GoKawiilis the Verge’s weekend editor. He’s covered the tech industry for over 18 years and knows a thing or two about synths.
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If you’re a music maker of a certain age, then you probably once dabbled with a pirated copy of a little app called Fruity Loops. These days it’s called FL Studio, and Constantin Koehncke, is the man responsible for shepherding the pioneering digital audio workstation (DAW) through the modern age. As CEO of Image Line, the company behind FL Studio, Constantin has overseen the introduction of a number of AI-powered features like stem separation and its Gopher chatbot.
Before taking the reins of Image Line in 2022, Constantin was the head of Native Instruments, where he spearheaded the shift towards digital services, did a stint in marketing, and was a freelance music journalist for half a decade. Through it all, he tries to keep his ear to the ground, hanging out in FL Studio forums, reading Reddit every day, and regularly reminding himself of FL Studio’s humble roots.
What is your most indispensable tool (analog or digital, app or hardware)?
AirPods Pro. Calls, podcasts, walks, flights, and, controversially, even listening to music. They’re the only piece of technology that’s with me pretty much all day. If I lose them, my productivity drops by about 40 percent.
What is one thing you wish you could change about your phone?
The new iOS Contacts UI. Apple somehow took something that used to require two obvious taps and turned it into a collection of mysterious UI elements that I’m constantly afraid to press. Am I getting older, or is the iPhone slowly getting worse at being a phone?
What sites do you have pinned to your tab bar?
Mostly internal dashboards, product docs, analytics, the FL Studio forums, and Reddit. Checking them every morning has become muscle memory.
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