A couple of things:HobbyCore wrote:Note that I referenced benchmarks, not my own testing. You can see a representative benchmark here http://www.dawbench.com/win7-v-osx-5.htmdr4kan wrote:probably not good on your OSX. Here I have S1, Cubase 7.5 and Logic X and S1 more CPU friendly than Cubase. Just Logic X performs (slightly) better.HobbyCore wrote: CPU usage is not good on OS X. I've seen a few Windows benchmarks comparing Studio One with cubase, pro tools, samplitude, reaper etc.. and Studio One is usually in the middle of the pack. On OS X it often runs 60% less efficient than the next least efficient DAW. Really pitiful.
You could do a formal test yourself with the projects listed here http://www.dawbench.com/benchmarks.htm . Now, to reference my own testing, Studio One 2.6.2 is still significantly less efficient than every other DAW that I've tested on OS X (I was unable to test Cubase, but I did manually duplicate the project for Digital Performer). I did this within the last 3 weeks on a brand new i7 iMac with a fresh install of Mavericks.
It's also worth considering the anecdotal data. A lot of people have complained about Studio One's poor performance on OS X relative to other DAWs. This thread alone demonstrates that.
Note that these discussions hinge around how much load before a DAW shows an error (buffer underrun or similar). NOT how much cpu usage is reported. Studio One may show cpu usage on par with other DAWs, but it begins to error at much lower loads, lower buffer sizes and with fewer plugin instances.
1. As a Studio One owner, I agree that the performance can be improved upon. It's not as efficient as Sonar or Reaper, but I mostly use it because it's been completely stable (which Sonar isn't) and has a great workflow (where Reaper and I stop getting along).
2. The benchmarks you referenced were with Studio One 1.5, and we are on version 2.6.3 now, so they're not quite up to date.
3. Glad you ran your own benchmarks on your own machine. How much worse was it? Are we talking about a small difference in track counts, or was it significant? Did you document the results? I'm very curious.