Waiting for SO 7 update news

[BobF]

First, I really shouldn't have stated that all mods already know about MIDI 2 plans or non-plans. I'd like to think the vast majority of my opinions are informed by facts; but I slipped up this time and went with pure conjecture. I hope you'll accept my apology.

I'd like to bow out of the company discussions, leaving with these thoughts regarding ATMOS and accepting or rejecting the process PSL uses. Regarding ATMOS, that's still a feature that affects a small percentage of S1 users when compared with MIDI2, which affects basically every electronic musician. I can see why they'd keep that under wraps till release, though, because it was a relatively innovative addition. But going beyond keeping everything under wraps, the discovery that Presonus isn't a member of the MIDI Association is like a country not being a member of the United Nations. That tells me all I need to know about Presonus' commitment to anything MIDI and the company's attitude toward cooperating with other industry players. So I'll vote with my pocketbook and let it go.

No apology necessary ...

ATMOS being a feature less demanded than MIDI2, yet was still quietly implemented, tells me that there is a good chance that MIDI2 framework is already being developed.

But, this whole thing is pure conjecture. Time will tell

 

[Craig Anderton]

I mean Google is listed - what the heck do they have to do with anything MIDI related?

The Web MIDI API in Chrome was introduced in 2015. It lets websites send and receive MIDI messages, with no extra drivers needed. For example, a MIDI keyboard connected to a computer in Nashville can control a browser-based synth or DAW in New Zealand (I know, because I've done it!). Web MIDI also allows using physical knobs and buttons to control browser apps instead of on-screen sliders, and accommodates MIDI hardware across Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android. FWIW, Web MIDI also has a permissions system so you have to allow it the same way you'd allow a video camera or mic.

However, full MIDI support is strongest in Chrome. Hopefully all other browsers will have the same kind of support someday...when musicians are considered important customers

 

[Craig Anderton]

I rarely (and I do mean rarely) come across a single S1 user (who may or may not have been a part of that whole complaint bandwagon) - that actually uses ATMOS these days.

I believe it's due 100% to ignorance about Atmos. It's NOT just for movies, and big surround projects with tons of speakers.

It's a fact that headphones and earbuds are the primary way people listen to music today, and Atmos can render music as binaural audio for playback over headphones/earbuds. Binaural audio is superior to stereo, doesn't require the investment in speakers and such that traditional surround does, and frankly, it's much more fun to mix an Atmos project (although to be fair, it takes me about 30% longer). For a while, I posted Atmos and stereo versions of some songs on my YouTube channel to gauge interest.

So why hasn't there been a push for binaural audio? Because hardware companies can't make money from it. You already have headphones. They want you to buy lots of speakers and cables. So either they're gaslighting you about binaural, or they don't know what binaural is.

Once you get used to listening to binaural mixes, stereo sounds flat and lifeless. But nobody cares.

 

[MisterE]

Webmidi for example: https://midi.org/about-web-midi

And also Google is involved in addressing MIDI music on Android phones.

 

[MisterE]

Being a "corporate" member of the MIDI association is not (and never was) a requirement to support MIDI related tech in any DAW.

I mean Google is listed - what the heck do they have to do with anything MIDI related?

I would not read anything into the fact that just because Presonus is not listed with the rest of those "corporate" members - they suddenly do not care about MIDI 2.0. Or that they (or Fender) are not already corporate members - just not listed out there.


VP

Generous, since you're the guy with the unusable Komplete Kontrol S61 mkIII because cooperation between Presonus and Native Instruments is lacking and it's also the reason as has been pointed out on other threads that integration between Yamaha and Roland keyboards which can be used as DAW controllers (Fantom, Fantom 0, Montage, MODX) always comes out for S1, if it comes out at all, much later than it does with other DAWs who are in the MIDI Association loop and are the first to be served. I don't see it as a coincidence that Native Instruments, Roland, Steinberg, and Yamaha are all in the MIDI association and Presonus conspicuously isn't.

 

[whichi123]

But ironically (and oddly) - I rarely (and I do mean rarely) come across a single S1 user (who may or may not have been a part of that whole complaint bandwagon) - that actually uses ATMOS these days.

People don’t use Studio One’s Atmos because Studio One’s Atmos still lacks features and isn’t complete. In comparison, Pro Tools and Nuendo are much more comprehensive.
It is worth acknowledging that Studio One’s Atmos is indeed more intuitive and convenient to use, but there’s no denying that it lacks many functions. Compared to Pro Tools, Nuendo, or even DaVinci Resolve, it simply cannot integrate with the existing industry workflow. Whether in the film and game sector or in immersive audio music, Studio One doesn’t have much of an advantage.
What people clearly want is a complete and fully supported Atmos functionality, but Studio One clearly falls short. If you are a professional, would you use a half-finished product to make life difficult for yourself?

