Studio One 6

Found this upgrade price which might be reasonable:

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I recently got artist 6 & Iā€™m trying to move myself on from (very) long time Cubase. So far itā€™s great.

One difference that Iā€™m not keen on is that the track volume is basically the mixer volume instead of scaled midi volume. Is there any way to change this to Midi track volume?

Also muting it stops the midi input passing through to the instrument even with monitor switched on.

This seems a strange design choice, I donā€™t see what the benefit is. If controlling a Multi-timbal plugin like sampletank then the track volume is shared across all tracks that use sampletank regardless of which midi channel they target.

ā€¦well, letā€™s not forgetā€¦only logic and cubase are those classic daws, that were already studio sequencer when there was midi onlyā€¦

when they both included audio treatment for the first time, all recent fresh takes on daws like ableton, bitwig, studio one were still at least a decade away in the futureā€¦

and until today, there are no other daws that can call their midi implentations that deep core zero as cubase and logicā€¦

the fact that track volume represents actual mixer volume is a common thing on all later dawsā€¦
once u get used to it, uā€™ll find it an advantageā€¦

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Iā€™m still not getting what the advantage of not having an individual track level is? The tracks are still Midi tracks pointing at a virtual rack instrument. I can only see that itā€™s taken something away. It makes using a multi-timbral instrument a nightmare.

I also use Bitwig, Bitwig & Ableton are very different, they basically use tracks as a chain of inserts like a Modular, but Studio One is still virtual rack based, the Mixer channel is separate from the track, you point the midi track at the instrument which is an audio channel where the instrument is loaded. You can point the track at a different instrument, & the instrument still exists on its mixer channel.

A forum without a kind hearted curmudgeon like you is like an ocean without sea urchinsā€¦or salt for that matter.

I started out with really optimistic feelings about S1 & Presonus, today I discovered that the forum link is well & truly hidden in the site, itā€™s only on the main site & not the user area. Instead there is a newer community section which is linked in, but you can only post to it if you are sphere subscriber at $14.99 - monthā€¦ wow that is cold & hard.

The forum link thing is annoying because you go to the forum & even though you are signed in on my.Presonus it seems to want you to validate via logging in again & so send you to the my.Presonus page where there is no link back.

maybe itā€™s all an accident & Iā€™m being too cynical

Reminds me this:

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Nice! I use it on Windows but focus now on Logic X as my DAW.

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What exactly are you trying to achieve? Iā€™m not familiar with Cubase, but maybe I can help you get going what you want to get going in Studio One.

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Well usually you have a volume level for the midi track & a volume for the Audio track the plug-in is on. So when you are using a multi-Timbral instrument like Kontakt or Sampletank, you can set the level of the individual track from the DAW rather than within the app itself. In S1 the track level is just the audio mixer level, so for example if you had 2 tracks pointing at sampletank, the track slider will change all tracks pointing at sampletank.

Iā€™ve come to the conclusion that the way to work around it with virtual instruments is to use multi-outputs if the instrument supports it. But I also use MIDI hardware & MIDI tracks donā€™t even have a volume slider at all which is bizarre, generally you get CC10 & 7 for volume & pan. Thatā€™s really inconvenient for multi-timbral. Itā€™s not so easy to assign individual audio channels for MT hardware.

I am really liking it though, no DAW is perfect & Cubase has been frustrating for me for years since SX1. I like that S1 is similar & uses the same shortcuts. The pattern side of it is really good, I love working with step sequencers & itā€™s really well integrated. It just needs conditionals. Iā€™m spending an hour a day exploring different aspects & the lack of clutter, the grouping of VSTs is really good & pretty elegant.

I guess for the midi volume Iā€™ll have to use an automation lane, so itā€™s workable, but it is painful :slight_smile:

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They seem to be pushing Sphere hard these days, and harder to get a simple upgrade non sphere. I have held off upgrading as I am just not using it enough to justify it right now. Just not interested in monthly subscriptions as I use the software too irregularly.

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Yeah, Iā€™m not sure how imposing a new class system for ā€˜community supportā€™ is a selling point. It definitely makes you feel under appreciated as a user. Having said that though, artist is a full on DAW & thereā€™s only a couple of things that make me want Pro. I did get Artist 4 a few years ago & I donā€™t think it allowed 3rd party VSTs. I felt like Iā€™d wasted my money at the time.

I can see how these subscriptions are a life saver for a steady income for the companies, but I think thereā€™s not much of a home/hobby market for them. Thereā€™s so many now fighting for that pot at a time when the cost of living is through the roof (here in the UK at least). I think if it was tiered based on earnings like a Reaper license it might be more attractive, but thereā€™s no way support channels should be locked behind a paywall imo, thatā€™s insulting the people whoā€™ve already given money. It feels like when Elektron were going to charge for Overbridge.

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Yeah, thatā€™s the S1 way for multi-timbral instruments. Alternatively you could load one instance per track, but thatā€™s not the most resource efficient approach.

Not sure how this would work out for the midi hardware you have in mind or if this adds anything to your use case, but if you click on ā€œshow automationā€ above the track view, then go to your midi track of choice, click on ā€œDisplay: Offā€ and click ā€œAdd / Removeā€, in the right column of the pop-up menu you should see a folder named ā€œMIDIā€ where you can select ā€œvolumeā€ as an automation laneā€¦that would be midi volume and decoupled from the track volume (in your mixer), BUT if you move that, it will still affect the VSTā€™s volume as a wholeā€¦alrernatively maybe work with clip gains?

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Ahhhh thanks for that, itā€™s a shame it hides the part but does provide a slider! I think I prefer adding volume & expand so you get the volume slider & the part. Iā€™ve just tested with the TI & it does affect the channels appropriately so it doesnā€™t quite make up for not having a default slider but itā€™s a great solution to the problem, thanks for the pointer!

It seems quite brave with the hardware resurgence of the last 10-15 years to just not support midi volume. Itā€™s like being obstinate for the sake of it, Iā€™m surprised people havenā€™t complained endlessly. Even Bitwig deals with hardware really elegantly and has a ping & auto set latency tool. But I only have artist I know thereā€™s some more external instrument options in Pro, so maybe that offers some more solutions.

I havenā€™t come across clip gains yet Iā€™ll look into that next!

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