Fender Studio Pro 8 Released

[BONES]

I stopped using the DAW instead and use the other DAW I own that works great on Linux

To me that is utter madness. You are compromising on your tools for the sake of an OS. It's arse-backwards. You choose your tools and then pick the OS that best supports those choices. Anything else is selling yourself and your work short. The OS isn't important, it's just there to support your applications and it should stay out of the way when you're working.

Supporting Linux users might serve fewer people overall, but it would create a deeper kind of happiness. And that depth matters. When people feel genuinely valued, they don’t just quietly appreciate it — they talk about it.

Spare me f**king days. If you need your software companies to make you feel good, there is something deeply, fundamentally wrong with you. I just need the tools that best suit my workflow and my goals. Everything else is just bullshit.

They recommend it. They defend it.

They're idiots. I'd be far more likely to be on board with a DAW that was only developed for a single platform, for the simple reason it would be much better for that kind of focus, able to take advantage of OS-specific features that may not be compatible in a cross-platform environment. e.g. People hate the layout of some of Synapse Audio's older VSTi because they are constrained by the need to be compatible with Reason's RE format. With a small team, they didn't have the resources to make multiple versions for different platforms, so everyone had to put up with the most restrictive version. They got around that eventually but there was a cost, in that development is much slower now. It's the classic "jack of all trades, master of none" scenario.

[Touch The Universe]

I stopped using the DAW instead and use the other DAW I own that works great on Linux

To me that is utter madness. You are compromising on your tools for the sake of an OS. It's arse-backwards. You choose your tools and then pick the OS that best supports those choices. Anything else is selling yourself and your work short. The OS isn't important, it's just there to support your applications and it should stay out of the way when you're working.

Supporting Linux users might serve fewer people overall, but it would create a deeper kind of happiness. And that depth matters. When people feel genuinely valued, they don’t just quietly appreciate it — they talk about it.

Spare me f**king days. If you need your software companies to make you feel good, there is something deeply, fundamentally wrong with you. I just need the tools that best suit my workflow and my goals. Everything else is just bullshit.

They recommend it. They defend it.

They're idiots. I'd be far more likely to be on board with a DAW that was only developed for a single platform, for the simple reason it would be much better for that kind of focus, able to take advantage of OS-specific features that may not be compatible in a cross-platform environment. e.g. People hate the layout of some of Synapse Audio's older VSTi because they are constrained by the need to be compatible with Reason's RE format. With a small team, they didn't have the resources to make multiple versions for different platforms, so everyone had to put up with the most restrictive version. They got around that eventually but there was a cost, in that development is much slower now. It's the classic "jack of all trades, master of none" scenario.

This is a four-dimensional chess move.

If you don’t see it, that’s fine — most people default to short-term profit thinking. Maximize numbers. Chase volume. Optimize for immediate return.

But there’s a larger picture.

When a company moves from serving the most people to truly reaching people and impacting them in a meaningful way, something changes. This is different. My original point stands: if you can provide access to 10,000 to 20,000 Linux users, that’s a tremendous gift. That’s a tremendous amount of happiness created in a concentrated space.

Creating that kind of happiness is not trivial. It builds goodwill. It builds loyalty. And goodwill at that depth signals something powerful about a company’s priorities.

If they released a Linux version, my immediate reaction would be: they’re thinking beyond pure profit. They care about giving people access to something they believe in. They’re willing to allocate some resources toward that end because it matters.

We’re not talking about an astronomical investment here. If it’s a matter of a dozen developers for a few months, that’s a relatively small allocation of resources compared to the long-term trust it could generate. If it required rewriting everything from scratch, that would be a different story. But assuming it’s feasible, the cost-to-impact ratio is strong.

That kind of move doesn’t just add users. It strengthens positioning. It signals independence or otherwise the produce will stand longer because they aren't outright reaching for maximum profit - it becomes a passion project and those tend to last longer. It's a powerful signal imo. It signals conviction. It signals that the product isn’t driven purely by volume metrics.

And nothing strengthens the long-term success of a strong, useful, DAW more than users who feel genuinely reached from passion - hey, S0 is great, you don't have it, you want it, here ya go, join the club, rather than statistically targeted to you/maximum people unto profit. Strong products paired with genuine loyalty tend to endure.

passion outlasts volume.

