Mild Rant

[mjs]

This is not a particularly useful post - it’s primarily just to voice some thoughts.

I find the Studio One radio silence uncomfortable and disconcerting. I’m not going to go on about what I think has been a pretty lacklustre set of updates since the Fender acquisition as there are numerous threads about this already. But I do concur. Were it not for Lukas I don’t think I’d spend any more time in Studio One. I mean - we would not even have a forum for one which to me is astonishing. Typically a company wants a thriving community around their software so closing the forum was puzzling.

But even more puzzling to me is for something so material as an acquisition to occur and for there to be so little communication around direction. Yes I know there was the original fanfare about all of the great things, and the new model, and all the promises and intent but then … not much IMHO.

Forget about updates for a minute - how about some communication around what’s actually going on? What’s coming? What’s the vision here?

So far it feels like the only result is now Im getting spammed by Fender.
My current feeing about Studio One is uneasy and while it’s unsubstantiated - I guess - I can’t help but think some kind of nonsense is just around the corner where the product gets diluted or worse.

I think some communication and transparency is required. I’m not saying make promises you don’t want to be held to but this shroud of silence feels bad.

Show some signs of life, some excitement and passion for the product and its future!

 

[JBMusic]

This is not a particularly useful post - it’s primarily just to voice some thoughts.

I find the Studio One radio silence uncomfortable and disconcerting. I’m not going to go on about what I think has been a pretty lacklustre set of updates since the Fender acquisition as there are numerous threads about this already. But I do concur. Were it not for Lukas I don’t think I’d spend any more time in Studio One. I mean - we would not even have a forum for one which to me is astonishing. Typically a company wants a thriving community around their software so closing the forum was puzzling.

But even more puzzling to me is for something so material as an acquisition to occur and for there to be so little communication around direction. Yes I know there was the original fanfare about all of the great things, and the new model, and all the promises and intent but then … not much IMHO.

Forget about updates for a minute - how about some communication around what’s actually going on? What’s coming? What’s the vision here?

So far it feels like the only result is now Im getting spammed by Fender.
My current feeing about Studio One is uneasy and while it’s unsubstantiated - I guess - I can’t help but think some kind of nonsense is just around the corner where the product gets diluted or worse.

I think some communication and transparency is required. I’m not saying make promises you don’t want to be held to but this shroud of silence feels bad.

Show some signs of life, some excitement and passion for the product and its future!

Having just endured a pretty dramatic experience with Cakewalk a little more than a year ago I can't truly say I disagree with your assessment.
I can only say I hope we're both wrong.
John B

 

[BobF]

This is not a particularly useful post - it’s primarily just to voice some thoughts.

I find the Studio One radio silence uncomfortable and disconcerting. I’m not going to go on about what I think has been a pretty lacklustre set of updates since the Fender acquisition as there are numerous threads about this already. But I do concur. Were it not for Lukas I don’t think I’d spend any more time in Studio One. I mean - we would not even have a forum for one which to me is astonishing. Typically a company wants a thriving community around their software so closing the forum was puzzling.

But even more puzzling to me is for something so material as an acquisition to occur and for there to be so little communication around direction. Yes I know there was the original fanfare about all of the great things, and the new model, and all the promises and intent but then … not much IMHO.

Forget about updates for a minute - how about some communication around what’s actually going on? What’s coming? What’s the vision here?

So far it feels like the only result is now Im getting spammed by Fender.
My current feeing about Studio One is uneasy and while it’s unsubstantiated - I guess - I can’t help but think some kind of nonsense is just around the corner where the product gets diluted or worse.

I think some communication and transparency is required. I’m not saying make promises you don’t want to be held to but this shroud of silence feels bad.

Show some signs of life, some excitement and passion for the product and its future!

My <$.02USD>, not a criticism of what you've posted:

IIRC, pre-Fender there was also a lack of What's coming and What's the vision. I wasn't put off by that then and I'm not put off by it now. In a competitive space that is DAW software, it's a necessity.

IMO, the situation here is VERY different from SONAR, which I'm also a refugee of. I escaped to SO when Cake first shut down. Since then, I've come to feel like they did me a favor - SO is a much friendlier use environment IMO.

Anyway, I don't feel like there is much missing as far as standard features go. The integration with Fender has a few rough edges, but overall hasn't been the disaster it was initially expected to be.

My overall approach to all of the applications I use is the same - I choose software based on what it is now, not what I hope it will one day become.

