Perspective on Studio One from Reason users?

[zero-13]

There have been several very recent posts in the general Forum that have activated my limited range, low power mode, noob spidey sense. Many things that I never considered an issue nor presented themselves as one due to ignorance and general lack of experience on my part.

Much of this information has made me think that it may be in my best interest to add learning another DAW in parallel to Reason a good idea, in case heartbreak becomes imminent via potential abandonment of my beloved Reason DAW.

I watched about half of the Presonus one minute Studio One videos this morning, and now that I have a much greater understanding of production versus the limited knowledge I had just a handful of months, even weeks ago.

I have to say I'm kinda blown away at the numerous quality of life features and speed of workflow, just the bit I've witnessed at least.

TL; DR all of the long windedness above:

I wonder if people who use both Reason and Studio One, or who came from Reason originally then picked up Studio One could briefly share their opinion and experiences with the DAW, is Studio One as nice a destination for Reason users as it apears to be on paper?

[QVprod]

It's a nice destination. They compliment each other well as Reason has the better instruments, but Studio One has a better sequencer and a more traditional DAW-like workflow for mixing. Both involve drag and drop as a large part of workflow.

[DaveyG]

I've worked with them all over the years, mostly Cakewalk/Cubase at home and ProTools professionally. Studio One is like a breath of fresh air. Whenever I want to do something it just seems to have that tool or option right where you expect it to be. And it's supported really well with YouTube videos. Right now, S1 plus the Reason Rack plugin are the best fit for how I work and play. Even if I am doing a job for someone who wants Cubase files I'll usually do most of the work in S1 and then just move it into Cubase at the end, mostly as audio stems.

Of course, S1 is not perfect but the good news is they have a completely free cut-down version called Studio One Prime. Just download it from the Presonus website. The bad news is that Prime does not support VSTs and has very limited built-in instruments but the GUI and workflow are identical to the paid versions. They have a crossgrade offer from Reason. One "gotcha" is that their middle level version "Artist" also does not support VSTs unless you buy an expensive add-on so you'll need the full-on Pro version to use Reason with it.

[zero-13]

Thank you for sharing your perspective guys!

I definitely want to use Reason and all my REs, so Studio One pro it will have to be.

I hope Reason Studios continues developing Reason DAW into the future, still, very excited to learn what S1 will be like with Reason running within it.

[MrFigg]

Thank you for sharing your perspective guys!

I definitely want to use Reason and all my REs, so Studio One pro it will have to be.

I hope Reason Studios continues developing Reason DAW into the future, still, very excited to learn what S1 will be like with Reason running within it.

Wait a bit...they often have 33% off sales

[VariableX]

I trialled it (S1) when R11 first came out and I threw my dummy out the pram. Its certainly powerful, but more like an office app than a creative tool.

Bitwig has 33%off
But if i was going to jump DAWs id go to Ableton.
Still i have no plans Reason is my DAW of choice for the forceable...

[DaveyG]

Thank you for sharing your perspective guys!

I definitely want to use Reason and all my REs, so Studio One pro it will have to be.

I hope Reason Studios continues developing Reason DAW into the future, still, very excited to learn what S1 will be like with Reason running within it.

Wait a bit...they often have 33% off sales

Sadly you've just missed the recent sale by a couple of days.
The crossgrade can be had from jrrshop for about £200 if you put "group" as a coupon code at their checkout. And they don't ask for proof of the crossgrade!

[DaveyG]

Just to add. Hold fire for a week or so. There is some sort of announcement next week and rumour has it that it might about Studio One V5.

[danc]

I trialled it (S1) when R11 first came out and I threw my dummy out the pram. Its certainly powerful, but more like an office app than a creative tool.

Bitwig has 33%off
But if i was going to jump DAWs id go to Ableton.
Still i have no plans Reason is my DAW of choice for the forceable...

Everyone has their own opinions on DAWs... and for me Studio One has been my main DAW for about a year since RS released RRP.

S1 is a lot more professional compared to Reason. If a professional tool is perceived by some as looking like an office app rather than creative tool - then so be it. The S1 office app is an amazingly creative music tool.

S1 is super powerful, super rock solid and super easy to navigate around (once you've sussed out the way to edit, move, copy, zoom etc on midi/audio events).