[havran]

So stop using an OS that doesn't work for the things you need it to do. I honestly don't see any upside for porting Studio Pro to Linux at all. There can't be any profit in it and it sucks up dev time that could be put to better use to benefit everyone. At least it seems they aren't wasting a lot of resources on it.

For windows users, MS is pushing out a giant update for midi support which includes midi loop back, meaning we can now use modulation plugins to control parameters of other plugins without the need of something like loopbe. So no more waiting for presonus/fender to implement native modulation options. Correct me if i'm wrong.

DAWs don't use MIDI internally in that way. The MIDI change in Windows are all about things external to your DAW - how applications and devices interact.

You're the guy who's responsible for killing Synapse Audio's Orion, aren't you?

Always barking protectively from the foot of his bed against any feature requests that did not suit your needs.

[Touch The Universe]

So stop using an OS that doesn't work for the things you need it to do. I honestly don't see any upside for porting Studio Pro to Linux at all. There can't be any profit in it and it sucks up dev time that could be put to better use to benefit everyone. At least it seems they aren't wasting a lot of resources on it.

For windows users, MS is pushing out a giant update for midi support which includes midi loop back, meaning we can now use modulation plugins to control parameters of other plugins without the need of something like loopbe. So no more waiting for presonus/fender to implement native modulation options. Correct me if i'm wrong.

DAWs don't use MIDI internally in that way. The MIDI change in Windows are all about things external to your DAW - how applications and devices interact.

You're the guy who's responsible for killing Synapse Audio's Orion, aren't you?

Always barking protectively from the foot of his bed against any feature requests that did not suit your needs.

Sadly, that's likely me. My zeal, and passion. I wrote a 50+ wishlist out of my love for it and Richard read it and was like, eh. It had the opposite effect The ideas were all sound I think, which is what made it "deadly". They were obvious improvements, some/most?, but that meant lots of work for the foreseeable future. I'm quite bad relationally with people, my instincts are usually opposite. I pray for the way of wisdom, not just wisdom, but it's implementation. You can make the right arguments, but how you say that, to bare fruit, to not alienate people, are even more important. A lesson bones might care to learn.

[havran]

So stop using an OS that doesn't work for the things you need it to do. I honestly don't see any upside for porting Studio Pro to Linux at all. There can't be any profit in it and it sucks up dev time that could be put to better use to benefit everyone. At least it seems they aren't wasting a lot of resources on it.

For windows users, MS is pushing out a giant update for midi support which includes midi loop back, meaning we can now use modulation plugins to control parameters of other plugins without the need of something like loopbe. So no more waiting for presonus/fender to implement native modulation options. Correct me if i'm wrong.

DAWs don't use MIDI internally in that way. The MIDI change in Windows are all about things external to your DAW - how applications and devices interact.

You're the guy who's responsible for killing Synapse Audio's Orion, aren't you?

Always barking protectively from the foot of his bed against any feature requests that did not suit your needs.

Sadly, that's likely me. My zeal, and passion. I wrote a 50+ wishlist out of my love for it and Richard read it and was like, eh. It had the opposite effect The ideas were all sound I think, which is what made it "deadly". They were obvious improvements, some/most?, but that meant lots of work for the foreseeable future. I'm quite bad relationally with people, my instincts are usually opposite. I pray for the way of wisdom, not just wisdom, but it's implementation. You can make the right arguments, but how you say that, to bare fruit, to not alienate people, are even more important. A lesson bones might care to learn.

Oh now, don't blame yourself. It was always BONES we saw objecting to this and that in the Synapse forums. And give Richard himself some credit for perhaps being capable of reviewing your wishlist and still going his own way.

[EnGee]

So stop using an OS that doesn't work for the things you need it to do. I honestly don't see any upside for porting Studio Pro to Linux at all. There can't be any profit in it and it sucks up dev time that could be put to better use to benefit everyone. At least it seems they aren't wasting a lot of resources on it.

