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I kinda hate FL Studio now
03 dec 2025

It’s my DAW, and naturally I’m very defensive about it. It’s the software I’ve used to build up my music skills, so I know its interface and its workflow by heart and just cannot replace it with any other. When I see people use Live and its plethora of useful plugins and experimental features added every version, I just say that I can’t get used to it and that the price point is too steep for me.

I just love this DAW. And it’s been painful to see its enshittification in recent years.

It’s very clear that Image-Line is trying to extract more money out of its power users. First with FLEX, their preset machine which relies heavily on its purchasable sound packs. The default project has included a FLEX patch alongside the default 808 samples for a while now, I think since the plugin’s addition to the DAW.

Then with FL Cloud, their subscription-based sample library, walking in the footsteps of Splice. When installing FL 25, the sidebar directly opens on the FL Cloud “Sounds” tab, instead of showing the list of local folders we’re all used to.

When it’s not the micro-transactions – because that’s what they are – it’s the trend-hopping and reduction of creative work. In FL 25, Image-Line added an AI chatbot, “Gopher”. Not only did most users completely gloss over the feature’s announcement, it’s also... just an LLM chatbot. It has no control over the DAW, but it is demoed as a general help tool, spanning more than just how the software works, but also how music works in general. You can ask it to generate chord progressions for instance.

That same update introduced a beat generator feature. You input a genre from a limited list of presets, and FL pulls out a random set of audio loops that sound somewhat coherent and fitting. It can give a bit of inspiration, much like digging into a sample pack would. But the fact that the feature was dropped alongside the AI invasion is really bleak. Just feels like FL is trying to become an automated Grammy machine.

All of these things can be removed in a few clicks and forgotten about, or outright ignored – until the next update or reinstall.

Personally, I bought my license in 2017, gave them 200 bucks once, and never needed to give them more. The promise of “Lifetime Free Updates” was enticing, and I had used the software for years prior, through... underground means. But these recent changes are both predatory and anti-autonomy. Normalizing a culture that relies on the dev’s ability to make sounds and fit trends. And I dislike that.

“may your expression always be full of intent, and not generated for you.”

***

I would also love to mention the lack of Linux support for any popular DAW right now. Using FL Studio on Linux right now is doable – more doable than it used to be before PipeWire became widely adopted – but you still have to deal with Wine’s bullshit and won’t get a complete experience as a result. WebViews don’t work. Some stock plugins are broken – Fruity Delay 3 outright crashes on startup. And VSTs are hit or miss: ValhallaDSP’s entire suite works perfectly, Serum only seems to display anything on AMD hardware, anything too recent is just invisible.

I’m honestly thinking of switching DAWs to something more open and Linux-friendly. I was thinking either Renoise or Ardour. Might try both, but I’m seriously gonna miss FL’s workflow if I do.

To Image-Line: a Linux port would do a greater favor to your brand than any tech bubble ever could.