Hi All,Ive been using both Ableton & Fl for sometime now not in rewire mode but with FL being my main daw & Live for other things.
Nowadays Im finding myself increasingly more comfortable with Live & its features to make the switch for main production usage.
As modern daws don't really seem to differ in sound etc I wanted to know if any others have made the same switch & was it a practical process as Live has the features but Fl can be quick & easy when laying down ideas & so on.
Along with the practical & workflow side of things have you found improvements on mixes when comparing native plugins on both daws?
I ask that as I notice alot of multi banding happening when checking out videos in Live.
Thanks for checkin this out.

 

Fl Studio 12 will bring important updates like its vectorial gui and I read the old fl mixer will be improved too so you could stick on "fl" imo

 

maybe studio one ? i don't tried this daw but everyone who's talking about this daw recommend it for his workflow and ease of use.
otherwise both are great native plugins for the price few synths and fx are really great from fl studio. but it's also the same thing for ableton. i mean the new eq 8 and glue compressor are really excellent.
i know more ableton than fl studio but if you want my advice.
the only advantage of ableton is the possibility to make easily some thing complexe like layering, etc . But in the same time, when you route too much signals's audio, there is a big latency ...
otherwise is the same thing

 

also, stay where you are the more comfortable !!!

 

i've tried Fruity Loops some days about one month ago, i really don't had a great feeling with it.
So as a 100% Live user, i'd say that if you are feeling like you say with it, don't hesitate, Live is really complete, has great quality native tools and is far more natural to me in his workflow than FL.

You can too lay down ideas really fast, route audio easily, create synth sound without third party plugins.
The interface is a bit more readable too on Live imho, more minimalistic , and since the 9th version, you've got a great feature to create and organize favorites folders.

 

The type of music you do and expected workflow requirements should help you make ur own decision.

If you record a lot of Audio.. FL is inferior.

IMO.

 

Pick either one...learn it.

 

If you record a lot of audio, FL is inferior to Ableton...witch is inferior to Studio One, Protools, Samplitude, Reaper...

My point of view is simple now : FL and/or Ableton for anything with not so much audio recording/editing, and virtual instruments.
And Studio One for audio recording/complex mixing/mastering.

I don't see myself using my orchestral template with 16 tracks on 6 groups (strings, brass, wood, percs, voices, others) in Ableton or FL Studio One all the way for this, even if it is virtual instruments related. No rules

Between FL and Live, it is an hard choice. If you add Studio One to the equation...it may help or be even more complex

I don't like Arrangement view in Ableton compared to FL or Studio One. And i'm not the only one...
A lot of ppl in electro style (dubstep, EDM...) love FL Studio because of his arrangement window. Very clean, colorful to keep complex edits visible. Try to do the same complextro/dustep edits with Live and it become a visible mess of automations, layers and such.

There is no perfect DAW.
And so, there are two philosophy : use only one and learn to live with it's shortcomings...or use multiple DAWs for different tasks

I was an Ableton lover for years, on the virtual instruments side.
But as they didn't improved Arrangement view, didn't improved MIDI/Piano roll...i'm probably going to switchback to FL Studio.

I loved two DAWs in my life : Reason (dropped their closed world and never look back) and FL Studio.
It is time for me to return to FL Studio.
Amazing piano roll features (most ppl don't know how to use them) and amazing arrangement window.

Just to say a choice is not always definitive. It was for me about Reason, it is not about FL Studio/Ableton

 

yes, arrangement view sucks a bit in Ableton, not enough colors

 

Google search for "complextro Ableton" images :
complextro Ableton

Same with "FL Studio complextro" :
complextro FL

FL Studio is a clear winner on complex edits arrangement side.

FL Studio can be used as plugin INSIDE another DAW. There are few DAWs integrated as plugins (Usine, Energy XT to name some). Better than Rewire to me, because you save ONE project in ONE DAW.

And they both suck at mixing/mastering/track grouping workflow wise
That's why i ended with Ableton/FL Studio AND Studio One.

About "native plugins on both daws?" part, i think they are on the same foot, sound wise.
There is a multiband compressor on FL too, and it is very good
Only the GUI/workflow change a lot. ALL Ableton plugs share the same workflow/GUI. That can be a "plus".

To me, inspiration is the key on those two DAWs (being more virtual instruments oriented).
I found FL Studio more inspiring...but it is just me

I finished more electro songs with FL than Live. I tried hard to stick to Live, but it don't really works for me (thanks to bad arrangement and bad MIDI piano roll).
But some ppl love "session view" more than anything

That's the key : make some songs on both and see where the inspiration come.

If we speak about "pure" mixing (and not "remix") and mastering, inspiration is not the key. Features and workflow are.
I don't need to be "inspired" by a DAW to move a f*in EQ gain knob

I don't try to convince anyone (it would be a waste fo time), but more to give some arguments to help mental flow

 

An unbelievable amount of input here,nice work guys really appreciate that.


As noted by a few above FL mixer. I suppose in one way its frustrating me constantly routing indiv channels to the mixer but then on the other hand as a few pointed out I'd say I know FL like a really good mate. I know its capabilities and where it licks lampposts on Thursday nights.

Im excited about the new FL 12 features plus after a quick play around last night with live I found my sampling time in Fl is miniscule which I suppose is a good thing.
If anyone could share how they export sounds to sample in Live such as the way you would with Edison that would be great.
Studio one is pretty amazing but Ive often found it more useful for mixing down projects or even creating digital releases than full on arrangements productions.

Live native plugs such as the saturator auto filter & other really basic but highly useful vsts make me question the switch as Ive found myself using these on a majority of things with fantastic results both in timbre & quality of presence in the mix.

Cheers again guys,some smart reads here anyone wanna discuss things further with either prog that would be spot on.


Quick note atm Im making anything from Disco to dutch(so mainly EDM) apart from my own microphone no other audio is currently being recorded in.

 

I've used both for sometimes. Start with FL then switch to ableton. Everytime versione 8 was too buggy for me. Sk back again to FL. And ended to studio one. I make mainly EDM so for me ideas are important but also technical aspect are important. I tried 1 month ago Ableton 9, to me is good they fix a lot of bugs but now i'm used to S1 workflow and musicloop (can't live without) i'm really planning to buy pro version in a couple of months.
Tracks nowdays (EDM) sounds identic so the best daw for you is the one which allows you to be more creative and make your studio session enjoyable. Try everything for atleast 2-3 weeks and in the end you'll find the right one or you can go on and rewire stuff.

 

I learned a long time ago, there's no all-in-one DAW for me.

I create in Live. Lately, I've been reverting back to sequencing drums in FL because of it's channel strip settings. But I dump everything into PT to mix.

I don't get into being loyal to DAWs, because they get better when they want, then terrible when the want. Just use whatever it takes to make feel-good music.

 

u will work really fast with live its a great daw