FL Cloud is worse than you think.
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- čas přidán 7. 07. 2024
- I have to say that I was pretty dissapointed by FL Cloud. FL Cloud feels like it's 1/3 a scam, 1/3 doesn't work and is misleading and 1/3 it's not bad but could be a lot better and is a big missed opportunity.
That's why I wanted to make a video about the topic, giving you my opinion of FL Clouds service and it being a subscription model.
0:00 Why Distrokid Is A Scam
2:14 Problems With FL Studio's Mastering Feature
4:09 Mastering Feature Blind Test
5:40 FL Cloud Sounds
6:19 Opinion On It Being A Subscription - Hudba
Resolution of the blind test:
A - Ozone
B - FL Cloud
C - Unmastered
Fl cloud sounds the best
FL was the worst. Ozone sounded full and lively. Unmastered was Dynamic. FL cloud sounded flat and uninspired.@@meilechkatz4487
I couldn't tell them apart on a casual listen on my laptop speakers. at all.
b was better to my ears, kick more clicky
they all sounded the same to me
An artist I really love passed away a year ago and, now having there songs removed from platforms because they cant pay distrokid because they are DEAD. This makes me extremely sad.
This is why you should put a music video on CZcams 💀
Even if it's audio only
Dude thats fucked up
@@baymax001 they have music video look up feeluvsyou
You should definitely make a video about this...... this is a tactic but it won't change unless people like yourself are heard.... who even knows they may get to the point where they Cave in and re-upload his music..
As far as I know, when you upload a song that song gets its indentifier code (should be the ISRC). That mean that, when you delete distrokid and find a new distributor, if you reupload your music with your already existin ISRC you should regain all streams and data, cause everything is linked to your code. I believe there's some distributors that also help out with the process.
That's a very good point, I know of some distributors that let you reupload songs that already have an ISRC.
This is literally the first thing I thought about.
You which distributors?
AI mastering is flawed by default. I’ve tried Ozone, FL Cloud, and DistroKid mastering services but they all have quirks that put them below self-mastering or hiring it out to a professional. Solid vid, bud. Only thing I’d change is do the A-B-C mastering comparisons of the same section being looped, it’s easier to hear the differences that way.
Good idea, I'll do it like that next time!
@@SimonTheSpeedmon
Looking forward to the next vid! You should absolutely do a showcase of your 808 construction and glide techniques in FL as well. That will get some attention. Hoping for the best for you!
@@iceboxyt Thanks man! Planned for the next video is a tutorial on how to calibrate your room/speakers, but I'll consider your suggestion for the future too!
Suprisingly even the free mastering from bandlab works better than the distrokid one, at least for me. But yeah AI mastering is not worth it, you need like 15 minutes for a better master than it can pull off
I actually like this comparison type more, since the change is instant and therefore not biased.
But everyone likes it different
I would be fine if they charged for the distribution (not distrokid though) and if they charged for the sounds. But the mastering tool feels like that should have been a part of the lifetime free upgrades.
good stuff man, keep up the clean work!!
Great video bro! love when youtube recommends me dope small channels like this
Thanks for the informative video. I didn't know about the distrokid's policies when subscription ends, which is a huge minus for the distributer and fl cloud. I should have watched this before investing to the FL Cloud introductory offer yesterday. 😅 BTW subscribed.
Thats big rip 😅 The sounds might still be useful though. Thanks! ✌
Was würdest du für eine Alternative zu Distrokid empfehlen?
Ich persönlich benutze Amuse, die Regeln kommen einem manchmal unnötig streng vor und ein paar Sachen haben nicht richtig funktioniert, aber dafür ist der Support sehr gut.
Ansonsten sieht Ditto auch vielversprechend aus, den habe ich aber noch nicht ausprobiert.
Sehr gutes informatives Video!
It's better not to use loops in any digital distribuitor. Just our own creation from scratch.
I still can't sign in to FL Cloud within FL Studio, it keeps giving me the same error message. "Sign in failed please try again" Any solutions on how to fix this? Besides deleting the "Edge" folder within my Documents, I deleted the folder and it still didn't work. There is something wrong on Image-Line's part that needs to be addressed by the developers.
I don't know of anything regarding that unfortunately
@@SimonTheSpeedmon I already submitted a ticket on the Image-Line site about this issue, no response yet. Well, this is definitely something the company needs to fix asap because the longer it takes to fix, the more likely people like me will unsubscribe and go somewhere else to find a different music production subscription service such as Reason +. This isn't right for the consumer to struggle at all.
