Why did you leave Studio One?

[trusampler]

The new CEO sounds like a complete idiot. Is he saying the manual needs to be cut down for all users including advanced users ?

If so that’s an absolute absurd statement and shows how out of touch he is with their customers. I had high hopes for Presonus, but if they’re gonna just sit by idle and allow this new CEO to try and dumb down their software, I wouldn’t remain a customer if there’s as well.
Hopefully they can add an actual browser that allows for users to tag our content in the next version. This has been my biggest issue with them and the fact they don’t take Midi serious, with 6 versions now and still no support for sysex and NRPNs.
Thankfully Steinbergs Cubase / Nuendo browser, mediabay and now even Ableton are aware of content creators needs for tagging user samples and presets etc.

[concealed identity]

I really doubt we'll see Studio One go subscription-only anytime soon, if ever. But as someone pointed out, a sort of two-tiered system seems likely, which is really concerning.

[SuperG]

Not pleased with this move at all. I can't stand companies who force you into a more expensive subscription model to be able to use their stuff. I guess my money isn't good enough to buy directly from their website. If v7 goes full subscription, I'm done.

Deja Vu.

Gibson pulled this very stunt years ago with Sonar, and we all know how that turned out. Funny how these days the idea is to fish Sonar out of the swamp with paid band lab subs. My money is on it sinking back into the muck. Pass the popcorn.

[FrankT]

The new CEO sounds like a complete idiot. Is he saying the manual needs to be cut down for all users including advanced users ?

If so that’s an absolute absurd statement and shows how out of touch he is with their customers. I had high hopes for Presonus, but if they’re gonna just sit by idle and allow this new CEO to try and dumb down their software, I wouldn’t remain a customer if there’s as well.

Here is what the CEO said in 2022 according to musicradar: „The simplest version of Studio One right now has a 150-page manual, which is 149 pages too many”. The CEO also said that „having dabbled with recording myself, I’ve never found a DAW I didn't need an MIT degree to actually use“.
While simplifying things is good, I think it would be a mistake to aim for another Garageband - or something even more simplistic. And even if the development of such a product would not replace S1, it would certainly have an effect on resources for S1.

[Greenstorm33]

The new CEO sounds like a complete idiot. Is he saying the manual needs to be cut down for all users including advanced users ?

Instead of having a manual they're going to hook you up to a computer and load the knowledge of how to use the program into your brain like The Matrix

[Trensharo]

The new CEO sounds like a complete idiot. Is he saying the manual needs to be cut down for all users including advanced users ?

If so that’s an absolute absurd statement and shows how out of touch he is with their customers. I had high hopes for Presonus, but if they’re gonna just sit by idle and allow this new CEO to try and dumb down their software, I wouldn’t remain a customer if there’s as well.

Here is what the CEO said in 2022 according to musicradar: „The simplest version of Studio One right now has a 150-page manual, which is 149 pages too many”. The CEO also said that „having dabbled with recording myself, I’ve never found a DAW I didn't need an MIT degree to actually use“.
While simplifying things is good, I think it would be a mistake to aim for another Garageband - or something even more simplistic. And even if the development of such a product would not replace S1, it would certainly have an effect on resources for S1.

GarageBand. It isn't limited. It is a specific product with a feature set carefully designed to target a specific segment of the production market - people who have little to no knowledge or experience coming to music production for the first time ... with nothing else but a Computer, iPhone or iPad.

It is the best entry-level DAW SKU on the market, IMO, and more developers should aspire to that with their entrance SKUs.

Once you get past the genral UX, and look at the feature set - esepcially when you keep the target market segment in mind - you'll see that GB is basically on par with Studio One Artist... even superior, in some cases.

Random 13 year old kid who wants to start making compositions to video will get further with GB than with Studio One Artist, which has neither a Score Editor nor a Video Track. Same for the people who just have a computer or iPad who want to make Beats, or Pop Music, or Country Music, or Rock Music, etc. etc.

What Apple has done with GB is ingenious. They have made an entry-level solution that they bundle with their hardware at no cost that is equally useful for pretty much any type of music production or composition, and when people feel they outgrow it they can simply pay $199 - half the price of Studio One Professional - to move up to Logic Pro.... and they will still be just as well served there as they were on GB - just with more advanced functionalities, better [more professional] workflow and far higher quality plug-ins, virtual instruments and sample content while still being able to faultlessly import all of their prior works into Logic.

And I don't know anyone who really had to use a manual to use GarageBand, because it is designed to be as transparent as possible. It was designed so that the workflow has as few "layers" as possible, which means most things are not hidden and as a result people tend to learn how to use it more easily. There is a specific reason why these design decisions were made.

Unlike most other vendors, Apple did not create GarageBand by simply taking Logic Pro and disabling dozens of features.

What he said was badly worded, quoted in isolation (so we don't get great context, and people regugitate this quote in the same exact way)... however, the idea behind it absolutely makes sense.