S1 is not perfect, but no software is. And... it is a very personal thing when it comes to DAWs... some people adore Pro Tools - other people hate it - go figure.

I did the Crossgrade from Reason and it cost me something like £120 from JRR when there was an offer going on.

[DaveyG]

some people adore Pro Tools - other people hate it

One of the best things about being semi-retired is that I can choose not to use ProTools any more. I was quite good with it but I never liked it. It's a bit like Photoshop - the industry standard but illogical in oh so many ways. RTFM was a daily thing.

[danc]

some people adore Pro Tools - other people hate it

One of the best things about being semi-retired is that I can choose not to use ProTools any more. I was quite good with it but I never liked it. It's a bit like Photoshop - the industry standard but illogical in oh so many ways. RTFM was a daily thing.

Re Pro Tools becoming the industry standard - it was a lot to do with timing and the package they offered in the early days.

Back in the early days home/office computers were not up to the job of playing loads of audio tracks in real-time... you needed dedicated/specialist hardware attached to the computer to achieve this. Yes - there were other DAWs out there (especially on the Atari ST ... my eyes go dewy)... they were really good at playing loads of MIDI tracks in real-time, but audio tracks were a lot more CPU intensive and they couldn't do it well. Pro Tools was one of the first professional platforms to offer rock-solid audio track playing and editing in real-time. Thus... Pro Tools became the standard.

I attended the European launch of Pro Tools 30+ years ago. Yes - I am getting old. However, not free bus pass moment just yet.

[madmacman]

I switched to S1 in January 2019 and I love it so far. Even without RRP (still on 10.4 here). But I must also name the weakest point of the product: the manual! Compared to the Reason manual (currently 1100 pages?) the sheer number of features in Studio One is by no means adequately reflected in the ~300 pages manual. Thankfully Studio One is quite intuitive for the most part. And if you've ever used a top dog DAW before (Cubase, Logic, etc.) then you have only a slight learning curve.

There's a regular blog column at Presonus, written by Craig Anderton (Friday's trips & tricks), which is pure gold! And from time to time the blog posts are collected as ebooks for a few dollars (250-300 pages, $10-12 or so) which is highly recommended to get the most out of Studio One. To me this has compensated much for the lackluster official manuals.

[VariableX]

I trialled it (S1) when R11 first came out and I threw my dummy out the pram. Its certainly powerful, but more like an office app than a creative tool.

Bitwig has 33%off
But if i was going to jump DAWs id go to Ableton.
Still i have no plans Reason is my DAW of choice for the forceable...

Everyone has their own opinions on DAWs... and for me Studio One has been my main DAW for about a year since RS released RRP.

S1 is a lot more professional compared to Reason. If a professional tool is perceived by some as looking like an office app rather than creative tool - then so be it. The S1 office app is an amazingly creative music tool.

S1 is super powerful, super rock solid and super easy to navigate around (once you've sussed out the way to edit, move, copy, zoom etc on midi/audio events).

S1 is not perfect, but no software is. And... it is a very personal thing when it comes to DAWs... some people adore Pro Tools - other people hate it - go figure.

I did the Crossgrade from Reason and it cost me something like £120 from JRR when there was an offer going on.

Fair enough, its all opinions. At the time i trialed S1 the cross-grade was on a super deal but obvs i passed.
When I open Reason its just such a joy compared to any other DAW ive tried...
Stacking all the racks up, flipping them, wiring cool things in, and ive never really had any major issues with the sequencer. I also love all the Player devices ... man there is just so much cool stuff in Reason compared to S1 and S1 had nothing that made me want to use RRP within it.

I have a licence for a cut down version of Ableton and didn't mind it, but again i missed that 'buzz' of staring at an empty Rack.

God I hope Reason is here in 10 years, maybe I should just buy the Upgrade to 11 to support them further ( I have shed loads of RE )

The only thing i don't like about Reason is their relentless pursuit of the $$s. I think they could have a bit more empathy towards their consumers and have mechanisms for fairer pricing ( eg suite )

Hopefully they are investing in their coders and not the fluffers

[danc]

I switched to S1 in January 2019 and I love it so far. Even without RRP (still on 10.4 here). But I must also name the weakest point of the product: the manual! Compared to the Reason manual (currently 1100 pages?) the sheer number of features in Studio One is by no means adequately reflected in the ~300 pages manual. Thankfully Studio One is quite intuitive for the most part. And if you've ever used a top dog DAW before (Cubase, Logic, etc.) then you have only a slight learning curve.

