I'm finding that my "crude" (first impressions) are morphing into...I haven't dug deep enough.  Using the demo solid for a couple days is really opening my eyes up.   Not to mention a faderport thrown in for good looks.

Okay, Noize, I'm sorry, I think I was thrown because this thread is about the GUI. You're talking about development.
 
Still, I'm not sure how having a joint development with KristalLabs is a show stopper. And it doesn't sound like Studio One was based on Kristal at all (FWIW). From the site:
 
Studio One, a new music creation and production application for Mac OS X and Windows XP/Vista, developed by KristalLabs in cooperation with PreSonus has been unveiled at Musikmesse Frankfurt.

After three years of development, Studio One (formerly code-named K2) is a fresh and innovative new platform....
 
From this, it sounds more like a brand new start.

I sat down with the S1 demo for about an hour last night and hated it.
 
Today I downloaded the complete manual and started going through step by step:
1. How do I loop a measure?
2. How do I create the equivalent of groove clips?
3. How do I draw in midi notes?
4. Where do I add effects?
5. How do I add a mix bus?
6. Where are my compressors?
7. What's the equivalent of LP EQ?
etc.
 
I'm not entirely sold on S1, but I did manage to find everything that I use on a regular basis except some of my plugins.  I need to figure out that.
 

I am a huge Sonar fan, but I have to say, Studio One is snappy! Whilst you certainly don't get the thousands of bells and whistles, you realise those decades of added features come at a cost. Studio One gets its job done with youthful exhuberence:)

tenfoot
I am a huge Sonar fan, but I have to say, Studio One is snappy! Whilst you certainly don't get the thousands of bells and whistles, you realise those decades of added features come at a cost. Studio One gets its job done with youthful exhuberence:)

Same experience here.  The very first thing most useful for me in the S1 GUI was the ease of track management with the Track List that was so easy to get to, or just keep on the screen.  I found high track counts hard to manage in the Sonar GUI...massive amounts of scrolling and clicking; much easier for me in S1.
 
Once you learn how a handful of common bread and butter things are done in S1, it's really efficient for workflow.  

Crude? I think it's gorgeous, modern and very appealing.

guitz
Yes it's all about the sound and features, but the look of SONAR was so refined, and so advanced...with everything dockable and the great way you could add what you want to the transport bar among many other things. And the great way you could expand and collapse the pro channel view (itself, a huge drawing point). Excellent graphics that felt high end. The complete opposite of what I see with Presonus crude looking softare. It looks like something from about 15 years ago. So while I'll keep plugging away with Splat for a while (maybe, the idea of using dead software is not appealing, knowing how fast innovation changes), I'd like something else as sharp to the eye as SONAR is. Cubase seems to be close but I don't know customizable the transport bar is.

I have to say that Studio One looks crap and can't do half of what I would expect from it. It falls short in every department for me. But this comes down to personal levels, but still, It falls short for me. I got S1 to crash just by loading Kontakt! I have done the demo. It falls short of even REaper which has great ideas but just doesn't cut the mustard. I have to say, the only thing that just works for me is Sonar. And I am glad to say, it still works for me!

kapelle
Crude? I think it's gorgeous, modern and very appealing.

I'm with you.  I like the minimalist interface.  I don't want a bunch of gui bloat eating up my cpu and memory.
 
My only concern is if I can make S1 do I what I want they way I want.  I have yet to determine this,  Still on the fence.

It is crude. I think a lot of people freaking out about Sonar have gone with Studio Wang/one without having really trialed it fully. 1) Sonar will work for years and it's the best. 2) If you do not believe that, then the next DAW will come out just as your new one becomes old. That's how it works. If I switch to a new DAW it will be Cubase just because it has most of the code that Sonar had. Studio One so far is kind of like Sonar with all the great features missing. I can imagine all the folks who have switched to S1 will disagree in order to justify what they have done. Meanwhile, Sonar still works and is million times better! S1 is a huge step backward. Pretty much anything is.

Agree that the graphics are not as nice as Sonar but S1P is deeper than it appears.
There are many time-savers if you get to know the work flow. There is a learning curve that "pays" for itself once you get comfortable with it.