FL Studio

FL Studio is a digital audio workstation built around a pattern-based step sequencer and a playlist, rather than the linear track layout most DAWs use. That arrangement is why it took hold in electronic and hip-hop production: building and rearranging patterns is faster than editing regions on a timeline.

It ships with a large instrument and effect set — Sytrus, Harmor, Serum-adjacent synthesis, Fruity Slicer, Gross Beat and a full mixer with sidechain routing — and hosts VST2/VST3 plugins alongside them. Audio recording, automation clips and a piano roll that is genuinely one of the best in the field round it out.

Licence status: FL Studio is commercial software. It is not free. Image-Line's long-standing policy is lifetime free updates after a one-off purchase, and there is a trial you can use to evaluate it, with the limitation that projects saved in the trial cannot be reopened until you buy a licence. Purchase and download from Image-Line directly.