There's a regular blog column at Presonus, written by Craig Anderton (Friday's trips & tricks), which is pure gold! And from time to time the blog posts are collected as ebooks for a few dollars (250-300 pages, $10-12 or so) which is highly recommended to get the most out of Studio One. To me this has compensated much for the lackluster official manuals.

Totally agree with you on all of your S1 observations:

- the manual sucks.
- I have the eBooks - really good.

My loves...
- freezing lanes.
- macros - build a list of commands and kick them off with one key-click.
- the extensive quantise tools (has to be said it is a little odd at first - because you kind of don't get the right feedback that notes have been quantised).
- the immense amount of features - you want it... it's got it. Whereas... with Reason you have to wait year after year to then be told, 'sorry, not in this new version. Maybe next time'.

Compared to Reason...
- does it have 'fun' factor... um no... but I see S1 as a solid tool... and for me I want robust power over DAW fun. I'll let my plugins and music making give me the fun. The DAW just needs to be solid.

Hear me right. I have a serious LOVE for Reaosn. But it is kept alive through the RRP in S1 (now FREE with Plugin Boutique). Best of both worlds.

[zero-13]

Guys, thank you on the heads up on pricing and all the other valuable info and perspectives!

I probably will hold off a little and see about that announcement DaveyG mentioned is all about.

I adore Reason, just opening the app gives me a smile and creative vibes begin to activate, it so clicks aesthetically with the fact that I'm very visually oriented. Its why Ableton, despite its great reputation, and capability never atracted my interest, with its , visual gausian blur where everything looks like everything else, it just has a visual (or lack thereof) that is difficult to read intutivley with ones eyes, why too monochromatic and homogenous.

So I wanted to mention in greater clarity what really initiated my wandering eye in a serious way, was the thread about mass ticket closures either intentional or in error but it made me think about Reason Studios attitude towards its user base, it's supporters and customer service in general.

The more I read not just that thread but others, regarding minor features additions, unresolved bugs, and many many other things, the main theme that revealed itsel about Propellerhead and now Reason Studios, was an almost passive aggressive type of disregard for open and direct communication with its users aka it's financial supporters.

Good customer service is something that makes me take notice, I purchased some headphones recently from Sweetwater and was blown away by not only the best, most carefully packaged shipment I've EVER received, but also by the direct contact and easy open communication from their sales and support team. Here is a company that wants people's business but also clearly wants to retain said business, it is effort and it is concern, self interest aside, this is an optimal type of dynamic between vendor and consumer.

So as many of you know and I've just been learning, is that Reason Studios practices a slightly less forward facing, less enthusiastic, antithesis level of interactivity with its customers.

So this coupled with the fact that the product learning videos from Propellarhead and Reason Studios while of extremely high quality, are sporadic and often very old, they can be non existent for half a decade.

Without everyone here at RT and a handful of awesome people on YouTube, it would have been very difficult to rapidly learn as much as I have about Reason with only the excellent manual and the excellent but few and not many current learning videos.

So I take a virtual walk over to Presonus to see what they are up to and how they engage with their user base.

Well it's a very different world that I glanced at, tons of current content and interaction seems to be happening, I mean we don't even have an official user forum, I'm sure RS has its reasons for not communicating with us more directly but what do those reasons matter when your users are left with the impression that they should be grateful to be ignored and give that rent money lickety split, oh and do it quietly. This is what I've been reading has been happening to many people here for a very long time and it's a total bummer.

I love Reason but the company and the people that run it don't love me despite my love and financial support, that's the impression that is conveyed at least.

So yeah, I'm a greenhorn, fortunate enough to not be far along enough in producing to feel the jagged sharp cliffs that surround the ziggurat of solitude and ghost canceling its users that Propellarhead now Reason Studios has been for others and seems to continue being.

