by
slapkev » Mon Jan 18, 2016 3:37 am
Complacency kills. Never be satisfied, hunger for knowledge. Knowledge is power and separates the lions from the sheep. Likewise, if all you ever experience is "good", then you perhaps will never know "great" if you think that "good" is the best you will see. I see a lot of LMMS praise on these forums from people that have only ever really used LMMS (and no, trying a demo of another daw for a day doesn't count). I am seasoned in both LMMS and FL, and sometimes use Ableton. Here is my take on this thread:
musikbear wrote:
I would estimate a price ~ 3-400$ investment in FLs modules and synths, before you have a package, that can be compared to the free 1.1.3 lmms.
I would say that this estimate is incorrect. LMMS has instruments hard coded into itself. while FL offers other synths that Image Line sells separately into their FL editions at a huge discount. The important bit to notice there is that these instruments are typically sold separately, and if you compare them to what is in LMMS, they offer much more in terms of pure synthesis capability. Sure, LMMS has some neat stuff in it (and is FREE), but the whole package is limiting if you are a seasoned producer. For someone starting out, I would recommend you try out demos until you find a daw's work flow you like. There is no harm in trying to make tracks in demo software, just make sure to purchase (if necessary) before trying to go commercial. Don't think that someone has to start in LMMS just to save some cash.
Back to the estimate: FL comes loaded with a standard set of FX plugins. Quite frankly, they curb stomp the LADSPA plugins included with LMMS in audio quality. They are included for free in the purchase of all FL versions (aside from the most basic and edu iirc). Notable exceptions are any instruments or plugins that are sold as stand alone VSTs, which are usually bundled in higher editions of FL. Image Line also has a lot of sales during the year, and if you sign up on their site you get a birthday discount code. I managed to purchase the Signature Edition (top edition) of FL on sale for only 147 USD, and I have free lifetime updates for all future updates as well.
To answer the overall question, FL is not similar to LMMS, but LMMS pulled some workflow ideas from FL back when LMMS started. FL is a fully commercial grade piece of software developed by a paid team of developers that do nothing but work on FL for a living. LMMS is a neat experiment that started as a free alternative to expensive daws, but with a large feature gap as it has no paid developers and all work is done by volunteers. This isn't to slam LMMS, as for being free it is very powerful.
Gps wrote:
I serious doubt fruity loops is better then lmms.
Pro in my mind is cubase or albeton. I also don't think pro musician let there pc generate sound.
They prob use real synth through midi, and other midi hardware.
Deadmau5, Porter Robinson, Afrojack, Feed Me/Spor, Madeon, Seven Lions, Basshunter, Ephixa, Hellberg. All these guys used FL as a tool in their professional careers, just to name a few. FL might have a different workflow than those other two daws, but pretty much all commercial daws have the same feature set. Just different approaches to creation, as I said. As for generating sound, puhlease. Even taking digital synthesis out of the equation, FL can send midi out to hardware synths and then record their outputs into audio tracks in one go, easy as pie. I've done it before, it's pretty awesome. LMMS can't do that. It doesn't have midi out nor can it record anything, and its audio sample clip support is terrible. Continuing on the feature train, FL studio is real time safe. This is huge if you plan on performing live with it. It also has a performance mode similar to Ableton's trigger view. Its mixer is accurate to dB and it can handle much larger and more memory intensive VSTs without crashing or locking up. I could go on and on, but we only ever have so much time. I use both LMMS and FL, and while I love the workflow in LMMS, I hate the overall quality (or lack of) in a large portions of the program. The later versions of LMMS have added MUCH NEEDED features that literally every other popular daw has had for YEARS (send tracks, dynamic mixer tracks, line automation between points), but it still has a long way to go. The next steps should be focusing on the core engine and getting it RT safe, then perhaps working on cleaning up the audio output.
The only thing that is hard to synthesize virtually is the RNG factor of analog, but we are pretty damn close. Modern virtual synthesis has gotten to the point that experienced users can produce practically any sound they want with things like Massive, Serum, Sytrus, Sylenth1, Harmor, FM8, the list again goes on and on. Nothing in LMMS comes close the the synthesis capabilities of any of those listed VSTs, and that isn't just opinion or fanboyism. The most capable synth included in LMMS is Zyn and possibly Monstro.
C_H wrote:It is similar. LMMS is scaled back in comparison. LMMS uses the same basic workflow so I think you'd feel at home there.
$99 for the basic FL version is a good deal actually. Download the trial. It's fully working but you can't save the projects.
This guy gets it. Sorry about the wall of text.
