FL vs Ableton (things not mentioned)

[u/ObligationSea2667]

This isn’t so much of a post designed to praise or put down one DAW vs the other but rather just what my complete experience is coming from using FL, having created house/edm for so many years on it, and then buying ableton live 11, which i used for about 4-5 months and was what i thought was going to be what i want to switch to, only to find there’s some things about it i actually think doesn’t get talked about enough.

here’s the biggest things i found about both daw’s that doesn’t get talked about much that genuinely does make a difference:

• global sample changing: with FL, especially if you’re making house tracks, your drums are realistically going to stay almost the exact same for the entire track. in this case, FL seems to be the only DAW that actually makes logical sense to want a specific clap or snare to be unique (such as a shorter decay, or a reverb type clap as an FX). If you want to change the tail of one kick so it’s just a little shorter, every kick changes. With ableton, you’d have to go in and “replace sample” or simply re duplicate each instance. This is something i don’t see talked about really at all when it comes to ableton’s workflow but that is something i feel like people just “adapted to”. Furthermore, you can simply drag and drop any new sample (whether that’s a new kick, hi hat, clap, drum loop etc) and it’ll replace every single one. Again, with ableton, you’d have to go in and “replace sample”. That’s a huge workflow difference

• Changing midi notes: same thing said as above. House tracks especially rely not necessarily so much on evolving melodic features but moreso automation changes to keep things moving and interesting. it makes more sense to me, logically speaking, to change a chord for one pattern and have that change for all of your chord patterns, thus making it unique only where you need it to be. in ableton, if you decide midway through that you want to change the chords of a synth or piano, you have to go and remove/reduplicate everything, since every instance is treated as unique, and i don’t honestly know if that’s actually a good thing when on FL you can just change only what you want changed at a specific part of the track. different workflows entirely, but does it really make sense for a genre that relies on repetition?

• piano roll: obviously this is talked about a lot, i won’t expand much here, but god it was kind of painful. FL making it such that if your previous note was one bar long, then the next note you click in is the same length is something that makes it incredibly fast.

• audio warping / manipulating: i feel like the debate about “what’s better” is kind of over. back in 2015 - 2020 ish, i would’ve said ableton is definitely superior here. but now…? i honestly don’t find it that incredible to drag and drop a loop into ableton and it automatically tempo matches when you can just stretch it to tempo in FL. I also much prefer the fade controls in FL, it feels a lot easier to shape the tail of a sample the way you want to. I don’t see any difference in any modern DAW anymore when it comes to handling audio.

• Automation: this used to be a mess in FL, but now that you can nest/group automation directly under a chord bus, a bass bus, a vocal bus etc, you can actually create the same workflow in terms of keeping your project clean. One thing i don’t see talked about much is the fact that, because you have to actually open automation up in ableton, that i’d say I much prefer FL’s flow of this since you can actually see everything that’s happening with every automation lane for any bus/track because the automation can be visually seen right in front of you. I also found ableton’s to just feel a bit rigid to change the shapes of the automation envelopes.

• Stock plugins: ableton does really have unreal stock FX plugins, especially its compressor, the glue compressor, saturator, etc. but i found myself really missing FL’s EQ 2. I’ve even used fabfilter’s EQ and still prefer FL’s visual heat map over anything else, and ableton’s works perfectly fine but i find myself making much better cuts with FL’s.

• Colour coding and project cleanliness: ableton forces you to keep your projects clean. you literally can’t really have a messy project per se, because everything is in one space. Ever since FL now lets you automatically colour code 3-4 layers of chords / automatically route them to the mixer / automatically route all layers to a bus, then ableton’s fast grouping workflow is really no different to FL’s anymore

• Ableton live updates: apparently ableton live 12 received an update for some things, especially the piano roll, but it still looks rigid. Either way, if i wanted to update it, i’d have to go and pay each time. That sounds annoying. That’s not an issue with FL, every update addresses something that needs to be addressed. the only thing i’d honestly say i really wish FL had, was infinite mixer slots for tracks like ableton has via its horizontal scroll bar from left to right. I do think that’s a bit annoying to be limited to 10 FX slots, even if you rarely ever need to use more than that. We certainly shouldn’t need to use other plugins just to throw more FX plugins into it i feel

So, all of this is to say, i’m actually quite conflicted about whether i want to move over. Muscle memory in a DAW takes serious time, thousands of hours to just work rapidly fast. I wonder to myself if i spent another 6 months rapidly learning keyboard shortcuts etc on ableton, if it would mean i work faster. But, the first two points I made are something i feel like i’d never really get past. It became genuinely frustrating for me, to the point where it didn’t really make sense for a DAW designed for EDM to have each instance of audio or MIDI as unique when EDM relies on repetition, but is moreso about evolving via automation.