This is just some of what led to me asking for initial feedback on Studio One, I respect the people that make the products I love, I want to feel at least a modicum of reciprocity respect and gratitude for voting for people's products with my hard earned money. The love of one product should not override that kind of balanced reciprocity, and just flat out lead to accepting neglect, just one noobs opinion.

A few of the things I've witnessed from Studio One that were amazing:

1. Auto FX Send creation and Auto Sub Bus routing. I just recently learned about ways to go beyond eight sends and how to do more advanced routing in Reason, it's capable of more routing possibilities than S1 I think, but what it's not capable of doing , is doing it automatically and instantly.

The S1 video I watched, a VST was drag and dropped in the sends section of a mix channel and boom, FX send channel contains dropped VST is instantly created, looks like an unlimited number of FX sends can be made this way. Then the dude make a bus from all his drums the same way we would in Reason and a sub bus of a few drum elements that autoroutes to the main drum bus recognizing the prior elements parenting and routing itself accordingly.

2. Chord Track: I was just blown away by this!

3. Piano Roll scale lock for drawing in midi notes: For someone who just recently strated learning music theory in earnest and have been manually inputing all my scales and chords to cement said learning. Well, again, mind blowing invaluable feature.

4. Track freezing: Holy hell, for some goofy reason I naively thought that Reason's bounce in place was exactly equivalent to track freezing. At this point I'm thinking, what is so hard about this stuff that I can't have this in Reason. Code it the hell up nerd! JK, I being a nerd myself, fire off the word with reckless abandon.

4. Folders and channel groups: The person collapsed a folder in the sequencer and like a glorious magic potato of deliciousness, the mix channels collapsed also, I'm telling you those mix channels also collapsed!

5. The Browser: Once again I had no idea what I was missing, shocked.

6. Auto color grouping of midi notes by note lane in the piano roll: Instant, easy to read at a glance visual feedback and seperation.

7. Automation: I think the automation in Reason is one of its best features so I was worried that the automation in S1 would not be up to par, I'd say from the outside it looks great, would have to defer to others and see what they say but most parameters looked to be automatable.

8. Official Learning Content: Looks to be lovely and top notch! I love the Reason folks we have but it seems they get little top down support to do what they do best, maybe I'm totally wrong on this though?

These are just a few of the things I've scoped out that made me lament that Reason the DAW has not been more aggressively developed over the years. I just do not understand the internal thinking that leads to this kind of slowness and stagnation. Is it just flat out negativity, arrogance, narcisim, what else can one do other than speculate on such a perplexing outward facing attitude?

No effing way you read all that?!
<3

[danc]

A few of the things I've witnessed from Studio One that were amazing:

1. Auto FX Send creation and Auto Sub Bus routing. I just recently learned about ways to go beyond eight sends and how to do more advanced routing in Reason, it's capable of more routing possibilities than S1 I think, but what it's not capable of doing , is doing it automatically and instantly.

The S1 video I watched, a VST was drag and dropped in the sends section of a mix channel and boom, FX send channel contains dropped VST is instantly created, looks like an unlimited number of FX sends can be made this way. Then the dude make a bus from all his drums the same way we would in Reason and a sub bus of a few drum elements that autoroutes to the main drum bus recognizing the prior elements parenting and routing itself accordingly.

Yes - S1 is very good at automatically just dealing with the stuff you don't really want to (or should have to). Whereas in Reaon you have this concept of cables that you have to drag around everywhere, which is 'fun' but seriously a waste of time. I know you can right click and pick the destination, but when you have a large project you still have to think twice about where it's going.

2. Chord Track: I was just blown away by this!

Chords - absolutely brilliant feature.

3. Piano Roll scale lock for drawing in midi notes: For someone who just recently strated learning music theory in earnest and have been manually inputing all my scales and chords to cement said learning. Well, again, mind blowing invaluable feature.

Again - agree.

4. Track freezing: Holy hell, for some goofy reason I naively thought that Reason's bounce in place was exactly equivalent to track freezing. At this point I'm thinking, what is so hard about this stuff that I can't have this in Reason. Code it the hell up nerd! JK, I being a nerd myself, fire off the word with reckless abandon.

Makes a MASSIVE difference when the CPU is getting choked.

5. The Browser: Once again I had no idea what I was missing, shocked.

Agree.

6. Auto color grouping of midi notes by note lane in the piano roll: Instant, easy to read at a glance visual feedback and seperation.

