Fender Studio Pro 8 Released

[tumface]

Coolio. If you do go for it - let us know what happens on that OS.

VP

I got a chance to give it a try. The app bundle is indeed marked as incompatible with macOS 12, requiring 13. (There is no installer, so this is something you find out the first time you try to run it, if you don't hunt down the system requirements on the website.)

I don't really know why they've set it to require macOS 13. Not much OS feature stuff changed between 12 and 13, many of the changes were internal to the OS and things Apple did for themselves, like changing the system preferences/settings. And any new features can always be tapped into dynamically as-needed when available on a newer OS. I suspect Fender just wants to limit surface area for their support team? Oh well. I don't plan to upgrade this machine to 13 or beyond, since they run worse on the original M1 Pro hardware than 11 and 12 do, so that's it for Studio Pro for me on Mac. (And I don't plan to buy a new Mac unless Apple can fix whatever problem is causing them to make the OS worse with each new release.)

I'll probably give it a try on my newer Windows+Linux system later.

[dastewart]

- don't have to use Craig Andertons fix to get recorded track separated from mix and a listen bus and checkbox to send all soloed there, easy to dim mix further to good distant level

Hang on, care to expand on this? I'm on v6 and often use the "solo through listen bus" to hear an individual channel just on its own without any send effects, or to hear an fx channel soloed without the stuff that's been routed to it.

I find it a bit hit and miss tbh, sometimes it works perfectly, other times I can still hear other channels too.

Has this improved since v6 because, finally, there may be something useful to me in one of the updates?!

[Trancit]

You can link couple of parameters on macro knob and then automate that macro knob, if i understand correctly, what you want.

Macro knobs are another weak spot of the Fender Studio Pro.

You can’t automate them at all! You can record automation linked to them, but it will capture the linked parameters as separate automations instead of the macro knob itself.

Yeah, this was one of the biggest nonsense they ever spit out... I mean they had the better examples with Reason and Ableton directly in front of their nose and nonetheless the made such a mess out of an actually simple task!

[BONES]

They probably didn't see it as something most of their users would be interested in - I'm certainly not - so they half-arsed it, thinking no-one would notice. They probably saw it as nothing more than another tick in a box on a feature list. That's kind of the situation I felt I was in with Bitwig - it wasn't being developed for people who work the way I do, so it was never going to get any better for me, except maybe by accident. OTOH, Studio Pro feels much more like something that's made with people like me in mind. It feels a lot more studio oriented (the clue is in the name), as opposed to bedroom or DJ booth oriented.

[SLiC]

I think of Bitwig/Live as 'Dawstruments' - complex modular grooveboxes/loopers with a song/arranger mode...fast and fun but with lots of rack/modular fun. Studio One/Cubase/Reaper (and Reason in many ways) more like the old school linear DAW that ape a real studio/tape paradigm. The problem always seems to come with old school DAWS try to add all the fun and fancy features from the more creative DAWS...just adds clutter (why I left Cubase for S1) and never really seems to fit in with the workflow- I much prefer being a 2 DAW guy, one of each type...

[lfm]

- don't have to use Craig Andertons fix to get recorded track separated from mix and a listen bus and checkbox to send all soloed there, easy to dim mix further to good distant level

Hang on, care to expand on this? I'm on v6 and often use the "solo through listen bus" to hear an individual channel just on its own without any send effects, or to hear an fx channel soloed without the stuff that's been routed to it.

I find it a bit hit and miss tbh, sometimes it works perfectly, other times I can still hear other channels too.

Has this improved since v6 because, finally, there may be something useful to me in one of the updates?!

I will use it like a record feature, so I can take main fader down as I need and dim rest of mix, to have a couple of tracks I want to hear more clearly better while recording.

Cubase has this dim feature in Control Room.

Sonar has Dim On Solo feature, so a track does not solo completely but dim rest of mix certain dB not soloed.
- it's checkbox in settings to change from ordinary solo and dim on solo

The way I read your use, you can just take main faders down momentarily as you solo to listen bus naked
- I came from v4, so not sure if already everything there in v6
- so if listen bus goes directly to hardware out, not through Main mix channel, it might be there

You can probably use a cue mix just as well, and take Main fader down.
- not sure if your requirement excluding plugins though i fulfilled

It was just new to me, from v4, your v6 might be the same as v8 regarding this.

I saw Control Room mentioned in help shortly, have not checked if they have something like Cubase Control Room possibly also.

Refreshing using Studio Pro since not used for 7 years....

[dastewart]

ok, thanks - not quite the same thing. I use the cue mixes to do what you're suggesting but I use "solo through listen bus" to just listen to one channel in isolation. So, if I'm eq'ing a reverb fx channel, or a parallel compression channel, I'll often solo it so I can just hear the channel without whatever is routing to it.

I'd say half the time it works perfectly but half the time I either get some other channel bleeding through or some other channels have been soloed too and I need to click them off. That may be user error but I was just wondering if this had changed for v8

[BONES]

Ignore me, it was user error.

[Vocalpoint Studios]

I don't really know why they've set it to require macOS 13.

It is becuase Mac OS12 is retired.

If Fender Support did find an issue using Studio Pro 8 on OS12 and needed Apple's help to solve it - Apple would simply tell them that OS is retired (and unsupported) - leaving Fender (and potential users) in a jam.