Well, I stopped using Linux for some time because Windows and Mac were better to me (Mac is better for me than Windows in music production actually).
The thing is I feel better to use Linux than other OSes due to political reasons. I know for some people that is pretty silly reason, but for me it is not. So, I will always wait the opportunity that I no longer tied to Microsoft or Apple (especially Microsoft).

In few days, I will be relatively free from using Microsoft products because my part time job will end soon I'm intending to concentrate (and focus) on the few tools that works in Linux natively and on other hobbies (like classic guitar and electric guitar learning and reading in general).

I don't feel there is a big sacrifice if I choose Bitwig over Studio Pro as my main DAW. I will miss some things, but they are not essential in my music making. Anyway, CachyOS is really more responsive than Windows and Mac! So fast and optimised! I'm really in love with it! Those German really know their craft

[Touch The Universe]

I would love to see Studio One for Linux. That might be enough for me to transfer there, so maybe I'm biased. On second thought, I like my silent M1 mac. I will have a less powerful computre for this silence, but can i run a linux on a M1 motherboard so its still silent? Is that legal, possible?

[jamcat]

I would love to see Studio One for Linux. That might be enough for me to transfer there, so maybe I'm biased. On second thought, I like my silent M1 mac. I will have a less powerful computre for this silence, but can i run a linux on a M1 motherboard so its still silent? Is that legal, possible?

Studio Pro is available for Linux (it's beta.) You can run Asahi Linux on an M1 mac.
https://asahilinux.org

[Touch The Universe]

I would love to see Studio One for Linux. That might be enough for me to transfer there, so maybe I'm biased. On second thought, I like my silent M1 mac. I will have a less powerful computre for this silence, but can i run a linux on a M1 motherboard so its still silent? Is that legal, possible?

Studio Pro is available for Linux (it's beta.) You can run Asahi Linux on an M1 mac.
https://asahilinux.org

Screenshot 2026-02-19 at 9.26.25 PM.png

[jamcat]

[liquidsound]

I’ve never seen a DAW without a demo except Fender Studio…

[audiojunkie]

It doesn’t say in the notes or the video, so I can’t be 100% sure, but it looks to me like he took a normal Ubuntu distro and tested the program—it doesn’t look like any tuning was done. In the comments, it mentioned that he got information from AI to try to fix Windows. I gather he’s not too computer savvy. I’d be willing to bet that no tuning was done, and if tuning had been done, Linux would have been at least as good as the others, if not better.

Overall though, it was a very good video. It also shows the similarities between the two Unix-like OSes, vs Windows.

[EnGee]

I tried to install Studio Pro with Ubuntu. I run to the same situation like the guy with M1 laptop! After some tries, I quit Ubuntu and Ubuntu Studio as well. On Mint I needed to install Gnome on Mint 22.3. This way I had a stable installation of SP8. On CachyOS, I didn’t have to do anything! As it runs on KDE/Wayland. That on a PC though.

Not sure which Linux is for Apple silicon cpu, but I would try several distros by booting a demo before installing from a usb drive. I have M5 MacBook but I only have 500 GB drive and there is no practical room for Linux (I have only 100 GB free). Anyway, I would install Linux on an external SSD drive on this case (so in the end it becomes dual boot).

[D-Fusion]

I stopped using the DAW instead and use the other DAW I own that works great on Linux

To me that is utter madness. You are compromising on your tools for the sake of an OS. It's arse-backwards. You choose your tools and then pick the OS that best supports those choices. Anything else is selling yourself and your work short. The OS isn't important, it's just there to support your applications and it should stay out of the way when you're working.

It might not suit your workflow but it works perfect for me so i have no regrets with my decision to move away from Windows and i will only upgrade my Studio One 7 License to a newer one the day when they support 3rd party plugins properly

Until that happens i will continue to use Bitwig which has always been my second Favorite Daw

[Grizzellda]

"Evolve" how? I don't want it to evolve, I want more refinement of what it already is and greater reliability/stability.

I don't want to start an argument or anything but do you realize when you said: "I want more refinement of what it already is and greater reliability/stability." ..that you've actually given a pretty good definition of what evolution does?

Agreed! This is evolution! Perhaps the very essence of it

Maybe BONES is afraid of change?? I feel that which changes or improvements FSP8 may undergo, it will be really cool anyhow.