Studio One 5 Pro and Notion 6

[Larry Shelby]

Both for $160, or $145 for S1 5, and $30 for Notion 6 on KVR
Good Deal all around
https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=559616

Edited February 5, 2021 by Larry Shelby

[LasWaltz]

Hey Larry, any feeling on whether is it legit?

[Larry Shelby]

5 minutes ago, LasWaltz said:

Hey Larry, any feeling on whether is it legit?

Just look for his name in the Feedback thread.  That's the best indicator.
The "Scammers" are few and far between on KVR, but they are there

[Larry Shelby]

I did the fingerwork for you...and his feedback is positive
https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/search.php?keywords=danreyn&t=74467&sf=msgonly

Edited February 5, 2021 by Larry Shelby

[LasWaltz]

Just now, Larry Shelby said:

I did the fingerwork for you...and his feedback is positive
https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/search.php?keywords=danreyn&t=74467&sf=msgonly

Faster than myself! Thank you so much! I may fall for this one. 

Jumped from Cake to Cubase...and some how always temped to try S1. For that price, may give it a go

[Doug Rintoul]

I wish I had $145 kicking around. I am on Artist right now, and will make the jump to Pro, but am still recovering from late 2020 spending.

[Maestro]

6 hours ago, LasWaltz said:

Faster than myself! Thank you so much! I may fall for this one. 

Jumped from Cake to Cubase...and some how always temped to try S1. For that price, may give it a go

As someone who has both Cubase Pro 11 and Studio One Pro 5.1, I was quite underwhelmed with it given the kind of hype it sees on the internet (though I always take that with a grain of salt).

It was only $169.00 Tax-Free on cross grade from Best Service during the promotional period, so I didn't lose much on it.   On the bright side, it may develop into something I'd use as a daily driver DAW, so securing upgrade pricing at such a huge discount isn't a bad deal considering it's a fairly "reliable" product line in terms of sticking around.

But Cubase updates/upgrades are fairly cheap, so that's not much of a factor.

Dirty Secret... But aside from a few convenience features, I actually prefer producing in Samplitude Pro X over Studio One.  Too bad MAGIX's support is so bad ($250 upgrade fees for longstanding bug and performance fixes, etc.). I had to jump off that ship.

[Bruno de Souza Lino]

On 2/6/2021 at 1:48 AM, Maestro said:

As someone who has both Cubase Pro 11 and Studio One Pro 5.1, I was quite underwhelmed with it given the kind of hype it sees on the internet (though I always take that with a grain of salt).

It was only $169.00 Tax-Free on cross grade from Best Service during the promotional period, so I didn't lose much on it.   On the bright side, it may develop into something I'd use as a daily driver DAW, so securing upgrade pricing at such a huge discount isn't a bad deal considering it's a fairly "reliable" product line in terms of sticking around.

But Cubase updates/upgrades are fairly cheap, so that's not much of a factor.

Dirty Secret... But aside from a few convenience features, I actually prefer producing in Samplitude Pro X over Studio One.  Too bad MAGIX's support is so bad ($250 upgrade fees for longstanding bug and performance fixes, etc.). I had to jump off that ship.

The only change I saw from version 2 was finally them realizing that nobody is gonna pay to have VST plugin support and MP3 encoding as an add on and got rid of the Artist and Producer versions. All the arranger features look nice (I haven't had the chance to use the new versions for anything significative) but the plugins seem to be getting worse. If you are on a bit more modest machine, the new Ampire is unusable. Even the new AT5, slow as it is, performs better.

I was gonna upgrade to version 5 but their online store didn't accept my debit card. Then I took a look at Cubase Elements 11 and that looks like a much more attractive upgrade that would only cost me 50 EUR from the version I am now.

[LasWaltz]

On 2/6/2021 at 5:48 AM, Maestro said:

As someone who has both Cubase Pro 11 and Studio One Pro 5.1, I was quite underwhelmed with it given the kind of hype it sees on the internet (though I always take that with a grain of salt).

For this price, I decided it was now or never. I always thought the same. Steinberg are doing this for 30 years. They can't be stupid or easily beat.

For now, just impressions. I was a hard Cakewalk fan. When it died, before it was reborn (and having paid the lifetime license ), I jumped to Cubase. It does everything that I needed, but often in a "excel-like" way. Always heard from S1 being drag and drop and was curious. 

First impressions. You fell that S1 is kind of fresher. Somehow between Cake and Cubase. I like this as I said, I came from Cake which always give me that "fun" feeling. Everything simply drag and drop? Nope, there is a learning curve, for sure. No matter what any video shows. I would need to try several full tracks to understand.

If and whenever I have the time to learn and compare, may come back to share thoughts.

[abacab]

3 hours ago, LasWaltz said:

I was a hard Cakewalk fan. When it died, before it was reborn (and having paid the lifetime license ), I jumped to Cubase. It does everything that I needed, but often in a "excel-like" way. Always heard from S1 being drag and drop and was curious.