Most users take the path of lease resistance. If GarageBand is easier for them than Studio One Prime or Artist, they are likely to simply use GarageBand instead and then upgrade to Logic Pro - which has no redundant learning curve (learning how to do the same things differently, learning different keyboard shortcuts, etc.) ... just additional features, utilities and workflows to accommodate and acclimate to.

1.4% of people are going to care about your manual when they find something difficult. It's not 1992 where the only way to get into music production was to spend hundreds on the software, which basically meant you have no choice but to waste time on inefficiencies and unintuitiveness due to your investment in acquiring the product.

People can simply choose to opt out and pick another cheap or free product and move on with their life.

Manual quality has gotten worse over time because they have become less and less important as most people ignore them. No point hiring the best technical writers to write amazing manuals if 98.6% of your users will never look at it. Context-Sensitive Help usurped manuals once consumer desktop computing moved to GUI OSes like macOS and Windows 3.

Modern Manuals are - generally - just a PDF print out of context sensitive help files. They are reference documentation, not "User Guides." Even if they label themselves as "Manuals," that is typically an inaccuracy.

[BONES]

Presonus has stopped the sale of all add-ons and plugins in its online store today. These are now only available exclusively with a subscription. This could be an indicator that from Studio One 7 onwards, everything will be subscription-only.

Why? There is absolutely no suggestion of that at all. All they are doing is making Studio One+ a more appealing offering, just as their recent decision to remove upgrade pricing for Studio One Artist makes Studio One Pro more appealing. I am certain their goal is to increase their revenue, not make people think about moving to their competitors' products. I'd much rather they made those sorts of tweaks than raise prices across the board.

[concealed identity]

I don't think the comment about the manual is anything to worry about. The whole design philosophy of Studio One was to basically redesign Cubase from the ground up using lessons learned and not being held to legacy code and features. Now that it's a major player in the DAW market, it makes sense to try and make it more accessible for people who have never used a DAW before. That doesn't necessarily mean removing complexity from the software or focusing on beginners, it just means finding a way to ease those beginners in.

The manual is basically a reference for when you already know what you want to do, but it's not a good way to learn how to use a DAW. But providing some way for that could increase your user base by quite a bit, as the person above pointed out with Garage Band. I guess we'll see what gets changed once Studio One 7 comes out!

[FrankT]

Here is what the CEO said in 2022 according to musicradar: „The simplest version of Studio One right now has a 150-page manual, which is 149 pages too many”. The CEO also said that „having dabbled with recording myself, I’ve never found a DAW I didn't need an MIT degree to actually use“.
While simplifying things is good, I think it would be a mistake to aim for another Garageband - or something even more simplistic. And even if the development of such a product would not replace S1, it would certainly have an effect on resources for S1.

GarageBand. It isn't limited (….)

And here is where we obviously start disagreeing
Don‘t get me wrong: GB is good for what it is. But of course it is a very limited app which falls short of studio/professional capabilities. And again: simplifying a DAW is good. But pls simplify without taking away advanced capabilities.

[Crossinger]

Presonus has stopped the sale of all add-ons and plugins in its online store today. These are now only available exclusively with a subscription. This could be an indicator that from Studio One 7 onwards, everything will be subscription-only.

I am certain their goal is to increase their revenue, not make people think about moving to their competitors' products.

Totally agree - but maybe they now overplay their hand. If I would make money from the tool, I wouldn't hesitate to pay the annual subscription fee. But I'm a 100% hobbyist, dabbling with my gear every 4 weeks or during holidays. So paying for an upgrade during a sale (usually still less than 100 bucks) for two years (between major releases) is acceptable for me, while paying annual $179 is not. That's an easy decision.

[Trensharo]

Here is what the CEO said in 2022 according to musicradar: „The simplest version of Studio One right now has a 150-page manual, which is 149 pages too many”. The CEO also said that „having dabbled with recording myself, I’ve never found a DAW I didn't need an MIT degree to actually use“.
While simplifying things is good, I think it would be a mistake to aim for another Garageband - or something even more simplistic. And even if the development of such a product would not replace S1, it would certainly have an effect on resources for S1.

GarageBand. It isn't limited (….)

And here is where we obviously start disagreeing

The only thing I disagree with is the inference that you actually read what I wrote. You clearly did not, as I clearly explained what I meant by that statement immediately afterwards:

It is a specific product with a feature set carefully designed to target a specific segment of the production market - people who have little to no knowledge or experience coming to music production for the first time ... with nothing else but a Computer, iPhone or iPad.

It's not limited because its entire goal is to be Logic Elements. It is not designed to be a Studio/Pro DAW. It's an entry-level SKU for the Logic Pro product line... No different than other product likes:

Studio One Prime/Artist
Cubase LE/AI/Elements
Performer Lite
Ableton Live Lite/Intro
Bitwig 8-Track/16-Track
Pro Tools Intro/Artist
Samplitude Music Studio
etc.

are not designed to be Studio/Pro DAWs. Evaluating GB from that standpoint is steeped in willful ignorance.