I hope Image-line sees this video cause it might give them ideas on how and where to improve the FL CLOUD, shocking tittle btw man😅😅😅😅
what distributor would you recomend?
I personally use amuse, I think the pricing is very good, unfortunately they dont support beatport and sometimes their service doesn't quite work (I had some problems with content ID), but their support is very good and fast and they can fix most problems if you write them.
Ditto also looks quite promising to me, but I haven't tried that yet.
@@SimonTheSpeedmon thank you, i'm thinking about using tunecore, is that a good idea or not?
I use CD Baby, which I landed on after a lot of comparisons and finding hidden fees, etc. on the others. If you can wait a bit with releasing, they often have like 50% off per song or album campaigns for limited times. Then just buy it, enter a placeholder name for the song and don't upload any audio. When you're ready to release you just rename it and upload the song and you've got it a lot cheaper..
this is exactly why i never get distrokid. yeah repost by soundcloud isn't the best, but hey atleast i can just stop paying when i want.
🔥🔥🔥
you definitely made a reddit post about this right? I saw a post with a similar narrative.
Yes thats true, I posted in r/FL_Studio. Thought since I already did all the research for the video, I might as well post it there too (and I feel like just posting the link to your video often comes across as self promotion).
That german accent is brutal😂😂, good vid tho
I know 😅
Glaubst du FL Cloud könnte irgendwann auf einem Level von Splice sein? Vor allem was die Menge an Sounds angeht? Das ist ehrlich gesagt das einzige wofür ich mich interessieren würde. Das AI Mastering interessiert mich nicht, DistroKid brauche ich auch nicht (ich release nix). Daher bleiben nur die Sounds übrig bei denen ich interesse hätte.
Ich bin da kein Experte, ich sehe aber keinen direkten Grund warum das unmöglich sein sollte. Ob es realistisch ist ist aber nochmal eine andere Frage.
Great video! But why don’t you like splice?
I mainly just find it very overpriced, I also think their integration and workflow is not very well thought out.
I still think it's usable though, I just find most competitors better.
@@SimonTheSpeedmon Not to mention copyright issues when using their samples in your tracks.
Blindtest: Feels like not that much difference..? ( Yammie HS7's ) ozone a bit louder ( even distorted at first? ). I'm a bit reluctant to use ai mastering overall but im in a hurry to put together a " worktest/sample " for my application for a music producer education. I was inclined to fl cloud for the mastering but should i get ozone instead? Or try to master it with some tutorials with FL itself? Awsome info about distrokid, so nervous about choosing the "wrong" distrubator!
Also, your accent isnt that bad at all! 😁
Personally I think its worth it to learn mastering yourself since all those skills usually translate to music production in general (in a broader sense mixing already starts with the composition).
I find Ozone pretty useful though, even if I dont always use their AI. I probably wouldnt get it itsself though, only maybe if you want to buy a Komplete bundle anyway where it is included (and only buy that if they have a 50% off sale, which they have like 3-4 times a year).
Tbh you dont need a lot in mastering. Mid side eq, regular eq and a bit of compression goes a long way. Maximus is very good because you can compress individual things.
@@didysis1086Maximus is very good, another port of call is Analog Obsession’s plug ins (especially their Neve channel strip plug in and Frank Channel strip and EQ plug in)
so whats the better alternative with Distrokid?
I use Amuse, its not perfect, specifically I wish they were a bit more transparent about some things and less dogmatic about some principles, but generally it works, the price is very good and the support too.
Ditto also looks very promising imo, but I haven't tried that myself so far.
@@SimonTheSpeedmon Y i saw a lot of suspicious stuff about Distrokid on reditt stuff. Checked more or less almost all the distributors and i guess imma use Ditto i thought also on Amuse. Like there's almost no bad redits against them, mostly viceverse.
User generated content on FL Cloud would be awesome. I'm not talking about just sounds either but presets for native synths and FX, patcher, themes, colors and icon presets etc. Perhaps with some micro payment option to give people an opportunity to make some cash and motivate hard work and a rating and review facility. That would be damn cool.
I just saw a video on the history of FL Studio (which FL Studio even commented on) and at the end of the video he said he likes how FL Studio stayed true to a non-subscription based model, in an age where companies try to pull every bit of money out of their customers
... and now they do? But I do get that you need to somehow pay the hosting cost etc.
I also came from that video 😅 super weird
But there is one dramatic difference.
You pay for an additional service that´s NOT required for using the main program.
You can still use FL studio however you like with one time fee, for example Photoshop can´t be used at all without paying monthly..
