FL StudioPricing

FL Studio Pricing 2022

The biggest innovation for aspiring singers and music producers is the increased availability of production software. The right software can create the next hit album uploaded to Spotify. The key is finding powerful enough software with suitable flexibility and creative features. FL Studio is a powerful music production software with amazing native plugins to build albums with your original sound. You can use it for pop, hip hop, rock, alternative, and many more genres.

What Is FL Studio?

FL Studio by Image-Line is a digital audio workstation (DAW) for singers, DJs, bands, and music producers. It’s important you use an advanced DAW that can help you create and manipulate recordings. They will come with capabilities for pitch correction, vocals manipulation, automation, and more. You would not be able to create a professional album with a simple DAW like Audacity. Audacity is a fan favorite for podcasts and can include music but isn’t for song creation.

Fl Studio is designed for music and supports virtual studio technology (VST) standards for 2 and 3. They support VST ½ and VST3 plugin formats for both Windows and macOS. You can find more about their specifications for Windows and macOS here.

Fl Studio plugins include powerful effects, MIDI support, and their three audio editors Edison, Newtime, and Newtone. Their MIDI can work with any MIDI controller to receive and send data back using Python scripting. For more information see Fl Studio’s MIDI scripting go here.

Their software editor Edison is a hosted audio editing and recording tool. The Newtime editor is for warping and slicing the time on recordings. The Newtone editor edits pitch and time on recordings but doesn’t work for real-time recordings on your mic.

Technical literacy is needed to take advantage of the capabilities of this software. The program interface has its own ease of use, but you still need to be able to handle complex processes. It has a huge range of 86-107 effects and edits that you can make to one recording.

The learning curve can make using the software frustrating. Below we included an FL Studio tutorial for beginners.

FL Studio 20 - Complete Beginner Basics Tutorial

What Are The Fl Studio Packages?

There are four different editions of FL Studio. All packages are one-time purchases and come with lifetime free updates. You can find the FL Studio editions listed here.

The Fruity edition is for beginners that haven’t used a DAW before. It’s an incredibly basic music production software that lacks audio editing tools and audio recording capabilities. It’s not worth it to anyone that plans to create and store an extensive playlist of songs right off the bat.

It does come with MIDI support and python scripting, limited effects, and extra content. It also has video and visual effects for your music videos. The included content is integrated loops, presets, and samples. The service can be good if you’re going to use another software where you will be creating and storing your songs. Alone, the software isn’t as well suited to the daily workflow of a producer, songwriter, or DJ.

The Fl Studio Producer Edition is the best choice if you want a little of everything while on a budget. You have access to audio recording and audio editor tools Newtone and some of Edison. Same with Fruity, you will be able to create with a myriad of effects and samples but more including drag and drop audio clips for faster editing. It also allows you to use the full range of playlist features.

There are some special sound effects you won’t find in Producer. These include vintage chorus, pitcher, pitcher shifter, gross beat, and hardcore. Vintage chorus is based on Roland Juno 6's Bucket Brigade Delay (BBD) Chorus.

Pitcher offers real-time pitch correction which even the best singers can benefit from. The pitcher shifter allows you to use pitch-shifting algorithms for more detailed styling. The gross beat is for more gritty sound effects. It lets you add scratching and grating effects. The hardcore effect is a selection of classic guitar effects like equalization and reverb.

If you really do want these sound manipulations for the genres of music, you are working with then Signature and All Plugins Edition are better choices. If these features Producer is the best all-in-one budget-friendly package.

For the Fl Studio Signature bundle, you get more advanced plugins. You can access music effects Producers doesn’t have like hardcore and gross beat but not more technical capabilities like pitch shifter’s algorithms. You also won't be able to access the transient processor plugin or instrumentals like transistor bass or toxic biohazard and its synthesizer engine.

You will have the ability to use some powerful plugins like speech synthesizer which has the functionality to create synth vocals from text. The Signature edition includes almost all plugins and has all three audio editors Edison, Newtime, and Newtone. This is the best choice is you want more personalization for your music creation. It’s great for music producers and tech-savvy artists.

Fl Studio All Plugins Edition is as it sounds, it has all the plugin bundles and instrumentals available. This means all editors and all technical effects like pitch shifter and transient processor. It has instrumentals like transistor bass, toxic biohazard, and harmor which offers an image synthesizer and sequencer.

This would be the best choice for a more established producer, artist, or team. In one purchase you have a wide array of editing, plugins, and control in

What Is The Difference Between Fl Studio and Ableton Live?

Ableton Live is another great DAW with MIDI effects and VST plugins. Fl Studio has more plugins for effects and instruments than Ableton Live, but they still have powerful capabilities like storage for recordings and significantly more instrument samplings.

Ableton Live also offers upfront pricing or a payment plan. This kind of flexibility can be essential to artists just starting out. You can find the Ableton Live 11 Editions here.

In terms of different edition costs FL Studio has more variety. The Signature edition comes with almost everything Fl Studio offers and it's only a one-time purchase of $199. Ableton Live’s Standard doesn’t have nearly as much as Suite and it’s already $449. The one plan with complete functionality is a whopping $749, more than any of Fl Studio’s plans.

It really comes down to preference and cost. Ableton Live’s Suite plan has a plethora of sound samplings that could be the envy of all DJs on top of its editor tools. Fl Studio’s All Plugins edition has an impressive sound manipulation arsenal. In terms of plans in between, Fl Studio is definitely cheaper.

If you want to see a comparison of reviewer-provided information about the two software go here.

More Resources

If you would like to look at our list of audio editing software you can find that here. It’s important to make sure the software is designed for creating music so another DAW that follows VST standards is ideal.

For those that have used any of the platforms discussed here please leave a review to help other buyers make informed decisions.