To celebrate FL Studio’s 20th anniversary Image-Line are skipping version 13 and the 6 after to launch FL Studio 20 later this year.

After rumours Image-Line have confirmed that they will be releasing their first full version update for 2 years in 2018. In celebration of 20 years of the famed music production software FL Studio they will be releasing an anniversary edition which promises to be the best FL Studio yet.

Whilst it will continue to look much like the same FL Studio we know and love it’s optimisation under the hood and expanded features look to make it the smoothest experience yet. Image-Line have been beta testing the new version secretly under the guise of FL Studio 12.9 so we have some idea of what’s to come.

DirectWave means that a Zone’s loop type can now be set for every selected Zone at one time. The Mixer has been increased to 125 Mixer tracks which can be added to with a new system that dynamically adds them as you need. They’ve also improved visibility of Clip borders in Solid view mode which they are looking into enhancing further.

Here’s the whole list of what we know is coming new to FL Studio:

  • Automatic PDC – Automatic PDC should now work for all normal use-cases (please report issues). We still need to fix these cases: Multi-out plugins, Multiple generators feeding a single Mixer track, each with different latencies and the wet/dry mix knob on FX slots. These should be resolved in coming betas.
    • Automatic PDC now works with Generators.
    • APDC applies to inter-track routing and side-chains.
    • Manual and Auto-PDC can now co-exist. Manual PDC is applied as an offset to Auto PDC.
    • Manual PDC – Negative values – delay the selected track, positive values – delay all other tracks.
    • There’s a new audio input delay control on the INPUT menu to fix latency issues with individual audio inputs.
    • PDC icons now light orange when a track reports latency, not when it’s delayed (as before). This will help you to quickly identify PDC inducing plugins.
  • DirectWave – A Zone’s loop type can now be set for all selected Zones at once. New ‘Copy to selected zones‘ option for some Zone parameters
  • Fruity Reeverb – Is now a 64 Bit FL plugin.
  • GUI – The ‘Song/Pat’ switch is a placeholder. The main purpose at the moment is to show you are using the FL Studio Beta. We are working on converting all tool panels to 1-unit high to allow for a more streamlined tool-bar for those who want it. More later…
  • Help – FL now uses the online version of the help file. You can download an offline version here (although FL 12.9 won’t open this anymore).
  • Mixer – Increased to 125 Mixer tracks. You will get a lot more later, if you are good. Rather than fill the mixer with 500+ tracks, we need to implement a system to dynamically add-as-you-need.
  • Patcher – Reduced memory usage.
  • Playlist – Improved visibility of Clip borders in Solid view mode. This one’s for you Kaitav…guys are we overselling this? I had a look and I think we need to turn it up some more.
  • Time Signature Support – PlaylistPiano rollProject Settings and Time Markers. Right-click Time-markers and select ‘Time signature’. Shift+Alt+T to set time-signatures over a selected time-range. Use the on Pattern Clip Menu ‘Use current time signature’ to set a time-signature based on Playlist position.
  • Plugin manager – Locating plugins is faster, in some cases
  • Sampler Channels – Legacy precomputed effects are back. New: Playback – ‘Start offset‘ (automatable), will get a position visualization in the next update. Precomputed – ‘Sample start‘, and ‘Length‘ effects.
  • Tap tempo – Sync option for tempo tap is now off by default.
  • Unicode Text – Most FL plugins now support unicode characters when exchanging filenames and other text with FL Studio.
  • ZGE Visualizer – Layers can be collapsed. Buffered layers are more obvious now. New ‘SplinePeaks’ effect.

Image-Line haven’t talked an exact release date yet but have confirmed FL Studio 20 will launch sometime this year in 2018.