@@stepankrikava5449 yeah
The Software is Not A Subscription.. The FL Cloud Service is, & if you don't need or want it u should avoid it
1. FL Cloud lets you keep thousands of samples even after the subscription ends, under a royalty-free and commercial use license (the best possible proprietary license)
2. AI CPU usage is nothing to joke about, hosting included
3. They have to split revenue between that, DistroKid (half of the introductory price's worth) and pack makers
Image-Line actually made a selfless move and created a subscription that saves money and doesn't harm existing users.
This is why I use free software. Linux Multi Media Station is better and it's multi-platform and its FULLY FREE you get to OWN the songs you've made not rent them.
LMMS is better? Not in this universe! Linux still has a heck of a lot of catching up to do before it could be a serious contender in the audio world. And that is coming from someone who's used Linux since Slackware made the jump from version 4 to version 7!
@@SpeccyMan Why are you using Slackware, the longest maintened Linux distro, that got discontinued a few months ago? Is this satire? Also, LMMS is multi-platform. It works on Mac, Linux, Windows, and fully POSIX compliant operating systems like HP-UX if you compile the Mac version from the source since they are both SUS and POSIX certified.
nice video .... wow i was suprised and ... wtf ... thank you so mutch for sharing ... loce&peace
Broo the subscribe button didn't glowed, coz i already subscribed you 🤭
haha thanks bro! XD
thank god i watched this video because i’m just about to drop my first album and was planning to use distrokid until now
Ok.... I agree to some of what is said.
The thing about Distrokid very much surpriesed me.
What I do not disagree with is that mastering to 14 LUFS yourself is not good thing. If you do it yourself it will not be altered. The thing you heard on your speakers is what will be heard on the platform
Everything that will be altered if you song is above -14lufs is the volume. I don't think there's any reason to worry about that. The volume will be altered either way, simply by people using the volume slider.
Just some advice you didn't ask for; would be great if you explained what FL Cloud is, for those of us who are too lazy to update FL and check, lol
Great video though, and thanks for talking shit about distrokid - the world needs more of that 💜
good point, I didnt think of that
i was thinking that too but then again there are like thousands of videos on FL AI mastering & cloud already lol
Dope Video First, Great information About Distrokid and why you need to read what u sign up for. But I slightly disagree with the rest, just like most of FL's New functions they introduce it's always changing. To me, that's what dope about FL. If the mastering needs improving Take it to the forms, Do you have any ideas about Cloud to the forms not saying they're gonna do it but they might. Also The free Update model has nothing to with extra add-ons I thought it was a dope way to bring a new concept and make money. Now how far take well depend lol. lastly, user uploaded samples would be dope but that would also come with complications.
You're right, of course its possible that they'll turn it into a much better service in the future, but I also think its not really possible to evaluate a service on what it might be in the future, what I know for certain is only how it is right now.
In general I will say that I don't think FL Studio as a whole got worse because of this though, I mean they don't force anyone to ǝqᴉɹɔsqns, so in the end nothing changed for me. The purpose of this video is mostly to prevent beginners from being mislead about what the service is actually capable of.
@@SimonTheSpeedmon To me only thing I really think is misleading is with distro kid. And it’s kinda funny because when you read what happens after your sub ends under distribution, it says your music will be withdrawn after a grace period.
But, for beginners looking for good sounds it’s there and you can get free sounds too. You don’t know what mastering and just wants something to help here u go ( not saying it’s good ) and now you don’t have to put 3 limiters and a soft clipper on the master track ( I’ve seen it lol ). For those who have 10Gbs of sounds and can kinda “master” on there own it’s ok to have but for beginners I see some.
The information is great it’s just how it came off.
@@SimonTheSpeedmon You only need to subscribe for distribution and mastering, if you like sounds, there are credit packs.
I didn't know Distrokid deleted your songs, is there any other distributor that doesn't delete your tracks?
CD BABY. The best distributor ever.
Yes many, I currently use amuse for example.
Der deutscheste Akzent, den ich je gehört habe
Am i the only one that thought that the subscribe button glowing was sick af
Why bro speaking German
Sory for being german 😥
The real question is why aren’t you?
Because the Germans lost the war
For real, he needs to stop it.
Replies the one fluent in the language of foolishness.
Zis is zomm atoräble dschörmän Inklish! ;) Never mind, I'm just joking around ;) Good points here. I never tried and even never did think of trying FL Cloud. Why? Because I expected exactly what you described here. So thanks for confirming. I love ImageLine, but that was a very bad move.
