Studio One Professional

No one's done a Studio One 2.6 Win 7 review yet.

Here's an attempt from a MIDI composer who never records live audio.

I work from "electro" to "orchestra" to "live band", and all shades in between.

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I'll not attempt to match feature for feature.

- as all sequencers do pretty much almost everything these days.

- and the key differences are found more in your individual approach to working.

- and the ability to work in your preferred genres, as required.

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S1 works in a more Cubase way than an Ableton / Bitwig way.

But everything is far simpler and more obvious than the Cubase I knew.

- and infinitely quicker and easier than the Sonar I never loved.

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I didn't believe the claims when I first came across S1 (back in the v1 days)

Nonetheless I downloaded the free Lite version.

- and in 30 minutes I wrote a piece without needing to look anything up. Not once.

It just worked.

There aren't many sequencers you could say that about.

All the grunt work has been taken out of editing & recording.

So audio clips sync as you drag them in.

- and converting a MIDI track to an audio track is an in-place bounce that's a single right mouse click away.

Ditto MIDI editing - obvious and easy.

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Everything is stretchy, grabby, droppy, pully, squeezy tactile.

- like "big blocks for little hands".

You can easily make any sort of template - mixer, fx chain, hot key etc.

It's this stunning speed that I love the most.

And yet I'm still learning newer faster shortcuts.

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In music you have to "catch the lightning when it strikes"

- and S1 is all about this. Speed of working.

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The included professional quality effects are extremely good at what they do.

- and there's a comprehensive set of 40+ of them. Recommended.

Whatever you want - an instrument, an effect, a clip on disk, a mixer track moving, an audio clip tail micro-fading.

- just grab it and do what you will.

There are no hidden pages - just stuff that slides in and out, without blocking or obscuring anything else.

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This probably isn't a very good review as I've left tons of stuff out.

This is because all I need is:

> the ability to work as fast & subtle as I can imagine.

> and a top pro spec to back it up.

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Downside 1 is the MIDI controller works.

I've never reliably mastered it beyond the mod wheel (blush), in spite of trying.

But I don't believe anything outside of Komplete Kontrol delivers decent, reliable, never-ever-break, MIDI controller support.

So I forgive Studio One for this.

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Downside 2 is that auditioning clips from disk won't shift pitch, only tempo.

I suspect this will be fixed with v3.

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Downside 3 is that it's not really for DJs or matrix loop mixer-producers. Different concept.

And the forum is only so-so.

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If you're out of love with your current sequencer.

- then go to Presonus and download the free Lite version.

- and be writing a song within the next five minutes.

It worked for me, and still does.

9 on 10.

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