Is Studio One the best alternative to Protools?

[Trancit]

Perhaps than you should explore pattern workflow as patterns are looping like i.e. in Reaper and can be used for a lot of stuff as since the last update you can now paint in different note length...

[gentleclockdivider]

I have always quite liked Reaper, but yes the simple test of getting a midi track up, loading a VSTI, creating a send track, loading up a send FX VST and doing some basic automation was just a nightmare!

Really? I have found Reaper easier than most DAWs for the things you mention. Once you know where to load a VSTi, where to change routing, the rest works much easier because there's literally nothing you can't do.

In S1, Ableton, Logic, and Bitwig, the manner in which you are expected to do routing is not at all intuitive either. Once you know where it is, you hit roadblocks and are left wondering what you are allowed to route where, and every DAW (except for Reaper) has different rules that are entirely unintuitive. Ableton won't let a track output MIDI and Audio at the same time to destinations, leaving you do have to do multi-track hacks. Bitwig is weird in that you are expected to so a lot of routing using note and audio receiver plugins.

But in Reaper, everything just works. You can have multiple sends, multiple receives, audio, MIDI, etc. It all works, and it's all explicit. No guesswork. Further, any track can be an audio or MIDI or bus track or all of the above at the same time, because there's only one kind of track. I have other gripes about Reaper, but VSTs, routing, and automation are not among them.

In S1, I find automation infuriating. Not only is it entirely unintuitive as to HOW you gain access to a specific parameter, CC, etc. (change the track to Automation view, click a blank unlabeled box, scroll through a big list, add a parameter to the other side — seriously?), once you do, the curve editing is horrendously bad. Curves are not bezier, but are a single slope parameter than scales from square to round to square, or you get an S curve that works the same way. Setting the slope on a tempo curve is stupidly difficult because you have to zoom really close into the curve to do any kind of editing, or it just jumps around wildly. But you can't zoom the tempo curve unless you manually change the min / max tempo values (which is completely unintuitive - why is that even a thing???) to a reasonable range, or else you temp curve is more of a flat line at the bottom of the lane. And try selecting a part of an automation curve and copying it. Cmd-C doesn't work. You have to right-click to copy. And then pasting is erratic. You have to click a few times just right, and then you can paste (and here Cmd-V DOES work).

And in S1, there is NO event list. You can't, for example, edit program change events without clicking and dragging automation lines. Ridiculous.

Reaper isn't great with tempo either because it doesn't even support curves. Just straight lines. But aside from that, automation editing in Reaper just works.

Logic Pro has the best tempo curve editing, but they broke copy-and-paste of the curves somewhere around version 10.1, and it still isn't fixed. Now option-drag is the only sure-fire way to copy a curve.

Try holding ctrl ( or was it alt ) when adjusting the curves , it doesn' t just go from square to saw .
For autoamating instruments I just create a new midi track and record the automation on that midi track directly , the clip then serves as a helpfull automation container

[antic604]

Oh, and there's no clip looping in S1. You have to clone clips one by one. It is nice, however, that those clones are linked, and do not have to be consecutive.

This is a real head scratcher for me. S1 is on v4.5 and you still can't click and drag out loops.

It's just a different name in S1 ("duplicate shared") but functionally is the same as looping clips, but has an added benefit of not having to be a continuous range.

https://youtu.be/_4klgY7JP8Q

[Steve Bolivar]

Oh, and there's no clip looping in S1. You have to clone clips one by one. It is nice, however, that those clones are linked, and do not have to be consecutive.

This is a real head scratcher for me. S1 is on v4.5 and you still can't click and drag out loops.

It's just a different name in S1 ("duplicate shared") but functionally is the same as looping clips, but has an added benefit of not having to be a continuous range.

I know S1 has the duplicate shared function but to use it you need to repeatedly tap shift D to loop the event/clip. Some other DAWs allow you to just click the edge of the clip and drag it right/left to loop it. All of the subsequent loops follow any edits done to the original.
Maybe I just wrongly assumed ever since Sonic Foundry Acid and "acid style looping" that the click and drag method was the official way to implement looping.

[antic604]

I know S1 has the duplicate shared function but to use it you need to repeatedly tap shift D to loop the event/clip. Some other DAWs allow you to just click the edge of the clip and drag it right/left to loop it. All of the subsequent loops follow any edits done to the original.Maybe I just wrongly assumed ever since Sonic Foundry Acid and "acid style looping" that the click and drag method was the official way to implement looping.

I understand. But I don't really see how tapping Shift+D several times is a problem? Especially since clip looping terrible limitation, i.e. you can't break the loop, insert silence or other clips in the middle and then have it continue looping. You can do this (and more) with shared events.

[burnt circuit]

I'm after a new mixing DAW. I've been reading studio one has good workflow. Also is it stable? as this is the reason I'm leaving PTs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asGtR71lQUo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJme1qag-CU

[teilo]

Curves are not bezier, but are a single slope parameter than scales from square to round to square, or you get an S curve that works the same way.

Try holding ctrl ( or was it alt ) when adjusting the curves , it doesn't just go from square to saw .
For autoamating instruments I just create a new midi track and record the automation on that midi track directly , the clip then serves as a helpfull automation container

Where did I say anything about square-to-saw? I said "from square to round to square". But not a bezier. There's a huge difference. A bezier curve has two degrees of freedom, allowing you to set both the amount and position of the slope or rise. This is wonderful for using a single point to set a smoothly decaying or increasing tempo in a very precise manner. Logic Pro X does this. S1's curves are limited to a single degree of freedom. To get the same amount of precision in S1 requires multiple points.

Most people here probably do not much tempo automation. It's almost unheard of in electronic music where the ability to beat-match is everything. But I'm not using this for your typical electronic music. I'm using it for organ music designed for public performance with singers, where the tempo has a smooth ebb and flow, and small changes make a big difference in one's perception.