nope. that was almost a deal breaker for me.. until I realized I could use the ability to layer midi tracks together in the piano roll, to create a pseudo scale guide.

I have a separate track I use to create a scale by plugging in the notes on the piano roll, invert it.. then copy the completed octave up and down the board.

I lay that behind the current track I'm editing (set it to 'view', not edit), so I can see where the notes in the scale should fall.

this ended up being a better option for me than the snap-to-scale model they have currently.. because I do a lot of stuff that requires going chromatic from time to time.

still.. it seems it would be really easy for them to implement this sort of feature in the future.

only having 11, pre-determined scales to choose from now.. seems ridiculous.

I'd like to see an expanded list of scales, with the ability to create my own. and some sort of scale manager. I'd like an option to gray out notes that aren't in the scale across the roll.. with the ability to toggle a note snap on & off (but leave the graphic gray scale block up), for those chromatic moments.

Yeah Reaper by default doesn't have that many, but it allows importing new scales, this is a big deal for me because I like to get all the exotic Indian scales and i don't know them intimately. But I could always use some external reference and that may help learning the scale better anyhow. But then I saw S1 has some sort of system for extending its capabilities and wonder if custom scales could be made. It would cool if you could just define your own custom scales and save them, the UI seems to be 99% there for doing just that.

I'm kind of on the fence getting S1 or not, I was able to improve the Reaper groove implementation last night after searching for how to do it, creating a custom menu, but it is nowhere as elegant and fast to work with as S1, and searching for work-arounds itself is a big time waster. But then there are things about Reaper's midi that I really like that save me time like coloring notes by pitch, that for me is very handy, and showing only active notes as well, big help I am not so quick to abandon.

But the real big deal keeping me from buying S1 really is the price right now (not that it is unreasonable at all, just my personal financial capacity). I never really looked into the limitations of the Artist version, I had it in my mind that it did do VSTs for $99, which I could afford right now in a pinch. So I am thinking about finding Artist used on the cheap, playing with that more, and then upgrading to Producer if I feel I need to switch, and then eventually getting Pro. There is no denying Studio One has some nice features, and IMO the free version is a stroke of genius, for education it seems a huge boon, with everything one would need to learn all the basics on and then have a good upgrade path as their needs mature. Honestly I didn't mean to be so impressed but it is impressive

I was having so many issues with sonar, I really just had to switch. after demoing S1 for a couple weeks, I did the professional crossgrade deal from sonar 8.5.. and saved $100.

still a lot of $$, but worth it to me to be able to get back to work without having to worry about crashing every 10-15mins.

even with workarounds, I'm saving a ton of time, and getting a lot of work done. transferred all my songs for this project over from sonar (straight midi), and all the vst settings for the various fx and instrument plugins really easily.

the smooth workflow advantage with S1 is just amazing.

Yeah the groove thing really solves a lot of what I was trying to fix in Reaper in an incredibly elegant way, I don't have that many complaints about Reaper really but this is a 'killer' feature for me personally, enough to maybe give up other cool things that are in reaper but maybe not (yet) in Studio One. But if S1 is maturing and being improved constantly, it may be better to 'live with less' than live with the Frankenstein that reaper often seems to be I put in a feature request at the presonus forum for my idea of how custom scales could be added, and put in an add for a S1 license in the marketplace, in case anyone wants to sell.

Email Presonus and ask nicely if you can have the demo reset.

Now there's an idea

Is the S1 V2 multicore spikes fixed by now?
I really like Studio One but I can't even think about changing my daw if the problem is still there.

I haven't seen any spikes, but I have only 2 cores.

I have to say the free version is an excellent marketing ploy, after warming up to the free version, I re-tried the Pro demo and just ended up buying it.

just downloaded this. the whole artist and free is just obnoxious! this is the perfect example of you don't get something for nothin oh well

That's a bit harsh. It has uncrippled MIDI Out so you can have unlimited VSTis hosted somewhere else. With ReaRoute you can have unlimited FX too.

And even with nothing else in the Free version, Presence is a pretty cool instrument all by itself, if you have to have just one, it is good at least. I think this is an awesome deal, I don't know of any freebie that does as much.

And though Artist isn't for me, it does have Komplete player support and Essentials, which expands the palette a lot. If someone was happy with those NI offerings, you could easily get good basses, keyboards, drums, synths all within a relatively cheap DAW. I think it depends on the kind of music you make really and how deep you want to go. You can scale up as your needs dictate too, which I think it pretty cool. I see the free version as being a huge boon for many people starting out, or for schools and churches etc. that don't need psychedelic synthesizers Especially for someone not ready to take on figuring out more complex systems and what to buy among all the offerings on the market, the Komplete integration is great.

ive heard before that im 'harsh' and in reality im being less harsh and more having less tact. im not lying am i? i am not. see, i don't believe whatsoever in the in the generous company.

in fact i believe whole heatedly in the selfish company. the idea of a generous company does NOT exist. companies try very hard to make themselves seem like they want to help the less fortunate, they do this in a number of means, giving to charity, in the food world coupons, in the software world, limited featured versions.

but you see, whether its holding charity event, give thousands or millions to charity in essence making themselves look good, giving coupons buy such and such and get such free, or offering version of software that just is useless to the market its selling too, companies know exactly what there doing, and they know well and good the offers they make are just good enough to look good on (insert medium) but in reality offer nothing of use to the people there advertising there product too.

its all a front, to appear like the good guy, but in reality is offered for selfish gain. if companies really wanted to be honestly generous they would offer a truly giving offer. i find again and again, you don't get something for nothing, its been like this since the idea of a personal business started long ago. and still, nothing has changed.

the only place the giving spirit actually exists is with freeware, not crippled freeware, freeware, where the author gives away both his time and his money for others. i doubt well see the day where a big audio company offers something worthwhile that can be truly used by the audience it selling too, and frankly im tired of it. whether its a crippled live lite 8, samplitude 11 silver, or studio one free. this is exactly hows it gonna stay. and thats the truth. harsh, yes, harsh reality.

They are a company that sells products, I knew this is a marketing ploy no doubt about it when I downloaded it, and I knew it would be 'crippled' that is a given, but it is a good marketing ploy that I found attractive, useful, it let me demo their product without too much interference from them, and yes, can actually be useful even by pros depending on what you are doing. Should they be giving away their pro product to other pro producers? I don't see how exploitation is absent from that scenario either, if someone wants something for free that they will use to generate their own revenue, run their own business, then it is just a different side of the same coin. But for a student, or a school, or a church group etc. they can all make good use of this, and they can use whatever hardware interface they like, it isn't tied to Presonus. Is it still essentially an add? Sure. BUt do I care about that? No. Do I think Presonus is some demonic company ala Haliburton? Definitely not

well im glad you realize that because thats what exactly what it is. i see nothing wrong with point that out because many people miss this. and think, aww, how nice of them to do that.

Studio One free is an amazing gift for the 99.99% of musicians that don't use plugins. What you say is not harsh, just uneducated.