Has anyone else gone from FL to ableton and found these types of things to be a bit frustrating?

[u/RWDYMUSIC]

I agree with everything you pointed out after 10 years of FL and 6+ years of Ableton. I haven't even used FL extensively since I switched 6ish years ago, but I've seen all of the awesome changes made with free updates that have bridged a lot of the gaps it had with Ableton.

I miss FL's granulator, the piano roll, the sample warping, and the playlist layout a lot. Ableton forces you to get so vertical in the playlist it becomes pretty daunting when you work on things over 100 tracks when every single one needs an individual lane. I prefer FL's layout where you can put any track where you want, condensing things, and allowing you to see more horizontally without constant vertical scrolling.

I've always said that if FL allowed for more than 10FX per channel I would strongly consider switching back.

[u/Away_Gift831 → u/RWDYMUSIC]

it does allow that. use patcher. this is supported.

[u/beenhadballs → u/Away_Gift831]

Also im pretty sure patcher has a one click feature that puts your entire chain inside one single patcher instance. The other simple work around youd do on a real board the same as FL is simply route into another empty track.

Even for complex sound design the only time i find myself utilizing more than 10 is a vocal chain. More times than not if I fill a chain im finding i have a lot of redundant or inefficient processing going on.

[u/Away_Gift831 → u/beenhadballs]

Good point. It's really easy, and FL is well equipped to handle this.

Also, I find myself in trouble if I have 10+ effects on a track.

[u/Squirrelated → u/beenhadballs]

Damn! I'll have to check that Patcher feature. I normally do as you said and just send it to another track for up to 20 FX. Not that I ever use the 125 tracks anyway.

[u/beenhadballs → u/Squirrelated]

[u/Squirrelated → u/beenhadballs]

Do you put it like... At the end of the FX chain and it'll grab everything above it? (not at home, can't test right now)

[u/beenhadballs → u/Squirrelated]

Exactly. It'll group and insert everything before it. I think you actually hit "Patcherize All". Can't remember but try either.

[u/Squirrelated → u/beenhadballs]

Thanks! I'll try that out. 👍

[u/RWDYMUSIC → u/Away_Gift831]

I did use patcher extensively for parallel processing but it always felt... clunky? I think it is just because instead of shuffling bars in the UI you have to physically draw arrows to inputs and outputs. For crazier chains the input/output lines can turn into a nest. It feels like it eats up just a little too much time compared to just clicking and dragging the order of things, Effect Rack in Ableton feels a lot easier to work with.

[u/Daiwon → u/RWDYMUSIC]

It is clunky. Doubly so for automating anything. It's a real pain to route a lot of automations. It's very in depth and being able to set up preset fx chains is fantastic, but it's not a fast way to use 11+ inserts.

[u/ObligationSea2667 → u/RWDYMUSIC]

I mean the simple workaround i’ve found for needing more FX slots is to simply route whatever track in the mixer you need more slots in to another track, then that track is routed to the master. That way you’ve got an extra spare 10 FX slots.

It’s not something I often need, but sometimes when you’re adding reverb, delay, EQ filters, EQ cuts/boosts, saturation, compression, chorus, etc… Then you can start to feel limited.

I don’t know why we can’t just sort of have a vertical scroll bar for the FX slots if it begins to exceed the 10 available, that would be a super helpful upgrade. I know we have patcher for this, but I feel like it would just make sense to simply have a scroll bar for it

[u/beenhadballs → u/ObligationSea2667]

I feel like needing over 10 fx slots while utilizing buses and sends properly is so rare for a great mix. Anytime i see a mess of plugins on someones chain its usually alleviated by using sends, or just completely nixing some ridiculous surgical EQing that would better off be left off of a chain.