When it comes to AI mastering, despite the fact that a lot of people say it isn't that good, it oftentimes sounds pretty good to me, at at my current skill level it still does it better than I can do it. The last time I attempted to master my own track I just made it sound worse, so I understand the value proposition. If anything I might just shell out and pay someone else to do it if I can't get the quality any other way.
i hate the subscription model, however they do offer an option to purchase sounds, which is a happy medium i feel.
Klaus Schaub said himself . you will own nothing, and you will be happy, were moving towards subscription based lives
I remember hearing that for example spotify shadow-bans songs that are mastered differently to -14 lufs, (and I'm pretty sure they don't fix it for you, might be wrong though) for ex. if ur track is too quiet to avoid being tracks in a single playlist with diff volumes, which creates unpleasant listening experience
Spotify does normalize to -14lufs, but there's an option to disable it, so many people don't use it. You have to keep in mind though that it always only normalizes up and never down, so tracks quieter than -14lufs will stay quieter no matter what.
So maybe thats where it comes from, that Spotify would actively shadowban tracks not mastered to -14lufs is definitely bs, if it was that important to them, they would simply normalize it themselves (as they are already doing in large parts).
oh cool, pretty neat@@SimonTheSpeedmon
at 3:01 ; The reason to mastering to a specific luffs value is so that the platform doesnt turn your song down after you uploaded.
This will help your song retain its full bit depth on playback.
If you upload your song and youtube turns it down, you cant turn it up to hear those lost bits, they are gone, fidelity lost.
I hope that helps someone understand why its important to master to a specific number for a streaming platform.
In the end your track wont sound any louder, but the quality will be higher, or in other words, the digital noise floor will be lower because the signal to noise ratio higher.
If you turn a track up to 0, thats been already been turned down by -14luffs baked into the file, youll see the noise floor is in fact higher, which means less dynamic range and poorer sound quality.
Cheers
Thats not how it works, your argument would make sense if youtube would actually normalize your file to -14 lufs and then re-encode it after normalizing (though even then the difference wouldnt be audible in 99.99% of cases).
But thats not what happens, youtube always encodes the original file without normalization. The normalization happens afterwards similar to the volume slider in the youtube video player.
@@SimonTheSpeedmon even if it did re-encode the file after normalising it, the amount of lost detail would be quite subtle, 16 bits is tons of dynamic range that means you'd only really be able to possibly tell at the end of the track
Consider that if streaming service normalization didn't exist, it would just be replaced by user normalization where they choose to turn the volume down on their computer.
for mastering you just need a compressor, soft clipper, equalizer, and a true peak limiter (that you can probably get for free). i just don't see why would you need fl studio's mastering. it's not very customizable, and to be honest, i don't really like fl's compression sound.
which distribution service would you recommend?
I use Amuse, it sometimes doesn't quite work as you would want it to be and their rules are very strict, but their support is very good and their prices too.
Ditto also looks promising to me, I haven't tried that myself though.
thanks for the reply! been thinking about changing distro, but idk if it is worth the hassle. Great video btw!@@SimonTheSpeedmon
AMUSE Is the Best bro
@@artwesAMUSE is the Best
Whats wrong with splice?
I mainly just find it very overpriced, I also think their integration and workflow is not very well thought out.
I still think it's usable though, I just find most competitors better.
man i dont know what i did, definitely did not pay per song, i had a basic plan for 3 months, about 3 years ago, havent paid since, and my stuff is still everywhere
Yeah they often only remove it a lot later, because doing it is actually work for them. They have a lot more from saying they will remove it compared to actually removing it.
Bro. Awesome hoodie.
Got it for free at Superbooth XD
Think you very much!!!
sir the cloud is an option, no mandatory to use 🤣
of course, I'm just giving my opinion for why I probably won't use that option
i was going to say did u steal this topic from the subreddit but u the same dude who posted it lol
bro use tracklib if you need the sounds
Gute
You seem to be forgetting some people don't atually know anything about this stuff. That's what it's geared towards. Not the guys re-creating VSTs...
That's true, but I also think that for example the mastering service is a lot more misleading to beginners, because they don't know how loudness works yet. I made this video mostly to warn beginners of being mislead.
You may want to discern that. Experience will definitely tell you using 'services' will only hold you back.@@SimonTheSpeedmon
Use Routenote, better option.
Mastering: No need, if you own fl studio why tf would you need someone else to master your songs?
Distrokid: Well, you can't control content ID and that sucks, but 20 bucks a year? damn thats nice to anyone who is starting (or even people like me that live by music by themselves)
FL Cloud: It's cool, I found amazing songs on it already (I also used it on one of my releases) and amazing samples, kicks, snares, hats, oh... and in 2 good dk's id pay almost the same price as 1 year of FL Cloud... Also it just began, so things should only get better (considering that they'll keep their subscription discount price on black friday)
Denglish on point
Tja 😅
dope vid
you're saying all those bad things about distrokid yet you don't give any good alternatives?.
