clintmartin
 
Hopefully Tracktion Waveform and Harrison Mixbus will continue to improve. I would just assume stay with those two.

Well the bright side of Tracktion Waveform is in their continued development, as they have survived the acquisition by Mackie, and also rose from the ashes on the other side after being re-acquired by the original developer.
 
Waveform offers Melodyne support with a bundled license for Melodyne Essential.
 
They are also not MIDI slackers, as they now support MIDI MPE, so they are compatible with expressive controllers from ROLI and Roger Linn - Linnstrument, etc.  https://support.roli.com/article/what-is-mpe/
 
https://www.midi.org/articles/midi-polyphonic-expression-mpe

"Technology will move on without Cakewalk.  Cake is not dead yet, and will not die instantly, but will suffer one piece at a time... "
 
Abacab done laid down the Gospel with this one...
 
John

He did, alas

clintmartin
I would be feeling pretty good about a Studio One 3 investment (if I had bought it for $149).

How about Studio One 3 Pro  TOTAL $168.99

Once you sign in add to cart at AudioDeluxe (shows $199 til added to cart)

I'm anxious to see all what ARA 2 will bring to the Studio version...  

The Rocker
I'm anxious to see all what ARA 2 will bring to the Studio version... 

I guess that primary problem with ARA 1 was tight integration with Studio One. Sonar has joined the club early, but other have found it problematic (and remembering experience in Sonar with Melodyne, especially early, that was not just ignorance)

Fortunately, ARA 2 is considerably more flexible and can be integrated more easily into a multitude of DAWs as well as supported by a very wide variety of plug-ins.

That has attracted Logic and Reaper. Probably Cubase follow. So I think compatibility was primary target for ARA2.
 
Unfortunately, I guess that upgrade will not be for free (at least not for Editor and Studio). And I do not exclude Studio One owners will  have to pay for Studio One 4 to use it

I read somewhere that Studio One will be providing the ARA 2 update for free and it may even happen quite soon. (before V4 I heard) If Studio One V4 is not that far away it could also be included in that.  Melodyne Essentials 4 will still work normally I believe.  They may even update Essentials in order to take in some ARA 2 features perhaps. 

I can't help but wonder if the PreSonus model (build great hardware then move into software that flows with your hardware) is the model that wins. Sure, ProTools did this early on, but not at the pro-sumer level. Cakewalk's attempts at hardware integration involved deals with hardware makers; not the other way around as far as I remember.
So far, my experience with Studio One, and a somewhat better than possibly needed audio interface with the Studio 192, is hand in glove. Thinking about a Faderport, wondering if the three together equal project studio bliss!
Thanks for listening!
 
Brian