</$.02USD>

 

[MisterE]

It's simply untrue that lack of communication began at the time of the Fender takeover three or so years ago. It started as soon as I first bought V2 of the program in 2013 or so. Back then, not only did the president of Presonus chime in on the forum, other officers were regular contributors as well. It was a huge reason I went with S1 at the time. But that only lasted the first six months or so I owned the program. Communication from above has dwindled down to nothing over that whole time, not just since Fender took over.

Now is that all bad? Not necessarily. It's easy for persons who don't own a DAW company to criticize or wonder about the behavior of DAW companies. Once they started selling a fair amount of S1 licenses, and they suddenly were competing with established companies, Presonus made the business decision that it simply doesn't behoove a DAW company to talk about future developments. None of us opining in this thread have walked in those shoes.

Anyone is free to fret about the future all they want, but the fact remains that change is the only constant, always has been, always will be. Sorry, but I for one don't believe anyone's next song is necessarily going to turn out better in V7.5 or V8 simply because some shiny new feature becomes available.

 

[ianaeillo]

I would probably be feeling the same way if 7.2.2 wasn't such a quality update that fixed a heck of a lot of problems for me. If the last update left unresolved issues or created new ones, I'd hazard to guess I'd be a bit worried about the future of Studio One. However, they did such a good job fixing the playback engine and squashing every single issue I've been having (not workflow stuff, but actual issues) that I actually have come away from it with a renewed sense of confidence.

I was a PT user since 5.0 and lived through some pretty bad releases of picky hardware and mystery crashes. Studio One is now incredibly solid after the last update. Yes, I'm surprised at their desired lack of community and communication and fanfare. I also feel like the content is slipping a bit (Joe and Gregor can only talk so much about layers and compression) but I am assuming it's because something big is happening. A bit of calm before the storm. I could be wrong - and I probably am - but I'm hoping the updates moving forward are as well-done as the last one and everyone can just sorta forget about this weird few months while Presonus is trying to figure a few things out.

 

[Vocalpoint]

I find the Studio One radio silence uncomfortable and disconcerting.

While I concur on a few levels - everyone needs to remember that the new owners are not some Mom and Pop shop. Fender is just tiny part of a very large corporate entity themselves (Servco Pacific) and Presonus is even more microscopic when compared to everything else in the Servco portfolio.

"Radio Silence" may be coming from the top for all we know and if that's the case - they do not need to ask us for permission to be quiet. Or break "silence" (if they are even in that mode) for any reason.

I think some communication and transparency is required. I’m not saying make promises you don’t want to be held to but this shroud of silence feels bad.
Show some signs of life, some excitement and passion for the product and its future!

My thoughts - clearly there is something going on. The grand plans of last September have not materialized like I believe Presonus wanted them to and most likely a confluence of other factors are part of this.

Let's be honest guys n gals - this "merger" took place in Nov 2021 and really - very little had changed for our little company (and DAW) since then - but we all should understand how business (and mergers) work and not be naive - if I was the head of Fender and spent umpteen millions of dollars to buy the company 4 years ago - I would eventually act on the word "merger".

This is strictly my own speculation and could be the reason for vibe we are seeing - BUT it makes total sense to me.

But I am going to try to take the high road here and hope that whatever it is that is going on - it bodes well for Studio One.

VP

 

[TimC340]

I'm not worried about any of this stuff. Studio One now has enough penetration in the market to be a valuable asset to Fender, and I doubt they'll throw it away. Yes, PreSonus keeps its cards close to its chest, but that's not at all unusual in the software business - any games forum will have lots of examples of software houses that fail to engage with their user base. I don't advocate it; there are plenty of examples of such houses going down after long periods of poor communication. But, like VP, I do believe there is something afoot and I'm fascinated to learn what it might be.

 

[Craig Anderton]

Studio One is still here, it's still good, it still does (several) things other DAWs can't do. I'm creating more music, in less time, with higher quality than was ever possible before. Those are my priorities.

"Radio silence" is an industry thing, not exclusive to PreSonus. Companies haven't forgotten about the fate of products (e.g., ADAT) where too much was said too soon.

Times are tough in the music industry right now. That inevitably impacts all manufacturers. This too shall pass.

Meanwhile, any time spent speculating about internal company workings in forums in time not making music, so ... time to go comp some vocals! /rant

 

[John Vere]

I could never understand why some people even think about the software next update?

I’ve used music software since the Atari days. I owned possibly the first version of Cubase. If you look at my record of updates for that particular Daw it would be like an average of updating every 5 years.
Sonar about the same.