Agree.

7. Automation: I think the automation in Reason is one of its best features so I was worried that the automation in S1 would not be up to par, I'd say from the outside it looks great, would have to defer to others and see what they say but most parameters looked to be automatable.

I miss Reason's automation - because.. it is contained in an event panel that you can drag around, cut up etc., really simple and easy to manage. However.. I have stuck with S1's automation and am happy to live with it. You have a transform tool to warp it. You can create stand-alone Automation tracks (so that they work independent of the MIDI or audio track) which become really useful when quickly blocking out arrangements.

8. Official Learning Content: Looks to be lovely and top notch! I love the Reason folks we have but it seems they get little top down support to do what they do best, maybe I'm totally wrong on this though?

There are more tutorials and quality ones for S1 than Reason. And... they treat you like you are making real music... not just a little ditty for fun, which some of the Reason tutorials act like.

These are just a few of the things I've scoped out that made me lament that Reason the DAW has not been more aggressively developed over the years. I just do not understand the internal thinking that leads to this kind of slowness and stagnation. Is it just flat out negativity, arrogance, narcisim, what else can onendomotherbthan speculate such a perplexing outward facing attitude?

No effing way you read all that?!
<3

I think it is probably a simple money issue... Reason is a niche DAW compared to the other high hitters. I do love Reason, but say you make music in Reason to any pro musician and they often look at you like you are mad. A lot of people still think that it's a TB303 rip-off with a few extras like Subtractor and NN-XT. Yes - they have Reason really confused and treat it like a toy. Not that I care, because I know it's much more than that.

And yes - I read it all. And I'm pleased I did, because you are properly assessing a DAW before jumping. I haven't regretted jumping across... with so many options there are times when you pause starring at a 100 options in a drop-down, but you soon learn where to look.

BTW - learn how to zoom vertically and horizontally using short-cut keys in S1... it massively speeds up music creation.

[DaveyG]

I attended the European launch of Pro Tools 30+ years ago. Yes - I am getting old. However, not free bus pass moment just yet.

I was very active in the business when it launched. It caused a real buzz and I remember confidently predicting that the ProTools method of working would not be a success! I mean, who the heck wants to record music on a computer????

(A few years earlier I had my first encounter with something called an an Apple Macintosh and confidently predicted that mice would never catch on...ha ha)

[danc]

I attended the European launch of Pro Tools 30+ years ago. Yes - I am getting old. However, not free bus pass moment just yet.

I was very active in the business when it launched. It caused a real buzz and I remember confidently predicting that the ProTools method of working would not be a success! I mean, who the heck wants to record music on a computer????

(A few years earlier I had my first encounter with something called an an Apple Macintosh and confidently predicted that mice would never catch on...ha ha)

Turn your bad predictions into positives...

I think you should start quoting when it's going to be the end of the world... at least then we can all relax and know it won't happen at that time!

[VariableX]

@zero-13 - yes i read it all - good read.

@dunc - its great you are happy with your S1 Reason combo, having a music environment that works for you is the most important thing i think. I happen to have it with Reason standalone for my needs.

@anyone looking in. You do not need to touch the wires. Reason is drag and drop. Instruments, effects, players etc will just work stack-em-up baby!
You can drag and drop your sends which will automatically be available in the mixer for said instruments it can be really simple and only complex if you want it to be, even side-chaining is super easy.
There are tons of you tube vids on Reason and loads are new. Reason is a professional app, just as professional as any other DAW and is used by many successful artists it just dosnt look like MS Access when you open it haha...

Also in my opinion, if you want a new DAW get Ableton.
Every man and his dog seems to use Ableton these days so if you 'care' what the majority of pro musicians think it would be your best bet! S1 and Bitwig are probably as niche as Reason.

[zero-13]

Thank you guys for your valuable perspectives and guidance!

I just watched the teaser trailer for Studio One 5, The announcement will be July 7th, I’m definitely going to pull the trigger on the pro version!

So excited to see what Reason Rack within a new DAW will be like, super excited for the eventual production speed boost once I get my S1 bearings!

[DaveyG]

Another video up now, confirming it's Studio One V5:

Based on the previous releases they will announce it next week but it will not be available for another few months.