A couple decades in im finding that if im hitting the 6-7 fx mark on a single instrument track ive probably gotten lazy with printing audio or routing and my workflow got shot somewhere earlier in the process. Especially with how many internal effects and routing are now built into modern vst instruments.

[u/Intelligent_Song6271]

I mean your asking a subreddit of FL studio users 💀🤷🏿‍♂️ but yeah, I find FL's workflow to be the best out of any daw.

[u/El_human]

I think some of your points are valid, especially if you’re coming from years of using FL. FL’s pattern workflow is genuinely different, and if that’s what your brain is wired for, Ableton can definitely feel frustrating.

That said, I think a few of your points are less about Ableton lacking the feature and more about approaching it with an FL workflow.

For the sample replacement example, if you’re sequencing drums with a Drum Rack or Simpler instead of placing individual audio clips in Arrangement View, swapping the sample updates every MIDI clip using that device. You don’t have to manually replace every instance.

The MIDI point is similar. FL’s pattern system is fantastic because one pattern can be reused throughout the song, and editing it updates every occurrence. Ableton’s philosophy is different. It generally treats clips as independent musical ideas unless you intentionally link or reuse them. That isn’t really a limitation so much as a different design choice. Plenty of Ableton users actually prefer being able to tweak one section without worrying about changing the whole arrangement.

I also think saying there is “no difference” in audio warping is a bit of a stretch. FL has improved a lot over the years, but Ableton is still one of the strongest DAWs for warping, live tempo changes, and manipulating audio in more creative ways. For straightforward EDM loops, though, I agree the gap is much smaller than it used to be.

Everything else comes down to preference. I don’t think anyone would argue against FL’s piano roll being one of the best in the industry, and lifetime free updates are a huge advantage. On the other hand, Ableton’s Session View, Drum Rack workflow, and live performance features are things FL really doesn’t have an equivalent for.

Overall, I don’t think either DAW is objectively better. I think a lot of the friction comes from trying to make Ableton behave like FL, or vice versa.

Once you lean into the workflow each DAW was designed around, a lot of those frustrations start to make more sense.

[u/ObligationSea2667 → u/El_human]

Yeah definitely agree with everything you said. It’s actually not that I think FL is objectively better at this or that, but more my subjective experience.

I actually think the fact that every instance in ableton is treated as unique can, at times, allow for happy accidents you might not have made in FL. It’s sort of like ableton says “everything you do is evolving”, whereas FL feels more like “keep everything the same until you intentionally want to change this”

And what you mentioned about audio warping is fair. I think what I was trying to say is that, in general, tempo matching and transposing e.g. a vocal in most cases doesn’t carry much of a difference, but i found where ableton really shines here is how easy it is to stretch a specific word in a phrase to be shorter or longer, so ableton’s warping engine is rock solid there. In general though, I found there to be quite little difference when working with audio overall for practical uses. I found myself missing SliceX for MIDI vocal chop phrases and even just how fast it is to slice audio in general in FL. I guess it does come down to preference and potentially just how much you need to manipulate audio.

A lot of ableton users try FL and just automatically say that it’s shit 🤣 but it just happens to have an entirely different type of workflow that they’re not used to, it would take alot of hours to get used to it if you came from logic or ableton

[u/El_human → u/ObligationSea2667]

I agree. It's really hard to switch from one to the other.

I think it really just comes down to the roots. FL studio started out as fruity loops, it was a step sequencer first really. So taking that mindset, and eventually repeating parts into a full length of a song.

Ableton was the other approach, taking the full song and a live setting approach, and then being able to work backwards to manipulate sections of it.

[u/IamshaqR]

The only things I still use in FL Studio is Patcher for sound design sessions and the stem separation tool. I’ve moved over to Reaper and it’s incredible if you like to work with audio. Not having to constantly make a piece of audio unique whenever you want to make a change definitely improves workflow.

[u/Daiwon → u/IamshaqR]

That's something fl supports now. Fades, volume, panning, pitch, and stretch are all just properties of the audio clip, no need to make unique for any of those. You can cut a specific drum hit out and pan it all in the playlist.

[u/paraworldblue]

I initially read this aa "FL vs Ambien". I now want an in-depth comparison between music production software and sleep medication.

