Ableton Live was developed by the Ableton corporation in 1999. The program offers professional-level recording tools for musicians, audio engineers and producers. Ableton has become especially popular with electronic DJ producers because of the program's extensive remixing tools. The application can also be used by DJs in a live-mixing environment. Ableton comes with thousands of pre-made synthesizer instruments, drum samples and loops. Live can record an unlimited number of audio tracks and MIDI tracks.
Apple's Logic Studio has become one of the most popular recording programs for the Mac platform. Logic Studio can capture both live audio and MIDI instruments. The software also comes with thousands of pre-designed software instruments. These presets give users a good way to jump-start their recording project. Logic can connect to any MIDI interface or USB-mixing console. Apple also designed a trimmed-down version of the program called Logic Express. LE contains all Logic Studio's editing tools, but it lacks many preset instruments and drum loops.
Avid's Pro Tools has been the industry-standard for recording music for more than two decades. Pro Tools became the first recording program widely adopted by professional producers and engineers. Pro Tools requires users to purchase an M-Box interface that connects hardware instruments to the digital software. Users can only use the M-Box designed by Avid. Pro Tools includes state-of-the-art audio editing tools that represent the latest in sound engineering.
FL Studio, also known as "Fruity Loops," has built a reputation as one of the most user-friendly applications. FL Studio offers many of the same editing tools as programs like Pro Tools but the tools have limited capabilities. Still, FL Studio projects can produce professional-level recordings. FL Studio offers four different editions including FL Studio Signature, FL Studio Producer, FL Studio Fruity and FL Studio Express. All editions include software instruments and drum loops.