In the same boat as a Cakewalk user for 20 years and a paid Sonar Platinum for lifer, except when it died I jumped to Studio One Pro 3 (they offered a cheap "crossgrade" deal at the time). Also upgraded an ancient v5 copy of Ableton Live to v9 just in case while it was still eligible...the nice folks at Ableton still willing to grandfather my old license!

There is a learning curve to S1, but I am learning it bit by bit. I've kept up with the upgrades to v4 and v5, I like what PreSonus has added in the newer versions, but I always wait for a sale. Thanks Larry!

But since Cakewalk was reborn, it's been hard to leave it behind. When I want to do something quickly, without reaching for a manual, I turn to Cakewalk. Muscle memory I guess, LOL. The bakers have done a remarkable job in cleaning up and improving it!

 

[Bapu]

I too still occasionally need to work in CbB but after 2+ years of working in Studio One I have new muscle memory and I now somewhat clunk around in CbB.

The thing about S1, Reaper and even ProTools for that matter is free form buses. I get that CbB wants to emulate a real console by having buses in a fixed location but that's the thing about software (IMO), it can be  and should be more innovative than hardware.

As well, other DAWs get the whole folder in a folder thing very nicely. Especially when a folder can be a bus or not.

[abacab]

And I will add that if you ever do use notation, that the Notion 6 integration into S1 v5 works well.

You can send your song data either way now, no need to use rewire. And S1 now has the score view built in as an option to the piano roll, similar to Cakewalk's staff view, but based on a cut down version of Notion.

Edited February 7, 2021 by abacab

[Bruno de Souza Lino]

13 minutes ago, abacab said:

You can send your song data either way now, no need to use rewire. And S1 now has the score view built in as an option to the piano roll, similar to Cakewalk's staff view, but based on a cut down version of Notion.

That feature is clearly aimed at the Logic Pro crowd, since their score editor was unbeatable for many years and...for some reason no other Windows DAW cares about score quality.

[Shane_B.]

I rarely turn on my DAW anymore. In fact, I repurposed it for other things. I still record and dabble, but mainly when I'm stuck inside during the winter or a world wide disaster. As soon as spring hits it all gets unplugged and goes back in the basement. So Sphere for me is the way to go. Everything they offer for $14.95 a month is perfect, for me. I doubt I'll ever upgrade again. I'm on S1P3.5 but I find myself mostly using CbB now. It's like visiting an old friend you haven't seen in years. I just checked and I've been using Cakewalk since Pro Audio 4.5. I didn't upgrade every time, and back then I used it in a friends home studio, but I've been using Cake products for a very long time.

One of the big complaints I have with S1 that drives me crazy is you can't hit play and stop while holding down your mouse button making adjustments to a VST. I never did like that but I was recently in an accident and developed essential tremors so it's really hard now. It's a design choice on their part because some 3rd party VST's will allow you to hit play/stop while making adjustments in S1. Melda VST's are ones that come to mind off the top of my head. I really try not to use 3rd party VST's in CbB. I never had any for years and listening back to my old mixes they all sound better back when I was only using Sonitus and the stock VST's, so that's what I try to do now. K.I.S.S..

I worry about Sphere though. You know how these things can turn in to a slippery slope and I could very well see S1 going the way of Adobe Photoshop. Not cool.

[Maestro]

On 2/7/2021 at 11:35 AM, Shane_B. said:

I rarely turn on my DAW anymore. In fact, I repurposed it for other things. I still record and dabble, but mainly when I'm stuck inside during the winter or a world wide disaster. As soon as spring hits it all gets unplugged and goes back in the basement. So Sphere for me is the way to go. Everything they offer for $14.95 a month is perfect, for me. I doubt I'll ever upgrade again. I'm on S1P3.5 but I find myself mostly using CbB now. It's like visiting an old friend you haven't seen in years. I just checked and I've been using Cakewalk since Pro Audio 4.5. I didn't upgrade every time, and back then I used it in a friends home studio, but I've been using Cake products for a very long time.

One of the big complaints I have with S1 that drives me crazy is you can't hit play and stop while holding down your mouse button making adjustments to a VST. I never did like that but I was recently in an accident and developed essential tremors so it's really hard now. It's a design choice on their part because some 3rd party VST's will allow you to hit play/stop while making adjustments in S1. Melda VST's are ones that come to mind off the top of my head. I really try not to use 3rd party VST's in CbB. I never had any for years and listening back to my old mixes they all sound better back when I was only using Sonitus and the stock VST's, so that's what I try to do now. K.I.S.S..

I worry about Sphere though. You know how these things can turn in to a slippery slope and I could very well see S1 going the way of Adobe Photoshop. Not cool.

