth Standalone - a free-standing program that is used to generate synth sounds in wav format

FL Studio supported standards

• DirectX Plugins
• VST Plugins
• VST2 Plugins
• Buzz Plugins
• Rewire host and client

Driver support

• ASIO Driver
• DirectSound Driver

External links

• FL Studio home page
• Feature Comparison for Fl Studio versions
• Pluginspot.com VST plugins
• Coagula