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