Is there something to take away from the recent closure of the Studio One forum?

[Sombreuil]

I guess someone had to ask. Also, the goal isn't to complain, but rather to understand why it happened.

On one hand I understand that Presonus "had" to close the forum, since it was dying to say the least. On the other hand, it's legitimate to ask why this was the case.
Some DAWs have very active forums with people from the team answering questions (Cubase, FL Studio, etc), so my question is, why was the Presonus team so distant on their own forum?

The only theory I can come up with is that Studio One came out when forums started to fade away and its users never got into the habit of going there, but still, I'm not sure it can explain everything.

 

[TheMaartian]

PreSonus staff NEVER participated in the old forum. The only way to MAYBE get info from them was to open a support ticket. Lame. The Reaper devs show up on their forum. Band-in-a-Box devs show up on theirs. Gig Performer devs are active on their forum on a daily basis! Bitwig uses Discord, so it's hard for me to tell because of the "noise".

I think the closure is just the latest move to try to get you to subscribe to SO+. No thanks.

 

[Crossinger]

PreSonus staff NEVER participated in the old forum.

At least I‘d like to point out that some of the QA people chimed in every now and then.

 

[chakko]

I guess someone had to ask. Also, the goal isn't to complain, but rather to understand why it happened.

Pretty easy: Companies benefit much more from communication on the social media channels (Facebook specifically), and, a forum requires moderation, and can quickly become a problem, when there are people causing a shit storm (which happens quite frequently on internet forums).

You may not understand or like the decision, but, I surely get why companies like Presonus rather not have a forum.

I don't see the issue anymore anyway. People can use this forum. No hard feelings. I really wouldn't make much of a fuss about it. It's counterproductive, and leads nowhere.

 

[Sombreuil]

Pretty easy: Companies benefit much more from communication on the social media channels (Facebook specifically), and, a forum requires moderation, and can quickly become a problem, when there are people causing a shit storm (which happens quite frequently on internet forums).

You may not understand or like the decision, but, I surely get why companies like Presonus rather not have a forum.

I don't see the issue anymore anyway. People can use this forum. No hard feelings. I really wouldn't make much of a fuss about it. It's counterproductive, and leads nowhere.

I get that and agree with you overall. The part that I don't get is that Presonus seems to be the only company with no forum and/or Discord.
Usually it's at least one of the two.

That being said, I do think that this forum is the best thing that could happen, even if the official forum was still online.

 

[Crossinger]

The part that I don't get is that Presonus seems to be the only company with no forum and/or Discord.

Propellerheads/Reason Studios closed their Forum years ago. The current home at reasontalk.com is private initiative. But with a benefit: staff members of Reason Studios step in and discuss with their user base.

 

[SwitchBack]

Early days that was also the case with the PreSonus forums. I've always contributed it to company growing pains that PreSonus gradually took a step back: More products out means more customer service demand means less time and energy for zero pay interaction with customers about work. In the end it takes a company decision as to where the resources go. And hiring more staff can be a risky path too.

 

[Vocalpoint]

Consolidation and belt tightening from corporate is my takeaway.

Not buying the idea that Presonus either liked or disliked having a forum. Nor am I buying the social media angle either. As many have already mentioned - that forum seemed to be a temperamental step child that ran parallel to the company and in their eyes - was most likely more of waste of time, talent and resource ($$$) that could be better served elsewhere (of course we disagree)

The corporate angle (to me) was very evident in March 2024 - where Presonus shuttered their store - removing yet another source of time, talent and resource to better reflect what their investors want our of this.

The corporate angle (to me) was very evident in that late Sept 2024 keynote video - where the company is consolidating Studio One by reducing it to a single version. And obviously changing the pricing model to better reflect what the investors want our of this.

The corporate angle was is also very evident in the renewed charge for faster development and a tighter release schedule overall. The powers that be for the DEV team have been given new marching orders and only time will tell if this is a good thing for us - but it is clear that corporate wants more cash flow - faster for our beloved little DAW. - and it will be up to them to deliver on that.

No - I think a longgggggggg series of meetings with high level execs has been happening for a while now and the new owners (based on shareholder input, long term trending and other purely financial factors) have finally placed their stamp on the company and issued the set of instructions that many of us hoped would never be issued but are geared to pursue greater success for Presonus (as a company and NOT just Studio One as a product line item) longer term.

I do not see this as a reason to panic. This is pure business and "business" - to us - sometimes conflicts with our happy go-lucky world of using Studio One and dealing with the expectations we have assumed are defaults - especially those of us who have been hanging around for 10+ years.

Hopefully all of this results in a better S1 experience. I am willing to wait and see what we get.

VP

 

[uOpt]

I am still more convinced of theories about individuals.

Somebody did not like forums because they are visible to the public and indexed by Google and as mentioned here already they can contain negativity. A facebook group is a much more private setting that the investors and shareholders will never see.

Forums for tech support are generally disliked by corporations because they like ticket based support better. They can judge employees better, they can look up individual tickets and statistics on tickets etc. A forum interferes with that. And there can be bad advise from random members and from members of the company that would suddenly be visible to the public. The head of support will not object to a forum closure.

 

[TheMaartian]

At least I‘d like to point out that some of the QA people chimed in every now and then.

