Presonus Studio One worth it?

[samicide]

I love it. I've been using Cubase for years but S12 is winning me over. The included loop content is ok but not that great, I don't use too much of it because I have my own plugs and sounds, but some of the included effects are very good. The melodyne integration is the greatest innovation I've seen in a daw in many years, instant drag and drop audio to midi is a lot of fun. Another great thing about s1 is their alternative to freeze, you just drag and drop something into the trash bin and drag it back if you need to edit it later. One of the only bad things I see about S1 is the performance is not as good as cubase and I would like to see a better solution for drum maps, but but maybe it will get better. I still have a lot of cubase projects going but I'm starting to gravitate towards s1 just because it almost seems more fun, for lack of a better description.

[Yeah, right...]

Originally Posted by samicide

I love it. I've been using Cubase for years but S12 is winning me over. The included loop content is ok but not that great, I don't use too much of it because I have my own plugs and sounds, but some of the included effects are very good. The melodyne integration is the greatest innovation I've seen in a daw in many years, instant drag and drop audio to midi is a lot of fun. Another great thing about s1 is their alternative to freeze, you just drag and drop something into the trash bin and drag it back if you need to edit it later. One of the only bad things I see about S1 is the performance is not as good as Cubase but maybe it will get better.

I agree completely.

Long-time Logic user here + DP. For mix jobs I now use Studio One 2 exclusively. It's much faster that both Logic 9 & DP7 for that in every possible way. However, for composing I am still using Logic, mainly because it has, imo, really great soft synths, and thus far S1 doesn't match it in that department.

Also, at the moment I feel "more comfortable" composing in Logic, particularly when the pressure's on to complete a film project - "no rush - tomorrow morning's fine" is sadly, more often than not the usual think I hear from clients. I do though intend, when I have time, to do a complete project in S1 and see how it goes. I'm sure also that I can find reasonably priced alternatives for the Logic synths. Same for any loops I might need.

For tracking & mixing I can't see me using anything else but S1. I also have a lot of 3rd party plugs but, from what I've found, the S1 bundled plugs are pretty damn good. Until now I've generally not done my own mastering, but the mastering options in S1 may cause me to re-think that. Something else to check-out when I have time...

Performance-wise S1 (here at least) is easier on my Mac than Logic - I'm using a dual quad 2.8 Harpertown w/16gb RAM.

Good luck. Mike

Originally Posted by bmoremd

Are you happy with Presonus Studio One? I just got the producer edition and am installing it. I was wondering, how is the instrument content? Like electronic audio loops etc? I thought about downloading some of it. Also, how do you like the meloydyne integration? Thanks!

Here is a decent thread about Studio One.

Thoughts on Presonus Studio One V2

[GoldMember]

for making music?
or
for mixing?

[ivansc]

I bought Artist in one of AudioMIDIs no brainers and it lasted around a week before I gave up on it.

It would appear that the Producer version 2 is significant improvement over artist but I was so underwhelmed by Artist I decided to save the $200 and stick with Reaper.

Even the supplied demo project took a hen's age to load & NO 3rd party VST support till you spend the full whack????

[pinkheadedbug]

I've been using Logic for over a decade, but a while ago I decided to give Studio One a try -- can't remember why now except Logic had pissed me off in some way -- and I've literally never gone back. It took me a day to get comfortable with the interface but for the stuff I do it's a clear win. Everything is easier and better thought out.

I hope Logic X blows our socks off as I've got a lot invested in that DAW but at the moment S1 is most decidedly where it's at.

[skiltrip]

I used Pro Tools and nothing but for almost 10 years. When Studio One version 1 came out, I got it. It looked very promising, and at the time, I was fed up with not being able to run Pro Tools 8 without an audio interface hanging off of my laptop. I like the "idea" of Studio One version1 more than I actually liked it. It just was incomplete, and was missing too many things I regularly used. So I went back to Pro Tools. But Studio One was very quick to learn (and to retain, more on that in a bit). Early last year, I moved to Logic because I had some Logic specific work coming up. The learning curve was pretty big but I figured out most everything in about a week or two, using Groove3 tutorials and a book on Logic.

I ended up really falling for Logic and moved away from Pro Tools for about half of my work. Any writing and composing was done in Logic. But any quick audio I had to track was done in Pro Tools.

