Ableton Live vs. FL Studio

Ableton Live is a perfect fit for loop-based music like electronic music of all varieties. It is especially suited to minimal techno and IDM, but is really suitable for any style of music that relies extensively on loops and samples. Ableton Live is also well-suited for sequencing out loop-based music through its Live view, while the Composer view allows for enough arranging features that you can take a song from concept to completion fairly easily. Ableton Live is less well-suited for fully recorded music that has no sample-based or looping components. It is less well-suited for non-electronic genres, although it is perfectly fine, but many of the features would not be useful or necessary in these cases.

Incentivized

I would recommend FL Studio for anyone who wants to get their hands on music making or even just recording audio for videos. I would suggest making the somewhat small investment and trying it out, you could end up with a career from it. For beginners I would definitely suggest watching online courses/tutorials as they helped me a lot and it will for you as well. Also, I would recommend using third party plugins which will help in fine tuning your projects and overall produce much better music/recordings. FL Studio is well suited for businesses and personal use to make music. I would confidently say that its one of the best DAW to start making music.

Incentivized

• Session View: This is the biggest advantage of Ableton. It provides you this view in which you can create different tracks for the same part of the song. For example:- If you are making the chorus of the song, you can save one thread. Now if you want to try and listen to a different drum set in a new thread, you can simply do that and listen to the new track while preserving the older one. Once you are satisfied with what you're listening, simple record the same in arrangement view and you are done. You can switch to the arrangement view and listen to the final song.
• Pre-installed instruments and loops:- Ableton's library which is included with the software itself while you purchase it is amazing. I bet you will ever need third-party plugins for it. It comes loaded with hundreds of loops and number of instruments which are completely professional and free to use.
• Amazing Graphical User Interface:- Even if you're a beginner in this field, Ableton can be learned within a few hours. The basic functionality of this software is very easy to understand and use. Of course, advanced stuff comes with practice but the basic functioning can be learned and within a few hours you are producing your own music.

Incentivized

• Midi sequencing
• Built in audio processing and VST instruments
• Audio mixing
• Music creation

Incentivized

• Version 10 chews up all my CPU but prior versions didn't
• Midi channel automation isn't intuitive, have to make an instrument group
• New version install should overwrite older versions

Incentivized

• The recording process can somewhat be confusing and inefficient.
• FL Studio has a confusing routing, for example to use return tracks for reverbs, you will have to click numerous buttons to get that done.
• FL Studio has a somewhat steep learning curve, which can demotivate beginners.
• FL Studio's auto-saving feature is a bit late, which can ruin your project if you rely on it.

Incentivized

I gave it the above rating because it is an incredible software for music creators and even though it might be hard to use at first, but once you get the hang of it, you will never be troubled again, and in all honesty, nothing comes easy life, especially if one yearns to become good at. Same applies with FL Studio. In conclusion, it is a great software.

I haven't had to reach out to support yet, but they're great at keeping me abreast with updates, compatibility issues, new features, and tons of videos on how to use the software. I feel like they're helping me success by giving me tools I can use in my daily work.

Incentivized

I cannot say that the other programs listed aren't capable. They surely are. But for what I do and my workflow environment, Ableton suits my needs better. I know a lot of people that use Pro Tools and Logic Pro. They are both very powerful programs. I have knowledge of how to use them all. Going into different studios and collaborating with people, you need to know at least the basics of them all. But for me and my studio, we will continue to primarily use Ableton for the foreseeable future.

In selecting this software, we investigated and considered others. We found that FL Studio had a good price point and the life time free version updates made it a one time purchase.

In terms of functionality, the most similar software solutions are Ableton Live, Logic Pro X and Propellerhead Reason.

Of these the most cost effective for us was Ableton Live and FL Studio with Propellerhead Reason being a slightly different product.

We found that FL studio had a wider feature set and was more suited to our use, where as Ableton Live would be better if live music performance was a requirement, in our case it was not.

Incentivized

• Ableton Live allows me to rapidly sequence multitrack music as needed, without getting stuck at any step of the process.
• Ableton Live also allows me to quickly export or upload to SoundCloud for easy sharing. This is a big time-saver.
• The only negative ROI I can think of is the cost. There are competitors like Reaper that are much more affordable and have many of the same features.

Incentivized

• Like I mentioned beforehand, it is slightly expensive but if you think of it, it is a lifetime investment.
• FL Studio is also essential to have if one wishes to create music of their own or background songs because that way, you won't have to pay someone to create music for you.