| Image-Line | |
| Type: | Private |
| Foundation: | [1] Belgium |
| Location: | Ghent |
| Key People: | Jean-Marie Cannie (Founder, CTO) Frank Van Biesen (Founder, COO) |
| Industry: | Software |
| Products: | FL Studio / FL Studio Mobile Deckadance EZGenerator |
| Homepage: | image-line.com |
Image-Line Software (commonly known as simply Image-Line) is a Belgian software company best known for its digital audio workstation program FL Studio and related audio plugins such as Sytrus and Harmor. Image-Line was founded in 1994.[1] In 2007, Image-Line introduced Deckadance, a virtual DJ console application. The company also produced EZGenerator, a template-based web editing program.
Image-Line was founded by Jean-Marie Cannie and Frank Van Biesen, who after seven years of creating stock market software for Pavell Software, decided in 1992 to branch into video games. Their first product was an adult video game based on Tetris, which they then offered on floppy disks in the ad section of Computer Magazine. Around this time CD-ROM games such as The 7th Guest were becoming popular, inspiring Van Biesen and Cannie to begin working with Private, one of the larger producers of adult video games at the time. Private released multiple Image-Line CD-ROM games, including Private Prison and Private Castle. The company officially adopted the name Image-Line in 1994.
Around the time they released the games for Private, IBM launched the "Da Vinci" contest where the first prizes were color laptops. Image-Line, which at the time had little money, won the contest in the multimedia category after reworking one of their game environments to fit the contest criteria.
Image-Line took an interest in Didier "Gol" Dambrin, the developer who won the overall Da Vinci contest as well as the Game category. They hired the 19-year-old to work for them, and his first game for the company was the game Private Investigator. Dambrin's next project for Image-Line was the platform game Eat This, a shoot 'em up game that involved killing aliens.
Other Image-Line developers created products such as the invoicing program Fact2000 and E-OfficeDirect, a content-based web tool that would a precursor to their later product EZGenerator. Image-Line also topped the Belgian game charts 4 years in a row with their CD version of the Belgian TV game show Blokken.
In 1997 Dambrin gained an interest in music applications of the time such as Hammerhead and Rebirth 338, and developed a simple MIDI-only drum machine in an effort to merge the two products into a step sequencer that utilized both rows and steps. Dubbed FruityLoops 1.0, the program didn't fit with Image-Line's other product lines of the time. However, the demo version released in December 1997 became so popular that the number of downloads quickly overwhelmed the Image-Line servers. To gather income to support their servers, Image-Line had Dambrin develop an EJay clone called FruityTracks. Image-Line then served as the program's OEM for Mattel. The program was released as Pro-DJ in France and the UK, and Radio 538 Music Machine in The Netherlands and Belgium.
Image-Line continued to develop the FruityLoops application from a simple drum machine into a large and complex digital audio workstation. FruityLoops was eventually renamed FL Studio for branding purposes and to avoid a prolonged trademark dispute in the United States with Kelloggs. FL Studio is now one of the most popular software production systems in the world, and Image-Line's flagship program. A multitude of plug-ins have been developed by Image-Line to work with FL Studio, including synthesizers such as Sytrus and effects plugins such as Maximus and Edison. In 2007 Image-Line released Deckadance, a DJ mixing program developed by programmer Arguru. Deckadance works as both a stand-alone program and as a FL Studio plugin.[2]
Beyond audio products, Image-Line developed and distributed EZGenerator, a software program for website design and maintenance. EZGenerator has won multiple awards since its release.