Sphere makes literally no sense when you can cross grade to Studio One Pro for $169 and then upgrade from $149 every couple of years.... or rent-to-own from Splice.  Notion was on sale for $60 or so, for months, on Amazon, so that is a negligible investment.

Unless you never look out for promotions, or don't know where to find the lowest, tax-free prices for software, Sphere just doesn't look that good.  The only argument for it is if you're going to be constantly turning it off, so that you only pay like $30-45 a year for it...  But at that point, why even bother?  Why not just use Cakewalk and the army of high quality cheaper stuff on the market, and some of the better freebies?

Using Stock VSTs and Instruments [exclusively] made more sense many years ago when the market wasn't completely flooded with them and the costs made it prohibitive to stock up tons of high-quality virtual instruments.  What was "upper echelon" back then is now almost free today, and free plug-ins and synths/instruments are on par with or better than stock stuff from back then.

I also agree that it's a slippery slow.  Many companies are creating subscription packages as a sort of fallback, just in case they stop profiting so much off of the sotware license sales.

[Shane_B.]

31 minutes ago, Maestro said:

Sphere makes literally no sense when you can cross grade to Studio One Pro for $169 and then upgrade from $149 every couple of years.... or rent-to-own from Splice.  Notion was on sale for $60 or so, for months, on Amazon, so that is a negligible investment.

Unless you never look out for promotions, or don't know where to find the lowest, tax-free prices for software, Sphere just doesn't look that good.  The only argument for it is if you're going to be constantly turning it off, so that you only pay like $30-45 a year for it...  But at that point, why even bother?  Why not just use Cakewalk and the army of high quality cheaper stuff on the market, and some of the better freebies?

There is no way CbB will be free forever. Bookmark this post and mark my words. There is no way CbB is going to be free forever.

I skipped Upgrading to Studio One 4 and 5. I'm still on 3. I just signed up for Sphere tonight for a month so in my eyes I just saved $285 plus whatever the cost is of everything else I just got access to. And when I'm done using my DAW in a couple months, I'll cancel and start it up again some time. If I get a wild hair in the meantime, I'll keep using Studio One 3. No matter what I'll still keep using CbB too. I really like it. More than Studio One in a lot of ways.

If you're a professional in an actual working studio then I can see how you would want to buy software, get it stable, and not change a thing. The reality is, that cost gets passed on to others and it really doesn't cost you anything though. But the vast majority of people out there are like me and for us it makes sense. Or buy all the separate goodies outright if you're in the same situation as I am if you want. Or use free stuff. It's all ok. I use a combo of all options.

I've never seen a Studio One upgrade price for less than $149 and if memory serves me they offer an upgrade every year. Sphere is $169 a year iirc? So if you look at it that way, you're paying $20 bucks a year for 70GB cloud storage, free tech support, free chat support by pro users, the Pro version of everything they offer, and an upgrade pathway for other 3rd party plugins like Melodyne. I'm no cclarry, but I do keep my eyes open for deals and I can't ever recall seeing the upgrade price less than $149. If it can be had cheaper at times then that's great!

[abacab]

10 hours ago, Shane_B. said:

There is no way CbB will be free forever. Bookmark this post and mark my words. There is no way CbB is going to be free forever.

Meng, the CEO of BandLab, assured us that CbB would be free for as long as it's around.

However, he did not promise that it would be around forever.

[pbognar]

11 hours ago, Shane_B. said:

I skipped Upgrading to Studio One 4 and 5. I'm still on 3. I just signed up for Sphere tonight for a month so in my eyes I just saved $285 plus whatever the cost is of everything else I just got access to. And when I'm done using my DAW in a couple months, I'll cancel and start it up again some time. If I get a wild hair in the meantime, I'll keep using Studio One 3. No matter what I'll still keep using CbB too. I really like it. More than Studio One in a lot of ways.

Be careful - I read somewhere that Studio One version 4 / 5 projects can not be loaded into version 3x or lower.

[Shane_B.]

42 minutes ago, abacab said:

Meng, the CEO of BandLab, assured us that CbB would be free for as long as it's around.

However, he did not promise that it would be around forever.

It might stay free until it's Cakewalk by *Insert buyers name here*. And please, don't take me wrong, I'm not putting them down, I'm just being realistic. Although Bandlab Technologies has extremely deep pockets so maybe it will stay free. I just know how things can change. I never would have made a statement like that, but I respect him for doing it and believe that's what he intends to happen.

I often wondered why they don't make it sort of like Reaper where you can use it for free or buy a license if you want to support them. Maybe there's some kind of tax shelter thing to where they have to or want to keep it free. CbB is better now than it ever was and for that I'm very grateful. I'm glad it's still around and I hope it is after I'm gone. ?

[InstrEd]

Well they intend to make tighter integration between Bandlab and CbB so  Meng seems to have a long range plan for CbB.  

I do wish they would sell some add-ons  like Rature-Pro and Z3TA2+ again and update them. They were/are good synths.