 

[Craig Anderton]

That underscores my point about Atmos. Yes, you can use Atmos for scoring Lord of the Rings, and in that case you wouldn't use Studio One. But Studio One bridges the gap between stereo and a full-blown surround system by being able to render as binaural audio, at no extra cost. Studio One has everything needed to do that, coupled with a "more intuitive and convenient to use" workflow.

If "what people clearly want is a complete and fully supported Atmos functionality," there are already programs that do that. And they will cost you. I doubt the vast majority of Studio One owners want to pay $599 or $1,499 (the cost of perpetual licenses for Pro Tools Studio or Ultimate, respectively) or $999 (perpetual license for Nuendo) to have an upgraded Atmos implementation that they don't care about and will never use. They apparently don't even use the binaural option that's already there.

For an Atmos reality check, I did three presentations at NAMM last year. One was on mixing, and one on the state of the recording industry. Both had hundreds of attendees and were so packed they had to open up overflow rooms. The one on immersive audio had about the same attendance as if the presentation had been titled "How to Get Herpes"

 

[Jens]

Once you get used to listening to binaural mixes, stereo sounds flat and lifeless. But nobody cares.

Because ATMOS adds lots of reverb and I still can't really hear if a sound comes from behind.

I once listened to demo tracks comparing orchestral percussion libraries. The clear winner for me was Superior Drummer 3 because their 100 GB lib had lots of velocity layers and little room reverb. The demo tracks with established orchestral libraries sounded muddy and noisy. I heard the room, not the instrument. I also listened to an entirely binaural album ("Resonance" by Boris Blank). Same experience.

I concluded that people who like ATMOS mixes prefer an abundance of reverb. I might be ignorant but the little I heard didn't encourage me either.

 

[Craig Anderton]

Because ATMOS adds lots of reverb and I still can't really hear if a sound comes from behind.

I once listened to demo tracks comparing orchestral percussion libraries. The clear winner for me was Superior Drummer 3 because their 100 GB lib had lots of velocity layers and little room reverb. The demo tracks with established orchestral libraries sounded muddy and noisy. I heard the room, not the instrument. I also listened to an entirely binaural album ("Resonance" by Boris Blank). Same experience.

I concluded that people who like ATMOS mixes prefer an abundance of reverb. I might be ignorant but the little I heard didn't encourage me either.

I too have heard plenty of horrific Atmos mixes. But Atmos doesn't add reverb unless the engineer does. You can mix quite subtly when doing binaural-specific mixes. You can end up with a bigger soundstage, but that doesn't necessarily mean a bigger room.

 

[Vocalpoint]

What people clearly want is a complete and fully supported Atmos functionality, but Studio One clearly falls short. If you are a professional, would you use a half-finished product to make life difficult for yourself?

I had never doubted that S1 would never be in the same league as say PT or Nuendo - IF one was mixing Avengers Doomsday right now. Disney Studios or Skywalker Sound is not going to be installing S1 v7 to complete this job.

However - I do still wonder today - exactly who was part of that angry mob in that weird 12-18 month period leading up to the release of S1 v6.5 - where everyday, on every forum I would visit - S1 was getting slagged day in and day out about it's "lack" of ATMOS. Some of the posts from that time were simply hilarious.

Now - I am pretty sure it wasn't the head production crew at Skywalker Sound leading this charge - but who was it then? WHO - exactly wanted ATMOS in S1 and for what purpose? All I can think of is "immersive audio" - which here in late 2025 - is still about as interesting as watching paint dry.

I am not a ATMOS fan for music (nor will I ever be) - but I do give credit where credit is due - and I do think S1's implementation of ATMOS is fully professional and is totally capable of top notch results with one of the best ATMOS toolkits out there - for music specifically. But not for anything else. And that is OK.

Studio One is not PT and it is not Nuendo and never has tried to be. That Presonus took the time to put it's idea of ATMOS into the app and do it very well is a testament to at least listening to the userbase. Granted - I still do not know who they were listening to - but they did a great job.

Now - If they would just apply this kind of fit and finish to other areas of the program (like the Launcher or the File Browser or the internal instruments from 2009 and on and on and on) - I think we would end up being a much happier bunch of campers around here.

