Sonar X1 User Thinking whether to go with X2 or StudioOne

It is pretty well a stupid question to ask on a Sonar forum. You won't get a reasonable answer here, only one point of view. (and that might be from both sides too) 

I suggest you go away and do the research properly. See if you can watch an owner of both programs and maybe watch them using them. Get into the shops and work with both of them for a while and try and determine that for yourself.

Put the work in and find out yourself. There is no easy or lazy way to find out. Visit both websites and read all the info on both programs thoroughly. Read some reviews. 

I think you can download both demos and use them yourself. That is one very good way to find out as well. Test them both on the one machine and see how well they go. Read some other threads here.

Jeff Evans


It is pretty well a stupid question to ask on a Sonar forum. You won't get a reasonable answer here, only one point of view. (and that might be from both sides too) 

I suggest you go away and do the research properly. See if you can watch an owner of both programs and maybe watch them using them. Get into the shops and work with both of them for a while and try and determine that for yourself.

Put the work in and find out yourself. There is no easy or lazy way to find out. Visit both websites and read all the info on both programs thoroughly. Read some reviews.

+1.
I wondered about Studio One so I downloaded the demo and didn't like it. Job done.


Grum.

Hope this helps...............

1. Download and try demos.
2. Found one you like? Yes? Go to #3. No? Repeat #1 or Google Harder.
3. Learn the program inside and out. Ok? Got to #4. Too hard to learn? Go to #1.
4. Does it do everything you want it to. Yes? Go to #5. No? Go to #1
5. Can you live with its bugs and shortcomings? Yes? Go to #6. No? Go to #1.
6. Carry on making music and return to #4 on a regular basis.

Simples........the trick is to know a DAWs full capabilities. TYhe number of posts I see here that are along the lines of......

I wish Sonar had/did/gets this or this or that is broken when all it takes is knowing the software really well and that's true of any DAW not just Sonar.

Jeff Evans


It is pretty well a stupid question to ask on a Sonar forum. You won't get a reasonable answer here, only one point of view. (and that might be from both sides too) 

I suggest you go away and do the research properly. See if you can watch an owner of both programs and maybe watch them using them. Get into the shops and work with both of them for a while and try and determine that for yourself.

Put the work in and find out yourself. There is no easy or lazy way to find out. Visit both websites and read all the info on both programs thoroughly. Read some reviews. 

I think you can download both demos and use them yourself. That is one very good way to find out as well. Test them both on the one machine and see how well they go. Read some other threads here.

Jeff nails it!
 
What was the best response you were expecting on a vendors forum asking whether the home one compares favourable to another?
 
You'd have been better served just throwing a brick into a lake if your aim was to create ripples, and I can't for the life of me see another purpose behind that title.

I believe that every DAW has its own problems. You buy a DAW in order to make/master music. The problem is everything is greener on the other side. Apart from the fact that it looks greener you also get cow dung (problems) in the green pastures.
 In the beginning the learning curve is the hardest part. Every DAW I have seen with problems are broken down in 95% computer problems and operation mistakes and 5% bugs. Music isnt a perfect world but with the DAW choices we have It is a lot easier.

Danny 

It's a very subjective thing, but, I just don't care for S1's PRV.   I much prefer working with MIDI in SONAR.
 
Where S1 excels (for me) is pitch/time editing, both with Melodyne integration and its native audiosnap.

I forgot to add two very handy features in Studio One:
Legato and Overlap Correction, and Delete Double Notes (both of which I requested to Cake recently)

PreSonus Exchange is also good.

BTW, IIRC they did a 50% off sale on Valentine's Day last year. But DON'T include it in your purchase decision. Features and workflow are the most important.

If you use hardware synths or sound modules, and do MIDI recording a lot, Studio One may not be the ONE.

I have both, but 9 times out of 10 I use X2a.  You can make good music with either, but Sonar just fit me the best visually and worflow wise.

chefmike8888

I remember trying out StudioOne v1 and I liked it but thought it was a lil' premature and lacked some important features,

Me too.
Not that I was dumping Sonar because that's what I learned on and am comfortable with.
The thing I couldn't deal with in Studio 1 was no 3rd party VST support.
Not sure if that changed in the new version but I paid a lot of money on plug-ins to not have them usable.