Aforementioned, not every product tier needs to be a Pro/Studio DAW. In order for the product to survive, it has to be able to bring in and retain new users. This is why most products have entry-level SKUs.

GB is designed specifically for entry-level users, and the idea is that they get a DAW with a wide-ranging feature set [suitable for them] and user experience that allows them to produce any type of music and explore different workflows without overwhelming them - or requiring them to fork over additional costs to acquire basic features like a Notation Display/Editing or Video Support. In that sense, it is not limited. It accomplishes its goals.

If someone wants "Pro," then they can get it with Logic Pro. I'm struggling to see what your point is, and how you expect it to come across as rational to any other human being with an IQ above 55.

Delivering solutions well-tailored to an intended target demo is something that Apple does well with GarageBand, but most other DAW developers fail at re: their entry-level SKUs because they never actually took the time to create an entry-level product that makes sense at that tier of the market.

Cubase Elements doesn't have Comping. Studio One Artist doesn't have Video Support or Notation.

For each of these product lines, you have to upgrade to multi-hundred dollar product SKUs to gain basic functionality just to "explore" an interest - product SKUs that cost more than the actual Logic Pro. That is bad SKU design, IMO. It creates a ton of user friction and it results in users who may have stuck with Studio One going to other products that don't require as much up-front investment at a stage of their "production" where they aren't even sure if it's something that's worth spending money on at all.

And once people spend time using something else, the chances of them "hopping over" is small especially when your solution is 2X the cost of that developer's Pro Tier.

The only other Entry SKU that does this mostly right, IMO, is MOTU's Performer Lite.

[chk071]

Presonus has stopped the sale of all add-ons and plugins in its online store today. These are now only available exclusively with a subscription. This could be an indicator that from Studio One 7 onwards, everything will be subscription-only.

Why? There is absolutely no suggestion of that at all. All they are doing is making Studio One+ a more appealing offering, just as their recent decision to remove upgrade pricing for Studio One Artist makes Studio One Pro more appealing. I am certain their goal is to increase their revenue, not make people think about moving to their competitors' products.

Sure, but, the way it already is now is that you HAVE to subscribe if you want to get the addons (meaning all plugins, sample sets and other content Presonus ever released) for Studio One. That concerns me, as it already is a soft subscription. Of course, I don't know what happens in the future, but, it certainly looks like they want to push people into subscribing, which makes me think that they might consider going total subscription in the future. Otherwise I wouldn't understand why they restrict all addon content to the subscription version of Studio One.

I'm not really someone who tends to quickly jump to conclusions, and bash onto something, but, this doesn't look good... Future development and compatibility is important for me, so, I'm certainly looking for a DAW which sticks to its development, pricing and business model. Not something where they snip with a finger, and, HUZZAH, you have to subscribe.

[Trensharo]

The Add-Ons are still listed in the PreSonus Shop in the Studio One DAW application.

I still uninstalled it because they've clearly stated where they are going, and that's not the destination on my ticket.

There are useful Add-ons like the Batch Converter (really should be a stock function, IMVHO) that some people may want to pick up before they really start requiring a subscription.

Personally... I just deleted my PreSonus account. Ironic that it's April 1, but it's no joke. I did deregister the AudioBox and will probably give/send it to a random Redditor later this month. Thought about giving the license away, but history (personal experience) has taught me that people will try to lowball a transfer fee even when you offer to give them a $400 software license... so I didn't bother.

[FrankT]

I'm struggling to see what your point is, and how you expect it to come across as rational to any other human being with an IQ above 55

A bit triggered? Because of Garageband?
BTW: This is not a Garageband thread. I am sure your extended praise of GB could be useful. In a GB thread.

[Trensharo]

I'm struggling to see what your point is, and how you expect it to come across as rational to any other human being with an IQ above 55

A bit triggered? Because of Garageband?
BTW: This is not a Garageband thread. I am sure your extended praise of GB could be useful. In a GB thread.

1. First you project your ignorance onto this entire forum, and now your dissatisfaction onto me...

2. I didn't bring up GB. Who brought up GB in this thread, again?

3. Nothing I said was extended praise of GB. It was acknowledgement of what GB is, for whom its intended, and by which metrics one should judge whether or not its level of "completeness." And yes, I did juxtapose it against comparable product SKUs from other developers. Get over it.

4. If it's not a GB thread, then don't reference it? Again, I did not bring it up.

Making a well-featured, market-tier-suitable production solution for the entry level does not mean that development of the core Studio One product will suffer. I'm not sure how you arrive at that.

It's a generalized projection of your own personal worse scenario based a hilarious reaction to on an out-of-context quotation in a blog post. That has been discussed and outlined by innumerable people here and elsewhere...

That statement you quoted doesn't make me triggered. It just means I think you're stupid.