The software arrived at a crucial time when internet connectivity was helping to democratise music making. Though FL didn’t start out as a sequencer, he noticed people were using it as such and so Image-Line soon added sequencing and a sample-based drum machine to the package, two cornerstones of its enduring success.

Dambrin was convinced that audio-generating music software would soon overtake MIDI-based ones and as such he credits FL’s early success to timing.

Keeping the simple and addictive interface that had made 1.0 a hit, FL soon evolved away from MIDI and towards audio. Days after the demo was made available on the company’s website, the servers crashed under the weight of demand. Image-Line wasn’t sure what to do with Dambin’s creation but once they shared it with the world, people figured it out.

Inspired by the Hammerhead Rhythm Station, an emulation of the TR-909 drum machine, and Rebirth 338, an early software synthesiser, FruityLoops was an attempt at merging the two into something new. Despite having no musical training and little interest in making music, in 1997 he developed FruityLoops 1.0 as a MIDI-only step sequencer. That all changed when they hired a French developer by the name of Didier Dambrin. It originates with a company called Image-Line, whose early software offerings included Porntris – an adult version of Tetris. Even hip hop owes a debt to FL Studio, as the software enables the productions of Academy alumni Hudson Mohawke, Hit-Boy, Lex Luger and 9th Wonder.įruityLoops is an unlikely success story. In the UK it was integral to the development of grime and dubstep – and elsewhere it has been a technological driver in hyper-localised scenes such as The Netherlands’ Afro-Caribbean bubbling and Mexico’s tribal guarachero. Despite its modest beginnings in Europe’s bureaucratic heart, FL Studio – formerly known as FruityLoops – became the defining music software of the ‘00s. There’s a saying that “it’s not the tool, it’s the artist.” In the case of FL Studio, though, you could argue that the tool helped shape the artists just as much as the artists helped popularise the tool.

Fl studio loops