FL Studio, better known to PC musicians as “Fruity Loops”, is now available in its version 7 upgrade. (This release was announced last month but wasn’t immediately available.) FL Studio’s lifetime upgrades mean that, unlike your operating system, the upgrade is free if you’re a previous owner. And FL Studio 7 also brings compatibility with Windows Vista — and XP, ME, 2k, 98, and 95. In addition to all the existing tricks, FL7 has new features like a beefed-up, built in audio editor-slicer-dicer and a new effects called the Love Philter that chains together eight filters for delay and sound-shaping effects.

FL may not be for everyone, as we saw in feedback, but for those who adjust to its way of working there’s not much quite like it. There’s a downloadable demo if you want to give it a spin on that new Vista install (or Boot Camp partition, depending on how you roll). New users have some confusing pricing options ranging from US$49 up, depending on which flavor you get; suffice to say you still get lifetime upgrades and the basic version could still be fun.

Hope to get some hands-on time with FL soon; I’ve had the itch ever since I saw Onyx jamming with his monster Ableton Live + FL Studio rig last month at the Backlit Lounge in SF.

Previously: NAMM FL “Fruity Loops” Studio 7 Preview: More Toys and Tools Than Ever

Kinetic 2 is here for Windows, and it looks promising not only as a way of getting beginners into music making, but as a really good buy on soft synths for everyone else, as well — especially at US$80.

Talk about music software for alternative OSes: the Prophet64 is a new cartridge for the Commodore 64 computer. In case you haven’t yet heard about the project, our friend James Grahame over at Retro Thing has been on top of it for some time, but the big news from him is that the cartridge is officially released and now shipping.

This isn’t sheer novelty: for just 39 EUR, one cartridge gives you a whole suite of useful software, from sequencer to synths and grooveboxes.

Reason is more than a soft synth package: it’s a platform, with rich support from a devoted community and, increasingly, an incredible amount of soundware tailored to the program’s unique features. IK Multimedia and Sonic Reality are going hog wild with new sounds for the app, and the quality of their Sonic Refills is very good from what I’ve heard so far. But why not try out some sounds for free:

Free Sonic Refill for Reason

I’m sure there has to be a good sound for a Thursday in there somewhere. And thanks to Reason’s Combinator, they’re all ready to play. Mostly, I’m excited by Malstràm patches. Mmmm, granular.

Got a favorite ReFill for Reason? (Or one of your own?) Let us know. I’m off to try out the new Props’ Drum Kits, myself.

Ed: The dynamic duo of hits in a wide variety of genres, Joey P. and Dale “RamBro” Ramsey, have contributed to albums selling over a combined 75 million copies. For CDM, they look at another dynamic duo: the combination of Cakewalk’s Project5 with Propellerhead’s Reason on Windows. Both programs tout an all-in-one design, but there are plenty of reasons to choose a pairing over one app alone: you get the audio recording, plug-in support, and live grooving features of Project5, plus the extra instruments and sound library support of Reason. Joey P. explains how to combine the advantages of each using the magic of Propellerhead’s ReWire, and what that allows him to do as a producer. (And, along the way, does some serious evangelizing as a Project5 believer.) -PK

Image-Line’s FL Studio is a huge underground “cult” hit for digital music making. It’s Windows-only, and it seems to get more love from the European press than the US writers for some reason (maybe because Image-Line is stingy with free press copies). But it’s got some great pattern-based features for those of you who like making quick-and-dirty dance music, as well as an elegant set of synths that could appeal to just about anyone.

Here’s what new in the long-awaited FL Studio 6:

As I continue this Reasonable Friday, here’s a reader report on how to use Propellerhead Reason live in performance. He’s making use of the terrific Windows-only MIDI tool Peter Tools LiveSet — more on that in an upcoming story. And he’s taking his one-man band to an environmental-activist music festival outside Sydney in gorgeous environs (pictured).

Stevo writes us:

I have been working on organising Reason for use in a live situation . . . I am a solo artist producing entirely on a laptop. I have a controller keyboard, a [Behringer] BCF2000 controller that is locked to the main mixer, a Korg Kaoss 2 pad, and a copy of Peter Tools LiveSet. I am a loop-based type of artist, meaning I like to mess with ideas as loops and rarely program a song from begin to end, as this ends up doing my head in . . .

Finally, the power to choose: some of the best bundled synths are getting unbundled so you can use them with whatever host you want (cough, Ableton Live). Days after Cakewalk launched their own Dimension Pro synth (a Pro version of a synth that’s included in Project5), the folks at Image Line (better known as the creators of FL Studio, aka Fruity Loops) are launching an unbundled instrument. The one difference: Cakewalk released Dimension Pro after Project5, whereas Image Line is releasing Sytrus 2 as a Windows DXi/VST before it’s released as part of FL Studio 6.

Onto the synth: US$179 buys you a unique additive synth, with 6-operator FM, RM, plucked, and subtractive synthesis. It’s completely sample-free: synthesis freaks alone need apply. Before you skip this one over, there are plenty of reasons this instrument should be on your radar screen . . .

Remote is the two-way communication technology behind Reason 3’s control surface support. The idea is, rather than tediously setting up each control surface or keyboard manually to control your software, the software talks to your device and sets it up for you. You can even see visual feedback for which knob and button is which; one of the best examples is Korg’s Kontrol49 keyboard (shown).

Here’s the news: Propellerhead Software is now shipping a developer SDK so manufacturers can create support for their own hardware. Sure, 40 devices are supported out of the box, but there are a lot more than 40 pieces of hardware out there. There’s an application process, so you may not be able to use Remote for your new eyebrow-controlled camera system, but since I know hardware developers read this blog, I can only say — we’d love to have your device supported.

And for users, of course, this means you can now bug your favorite device’s manufacturer and not just the Props.

Jim Aikin, synth madman, sound guru, and my book’s tech editor (meaning he’s the only one keeping me accurate and sane), takes the Combinator under the microscope in a tutorial for O’Reilly. If you thought the Combinator was just a way of combining modules into combis (single instrumental patches), you’re missing a lot — this beast is an incredibly powerful all-around routing and performance tool. Interestingly, Jim spends most of the article focusing on routing modulation into the Combinator from its modules, which just goes to show just how deep this rabbit hole is — even that’s just the beginning. But he includes some helpful RNS files and is meticulous as always. If you’re a Reason power user, don’t miss this.

In fact, if you’re a Reason power user, drop me a line. I’m working on still more configurations for how to use the Combinator as a performance tool, and I’m up for all the ideas I can get. More soon . . .

While I continue getting deeper into Reason, here’s where to go for more info, tips and tricks:

Tutorial videos / what’s new videos [Propellerheads.se]

Reason 3.0 Video Master Class [Sonic State]

ReWire Help Articles [Propellerheads.se] (yeah, even I still occasionally have trouble with that! -PK)

What’s new in Reason 3 / What’s new in 3.03 Update [CDM]

My own Reason 3 Review for Macworld