You happy with Studio One 3?

[Robert Randolph]

Robert Randolph - sorry to hear you hate drag & drop, which is the point of S1 workflow (you're probably a v good Kontakt designer)

Funny enough, after I wrote this post expressing why I hate drag&drop so much, someone contacted me and offered to help me out.

This helpful fellow actually went through and helped me figure out how to do nearly everything I would need in my workflow in S1 without drag&drop.

So as I said... as of v3.3, my opinion of S1 has improved drastically both through Presonus's efforts and the efforts of some community members. I would definitely say despite any downfalls of S1, the community is definitely one of the more 'help-oriented' ones.

[Robmobius]

Um... I really like Studio One V3.3 in theory only. It's a great DAW and has lots of cool features that I really like. Started using it at version two. I'm using a mac btw.

HOWEVER for me, it crashes constantly. And despite it having a great workflow it's utterly useless as it doesn't 'work'. I find it very hard and uninspiring to write a tune, as it will start crashing more and more as the tune progresses. It's about as stable as Norman Bates.

If I decide to stay on a mac I'll definitely move back to Logic (and I use Ableton as well).

Incidentally, Ableton is pretty solid on my mac. And when it does crash, which is rare, its auto save feature is cool.

I'll 'keep' S1 just because I've written loads of music with it so if I need to edit a tune or something. But it's far too annoying for me to use anymore.

Can't speak for anyone else's experience, that's my two-cents worth.

[starflakeprj]

Mostly what Studio One V.3 did on my Mac was crash. And crash again. And crash some more.

Did I mention crashing? It crashed.... A LOT.

I eventually gave it the finger and sold it.

-M

S1 crashes often on my Windows machine as well, but it's still my go-to DAW, I like the workflow too much to let it go.

[jinotsuh]

It's #1 for me, Rock Solid (Windows 10 Pro), does the job much easier and quicker than my previous DAW (SONAR Platinum) with MUCH less frustration, no complaints from me, love it

[chk071]

I am happy... with Studio One 2 Producer.

[pekbro]

No problems here on windows 8 (ever). Probably not the most cpu efficient
DAW around, but definitely many great features.

I do enjoy (and often prefer) using others over it.
That's just a personal preference however. Being a tech nerd
with a passion for audio software, I am happy to have it in my collection.

-Cheers

[LawrenceF]

The only thing I haven't been able to do in S1 is send clips from different tracks into a separate bus for uber-processing a section (think: add a radio effect to only the 2nd verse)

That's really just routing and automation. Put the tracks in a folder bus, send from that bus pre-fader to your "radio" bus, automate the busses to hear only either one at any time.

Or use the extended fx chain on the bus and setup two completely different fx chains there, and switch between them.

And also event effects all have to be added one at a time. There's no copy effect from event to event (clip to clip).

I might misunderstand this one but... click the FX icon, menu, to open the fx ui, select any number of other audio clips, drag the tab from the plugin window to any of them with the Alt mod, it copies to all selected clips I think.

[bungle]

Not a bad DAW
Use it on Windows, it is a crash fest on Mac
CPU usage is heavy on Windows and Mac

Other than that, it does most of what every other DAW does.

[telecharge]

Not happy here since they crippled the artist version and gave no cheap upgrade for us that had V2 Producer.

I thought Artist had always been crippled. What did I miss?

Genuinely sorry to hear Mac users are having such a hard time of it. Don't blame you for disliking it. Must drive you nuts. Never knew this before.

+1

[EnochLight]

I like it (currently 3.3.1). I'm on Windows 10 Pro (64-bit), and it's rock solid for me.

[Aliens]

While not the most most important issue, though for me it's quite a biggie, I wish V3 still looked like V2. The more I use it, the more I dislike it and negativity is a stone cold creativity killer.
Horses for courses, naturally, but I often find myself sneaking back to the old version and thinking what extras I could have bought with the upgrade price.

[Guenon]

Nah, not happy with Studio One 3 , my opinion is the same as some expressed here: on paper, it's very nice, but in practice I grew more and more dissatisfied with it.

I used Studio One as my main working environment for three years and switched away from it after being on v3 for something like half a year. I kept using it for old projects and checking out how it advances, so I have first hand experience on the point versions beyond that as well, of course. There was a thread like this at some point, where I chimed in and listed the things that bugged me. I'll just reference them here, altering/removing the ones I think have already been improved or fixed. I've still kept an eye on the DAW, just not using it in production anymore:

Limited audio and MIDI routing. For example, you can't route a MIDI source into more than one target, so if you want to play multiple instruments at the same time, you ether need to arm multiple tracks every time or confine all the instrument instances inside a multi. The latter approach is very limited, as you might want to arm different combinations quickly, and on the other hand, multis don't have actual send points for audio routing. So all the instruments inside one are bunched together -- so tightly that plugins layered inside a multi are always processed on the same CPU core, whereas instances on actual different channels would be distributed across multiple cores, but can't be routed MIDI from one source as described.