This is standard process for many vendors. Fender is choosing (very rightly) to only allow installation support those OS flavours that are not retired (and still supported) by Apple.

But I would venture a strong guess that a much more critical reason that MacOS 12 was already retired during the development phase of Studio Pro 8 and therefore this new version would have never been tested on this OS either.

Fender would start their Q&A testing for Studio Pro 8 at the oldest (still supported) OS (Ventura) and work their way up.

VP

[tumface]

It is becuase Mac OS12 is retired.

If Fender Support did find an issue using Studio Pro 8 on OS12 and needed Apple's help to solve it - Apple would simply them them that OS is retired and unsupported - leaving Fender in a jam.

This is standard process for many vendors. Fender is choosing (very rightly) to only support those OS flavours that are not retired (and still supported) by Apple.

VP

Windows 10 is also "retired." And Linux has no supporting company at all. By that logic, it's in Fender's best interest to have discontinued to support for both of those OSs already.

Like I said earlier, plenty of other DAWs continue to ship with compatibility for macOS 12, and usually even earlier OSs. The only DAWs I could find that don't support older OSs are Logic (not surprising, since it's tied to the App Store) Cubase, and Studio Pro.

I'm not saying Fender has to. They can do whatever they want. I was shrugging and wondering what their reason was, since I don't think there's a good one. But it's their decision.

If Fender Support did find an issue using Studio Pro 8 on OS12 and needed Apple's help to solve it - Apple would simply them them that OS is retired and unsupported - leaving Fender in a jam.

Apple does not provide support or consultation for bugs and features for anything to third-party developers, except in strange special cases, and usually only for upcoming releases of the very newest OS. I know this from experience.

Fender is choosing (very rightly)

This is your opinion, not a fact. Other companies are able to support customers on a larger number of operating systems. Fender can do whatever they want. You don't need to rationalize their behavior to me.

Edit: I forgot to point out that Apple has no concept of an OS being retired. They have OSs that haven't received patches in a while. They sometimes still release updates for them years later, if they feel like it, when there's some big security flaw. Sometimes they don't. They don't reveal their plans. I seriously doubt they will update macOS 12 ever again, and they probably won't provide much phone support for it before they ask you to upgrade, but they don't say it's "retired."

[Vocalpoint Studios]

Windows 10 is also "retired." And Linux has no supporting company at all. By that logic, it's in Fender's best interest to have discontinued to support for both of those OSs already.

Windows 10 is fully supported until Dec 31, 2026 if you are enrolled in the ESU (Extended Security Updates) Program. Tens of thousands of users remain on this OS - including me. It is 100% good to go for Studio Pro 8.

The Linux version of Studio Pro is NEVER supported (even by Fender themselves). It is labelled as "permanent beta" and intended as a test bed for third party devs. Any consumer usage whatsoever is left to the user to manage.

Apple does not provide support for anything to third-party developers, except in strange special cases, and usually only for upcoming releases of the very newest OS. I know this from experience.

As do I. Aware of many cases of third party devs reaching out to Apple. And yes - usually for strange special cases.

The bottom line - regardless of whether you get Apples ear or not - is only supporting those operating systems that remain supported by them.

You are guaranteed to get nothing by trying to use Mac OS12 for anything right now

VP

[tumface]

I didn't ask for any guarantees. I didn't ask for anything. I was pointing out it didn't work, and griping that they probably didn't have a good technical reason. I don't need to be told that I'm holding the computer wrong.

[Vocalpoint Studios]

I was pointing out it didn't work, and griping that they probably didn't have a good technical reason. I don't need to be told that I'm holding the computer wrong.

I offered the actual "good" technical reasons and you do not like them. Not sure what else to tell you.

Take your gripes to Apple - they put you where you are right now.

VP

[tumface]

Windows 10 is fully supported until Dec 31, 2026 if you are enrolled in the ESU (Extended Security Updates) Program. Tens of thousands of users remain on this OS - including me. It is 100% good to go for Studio Pro 8.

Not if you don't have the ESU stuff. But, presumably, Fender Studio Pro 8 will install on those versions. Also, Studio Pro 8 supports Windows 11 22H2 consumer, which is years old and no longer supported by Microsoft for consumers.

The Linux version of Studio Pro is NEVER supported (even by Fender themselves).

I know. I was talking about Linux being supported by a company to Fender, not the Linux version of Studio Pro being supported by Fender. I was pointing it out because you said that Fender would be wanting support from Apple to release on their OS. And there is no such entity at all for Linux.

I offered the actual "good" technical reasons and you do not like them. Not sure what else to tell you.

They were speculative (unless you know people who work on it, in which case you're right and I'm wrong) social reasons, not technical. I even said in my post that the reason I could think of was to limit customer support surface area.

Take your gripes to Apple - they put you where you are right now.

Oh, trust me, I have.

Edit: Actually it's technically possible that they strictly only support Ubuntu 24 LTS and not just compatible glibc etc., in which case they would have a company they could talk to. But not Linux as a whole.

Anyway this is getting off topic and I think most people aren't interested in the OS compatibility thing any further, probably. Sorry for being annoying.

[Vocalpoint Studios]

Anyway this is getting off topic and I think most people aren't interested in the OS compatibility thing any further, probably. Sorry for being annoying.

No problem at all.

VP