You just have to demo all the DAW's that interest you and pick what works best with your needs.


Mike

Studio One Producer and Studio One Professional does have VST support. In fact, it supports VST2, VST 3, AU, and ReWire. Studio One Free and Studio One Artist does not support VST. 


http://studioone.presonus...re-the-versions/ 


IMHO DAWS are like shoes. You need to find the pair that feels comfortable to you. There are a lot of good ones out there. Logic and Reaper are excellent. In the end you got to pick the one that works the best for you. I happen to like the workflow the best in Sonar, but other people may not agree. To them the work flow in logic is better. this is the opinion side of things. In the end the one that fits you the best is the one you should use. 


my suggestion to the op is to download all the demos from all the DAWS and run a series of tests with each one. The one that you personally like the best should be the one you get. May the best DAW win. 


Then again what is the best one? All I can say is the best one for me was Sonar X2, but that might not be the best one for you.

a few words...

S1v2= Great Daw: fresh codes, limited functionality, good effects, bad virtual instruments, poor content, good audio editing, good midi..
 
Sonar x2= Great Daw: old codes, great effects, ProChannel Modules, full functionality, good instruments, good content, good audio editing, the BEST of midi..

Reaper 4= Great daw: fresh and unique coding,  limited functionality, ugly but good effects, no instruments, no content, the best of audio editing, poor midi.

Not really a bad question even here. Even though Sonar (X2A)  is my main creative environment, I use both.  The reason is that I own a StudioLive 16:4:2 console which I use as a recording interface and a broadcast / recording  console for live performances.  When I use it in live mode, I use Presonus Capture which is a very lightweight recording interface.  


Presonus make the StudioLive, Capture and Studio One and they all work well together, and it is much quicker to do a mixdown in Studio One as the configuration is all sorted out, and I don't have to go throw an import process as it "understands" the Capture files.  I use the Artist version which was free with the Studiolive.  It is very straightforward and I get decent results for the limited work I do on it.  I have not been persuaded to go out and buy the pro version for myself and I have been a long time Sonar user, but when people ask for recommendations I suggest they try both.  Sonar has a great deal of breadth and depth which is great, but that can increase the learning curve.  Personally I did not find the switch from 8.5 to X1 painful.


In the end, they are both decent, both have good audio engines, and both are tools.  I keep more than one screwdriver in my tool box, and the DAW is no different.  I also have a copy of Cubase and Ableton Live (Both LE versions) and really never go near them - they don't click for me, although both have a large number of happy users.  Same for Reason


If you feel that you might like it, try it, they have demos and a free version.  I have had no desire to create a from scratch project in Studio One, but when I use it for mixdowns it feels quite natural.


Cheers


Grif
 

Jeff Evans


It is pretty well a stupid question to ask on a Sonar forum. You won't get a reasonable answer here, only one point of view. (and that might be from both sides too) 

I suggest you go away and do the research properly. See if you can watch an owner of both programs and maybe watch them using them. Get into the shops and work with both of them for a while and try and determine that for yourself.

Put the work in and find out yourself. There is no easy or lazy way to find out. Visit both websites and read all the info on both programs thoroughly. Read some reviews. 

I think you can download both demos and use them yourself. That is one very good way to find out as well. Test them both on the one machine and see how well they go. Read some other threads here.

So many times it's unique features that make someone choose one DAW over another. For example, editing Acidized files, MIDI plug-ins, step sequencing, and some of the pro channel modules are very important to what I do. Studio One Pro has fantastic "beat detective"-type features, and if I used Pro Tools primarily for Beat Detective, I'd probably switch to SOP. AudioSnap is not as developed as how SOP handles things, but AudioSnap does everything I need. Ditto V-Vocal, which gets a bad rap but if you really put some time into learning it, you can get great results (as to why there's not better documentation to help people get great results...that's another issue).

I have both programs. Sonar gets first call for creating and mixing music and narration, SOP gets first call for assembling and mastering. If I had to create and mix music in SOP and master in Sonar, I could do that - but I use programs whose feature set matches MY particular needs best. Everyone's needs are different, though.

I've always said asking someone to recommend a DAW is like asking someone to recommend a girlfriend