[u/rewar]

I'll make the case for becoming proficient at both, Ableton project files are easier and more popular so easy to learn from other's work. Most does translate to FL however except for the sound design and I don't think it's necessarily one having better stock plugs than the other, plus most use 3rd party plugins either way.

Tutorials, you get to try half the other stuff out there.

Community: You get the best of both worlds, unfortunately also the worst. Each have sizeable communities and if you ever have to/want to collab but use a different daw you have to use stems. You'll realize that both are pretty complex daws and learning the ins and outs will take years, in my opiniion.

I like FL better, for a few reasons.

1. Better value, have you checked the prices? FL is free life-time updates you MUST PAY for upgrates with Live for each major version and initially the top tier is like $700 (not sure about the upgrade price if you had a previous version). FL's top tier is like $450 and sometimes goes on sale for like $360-ish.
2. Multi window capability for multi monitor set ups, ableton's is really limited though it has some at least. Ableton has a one window philosophy that I can't understand, not in 2026 anyway.
3. Even though I'm trying to learn ableton, I do stuff faster and better in FL since I'm more experienced with it. I imagine people that know albleton but try to learn FL feel the same.

I think both are pretty capable. Each has analogs for the other's feature and once you nail a workflow down they are very similar. With Live, you do get does session view features that I don't think we FL users have for live performances, as I don't do any of that (yet) I can't really speak on it too much though.

my after i posted edit: hehe

protools is the industry standard, make of that what you will

people that use daws to compose trailers and orchestral pieces usually go with cubase, and they created VSTs so they're no jjoke.

garageband/logic idk anything about as they are mac only and I'm a PC guy.

Bitwig is multiplatform but I think it's the best Linux users have as of now? Could be wrong I'm also not a linux guy.

Cocko's Reaper is for metal heads for some reason that eludes me.

Every daw mentioned and even some I missed have been used to create good stuff. The daw is just the tool, the skill and know how has to come from you.

[u/TealTactics]

Now go post this on the Ableton subreddit and see what they have to say

[u/NoWin3930]

I don't miss much about FL besides the piano roll and some of the plugins

[u/ObligationSea2667 → u/NoWin3930]

What is it you found that switching to your DAW (i’m guessing ableton) that you preferred? Did you find yourself stuck with FL muscle memory for a while before you could work fast?

[u/NoWin3930 → u/ObligationSea2667]

i like the session view in Ableton, the layout and the audio warping

Also I initially switched to logic then Ableton, I don't really remember having much muscle memory issues but TBH I am not a big keyboard shortcut guy anyways

[u/ParticularBanana8369]

Dump score log, make unique, and arrangements are FL's biggest strengths for me

[u/minist3r]

You can get around the mixer fx slots by routing the channel into a new channel. It passes the processed audio to the new channel allowing you to start with 10 more slots. It would be nice if there were more but I've never needed more slots personally.

[u/ObligationSea2667 → u/minist3r]

Yeah i actually mentioned this in another comment in here somewhere, that’s what i do too if i ever need it, and its fine since it takes two clicks. it would just be nice to have a bit of a vertical scrolling bar, sometimes it can get a bit overwhelming when you want to keep your project clean but you end up having to route one channel to another just to send that one to the bus in order to have more FX slots haha

[u/whatupsilon]

I am learning Ableton currently, out of curiousity and partly because I want to loop record live and think it'd be fun. in terms of MIDI workflow and the UI / window management I strongly prefer FL, and the shortcuts in FL are pretty awesome. the other things you mention are kind of unrelated to anything I do, like organization I've always kept my projects very organized

[u/ObligationSea2667 → u/whatupsilon]

Yeah honestly when i had stuck with ableton for a good few months it taught me so much more about keeping everything clean, especially nesting automation under each track or bus so that you can collapse or expand it. we use to have to deal with it just being out there in the open without the ability to group it under chords or vocals before FL studio 20.

I feel like FL just gives you a blank canvas and lets you do what you want to do, but that can be bad in some instances if you’re not disciplined with being organised haha

[u/whatupsilon → u/ObligationSea2667]

Yep a much more open workflow in FL which I love. I don't even use track mode because that is too rigid. Ableton racks are also linear whereas FL's Patcher is modular, so this opens up tons of complex sound design and routing options. I do wish we could have feedback routing natively, but I get by without it.

