One of the most interesting threads on the Image-line forums, following a debate that's raging on the internet forums and in real life situations (I know I've been in many of these). The original thread (under the name of: "The FL Studio 'Audio Engine' & DAW wars")can be found here: http://forum.image-line.com/viewtopic.php?t=45272 but you can't read it if you are not registered, and to be so, you need to own some IL product. That's why I copied it here.
quote:
Posted by Scott, a moderator and an Image-Line team member:
Before you post a thread about some 'oddity' you have noticed with the sound of FL studio, or want to make a claim that FL Studio sounds superior/inferior to some other DAW, please read this thread and its links carefully.
Whatever you may have found, or think you have found, there are many settings and options that affect the live and rendered audio from FL Studio (sometimes differently) and the same is true for any other DAW. Please make sure you understand what these settings and options are, and if you venture into loop-talk with such a claim, be prepared to provide example audio files and evidence you have discounted all the items listed below as the cause:
1. Live audio settings - Mixer interpolation. This applies to Sampler Channels when transposing samples from the root note. Plugin instruments may have their own live vs rendered interpolation settings.
On this topic, there are some design decisions that may make sound rendered from FL Studio quieter/louder (depending on settings) when compared to the same audio/sample rendered from other DAWS. Again, all DAWs will face the same design issues and probably implement different solutions. For example 'panning law', check it at Google. Note: In a comparison, louder always sound 'better' than quieter. It will seem to have more bass and clearer high frequencies. This comes from the way our ears work, not anything in the audio itself.
4. Your soundcard or Windows mixer - Make sure you don't have any EAX, Compressors or EQ settings etc on in the soundcards/Windows settings. Dig deep here, sometimes they are well hidden in 'advanced' options tabs etc.
6. Plugins behaving differently - This trips many people up when they render the same synth fron two DAWs. Synthesisers usually have some randomisation and/or free running oscillators (meaning the phase of the waveform will change as a function of the note start time), as the point of most synths is to not produce the 'exact' same waveform twice. Make sure to disable any randomisation settings and to send the same notes of the same velocity with any of the same modulation settings. A better strategy here is to use a .wav file as a test source, then you know it's identical to start with in each DAW.
7. Marketing has influenced you - Digital audio is just numbers. Computers add up numbers in a well understood and predictable way, if they didn't we'd constantly have satellites raining down on us from the sky. We are talking here basic mathematics (addition, subtraction and division), there is no magic, there are no secret things that some DAW manufacturers know that others don't (dithering, interpolation etc are well understood). FYI: The precision with which numbers are manipulated in FL Studio is 32 bit float. No 64 bit is not subjectively better. Why? Please read this article carefully, it's about the audibility of 'high-end' audio formats above 16 bit 44.1 kHz ... The Emperor's New Sampling Rate
8. You have influenced you - You simply can't make an unbiased comparison of the audio from two sources, A and B, if you know what source you are listening to at any given time. You can't so forget it. Get a friend to play you the two sources in random-order pairs. Your task is to simply identify source A and B, nothing more, nothing less. If you can distinguish source A vs B, at least 8 times, or more, from 10 random-order paired comparisons, then you may be able to hear something. If not, it is likely that you are just guessing. You know, this is probably one of the most enlightening tests any audio-engineer can do, you will learn a lot about perception and your ability to hear things this way.
"Amateurs worry about equipment, professionals worry about money, masters worry about light. I just take pictures " Vernon Trent
The FL Studio Support Team.
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FL Studio just started off with a bad name (Fruity Loops) and the first couple of versions were not to be taken all that serious. The problem in this case is more a reputation issue than a quality issue. It sounds so much cooler to say that you use Cubase or Pro Tools because it makes you look like you're "one of them" but in the end it doesn't really matter.
Any non-believers who want to hear some examples of crystal clear sound that was produced entirely on FL Studio should check out the tunes from Tomos on this site.
The downside of all this is that the guys behind FL studio haven't done a lot to improve FL since version 7 in fact they made a couple of design changes that are not pleasing at all to me.
Let's hope for the future.
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Originally posted by gripz
lol if u start about mixer interpolation
i bet u more then 50% of the ppl ripping on fruity won't know what hit em
Yeah mate, my mixdown sucks bigtime, but that's due to the lame mixer interpolation in FL Studio, not because I suck as a producer and have no idea what I'm doing... it's mixer interpolation all the way. I'm going to switch to Cubase or even Pro Tools and get the matter sorted out.
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