Then Studio One 2 was announced, and the feature set made me say wow. I was already a heavy Melodyne user, so having it integrated like it is was mindblowing. So even though I had already invested in both PT and Logic, I upgraded to Studio One 2. And I really do love it. I've finally moved all new work over to it. And one of the best parts is, I remembered almost everything I had learned about it about a year or so earlier. By contrast, I hadn't used Logic for 3 months or so and I forgot most of what I knew about it. So Studio One really is as intuitive as they like to say.

The built in effects are my favorite of any DAW I've used. I'm talking the bread and butter stuff. Comp, Delay, EQ, Reverb, etc. The one thing I miss from Logic is Amp Designer. Amp Designer is by far my favorite amp sim of all time. I just had no problem getting tons of good sounds out of it. When not in Logic, I use Waves GTR3 for most guitar stuff. Though Studio One's Ampire XT is much improved over the original Ampire, it's still not so hot.

But all in all, it's very much worth it. I have the Pro version with the integrated mastering and CD burning suite. Which is awesome.

So version 1 to 2 was a HUGE leap for Presonus. It's also very light on my MacBook Pro. Both PT and Logic would give my CPU problems from time to time when sessions got larger, but I've yet to see/hear Studio One complain.

[Toth]

I was a Cubase user since 1996. I don't know what made me try Studio One, about 6 months ago, but I have made a complete switch to it, and I love using it. Just about 2 months before that a friend of mine was trying to convince me to try Ableton Live, and I told him that I'm a Cubaser for life, and I explained how much I love Cubase because I am so used to it.

But when I tried Studio One it felt really natural to use, and I don't think I ever had to consult the manual to find out how to do something. What I like about it is the interface, it is so easy to do things which in Cubase would take irritatingly long. I have a track that needs finishing in Cubase and I dread even to think about finishing it in that program. Studio One is the best money I've spent in recent years.

The Melodyne integration is just mindboggling. I work heavily with sampled material (house music) and having Melodyne Editor (about $150, for S1 pro owners) integrated into StudioOne opens up unlimited possiblities. It is incredible. I no longer have to worry about what scale a sample is, I can change that! I can also extract midi from audio samples. Those are just incredible tools that 10 years ago I thought were not going to be possible in my lifetime.

The included plug-ins are top notch too. I prefer some of them over my Waves plugs, especially the EQ which is superb. There is also a great impulse reverb in the Pro edition that is one of the best reverbs out there.

I've never used the included content so I can't comment on that. I use my own samples for all my projects.

The Presonus forums have been very informative for me. There are very friendly and helpful people there to answer all your questions. There are also lots of good videos on there to help get you started.

[hendrik84]

SO 2 is well worth it and then some!

[ckett]

YES!!!

[MarkyGoldstein]

The longer I work with it, the better it seems to become. It's easy to learn and the new ARA / Melodyne integration is impressive...

[florent]

worth every penny .....and more .So glad that I bought S1 ,I just hope they will implement EuCon support soon .

[SoundEng1]

Great Program! highly recommend it.

[skiltrip]

I'd like to add that although I still very much like and continue to use Studio One, I've been experiencing some crashes lately and some buggy behavior with Melodyne via ARA.

I have frequent crashes upon closing a song. As long as you've saved your work, this boils down to little more than an annoyance, but I still don't like senseless crashes.

I've experienced a handful of crashes while adding or removing plugins. This has happened with Waves v9, T-RackS 3, Studio Devil, Revalver, etc. As a result I tend to save with OCD-like intensity.

I've experiened 1 crash while simply moving two automation lanes. Only happened once but this one made me say WTF. But things happen. But I despise immediate force closes, especially if there some work you lose as a result.

My Melodyne ARA issue was an inability to do an offline bounce/mixdown while 2 tracks had an instance of Melodyne on them. Once I rendered each track individually I was able to mixdown. The downside was I then lose the ability to tweak Melodyne any further.

I know I am not the majority. But anyone interested in Studio One should definitely demo it first to see how it runs on their system.

Despite all these headaches I continue to keep S1 as my DAW of choice. It really is well thought out in regards to workflow and capabilities.

I'm just hoping some of these weird crashes and other oddities get worked out in future updates.

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[ambiguity]

I've been using S1 for the last couple of months, still getting the hang of it but loving it so far. Haven't had a single crash or really even a hickup, the thing just works for me (although I'm yet to use Melodyne).

Also, the recent automap update included S1 support, which was a nice surprise.

[spaceman]

I've been toying with the demo for the last couple of days.