When I bought Studio one last February, I got the deal that says I get updates for one year. I thought, great! I’ll get at least 5 year out of that.

I actually get annoyed with software that seems to update every 4th time I use it!!
It seems like an admission that the software is full of bugs.
It was one reason I abandoned Sonar.

I love that since February S1 has left me alone and I hope it stays that way for 5 years. Sure I have a list now of things that I’d like to see fixed but it’s just me and probably nobody else.

 

[OutrageProductions]

Ditto with @Craig Anderton.
I work faster and easier in S1 than any of my other 4 DAW platforms and prefer it by far.
Sure, there are a couple of functions that I would like to see implemented, but none of them hinder my work flow, and it is on track to produce over six figures of income this year for me. Can't complain.

 

[Davey]

- we would not even have a forum for one which to me is astonishing. Typically a company wants a thriving community around their software so closing the forum was puzzling.

In general I think you might be worrying too much about something we can't control. Presonus have always been bad at customer comms!

But specifically on the forum thing... forums are a dying entity. Youngsters mostly don't use them. They prefer social media, discord and probably something else that I haven't heard of yet. Companies have been moving away from having official forums for years and those that still exist are somewhat understaffed and under-loved. There are exceptions but the forum trend is definitely downwards.

Anyhow, I predict another S1 update this side of Christmas. It's traditional. We'll see an enthusiastic Gregor in another video and wonder how much higher his hair can get before he falls over sideways due to the weight of it.

 

[TimC340]

I could never understand why some people even think about the software next update?

I’ve used music software since the Atari days. I owned possibly the first version of Cubase. If you look at my record of updates for that particular Daw it would be like an average of updating every 5 years.
Sonar about the same.

When I bought Studio one last February, I got the deal that says I get updates for one year. I thought, great! I’ll get at least 5 year out of that.

I actually get annoyed with software that seems to update every 4th time I use it!!
It seems like an admission that the software is full of bugs.
It was one reason I abandoned Sonar.

I love that since February S1 has left me alone and I hope it stays that way for 5 years. Sure I have a list now of things that I’d like to see fixed but it’s just me and probably nobody else.

I started with Steinberg Pro 24 on Atari. That became Cubase after a couple of years. Actually, their updates were fairly frequent at the time - and they often broke stuff! The number of big updates that happened as it went from v1 to Cubase Audio via Cubase VST, Cubase SX and eventually V4 (the first of the modern line in 2006) was huge! I’d moved to PC around 1995, and abandoned my music hobby to concentrate on my family and my aviation career by then, and when I ‘came back’ Cubase had grown far too big and expensive for me.

I also went the Sonar route (via Music Creator) and really liked it at the time. And of course things didn’t go well eventually, and there are plenty of us that remember and still hurt - so the concerns are real and have some justification. However, for me it’s always been a hobby not a profession, so I am content to watch developments and adapt as necessary.

 

[Sutajio_Ichi]

Anyhow, I predict another S1 update this side of Christmas. It's traditional. We'll see an enthusiastic Gregor in another video and wonder how much higher his hair can get before he falls over sideways due to the weight of it.

I expect him wearing a Santa Hat, otherwise i will switch to another DAW

I didn´t see either the point of spoiling Updates, like, hey, look what you can expect in the future, but do not stop buying our actual version for no reason whatsoever.

 

[Vocalpoint]

I could never understand why some people even think about the software next update?

In this specific case - it is because of the stance that Presonus took with that video last fall.

Because of this single line from Gregor (@ 1:13- 1:22) in the video:

"So we are targeting 3-4 "major" feature releases every year - with the first of these drops coming early next year and going forward (pause) version naming will be time based"

The userbase went bonkers - and a small selection of usually normal users (as we creeped ever closer to Oct 2025) - were suddenly gripped by expectation fever and started stomping their feet demanding to know "where" their 3-4 Feature drops were.

Some even continue to believe that Gregor implied that these 3-4 feature drops were to occur BETWEEN Oct 9, 2024 and Oct 9, 2025. And when that didn't happen either - this collective got even more triggered.

Moral of the story - if Presonus would have issued their video last September, focused 100% on the new pricing model and said exactly nothing about any update cadence or targets - things would have turned out vastly different.

Let's also not forget - we DO have to pay for annual updates and it is fair to wonder what you are getting for your money - but there is a measured way to do this and a non-measured way.

At the end of the day - I agree with Craig - use S1, make good stuff and if an update is in your wheelhouse when it arrives - then worry about it.

VP