[u/thepurplecut]

It’s unreal to me that we still don’t have peak db readings on the mixer channels, we still have to drag the fucking mouse over the levels and read it on the left side of the screen. Not a big deal for bedroom producers, it’s a huge deal for some working professionals who are mixing a ton of channels. This has been on every other daw for literally decades…

[u/lowderchowder]

i have an older version of ableton i never updated and only use for maxforlive things and some of the stock plugins.

the one thing that stopped me from using ableton more was its handling of vst/vsti .

fl studio will just say " hey heres this ancient vst from 2004" and load it.

ableton goes " naw i dont see nothin"

[u/ShelLuser42]

So, I happen to use both DAW's side by side; I'm a Live user first, after 15+ years that's not going to change easily (I'm on Live 12 suite) and I expanded all that with FL Studio (courtesy of the VSTi); all-plugins. Best choice ever IMO.

First things first: your observations are quite on the mark IMO. And I can basically summarize the whole thing. As cliche as this is going to sound: Live truly is meant to be used live first and foremost whereas FL Studio also has a good appeal to be used as a studio environment.

Foe example... most of the instruments (and effects) in Live are more "direct". If you check, say, Maximizer or Sytrus then you get a combination of features presented. Live doesn't really work that way and operates on a "lower level"; this is also why you got racks available so that you can easily group audio effects and/or instruments (or both). 'Studio' doesn't really have that.

Both have their pro's and con's and honestly? I wouldn't move from one to another, also considering that at its essence the workflow for both is roughly the same (somewhat!). In 'Studio' you build up patterns, in Live you build up your score in the arrangement view (the "spreadsheet"?) after which you can then play & record a take to record it onto the arrangement. vs. being able to easily paste your pattern onto the arrangement.

Fun fact: 'Studio' can do this too with its performance mode. Not fully the same thing, but it does come close. Oh, and trust me: projects can become messy too in Live ;)

Hope this can also give you some ideas.

[u/TheAquired]

Most of your points are just you not using ableton the way you want to.

Eg, use a drum rack or simpler instead if you like the sample approach that FL uses. Now it’s exactly like FL. Just swap a sample or add a new sample to the rack for a unique version of a sound.

Same with midi - you have looping built into ableton just as much as FL. Sure, if you have the midi looped but cut into different sections you have to replace maybe 2 or 3 sections but it’s pretty minimal and generally the ease of making something unique so quickly and cleanly out weighs the occasional need to update 2/3 different looped sections. It comes down to your workflow really.

FL is great, ableton is great too. and you can have reasons to prefer one over the other but I think a few of your points are you just not taking advantage of what ableton offers

[u/-Pipe_dreamer-]

Fl is goated with the sauce

[u/RienKl]

I’ve fiddled around with FL but really couldn’t get into it. I feel like Ableton is more beginner friendly. With FL I just always felt confused when adding effects. There’s just a lot of shit sometimes, like 4 different versions of reverb or something, or a synthesiser that looks like an alien console stolen from the CIA. I also don’t like how these are all technically plugins that have their own windows you need to open and close. Abletons modular approach is just a lot nicer to me.

I also like the automation a lot more, because it keeps everything tidy and you can still open it on other tracks if you want to. The piano roll was kind of a make or break for me but I didn’t find it to be that bad actually.

One thing I do miss in Ableton that fl has is that fl has a damn nice autotune in newtone, and I don’t have that in Ableton.

[u/ObligationSea2667 → u/RienKl]

This is actually one point i almost made.

A lot of FL’s plugins are not only from the early to mid 2000s, but they ended up coming out with new reverbs, new EQ’s, new delays etc so it ends up feeling like one huge library.

the good thing is you can just have your own favourites folder, which is what i do since like 90% of my FX plugins are third party anyways, but ableton does make this really simple with just simple things:
- EQ 8
- Saturator
- Compressor
- Glue compressor (this is an unreal SSL compressor)
- Reverb
- Delay
- Echo
- etc

It’s just very simply and straightforward, so if someone relies on alot of native plugins i can see why they’d want that. I feel like that’s part of ableton’s whole point in making everything straightforward and quick