FL Studio is a Digital Audio Workstation, which is used for recording, editing and producing audio files. It helps you to create wonderful music with great effects. FL Studio has many advantages one of them being that it provides the best piano roll which allows you to play samples in different notes immediately.
Why Alternatives?
Isn’t FL Studio the best?
FL Studio is better than many other DAW’s but it becomes slow at times, it doesn’t allow you to open your saved files unless you purchase it, only then you can unlock your files.
FL Studio (formerly Fruity Loops) is a DAW that focuses on being highly customizable. It is mostly known for its advanced piano roll and easy to use interface, and is used by many big EDM musicians. With a quick and efficient transition between its Pattern and Arrangement(Playlist) modes, the workflow can be boosted to great lengths. These are the best VST plugins that can be used with music software like FL Studio, Ableton Live, Pro Tools, Reaper, and more. VST instruments give you additional sounds to create with like Pianos, Synths, Organs, and Bass.
For attachment of new instruments or effects for your project, you have to purchase the required plug-in.
Apart from these limitations, FL Studio is very light and stable, it provides the best beat processor available in the market. It is great for music that focuses on synthesizers and artificial drums.
But as always, we would love to have alternatives.
Alternative to FL Studio
1. LMMS (Linux Multimedia Studio)
You can download it from https://lmms.io/
This is a cross-platform Digital Audio Workstation for synthesizing and mixing together snazzy sounds as well as arranging samples. It provides a ready-made instrument and effect plug-ins along with many samples and pre-sets.
Plugging in a MIDI-keyboard and folding in an impressive library of sample sounds from horns to drums, I can combine and compose music to my heart’s content.
It provides extremely comfortable User Interface, there are two rows of icons across the top of the LMMS window which hide or show various control panels and file commands like save, create new, open existing project and export project. Along with many features, it provides documentation and many website links.
2. Traverso DAW
You can download it from https://traverso-daw.org/
The audio recording and editing software, Traverso DAW is used by the professionals as well as novices who prefer doing their recordings at home.
It provides a clean, easy-to-learn interface, and claims to be highly scalable; it even comes with an Album Mixer that allows you to mix your choice of songs with tons of effects. It is extremely stable and consumes very little power. You can download it on Windows, Linux and Mac systems also.
3. Audacity
You can download it from https://www.audacityteam.org/
Audacity is free software available on Windows and Mac platforms. Its UI (User Interface) may not be very attractive, but it provides uncluttered design. It is the best platform to learn basics like producing podcasts or digitizing the vinyl collection. When you highlight a portion plug-in will analyze the portion and will automatically remove the unwanted noise.
You might require a tool called LAMEC encoder for exporting files, any recordings can be exported into recognizable audio files like MP3 and WAV. Audacity doesn’t support MIDI recording, but it allows you to import MIDI. Editing and exporting MIDI is slowly being developed.
4. Ardour
You can download it from https://ardour.org/
Ardour is free software. It provides extensive number of commercially available plug-ins like VST, Ladspa and lv2, is a big plus and it connects to the jack server, OSC and midi controllers to remain in sync with other applications and hardware. However, it can run without the need of jack server.
The installation doesn’t provide Demo Songs, or pre-installed samples or virtual synthesis or effects of any kind and is quite bare bone as a standalone application without external plug-in.
5. Mp3DirectCut
You can download it from http://mpesch3.de1.cc/
If you are using working with encoded mp3 then mp3DirectCut is what you need. It is a fast and extensive audio editor and recorder. You can directly cut, crop or split your MP3 and AAC tracks, adjust the volume on MP3 and do much more without re-encoding. You can directly edit your files which save a lot of encoding time.
Using the built-in recorder, you can create MP3 very quickly. You can use Cue sheets, pause detection or Auto cue to divide long files. Mac version is not yet available, but there are many alternatives like Garageband for Mac users.
6. Audio Tool
You can download it from https://www.audiotool.com/
Free Software Similar To Fl Studio
When you are new to this field and want to try some creative stuff then audiotool provides you the best ground. It helps you develop your own style.
You can drag a device or sound from the control panel to the main work area using drag-and-drop, flash-based interface. It provides a sense of realism implementing a visual representation of hardware. You can share your creations by logging into audiotool and linking it with your Facebook profile.
7. Wavepad
You can download it from https://www.nch.com.au/wavepad/index.html
WavePad provides you an easy-to-use interface and a large toolset to accomplish a variety of audio editing jobs. It can work with multiple audio files and can convert those files to a wide variety of audio formats.
You can use its batch processing ability to convert a variety of different audio files to one single format simultaneously, instead of manually converting each one. But multitrack recording requires a software extension. It is available for Windows and Mac also.
8. Soundation Studio
You can download it from https://soundation.com/
Soundation Studio provides many features which are available only for paid version in other DAWs. It has 700 royalty free loops, 4 sample players, 14 Real-time effects.
Free Software Fl Studio 12
It requires 64-bit CPU quad-core, 4GB RAM, latest Chrome browser, the internet, and flash programming supported device. You can add various sounds that you hear in your everyday life. The files that you generated can be exported as .wav and .sng files.
Apart from the above-mentioned DAWs, there are many more, like.
- Garageband
- ocenaudio
- Hya-Wave
- Qtractor
- Nero Wave Editor
- Bitwig Studio
- Logic Pro X
- TwistedWave
- Pro Tools 2018.7
- Wavosaur
- Acoustica Basic
- Audio Cutter Pro
A few of these are paid and all others are paid. These also are just a few; you can many more by searching online. Choose the best one by reading reviews and considering expert opinions. You can always try new stuff and select the best one that fits you.
Curated For You
FL Studio (sometimes known by its full name – Fruity Loops) is for music making software or, as it says in professional circles, it is a DAW – digital audio workstation. It offers users full-spectrum features for making music at home or in a professional studio. FL Studio has very intuitive and easy to use design and high-quality built-in plugins. That’s why it is very popular, especially for beginners.
- Main Features of FL Studio
- User-friendly interface
- High-quality built-in plugins and VST’s
- You can automate almost every button
- Great piano roll with a lot features included
- Pros of FL Studio
- Fast workflow
- Lifetime free updates
- Good plugin organization
- You can export file in different formats (.mp3, .wav, .ogg, .flac, .mid)
Good Free Music Studio Software
- Cons of FL Studio
- Doesn’t work on Linux, and on Mac, only the 64 bit version works
- Hard to record multi tracks