I use amuse, it's pretty good in general, though their rules are a bit strict and not that transparent.
Ditto also looks promising imo, but I haven't used it personally.
I didn't subscribe to this cloud, because it's all fluf, because of the Distrokid deal.
And indeed, good to awesome samples are abundant, and royalty free even!
With all the free AI code and tutorials out there, it shouldn't be too difficult for Image-Line to
create their own AI-mastering tool and much better even.
I mean, how many programmers do they have at their disposal?
wow
I've a question. Who are these "humans" using Fl Cloud ?
tbh mostly just beginners I think. I also posted some text (with similar content, just shorter) on reddit and there were quite a few people who said they use it.
I been using fl since 08 I'm using it 🤷🏿♂️ made some fire shit 💯@@SimonTheSpeedmon
Simon, you have 2 notifications in your bell 😅
you should listen to my album and let me know how it sounds
Feedback stream is not planned yet, but maybe I'll do one in the future, we'll see
@@SimonTheSpeedmon i might've given you a new idea👀 i'd watch that kind of content
FL Cloud panders to inexperienced users making simple beats, not full songs or professional artists. They may not claim that but it is clear. Your blind test uses a beat. FL Cloud does sound better. DistroKid seems fine for limited releases, its the easiest entry service for beginners. Again, not good for professionals. But professionals shouldnt be believing in a "one click mastering" solution anyway, we know that doesnt exist.
Anyway, FL Cloud is fine. Maybe a little deceptive on the marketing side but when is marketing NOT deceptive? The sample Library is great for convenience, yes I have a HHD with 40,000 samples in my drawer for free, but it's still a cool feature to have it right there in the DAW and indexed clearly. Plus, good for beginners that didnt download Megapacks of sample over the past 2 decades.
edit: the split stem feature you didnt mention is worth the price of subscription on its own
Ou.... Ich mochte B einiges mehr als A, da A sehr muddy klang für mich
Ich persönlich fand A besser, aber ich bin natürlich auch nicht ganz neutral. Wenn deine Lautsprecher kalibriert sind und du B blind am besten fandest dann ist das ja zumindest gut zu wissen!
@@SimonTheSpeedmon achso auf Cloud 2s :D hab nix kalibriert
First I like the actual question are you a part of any music society?
music society? whats that? I'm not signed to any label currently if that's what you mean.
@@SimonTheSpeedmon OMG dude how do you expect for them to collect your royalties from your music your a music writer a society is where they protect the artist producer like for example I'm a producer beat maker writer you have to choose a society so you can collect your royalties look it up bro how do you expect to get paid from these platforms look up ASCAP BMI you have a specific one because you're overseas you're missing out on the little black box. Look up music royalties bro! ASAP!!!!!
@@SimonTheSpeedmon czcams.com/video/_8wtmGDMmBA/video.htmlsi=X8YanT37HtiVHX2q
man i hate distrokid so much but i am trapped in it
Sorry bro :(
LOL! And I just chose to subscribe to the Cloud for the discount price...
Sorry bro 😶
Me
*doesnt care about said FL Cloud*
Hail Hydra✊🏾
Hydra? O_O
@@SimonTheSpeedmon was a reference to the marvel universe villains. Sorry if it came across as rude.😅
@@lonlonidiot4994 Ah I see 😅
This video made me switch from Distrokid.
Good to hear that I could contribute to that XD
2 CHAINS TRUUEEEEE
gutes video bro
Jo danke
Good info !! thanks
The AI mastering is suoer awfull. Only trappers fall for that crap. You can litterly hear it is AI.
ein geborener amerikaner :D
komplett haha
i disagree. FL / Image-Line is not expensive overall. 840 Euro is not much money. sorry. if that is a lot for you then life will be very hard in the future.
i do not think they arranged some vendor-lockin so their customers need to stay on the platform or have to pay.
i might be wrong of course.
I sink zat your accent is wery hard to understand, gute video though! I'm sorry, I couldn't bring myself to keep listening. Maybe just do voiceovers in German or use an AI?
This comment would be an L on your part, bud.
😅 sorry for that, I know that my accent is pretty strong... I don't think that AI voiceovers would be a good alternative though.
english subtitles exist
Dont watch it, simple. Its not a university lecture that you must have to watch.
@@SimonTheSpeedmondont listen to that bozo, your accent adds character to the video!
thank you bro@simonthedmon