I have to say, I couldn’t wrap my head around live when I tried it, but even I could appreciate how their sequencer worked. It was completely foreign to me, but I can see how it’s perfect for making or remixing all kinds of EDM.
And the built in FX and chains you can do, also powerful and convenient. Like, yeah, I can definitely make FL do all that, but it’s not as clean/obvious as it is in Ableton. I think that UI is what you’re paying for, and I give serious props to Ableton in that department. Not only does it work, but it is extremely consistent across all their devices.
Compare that to FL where the factory synths/FX include Sytrus, Sakura, Harmor, Maximus, Boobass, 3 Osc… it’s a mess and I know it. Documentation is kind of all over the place too, to the point where they introduced an AI chatbot in the DAW to help you answer questions… I think that says more about the FL UI and community documentation than I ever could.
Don’t get me wrong, I continue to use this and not be tempted by anything else because I have all this arcane knowledge now and I don’t want to go through this again with another DAW, but I can see the issues compared to if I had started out with Live. I would have gotten where I am now faster, for sure.