The more horsepower the better in terms of dealing with the mass of real time processing going on.
Learning curve aside, this all works wonderfully on my test HP Elite X3, admittedly the most capable of the Windows 10 phones. So, for example, you could set up a track and then listen on headphones while you add a vocal or two. In addition to the massive palette of built-in sampled instruments (I refer you to that initial 1GB download again), you can plug in MIDI instruments (more relevant on a PC, obviously), buy others from the in-app shop (so your initial £11 isn't absolute, you may still want to pay more - but hey, this is the music business!), mix in audio that you already have on your phone or even record some audio live.
I've held off reviewing this for a couple of months since the first release versions were unstable and often led to crashes, but these have now (as at v3.1.9) been all but eliminated (the exception is described at the end, below!) and FL Studio Mobile 3 is now more or less ready for the prime time. Hopefully you'll be as impressed as I was (and have been since). Take a look, watch all 13 minutes and then you'll know whether this is for you: Now, my screenshots in the review here are only to give you a feel for the application - the absolute best way to show the interface is with one of FL Studio 3's many video tutorials, 'Getting Started', which you can access online on the web and which are shortcutted directly from within 'Help' in the application itself. And yes, you can zoom in and out on this (by time) with a pinch or splay on the top bar. Not to mention that every beat of every track with every instrument is represented (as appropriate) in the main timeline.
Every single pixel of space is used - slide out controls and banks of other controls, slide-up keyboards, panels that respond to multi-touch pinch to zoom, buttons that expand to full on mixers, you get the idea. The interface looks very pastel and somewhat cluttered at times, but don't be fooled.
Note that FL Studio Mobile 3 also works on an iPhone or Android device,meaning that you don't actually have to use Windows 10 Mobile, but it's still pretty cool that the application is consistent right down into this part of Microsoft's Windows 10 ecosystem.Īnyway, should your creative juices need the outlet of an 'always with you' sequencer, the question is whether or not FL Studio Mobile 3 is worth the (unusual in the mobile world) high purchase price of £11. Or a true Windows 10 tablet or even touchscreen hybrid/laptop. FL Studio 3 works with Continuum, of course, but you really need the touchscreen interface to get the most from it, so best stick with a Windows 10-running phablet like the X3 or Lumia 950 XL.
These aren't criticisms though - on the plus side, the scope here is incredible, think of dozens of virtual instruments, real time effects, real time EQ - master FL Studio Mobile 3 and, for anyone working with trance/sequenced music, your Windows 10 Mobile smartphone really can be a mobile recording and development studio. Even after a month of tinkering with this (off and on, while waiting for bugs to be fixed), I'm still finding gestures that do interesting things that I didn't know about and I'm still hitting buttons that I didn't mean to hit because I've been a few pixels off beam and have triggered something I've never triggered before. In terms of bytes (it's the best part of a Gigabyte), concept (professional-grade music sequencing) and, yes, learning curve - it'll take an hour before you're at home with the interface and ten hours before you're really getting the most from it. We'll start with the brickbats and bouquets though. As a commercial application, is it worth £12? You bet it is, with only a couple of caveats.
The 'FL' in the name stems from FruityLoops, a sequencer-based music application on the desktop that I remember reviewing for the PC back in the late 1990s - and here we are, almost twenty years later with a full music studio in the palm of your hand, in my case tested on a HP Elite X3, whose stereo speakers show off FL Studio Mobile 3's capabilities pretty well. Available for all variants of Windows Phone and also Windows 8 and 10 on PCs and tablets, Belgian developers Image-Line appear to be expert in their trade.