Image Line CEO Constantin Koehncke hits the FL Studio forums and subreddit every day to interact with its users.

If you’re a music producer of any age, then you’ve probably dabbled with a little program called Fruity Loops at some point. Today it is called FL Studioand Constantin Koehncke, is the man responsible for shepherding the digital audio processing (DAW) system through the modern age. As CEO of Image Line, the company behind FL Studio, Constantin oversees the launch of several AI-powered products such as stem separation it’s his Gopher chatbot.

Prior to taking the reins of Image Line in 2022, Constantin was CEO of Native Instruments, where he led digital services, was active in marketing, and was a freelance journalist for half a century. Through it all, he tries to stay focused, hanging out on the FL Studio forums, reading Reddit every day, and constantly reminding himself of FL Studio’s humble roots.

What is your most important tool (analog or digital, software or hardware)?

AirPods Pro. Singing, podcasts, traveling, flights, and, arguably, even listening to music. It’s the only piece of technology I have all day. If I lose, my productivity drops by about 40 percent.

What’s one thing you’d like to change about your phone?

New iOS Contacts UI. Apple somehow took something that required two fancy taps and turned it into a bunch of UI stuff that I was afraid to print. Am I getting older, or is the iPhone slowly getting older as a phone?

What pages do you have pinned on your tab?

Mostly internal dashboards, product documentation, analytics, FL Studio forums, and Reddit. Looking at it every morning has become muscle memory.

How many tabs do you have open right now?

Thirty-four through two windows. They are organized, however, which is very important. One browser window is a task (lots of tabs), the other is everything else (also lots of tabs). No day ends with open tabs. Tab Zero means I can sleep.

Which social media sites do you use the most (if any)?

Reddit is the only place I happily scroll. It’s imperfect, but it still feels like the internet of old: people arguing about the weirdest topics they care about, mixed with funny nonsense. I also spend a lot of time on YouTube and Substack – great for learning and keeping up to date.

LinkedIn comes with a CEO role. It’s useful once you learn to mentally filter AI-generated thought leadership from what fatherhood taught a person about B2B marketing. You know the type: One sentence. On the passage.

What’s your favorite place on the internet?

Long-form journalism. The The New Yorker. FT Weekend. The Economist. Anything that still believes that a difficult topic should be moved beyond the imagination.

What’s your favorite piece of equipment you’ve owned?

Probably not, but right now: my Teenage Engineering OB-4 speaker. It is an industrial design inspired by Dieter Rams’ philosophy of “weniger, aber besser” (less, but better). The built-in handle means I can carry it from room to room, which has recently made it a great sounding device for my baby to sleep.

Which tech trend do you want to see go away?

Just because something is possible doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

The idea that replacing people’s skills is a great thing that is missing. Writing, recording, and producing music are some of the most important things we do. Technology should give people more ways to express themselves and unlock their creativity – not replace their creativity.

What creation are you most proud of?

Creating a place where talented people can focus on building products that users want and love.

What is the best advice you have ever received?

“Many things can be true at once.”

We live in an economic world that is characterized by certainty, anger, and instant opinion. The facts are often difficult. Acknowledging that is a better starting point for solving problems than trying to make sure everything has an easy answer.

What do you do when you’re stuck?

Go for a walk, then sit down with a blank sheet of paper and write down the problem. Breaking it down to basic principles works wonders most of the time. Most of them resolve themselves after coffee.

When was the last piece of screen you bought?

History of DestructionMF DOOM profile (I’m a fan). Somehow I couldn’t get into ebooks, so I bought paperbacks.

What do you think should be confusing?

Sports equipment. For me, the Standard Pfadfinder steel bike.

What would be the tagline of your biopic?

A failed DJ turns helping other people make music into a career.

What was the last GIF or meme you used?

This happens from time to time, and I just recently sent it to someone. It’s funny because it’s true. Music owes a lot to Didier “Gol” Dambrin for creating FL Studio.