Coming from 10+ years of Logic, i really wanted to like S1 , because of some features desperately lacking in Logic like :
- the easier and better handling of multi-outs in Virtual Instruments,
- being able to edit multiple midi tracks at once in the same window,
- easier handling of region/event Vs track automation,
- much better implementation of "freezing" tracks ( unlike Logic, you can still move the parts after freezing the track), and the excellent Render FX wich i've been longing for since i saw Nuendo do it in its first incarnation . Far more useful than "Bounce in place" , since you can "de-freeeze" the event anytime you want. Etc..

But a couple of things have been real show-stoppers. Just a couple of things : No part looping at all. You have to duplicate the part over and over , and even "Duplicate sharing" is awkward, as you have to always remember to only edit the original part if you want the duplicates to mirror the edit. Very easy to accidentaly edit one of the duplicates without knowing it.

- Much more serious problem is the fact that, let's say you insert Chorus AU plugin in the "Render FX" section, choose a preset number 23 in the plugin , Render , then later decide to Restore, it will recall the right plugin but will always go back to the default preset !
Unless i'm doing something completely wrong, this makes the Render FX almost completely useless if you have to always manually note the preset you used for each insert ...

These are just a couple of things , so i'm sticking to Logic for now. Will perhaps check version 3 again when it comes out..

[CharlesEdward]

Awesome.

[oceantracks]

Clunky tempo mapping (compared to Logic and Cubase) and can't use a buss as an input.

Does not look high end, looks semi pro (sorry JMHO)

Nice implementation of creating VI tracks though.

Audio editing done in a separate window (ugh)

TH

[Cruciform]

Originally Posted by bmoremd

Are you happy with Presonus Studio One? I just got the producer edition and am installing it. I was wondering, how is the instrument content? Like electronic audio loops etc? I thought about downloading some of it. Also, how do you like the meloydyne integration? Thanks!

When I was looking for a new DAW 18mths ago, I test drove a bunch of the usual suspects and just felt immediately comfortable with S1v1, very intuitive, extremely stable and a workflow that suited me. Melodyne interaction alone was worth the upgrade to 2. It's seamless and feels like part of S1 rather than being an add-in. The number of features added in the upgrade whilst maintaining stability and workflow keeps me feeling positive about the future for S1.

I don't use the included instruments, audio loops, or effects bar the EQ and metering options, as I have all my third party plugs I prefer to use, so I really can't comment on the included material.

I create mostly electronica, industrial and hybrid trailer music and it's basically been an ongoing positive experience for me. Bitwig Studio has me interested in a few of its features but even if I took that plunge I firmly believe I'd be using the two DAWs side by side.

[Lawrence]

Originally Posted by oceantracks

Audio editing done in a separate window (ugh)

TH

It's optional isn't it, the audio editor window? I mean (if you prefer) you can just enalrge the track and edit on the timeline?

[Lackatee]

Yeah, its optional. You can edit straight from the timeline or in the edit window. They both work exactly the same unless your working with multiple MIDI clips stacked on top of each other. The edit window has this functionality, the timeline doesn't.

[BOP]

Hi,

Never used it but a mate of mine who I trust as having good taste and a sensible approach lauds it in high praise.

Cheers,
BP

[Lawrence]

Just got updated to 2.0.5, some new features and fixes.

Studio One 2.0.5 Now Available

What's not listed there is the new macro toolbar extension that should show up in your user account.

[Clonkified]

These guys are KILLING the other DAWs in terms of frequent updates. And unlike most other point releases, they keep adding awesome new features with each update...for free.

[serstickman]

Used Logic since 2007. Now I am 95% Studio One & 5% Logic. Really enjoying this DAW.

[SoundEng1]

What is the macro toolbar extension?

Update: Wow! very cool!

[ivansc]

Originally Posted by Clonkified

These guys are KILLING the other DAWs in terms of frequent updates. And unlike most other point releases, they keep adding awesome new features with each update...for free.

Are you sure you arent talking about reaper here? (grin)

[Clonkified]

Originally Posted by ivansc

Are you sure you arent talking about reaper here? (grin)

Definitely not...considering Reaper's workflow and UI approach is the biggest POS I've ever seen. Conversely, S1v2 has one of the best (except that color scheme). IMHO

[skiltrip]

Originally Posted by Clonkified

Definitely not...considering Reaper's workflow and UI approach is the biggest POS I've ever seen. Conversely, S1v2 has one of the best (except that color scheme). IMHO

I do wonder how long it'll be before they give in on that colour scheme. It's easy on the eyes, but the lack of contrast makes it hard to differentiate stuff at a glance. Pro Tools has the color scheme perfected I think.

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