Presonus Studio One

[guscave]

I've been using Studio One Pro for a few years and love it. Very easy learning curve as most of it is based on "drag and drop". The only draw back is if you're using Studio One "Artist". It is very limited, but once you get the hang of it, I would upgrade to Studio One Producer or Professional if you need the mastering suite.

[mojobone]

Hey Mojo....

I hadn't heard of Traktion before this. Do you use it?

I really liked using Garage Band, which come installed on a Mac but found I needed a little 'more' when recording bigger projects. I was considering Logic but then won Studio One at the Road Rally! I've been working on it since, although I still use Garage Band for projects that are simple and have a quick turn-around time. The Owners Manual for Studio One is not as user friendly as Mac Products..... That's why I chose to use Obedia. I can get them on the phone, explain my issue and they solve it quickly. Very nice.

To each his/her own, I guess!

Laurel

It's now called Waveform, but it's the easiest DAW to grok for anyone who's used a live mixer, and it doesn't have the limitations of other free/cheap DAW solutions. For starters, you can use third party VSTs, Audio Units and even ProTools plugins, with not even a nag screen and there are unlimited tracks.In my opinion, the biggest selling point is how quickly you can be up and running; it may not be as deep as Reaper, but for anybody that's cut a few live gigs, all the tools are at hand or free, save for Melodyne, which is free with purchase of the latest version. Not relevant at this point is that T2 was among the first DAWs with internal 64-bit architecture; it's been better than P/T for so long, it ain't even funny.

[Kolstad]

I could have chosen any daw I want, but went with Studio One. For me it is simple and has convenient workflows. I love it. Wouldn't use any other version than professional, though. I hate limitations.

[cosmicdolphin]

I tried StudioOne when Sonar went belly up..I found it okay I guess but once the trial finished I went back to my old DAW which has now been resurrected as Cakewalk by Bandlab.

It has one killer feature....it's a 64bit fully fledged DAW basically vitually the same as the $499 Sonar platinum...but t's free ! Which is kind of extraordinary for a professional grade product.

[ernstinen]

I don't know if this is applicable to your situation, but I've used MOTU's Performer on a MAC since 1985 (that MAC looked like the one on the desk by Seinfeld's front door LOL!)... Now it's "Digital Performer," but it always was "digital," right? --- I now run it on an iMac.

I've been reading recommendations for using "free" programs. I'm not sure that's such a good idea, but hey, they're free.

Anyway, I've sequenced on Performer since the Eisenhower administration (Haha!). It's a great sequencer... And I've also used both Performer and Pro Tools... People here on this forum have harassed me, saying "Pick ONE or the OTHER!" I finally decided on Digital Performer. It ain't free, but it's fantastic. It'll do anything you want it to... I use a Presonus Audiobox 44VSL as my audio interface.

But (and this is a big BUT), I also used MOTU's Mosaic for 20 years to write scores. Then they dropped it. What a waste of time.

That's my experience --- Hope this helps!

Ern

[wen]

I used Studio One on PC for years. Groove3 has some good tutorials on it. There have been more YouTube videos on it of late, but there is more help out there for Logic.

Studio One Professional is a good DAW. I switched to it from Mixcraft (the PC equivalent of Garage Band) and once I got the routing issues down (which can be very confusing, assuming you are using Kontakt?) I found it fairly intuitive. I went through each feature on the workspace and got very comfortable in it, and learned a basic "checklist" for troubleshooting sound issues.

I had loads of maddening issues with no sound. I don't think these were related to Studio One per se. Sometimes it was a bad cord, other times the interface was dropping midi, maybe due to using a long cord. Once I found the midi controller itself was broken. Another time the midi controller was sending on the wrong channel. Sometimes it was as simple as not having a corresponding track in the Arrangement window to correspond to Kontakt's output channel, or not having an output channel in S1's mixer; all three have to be in synch. Also the blue Monitor button has to be on in a track in order to hear it. I got a new midi controller and new midi interface, and that helped a lot.

Also, I switched to a Mac and Logic and have had far fewer issues. Logic, for one, has a scrubbing feature I find invaluable when trying to track down tiny clicks or blips in recordings. I also like its built in drummer. The fact that a greater number of people use Logic (I think, not sure since Studio One is gaining popularity) means easier problem-solving. Logic is pretty cheap, also, for what you get.

[LaurelCecelia]

It was good to read all the replies....I guess it really is 'to each his/her own'. I'm much happier with Studio 1 since I have the Obedia guys helping me. Many times the help manual assumes you know some basics that I didn't and many times the the words they use didn't have the same meaning for me! For instance, I was typing 'punch in' in the search bar but always came up with no topic. Finally realized they call it 'auto-punch' and when I typed THAT in I got all the help pages!!

Laurel

[wen]

Have to update my former post.

But first off, if you are able to get the music you want out of Garage band, I personally don't see any reason to use a more complicated DAW. I loved Mixcraft (PC equivalent of Garage Band) but it couldn't support all my midi instruments and I couldn't assign a midi controller for strings, etc.

I decided to look into the Studio One Professional updates (I was a couple behind), and love the new features. There are many, but I especially like:

Sound engine rebuild, with dual buffer setting, so you can record lower and leave it set while you mix / playback other tracks on a higher buffer.
AIF project import/export for working with someone who has Logic.
Ability to make project notes on channels.
Ability to set key signature for project.
Chord tracking (it marks the chords to a melody, and enables you to add chords to a melody I think).
Separate "scratch pad" window, much like Ableton.
Display customization.
Color coding of channels, not just tracks, and folders.
So much more; look on YouTube for update vids, there are some short ones.

With all the updates on S1, I see no reason for me to continue learning Logic as I can now do anything in S1 I wanted to do in Logic. The less time on tech, the better.

S1 does have a much simpler workflow than Logic, in my opinion. I don't find Logic intuitive. In S1 you can right click most places and find what you want, whereas I had to ask a Logic user how to export a wav, couldn't find the command anywhere (Cmd B), haha.

S1 is also said to have superior time bend / slicing. There are a lot of people saying S1 is now approaching or exceeding Pro Tools, yet I find it relatively simple to use. I'm happy to go back to it.

[neilmctavish]

I use Studio One and really like it. But I think they’re all pretty good now. Personally, I recommend that people use what they’re friends are using so they can help each other. All the members of my daughter’s group use Ableton for example. We live in a golden time for these tools, that’s for sure.

Neil

[LaurelCecelia]

Such good info from everyone. Thanks for replying.
Laurel