The Sound Board

Is this a good thing?

Many of us immediately draw a parallel to the Gibson/Cakewalk fiasco, not entirely unfair!

I can't begin to predict what will happen, but I really hope this doesn't turn out the same. I've had to give up on two abandoned platforms, and both times it was not an easy change. In fact I resisted Studio One, still hoping Sonar would resurface. And I received an NFR copy of Studio One version 1 as my company was a Presonus dealer. I think version 2 hit the shelves before I even installed version 1.

It was not an easy, nor quick, migration, but the software (and I?) has evolved/matured to the point where it is my favorite working environment. So I'm not ready to say good-bye yet.

I spent some time last night playing around in the new version. My (admittedly incomplete) reaction is "so far, so good". Some of the ARA integrations appear to work better, and overall it seems a tad more efficient with system resources. Even the plugin scan is quicker. All positives. And I have yet to find a negative, but at the 8th iteration I probably avoid those "features" that did not work for me automatically.

Old projects load perfectly, and sound indistinguishable when played back in version 7. That is important (unless, of course, they just magically sounded better.)

I will be spending more time with version 8, but I am feeling uncharacteristically optimistic.

The one feature I am really curious about, but haven't the slightest idea about yet, is the integration with Celemony Tonalics. If it is in there I have not yet found it - in fairness I didn't spend a lot of time looking, and I have yet to crack the manual.

Why Tonalics?

IF (and it is a big IF) Celemony has really figured out a way to humanize a MIDI performance that would kinda be the dream. Enter the music in a score (still my preferred way to work) and then playback without the mechanical feel that usually results. There are tools out there that are making great strides (Muse Studio, Dorico, and others), but there remains some room for improvement.

If anyone can pull this off I'd put my money on Celemony. And if the ARA integration works anywhere as well as Melodyne we could be on to something pretty cool.

Oh, one feature I've been meaning to check out, but never got around to it, is the Wavelab integration. Dang but that is cool, especially for someone that still misses his tape decks (sometimes!) I know it has been around for a while, but there is nothing like a brand new version to get one to check out previously ignored features.

Well... I upgraded to 7 almost on the day of the release. Big talks of more updates and this and that but in 14 months or so nothing of the updates to S1 interested me. Last spring, when Steinberg had a very nice sale I bought Cubase, mainly because I the year before bought Dorico since PreSonus (Fender) Notion seemed to have reached the end of development.

I really liked Dorico and didn't click with Cubase at first. When my 12 months of free updates of S1 had passed Steinberg released Cubase 15. I upgraded right away. Really like the modulators that can control various parameters on different instruments at the same time! I have since just tried to get to grips with the expression maps. That area S1 rules so I continued working in S1. Then two days ago, a few years late to the party mind you, I got a video about Art Conductor in my YouTube feed. Bam! Bought it yesterday, put together a quick template and darn, I like that way of working even better, when each note can carry it's own articulation. Much easier to se as well as edit. And the MIDI editing in Cubase feels a lot more "like me" than S1 ever did. Viewing two, three or more MIDI tracks at the same time in the editor and lock the others so you only move the ones you are working on. Big win for me.

Studio One v7 has a few features I really like, the Sound Variations, the Project page and the drag & drop functionality for almost anything.

The 8 update looks good, I like the interface changes (apart from the ugly mixer fader caps), the bug fixes but that's it. When it comes to guitar amps I'm so in love with working with my hardware pedals, tube amp and Two-Notes Genome I don't need anything else of that. I'll keep my eye on the updates coming ahead but I won't update until I see something I "need".

I picked up Cubase during the sale as well - still don't quite get it, but I do keep trying, largely because of Dorico, although I still have not updated to V5. Since Fender Studio Pro 8 was a free upgrade I installed it. Thus far I'm ok with it, seems like mostly a natural progression, would still like better integration with Notion, or better yet just make it part of Studio One! For that matter, marry Cubase and Dorico.

Sometimes I feel like I am part of a very small minority that enjoys working in notation as opposed to the piano roll view, but I have adapted somewhat over the years. Still waiting for true integration, Notion was awfully close before they shuttered it.

Art Conductor was an outstanding addition to the toolbox, I ended up adding it to both Cubase and Studio One, but I like the Studio One version better. That could be my mental block against Cubase? Have you looked at Artiqverse? I'm still figuring it out, but I may replace Art Conductor - or use both?

And I still lean on my amplifiers and pedals for almost all my guitar tracks. I keep trying different Amp and Pedal plugins, but there is something about the hardware that keeps me tethered. Even the Line6 Helix, which is all I take out with me these days, I like the hardware better than the plugin - although the plugin does make it a lot easier to edit patches.