I never noticed, but I stand corrected.

 

[NoTimeForThoughts]

Not just the forums!

I also heard a lot of people saying things were suddenly broken since about June 2023 or so.

I am always with paranoia, the world is out to get us!

If the company wants to sell a subscription plan, its owners will likely try to hobble users who are just taking what they think are ordinary updates, for 6 months to a year before introducing any major change in product with major payment structure change,

If you think logically, knowing what we know about the world and the species which surrounds us,.

 

[uOpt]

Never explain with malice what you can explain with incompetence

 

[NoTimeForThoughts]

Never explain with malice what you can explain with incompetence

Well I like to be a friend to the gaslit.

 

[uOpt]

Well I like to be a friend to the gaslit.

But that's what they want you to think.

 

[chakko]

Forums for tech support are generally disliked by corporations because they like ticket based support better. They can judge employees better, they can look up individual tickets and statistics on tickets etc. A forum interferes with that. And there can be bad advise from random members and from members of the company that would suddenly be visible to the public. The head of support will not object to a forum closure.

Well, frankly every company related person will probably point you to support anyway, as it's much more likely that you will get help that way, not to mention how it looks like when a company would resort to a forum to get helped. That's not only much less organised, but, there's also no guarantee that you will get any help at all.

Not to say that every support request will be processed in a satisfying manner, but, that's better than asking on a forum in any case. I ask on forums, when something in the software is unclear to me, but, surely not when the software crashes on me. I've seen that so many times in my life (people asking about technical issues on forums), and, in 99,9% of the cases, help is not even possible, because people just ask questions in the vein of "Help! The software freezes!!". And, in the other 0,01%, the issue is related to the machine the software crashes on, and, no one is able to help anyway.

If you experience technical issues with the software you're using, and that you paid for, the company's support is the mandatory first stop IMO. The reason people post on forums is mostly because they're impatient, and don't want to wait a few hours for an answer on their support request. And have that magic idea, that there are people so familiar with the technical behind the scenes stuff of the software that they'd be able to help, and even have a crystal ball they can use to read the person's mind, and the internals of their computer.

 

[uOpt]

I find offical support in tech to be mostly useless.

A past issue on a forum where both company staff and knowledgable people contributed and that you can find in Google search is more to my liking.

 

[chakko]

... if you happen to be so lucky.

Granted, common issues are usually well documented on the internet.

One thing to consider though: If you pay for a software, you pay for support as well. At least that's how it should be. Software companies shouldn't leave you out in the cold. Of course, I understand that the quality of support highly depends on the quality of support workers, or the infrastructure companies set up for these.

 

[js1]

I think the only thing that you can infer from the form closing is that the forum closed. In fairness, it wasn't that popular outside of the core group that has moved here.

Fender bought two things when they acquired Studio One - the product and the team. DAWs are some of the trickiest pieces of software out there, and S1 is built by a great team that loves music that is well versed in complex real time software, multiple platforms, and DSP. This may be more valuable to a legacy music company that is being forced to move into the digital world than the product itself.

Remember immediately after the acquisition when the Fender CEO said he wants the team to focus on a product that would make DAWs "easy to use for all", and IIRC, there was a one year timeline being kicked around? I don't see that product, but Fender has been killing it with their recent digital products like the Tonemaster series and the Mustang Mini (bought one - this thing is slick). They certainly are not like Fender's earlier attempts. It's not out of the question that the Presonus hardware teams and the S1 team could have been involved.

 

[uOpt]

... if you happen to be so lucky.

Granted, common issues are usually well documented on the internet.

One thing to consider though: If you pay for a software, you pay for support as well. At least that's how it should be. Software companies shouldn't leave you out in the cold. Of course, I understand that the quality of support highly depends on the quality of support workers, or the infrastructure companies set up for these.

Well, I only have very few pieces of commercial software, mostly music related. One of the reasons for that is that I never found commercial support to be worth anything. For productivity I am much more comfortable with open source software and their support "model", which is all issues out in the open and searchable.

It isn't just the quality of the support people. It is the software they use - a lot of ticket systems have search that isn't a fraction as good as Google search is. It is time pressure on them, the need to close as many tickets as possible as quickly as possible. One support person can have a bad day or a brain fart and your ticket is closed with a bogus resolution. If you have support in the open incorrect people will be corrected (some of the time).

 

[tpittman]

I understand that Presonus "had" to close the forum, since it was dying to say the least.

I guess I didn't notice the "Old Forum Was Dying" I would go at least twice a day everyday to check posts
and all of that. I never really posted much but loved looking at peoples issue. In the last 2 years I have
talked about 6 friend and/or friends of friends into getting Studio One. The Forum would In most cases answer the
questions or issues my friends were having if i didn't know. So glad Lukas and others were able to create this new Forum

BTY: Whenever I have got with support or my friends It as always been Positive. Maybe we just got lucky. I had a bad
issue with Melodyne several years back. I could open and edit but not close the program. Melodyne / Celemony could not help.
Forum could not help either in this case but the good folks on the Forum threw great suggestions my way.
It was finally Presonus Support that fixed it. Quite the fix I might add since my Computer skills are very minimal.