New York, NY (October 31, 2023)—It wasn’t Halloween yet, but Image-Line, the company behind FL Studio, probably got a good scare on the opening day of the AES Convention last week. At the show, a high-profile, in-the-know guest speaker started discussing his favorite DAWs onstage and casually mentioned FL Studio’s ability to demix tracks into stems; the problem was, that feature hadn’t been announced yet—the newly updated FL Studio 21.2, adding stem separation, was set to debut 20 hours later on the second day of the convention.
All the same, the moment underlines both the impact and inroads that FL Studio has made within the recording industry; no longer considered an introductory tool, the DAW has become a mature, crucial part of the creative process for multiple genres and top professionals. It also goes to show just how anticipated the new 21.2 update was.
Seen on the Scene: AES 2023 in Photos
The FL Studio 21.2 update does add a new Stem Separation feature, allowing producers to extract individual drum, instrument, bass, and vocal tracks from any audio source, from directly within the software. Hand in hand with that, a new Kepler vintage synthesizer and an enhanced colored waveform featureare also within the update.
What may prove to be the most impactful feature in the future as it gets built-out, however, is FL Cloud, a new service built specifically for the DAW. Integrated within the software, FL Cloud provides producers with a large, growing library of royalty-free loops and one-shots, exclusive Artist Packs from FL Studio Power Users, unlimited AI-powered mastering, and unlimited music distribution to all major digital streaming platforms via an exclusive partnership with distributor, DistroKid, all from within the DAW
The 21.2 update is available to existing customers, and FL Cloud includes free features for all FL Studio users, though there are additional features available through subscription. Subscribers can choose between paying $7.99 monthly or $79.99 annually, although for now, there’s an introductory annual subscription price of $49.99.