VP

 

[Jeff]

This post was originally about Presonus (Fender) not being transparent about when update would come to those who purchased SO7 last year. Here's the deal, it has evolved into a MIDI 2 "get it" or "while the hell" Atomos. That is not what I was talking about. Transparency, honesty, and keeping customers informed about the general development of SO for perpetual or subscription users is my main concern. I like SO7 and hope that management develops some type of consistent and reliable communication with users about releases. If I move it would be to Cubase, however I think for most use SO has a vastly easier system to learn and use which is why I would like to have the communication system I've talked about. So pleased stay focused on procurement details of SO and how PreSonus (Fender) communicates with SO users. Thank you.

 

[Vocalpoint]

Transparency, honesty, and keeping customers informed about the general development of SO for perpetual or subscription users is my main concern.

These are concerns for all of us. But I still think your bar is set too high.

If you are really expecting transparency and sweet "insider" communications on "plans" etc - you will most likely be very disappointed.

Like any other company - Presonus do not need to report to us or answer to us in any way. They offer a product (and a damn good one at that).

We can choose to buy that product (and accept what comes with it like the radio silence on their roadmaps) or don't buy it and go elsewhere.

That is really all the input we will ever have. It's your call on which one it will be.

VP

 

[THW]

However - I do still wonder today - exactly who was part of that angry mob in that weird 12-18 month period leading up to the release of S1 v6.5 - where everyday, on every forum I would visit - S1 was getting slagged day in and day out about it's "lack" of ATMOS. Some of the posts from that time were simply hilarious.

Man, I am having flashbacks to that time! Spot on. It was an angry mob, and it was EVERYDAY!!!

 

[Jeff]

These are concerns for all of us. But I still think your bar is set too high.

If you are really expecting transparency and sweet "insider" communications on "plans" etc - you will most likely be very disappointed.

Like any other company - Presonus do not need to report to us or answer to us in any way. They offer a product (and a damn good one at that).

We can choose to buy that product (and accept what comes with it like the radio silence on their roadmaps) or don't buy it and go elsewhere.

That is really all the input we will ever have. It's your call on which one it will be.

VP

Many firms give general ideas about where they are going with products, and the mis-fire on the communication about the number of updates (not fixes), made many long-term customers unsatisfied. Many firms would have corrected that. I know that because I was in a firm that grew from 20 to 500 stores as I was the marketing manager. I know that because I was a partner in a firm with over 200 employees and with a 500% growth over 10 years, all based on the product we delivered and our customer service (our closest competitor folded due to customer service issues) and sold the business to a much larger firm. Treating employees well and customers better is often a huge competitive difference. I retired at 55 so I must know a little bit about managing business.

 

[Vocalpoint]

Many firms give general ideas about where they are going with products, and the mis-fire on the communication about the number of updates (not fixes), made many long-term customers unsatisfied. Many firms would have corrected that. I know that because I was in a firm that grew from 20 to 500 stores as I was the marketing manager. I know that because I was a partner in a firm with over 200 employees and with a 500% growth over 10 years, all based on the product we delivered and our customer service (our closest competitor folded due to customer service issues) and sold the business to a much larger firm. Treating employees well and customers better is often a huge competitive difference. I retired at 55 so I must know a little bit about managing business.

Been with Presonus now since 2011.

Not a single shred of “where they are going” or “what they are up to” has ever been shared prior to release, during a cycle or any other time.

I expect this trend to continue now and into the future.

I also don’t view this stance as a lack of customer service. All market leaders do it.

Example: Apple doesn’t let users into their labs when they are coming up with the next big thing.

Again - your bar is way too high unfortunately.

VP

 

[MisterE]

Many firms give general ideas about where they are going with products, and the mis-fire on the communication about the number of updates (not fixes), made many long-term customers unsatisfied. Many firms would have corrected that. I know that because I was in a firm that grew from 20 to 500 stores as I was the marketing manager. I know that because I was a partner in a firm with over 200 employees and with a 500% growth over 10 years, all based on the product we delivered and our customer service (our closest competitor folded due to customer service issues) and sold the business to a much larger firm. Treating employees well and customers better is often a huge competitive difference. I retired at 55 so I must know a little bit about managing business.

OK, then getting past MIDI 2 and Atmos and returning to the gist of your initial post, what I'm hearing you say is that you just wish there was some more communication about general direction and updating the user base on best laid plans gone awry. What certain people are taking away is that you or anyone else who agrees with you (me, for instance) are looking for complete transparency and a release of the complete roadmap. I don't believe anyone has actually asked for that level of disclosure. I agree there's, shall we say, room for greater engagement between the company and its customers. I've done some marketing work too and predict it would benefit both as well. Just to clarify, I don't feel "mistreated" in any way, I just don't feel tempted to upgrade under the present level of minimal engagement except for the hyperbole of advertising offers.