No track templates. You simply cannot recall a bunch of audio tracks and instrument tracks and their associated plugins into your project in one go. There's only the restricting Multi concept, not dealing with actual track setups -- and loading a project template as a whole at the start, naturally.

Inefficient CPU use. Studio One strains the CPU and gives little in return. There are DAWs that provide you with much more complex routing schemes and freedom in building the core of your project/templates, yet function in a clearly more efficient fashion.

No traditional (rate change / resample) pitching for audio. You absolutely can't load an audio clip onto an audio track and pitch it down/up in the most basic way possible, that is, via a traditional change in pitch so that the speed changes at the same time. Audio always goes through a more complex algorithm in Studio One when pitching or timestretching, and there is no way to simply change the playback rate if you for example want to slow down a drum loop in an oldschool way. Yes, you can import the sample into a sampler plugin and then MIDI trigger it, but oh come on.

No actual automation for macro controls. Studio One v3 introduced macro knobs for parameters and it was featured quite prominently in the headlining new features, and as expected you can have a macro knob controlling multiple parameters. However, it controls them only when you manually move the actual knob, and you can't draw an automation envelope for the knob/macro. In other words, you cannot have the macroed parameters follow actual automation of the macro , even if that's one major point of having macro controls in the first place. People have been asking about this, and it's like this by design.

(If you want to automate the parameters that are hooked into a macro control, you need to record the individual parameters into individual envelopes by moving the knob while the project is playing, rendering the macro void from the automation perspective.)

On the effects side, if you for example want to use the provided frequency splitter, you have to do it inside a multi, and because of the routing limitations you can't send a component (say, the high mids) from inside the multi to a send effect. At least you couldn't do it in a looong while, this might have changed? Haven't noticed, though. No sends on FX channels either(!), so you can't send a bit of your send delay into a reverb, for example. No show stopper, you can load all your send effects on actual bus channels instead, but it illustrates the limited approach to routing nicely.

The killer workflow features (namely, the scratchpad) were unstable right from the start. This has finally been improved, but it was broken so long and so deeply, I would personally be hesitant to trust it in production. Should be okay, though. The scratchpad froze Studio One for minutes at a time because of corrupting data, and nowadays it shouldn't do this anymore.

You can't place multi-out VSTi channels where you want in the mixing console. Managing where tracks/channels are in the arrangement view and in the mixer is unpredictable and crude. There have been fixes for this which break something else in the console or arrangement, and I have the impression it's currently the best it has ever been, but still a mess behind the scenes.

Copy protection tied to a system footprint that includes the state of the network adapters. In practice this means: if you have Studio One on your laptop and you tend to switch the state of your wireless, you'll be inconvenienced by this at some point. More here: https://forums.presonus.com/viewtopic.php?t=10383

No mixer undo of any kind. Try a different approach in the mixing console --> load the whole project again from a previous save if wanting to roll back in one go.

That's about it.

[kevvvvv]

Guenon, you obviously thought long and hard about this, and you're obviously right.

I guess you've unearthed S1's strategic compromise - the trade off between standard workflow enhancements, and ultimate extendibility.

Maybe Reaper (or Bitwig?) is what you really like?

Either way, a long post like yours often signifies a lot of "daw frustration". I used to get the same thing with Sonar, and I sympathise.


LawrenceF, I'll take a second look at your approach. Thanks.


Just cos, here's a list of someone's Top 12 DAWs

http://blog.landr.com/every-recording-s ... sic-today/

[Guenon]

Yeah, kevvvvv you're absolutely right, Reaper and Live are both more my thing. And I agree with the strong points of Studio One wholeheartedly, that's why I initially wanted to work in it . So anyone reading the above: my frustrations are naturally my own, and they stem from my preference for powerful freeform routing constructs, "audio/midi nerd" approach for many things, and so on. When unhappy with your chosen working environment, the frustrations easily sort of pile up. If you're looking for a traditional DAW for multitracking / comping, etc, Studio One is very nice and you should check it out.

[ls1xxx]

I really do not like this Midi Editor in that program. Trying to do drums and 32nd notes is a pain. Maybe the tools in the editor have been updated since I've tried it but it was a pain in the ass when I did. I hope it get something similar like the "paint drum sequencer" tool that's in FL12 piano roll. I would really like to see that.