Hey guys

I'm currently an FL studio user which I am happy to stick with except for the fact that so many other people use Ableton. I'm slowly starting to collaborate and I feel like the odd one out. I hate the idea bouncing down stems to collab. (I'm happy to share plugins to avoid it) Also, I'm not very clued up on best practices for working with other artists so maybe you guys have got other ideas for me for cross DAW collabs? I know FL can be used as a plugin in Ableton but it's pointless since the other guy will work directly in Ableton. I'm trying to avoid learning Ableton and wanna get stuck right into song creation, or will it be better long term to learn it? Any advice welcome. And thanks in advance

 

I mainly use FL as well,(well,also Cubase 7 Elements 'cause I love it and it quantizes better than FL and I use Live 9 a bit too for Launchpad purposes)but all my people use different DAW's so collab gets interesting.What I generally try to do is make 8 bar renders of every track and send those.(If it's 4/4 time) But if I have something arranged sometimes they have to be longer.There is also a way to render projects that it puts every track/part on it's own mixer channel and renders everything as a separate wav (someone showed me a long time ago). Also Ableton has different ways of saving too. But that's what I do to avoid having to send plugins or this or that soundbank or library as well.And when I send FL projects I send basically 2 projects.One zipped flp (as it will give them all the drums & samples used and the project) if they don't have the plugins used can still be an issue.And I'll send the 8 bar wavs of every track used kinda like a production kit for everyone else.

Curious on others methods.Look forward to reading em. *yes*

Also on learning Ableton,it can't hurt.I've been learning it just for the Launchpad functions. But I can tell you that I've found awesome stuff in it and wasn't looking for it,drum racks,synths,max 4 live.I also like how it handles loops and samples.I'm starting to like it a lot and I'm a Cubase/Nuendo guy.I recommend Groove 3 Live 9 Explained. I learned a ton from that recently.

Best of luck!

All!!

 

rendering out each track in fl studio is the way i do this on odd collaborations.
i just find it more productive to spend a few hours familiarizing myself with other software anyway. a friend of mine just jumped ship to reaper so there you go. the easiest way is exporting stems, once you have some presets for that it isn't such a chore...
who knows, perhaps one day we will reach a singularity in software and compatability would be a thing of the past...

 

You can try Slice which also supports Fruit Loops: https://splice.com/.

 

i had a collab live-win 32bit to live-mac 64 bit with a lot plugins, exchange worked mostly perfect, expected more trouble

 

I feel like it wouldn't hurt to learn some Ableton.
Ive used Fl Logic and Ableton there are things i like about each,
learning something new in a different daw can deff help build skills that would undoubtedly benefit in long run/maybe reinforce a knowledge you have of something in FL.
I really like how flexible Ableton is. keyboard shortcuts will save you lots of time


When i give my friends stems I just export the audio of separate channels (or groups that make sense ex layered pad ) to wav and i leave silence in the clip so that my friend can just drag and drop each wav file into their daw without doing any arranging and they can crop it after. i also do the same thing with midi if i know they have the same synth/ include the patch. I usually zip up a folder with 4 sub folders Audio/Midi/Presets/Hits (my processed individual Drum hits)

 

Change daw just for collab isn't a great idea. Use the daw you feel more comfortable. Wavs render is a good compromise. S1 here, but also used FL,Cubase and Ableton.

 

In my opinion, you should really learn how to use Ableton even if you want to stick with Fruityloops for yourself

It's unique modular approach (Bitwig is the same since it's Ableton developers who left) allows you to come up with stuff that just isn't possible in other DAWs.

I'm a Logic Pro user but I'll still bust out Ableton to be creative.

I promise you won't regret it once you start seeing how fun it is to chain audio and midi effects plugins.

Just make sure you also get Max4Live as this is one of the big parts to Ableton being the "do whatever you want" DAW.

 

Thanks for all the advice. I was just hoping there was an easy way to collab without making stems and such. I guess both creating stems and some midi files with patches for the same plugins is the best approach. I definitely agree about learning to use another DAW for it's unique approach that might inspire more creativity. I'll just ease myself into it. I'm already busy learning how to use Maschine Studio so one thing at a time. Thanks guys.

 

personally, i find working with audio ( i.e. wavs etc) infinitely preferable anyway. i have a basic knowledge of most daws anyway, so i just back up or export audio files and just carry them around on disc whatever... i may be mad but i love editing and cutting up audio, i find it very relaxing and therapeutic
one thing i always try to do ir export or render totally dry.
at the end of the day, you still have the original in your daw of choice... it's a bit like freezing tracks maybe?
as someone said above, there is no harm in learning other apps or systems. that has an effect on what you currently use, in a positive way. i gave up using reason some years ago, but now i have caught up with rewire a whole load of exciting potential has opened up
sorry to witter on
peace

 

What an awesome idea!! Was busy spying it out and love the concept. Thanks for this. I will definitely keep it for future collabs