FL Studio
Formerly known as Fruity Loops, FL Studio is a Digital Audio Workstation developed by a Belgian company named Image-Line Software. Image-Line prides itself by offering it's users lifetime support and updates for purchasing the program. FL Studio is one of the simplest programs of its kind to navigate and get used to with its graphical user interface. Drum patterns and samples can be placed into the Step Sequencer for the creation of quality drum loops. With the Piano Roll, users can make any instrument come to life by placing notes along the track for playback. When virtual instruments are plugged in, you may use a MIDI controller keyboard to record individual tracks in real-time or you may use the Piano Roll to place individual notes on the track. The Playlist allows all of the parts you've assembled to come together.
At any point in the creation of a Fruity Loop track, the user has the ability to playback the creation at any point. If the user wanted to just hear the drums he created during playback, then he would single out the drum pattern channel and press the play button. FL Studio also comes with a Mixer for adding effects such as reverb, chorus and flanger, as well as balancing the audio for playback or export to any audio file type. FL Studio also serves as a multi-track virtual audio recording studio. Just plug in a mic, select your recording source parameters, hit record, start singing and FL Studio will pipe in your voice to its own separate channel.
Reason
Reason is an advanced piece of music production software developed by a Swedish software company named Propellerhead Software. The graphic interface of Reason is very in-depth and creative in regards to its design - you are basically staring on your computer at a music studio rack of equipment and hardware such as synthesizers, sequencers, mixers and samplers. What makes Reason such an advanced piece of software is its capability to use it to produce music as well as use it as a virtual instrument performing live while hooked up to an amplifier.
Although Reason lacks the capability to record and sequence external audio such as vocals and analog instruments, it does provide seamless integration into other sequencing software with this capability. Usually people will use Reason along with another program such as protools or Cakewalk Sonar, in which tracks created in Reason can be imported into the sequencing software where external audio tracks may be recorded, mixed and mastered. Reason is such a powerful music program that it still kicks the socks off of other music production software. Most notably, the newest release of Reason, version 4, has three unique synthesizers, four unique sample players. The most notable of the four is Redrum, a virtual drum computer based off of the classic Roland TR-808, not The Shining's "Red Rum". This drum computer features usable drum kit samples of real drum sounds from studio produced drum sets. No matter what you say, this drum computer is the best in its business because you can edit effects of each individual drum sound, create multiple patterns and use multiple drum kits at the same time.
Reason has a great mastering suite of effects from an equalizer, compressor, maximizer and stereo imager. There are additional advanced effects for reverb, chorus, delay and distortion. There is no reason why somebody wouldn't want Reason to make good, quality music. If you're the type of musician that likes to create instrumentals, then Reason is the perfect fit. If you need a great virtual drum machine to make fat beats, then Reason is also suitable because you can export raw WAVES and use these in other sequencing programs for laying down tracks of live recordings.
December 22nd, 2008 at 8:24 am
Then burn CDs, and create music players that can be posted on the Web. Entertainment
March 28th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Need online mastering? Look no further!