| Software | Release | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| FL Studio | 1998–present | Image-Line's flagship digital audio workstation. The most recent major version is FL Studio 21, released on December 5, 2022.[3] |
| FL Studio Mobile | 2011–present | Released June 21, 2011, a version of FL Studio for iOS and on April 17, 2013, for Android |
| Deckadance | 2007–2015 | A DJ console and mixing tool, similar to Scratch LIVE and Traktor. Version 2.43 is the most recent release from Image-Line. Deckadance was sold to Stanton/Gibson in 2015. Their latest release is Deckadance 2.72 |
| EZGenerator | 1998–2017 | A template-based web editing program, and a natural progression of their earlier E-OfficeDirect program, EZGenerator has won numerous software awards. No longer sold. |
| Fact2000 | 1997–2012 | An invoicing and contact management program. No longer sold. |
| FruityTracks | 1999–2000 | A track mixing program. No longer sold (was integrated into FL Studio). |
| Video Games | Release | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Porntris | 1992 | An erotic version of the popular Tetris game. |
| Private Investigator | 1996 | Awarded 1996 Best Interactive Game at the AMEE Award Show in Las Vegas. |
| Eat This | 1998 | A side-scrolling "run and gun" shooter computer game that involves killing aliens with machine guns. While the original release was 2-D, the later version had 30 minutes of 3D animated video. |
| Blokken | 1998–2001 | A CD-ROM equivalent to the Belgian quiz show released in Belgium. The game topped the Belgian game charts 4 years in a row, and was released in four versions. It has sold over 50,000 copies. |
| Virtual Effects | Release | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross Beat | style="text-align:center;" | - | A time-, pitch-, and volume-manipulation effect. |
| Maximus | style="text-align:center;" | - | Maximus is a multi-band audio limiter and compressor for mastering projects or tracks. It also serves as a noise gate, expander, ducker, and de-esser, |
| Hardcore | style="text-align:center;" | - | A multi-effects suite of plugins designed to resemble guitarists' stompboxes. |
| Juice Pack | style="text-align:center;" | - | A collection of Image-Line proprietary plugins ported to VST format for use in other music hosts. The contents of this pack has changed since its release; at the time of this writing it includes the Delay, Delay Bank, EQUO, Flangus, LovePhilter, Multiband Compressor, Notebook, Parametric EQ, Parametric EQ 2, Spectroman, Stereo Enhancer, Vocoder, Wave Candy, and Wave Shaper plugins. |
| Edison | 2007–present | A wave editor in VST format that also function as a standalone program. | |
| Pitcher | style="text-align:center;" | - | A real time pitch correction filter – similar to Antares Autotune. |
| NewTone | style="text-align:center;" | - | A piano roll pitch correction effect – similar to Melodyne. |
| Vocodex | 2009–present | A digital vocoder developed by Didier Dambrin. | |
| Fruity Stereo Shaper | 2009–present | A stereo processor with a mixer for left/right channels and their inverted equivalents, and controls for channel delay and phase offset. | |
| Virtual Instruments | Release | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sytrus | 2003–present | A hybrid, semi-modular synthesizer combining subtractive, additive, and FM synthesis. | |
| DirectWave | 2005–present | A software sampler that provides sample recording, waveform editing, and DSP effects. | |
| SliceX | 2008–present | A beat-slicing sampler for processing and re-arranging recorded drumloops. | |
| Harmless | 2009–present[4] | Simplified additive synthesizer with a unique signal chain. | |
| Harmor | 2011–present | Advanced Version of Harmless along with waveform views, envelopes, LFOs, and modulation mappings from Sytrus.[5] | |
| Toxic Biohazard | style="text-align:center;" | - | A virtual FM synthesizer similar to Sytrus. |
| Sawer | style="text-align:center;" | - | A vintage-modeling synthesizer; Sawer attempts to emulate old Soviet Union-era subtractive synthesizers. |
| Morphine | style="text-align:center;" | - | An easy-to-program additive synthesizer. |
| PoiZone | style="text-align:center;" | - | An easy-to-program subtractive synthesizer. |
| Ogun/Autogun | 2009–present | Ogun is An advanced additive synthesizer specialized in creating metallic timbres, while Autogun – a free version of Ogun limited to semi-random preset generation. | |
| Sakura | 2009–present | A physical-modeling synthesizer designed to emulate string instruments. | |
| Drumaxx | 2010–present | Percussion synthesizer. | |
| Groove Machine | 2011–present[6] | Step sequencer with the ability to automate all parameters per-step.[7] | |
| Wasp/Wasp XT | 2002–present[8] | A "broad" analogue emulation synthesizer, intended to emulate analogue synthesizers in general.[9] | |
| SimSynth Live | 2002–present[10] | Three oscillator synthesizer with Oberheim-inspired SVF filter.[11] | |
| DX10 | 2002–present[12] | FM Synthesizer that features low CPU usage.[13] | |
| DrumSynth Live | 2007–present[14] | Drum synthesizer based on two noise generators run through band pass filters. VSTi version of the standalone program by Maxim Digital Audio.[15] | |