Channel Strip Comparison from all the famous DAWs [Infographic]

[schnapsglas]

Studio One pisses me off. Why do we have to have separate column for inserts and sends in the "short console" view? Then the channel becomes three times as wide and it makes no sense why they cannot be fit to a single column.

Yep. Really about the only thing that kills me in S1. It's strange considering how ergonomic the program is all in all.

Exactly. If I remember you right I think we switched to S1 at around the same time... I remember that thread. It is really weird behaviour, like designers have not mixed before. I shouldn't be closing insert and sends view in middle of mixing just so I can see the next channel. Why not combine them?

S1 has some serious quirks (no menu for plugins, VST3 separate folder...); I like it, but there are some problems with no solutions. I might jump ship to Sonar if it becomes cheap enough. I was really shocked that there was no proper "bus" in S1, at least prior to 2.5 update.

And weird not to give us choice for SRC when it has a mastering suite built in

[braj]

for live you could at least expand the insert slots

Wait, how do you do that?

[No_Use]

Just looking at the pic, nice idea.
DP 8 seems to be the only DAW with a VU meter in the strip,or ?
I wish my DAW had this also.

[Muzik 4 Machines]

in options.txt
add the option -ShowDeviceSlots

[egbert]

The view of the Studio One V2 mixer in the strip comparo is from the "floating window" version of the mixer.

The mixer defaults to the short view under the arrangement window. You can (with one click) hive it off into a separate window which you can float or move to another monitor or whatever you need. In that view, the S1 mixer is a bit like like the old Logic mixer with sends and inserts all in view. It is a channel of this full height version that shows up in the comparison graphic.

[braj]

in options.txt
add the option -ShowDeviceSlots

And where is that? I don't see it in my install.

EDIT:
well here it is:

https://www.ableton.com/en/articles/opt ... file-live/

Very cool!

BTW, the Studio One mixer is better when you use their native plugins, which isn't in the screenshot. But since you can't use a generic little GUI with 3rd party plugins, it makes the system less than perfect. Unless you use all of their plugins, you will still be opening windows for basic adjustments.

[rod_zero]

It suprises me live is the only one with dump skeumorph design.

[braj]

It suprises me live is the only one with dump skeumorph design.

Do you mean that dumps skeumorph design?

[LawrenceF]

The view of the Studio One V2 mixer in the strip comparo is from the "floating window" version of the mixer.

Not really, the docked mixer will display the same way.

Unless you use all of their plugins, you will still be opening windows for basic adjustments.

I thought that was the case universally with most. Or do some other daws show 3rd party plugin controls in a mini view like that along with their own?

Not saying they don't, just asking since I don't know. Thanks.

[LawrenceF]

Of those graphics, DP, Reason, and MixBuss look the best overall to me. The really interesting contrast there is Reason and Cubase 7, where the knobs on the latter look really tiny.

[braj]

The view of the Studio One V2 mixer in the strip comparo is from the "floating window" version of the mixer.

Not really, the docked mixer will display the same way.

Unless you use all of their plugins, you will still be opening windows for basic adjustments.

I thought that was the case universally with most. Or do some other daws show 3rd party plugin controls in a mini view like that along with their own?

Not saying they don't, just asking since I don't know. Thanks.

Most DAWs don't, but it is like this: thye are creating a paradigm that is incomplete since you can only use it with their plugins. I would imagine they could create a generic GUI for channel strips that let you define say three parameters from any VST, then you could really use the mixer to much better effect. So it just seems maybe a matter of time, it seems like a logical development to me.

[LawrenceF]

I hear you Braj. Would be nice indeed.

I tend to view it as "glass half full", e.g., in that at least that you can view all their own plugs in the mini-view, inline, where in some other cases you can't even do that, and all plugs (included and third party) always have to floated to be adjusted.

Thanks Braj.

Anyway, back to the channel strips. Reason looks pretty good. The color contrast, the control sizes, the font label size, nice design. The contrast of the Cubase 7 strip looks pretty poor to me. DP and some others look a good bit better for viewing from a distance.

[Duckster]

Someone should make a poll on what's the channel strip people like the most

[OzWozEre]

I'm afraid it's a bit tricky involving REAPER... there are some themes which are widely used and are almost official (Imperial, Rado, etc.) which look very different from the default... so, while it's fair that only default strips are compared, actually a lot of people is not using the default - at least in REAPER)...

- Mario

Damn, I shouldn't have seen this.

That Imperial theme is absolutely stunning

I guess I have to look into Reaper now since I'm such a superficial twat

[Arglebargle]

I'm afraid it's a bit tricky involving REAPER... there are some themes which are widely used and are almost official (Imperial, Rado, etc.) which look very different from the default... so, while it's fair that only default strips are compared, actually a lot of people is not using the default - at least in REAPER)...

- Mario

Damn, I shouldn't have seen this.

That Imperial theme is absolutely stunning

I guess I have to look into Reaper now since I'm such a superficial twat

If it helps to dissuade you, Reaper has certain GUI elements that appear to have come from Windows 3.1.