Reader Loic Maestracci sent word that Presonus is running a NAMM deal on Presonus Studio One:
Love Synthtopia, keep the good work!
I just came across a post about Presonus Studio One v2 Artist at $20.12. I checked on the presonus website and it is actually that price for NAMM 2012 ending soon. Not endorsing at all the software but I thought about sharing the tip.
Also – there’s a demo version avaiable, if you’ve been thinking about giving the new DAW a try.
Thanks to Loic for the tip!
Not clear if it supports VST or not…. hmm
It’s the “Artist” version… no plugins
The “Artist” version is crap. No VST or AU support at all, and the included instruments are pretty weak. I suppose it’s a great deal if you have nothing else, because there are some nice editing/tracking features, but for anyone who wants to do more than record a real world sound source you would be better off with GarageBand simply because of the plug in support. If you need more but are on a tight budget, a better bet would be Reaper.
All that being said, the “full” version of Studio One also seems like a bad deal to me. It lists at $400, but offers way less functionality and instruments/effects than it’s competition (Logic, Cubase, etc). I’m not really sure who or what they are aiming that product at, or how well it is working. They must be going for the traditional artist who plays a guitar or sings or something, and doesn’t do much “in the box”. There are probably a ton of these people, like church groups, weekend musicians, etc, but the real question is, are they willing to pay $400 for a DAW?
Well, regardless of the plugins it’s missing out of the box (which we all have 3rd party plugins for anyway), the audio engine is absolutely brilliant and at 64-bit double precisions also gives you more headroom to work with. The integrated mastering section, Melodyne integration (brilliant) and excellent workflow make this actually a very slick alternative to other, more expensive DAWs. I know quite a few electronic musicians that have actually dropped Cubase / PT / Logic for Studio One. I’m not saying this is the DAW to rule them all, on the contrary, but it is a full fledged DAW that is working very well for an increasing number of people. So it seems there is a market for it. Eventhough some may not see it.
Well you could at least use it as a working environment for Melodyne because of the new and IMHO useful integration.
I have recently switched to Presonus. Its an excellent daw. I have been using PT, Ableton and FL Studio. The functionality is great and it just works without any glitches.
Well I just bought it, just wanted some software to mixdown recordings and stuff from reason/geist/sampler. Although reason 5 audio editing is cool to have, I find it tedious with lots of editing. Looks like an ok buy for $20 🙂