 

[Aifu]

I don't know how most users feel about Atmos. But for me, it's been incredibly beneficial. I've actually gained more business, produced some commercials and TV shows, and been able to handle surround sound projects on a platform I'm familiar with. Multichannel always has its uses. Most importantly, I don't have to worry about anything related to PT anymore… I hate it.

In short, I believe there's a group of people like me who have benefited from some of Studio One's updates, and a large portion of people probably don't.

Another great example is the Splice integration. It has greatly improved my life; I no longer need to manage samples across multiple apps, but many dedicated mixing engineers simply turn it off in customization.

As far as I can remember, from V4 to V7, I've benefited from about 30% of the features in each update, while I've only encountered about 5% of the numerous bug fixes. But I believe others will benefit, and that's good.

There's been a lot of controversy surrounding Studio One's 2025 update. Hopefully, as Gregor said, something good will happen.

Finally, Merry Christmas everyone.

I had never doubted that S1 would never be in the same league as say PT or Nuendo - IF one was mixing Avengers Doomsday right now. Disney Studios or Skywalker Sound is not going to be installing S1 v7 to complete this job.

However - I do still wonder today - exactly who was part of that angry mob in that weird 12-18 month period leading up to the release of S1 v6.5 - where everyday, on every forum I would visit - S1 was getting slagged day in and day out about it's "lack" of ATMOS. Some of the posts from that time were simply hilarious.

Now - I am pretty sure it wasn't the head production crew at Skywalker Sound leading this charge - but who was it then? WHO - exactly wanted ATMOS in S1 and for what purpose? All I can think of is "immersive audio" - which here in late 2025 - is still about as interesting as watching paint dry.

I am not a ATMOS fan for music (nor will I ever be) - but I do give credit where credit is due - and I do think S1's implementation of ATMOS is fully professional and is totally capable of top notch results with one of the best ATMOS toolkits out there - for music specifically. But not for anything else. And that is OK.

Studio One is not PT and it is not Nuendo and never has tried to be. That Presonus took the time to put it's idea of ATMOS into the app and do it very well is a testament to at least listening to the userbase. Granted - I still do not know who they were listening to - but they did a great job.

Now - If they would just apply this kind of fit and finish to other areas of the program (like the Launcher or the File Browser or the internal instruments from 2009 and on and on and on) - I think we would end up being a much happier bunch of campers around here.

VP

 

[Vocalpoint]

I agree there's, shall we say, room for greater engagement between the company and its customers.

I too am all in on "engagement" - but I simply do not think that Fender/Presonus feels that they need to go there.

Again - I am a huge fan of the product - and into 2026 - as long as the company remains viable and product continues to innovate and move forward - I really do not need (or expect) open houses, roadmap shows or any other insider info.

To be completely honest - I actually like being surprised when Presonus kicks out something cool and unexpected.

VP

 

[TonalDynamics]

As a professional producer and recording engineer for over two decades, I do not want GenAI in my DAW, period.

Not only does it not interest me, I don't want to subsidize the coffers of corporate thieves who stole millions of works to train the models and continue to go unpunished for it.

Turning Studio One into a glorified front-end for some silicon valley GenAI API would be a literal nightmare. It's a professional suite of DAW tools and I expect it to serve professional production needs.

AI (NeuralNets) have plenty of uses besides Generative -- give me one that sorts my massive sample collection and lets me audition it like XLN's XO for instance, but for all samples not just percussive hits.

I DO want the existing half-baked features that are great ideas to be REFINED for the first time in years:

• I want Scratch pads, routing view, MixScene/Console-recall, all refined and improved, as they are wonderful ideas that never got tuned up to their full potential that I still use in spite of this.
• I want PDC to work properly and report correct values when daisy-chaining VSTi.
• I want sound variations to offer a +/- delay on articulations for me to tweak when needed to save me from having to make Kontakt scripts.
• I want MIDI CC Lane presets, finally and for real.
• I want a better plugin-GUI management scheme. We all work with an obscene amount of plugin windows these days, and having presets which could recall various sets of discrete plugin GUIs and locations would be immensely helpful. The 'toggle floating windows' keybind is helpful for this, but you can only toggle the last used set of windows. Different sets of plugin windows for different use cases would be an incredible time-saver both when mixing and tracking.
• I want core audio engine improvements to (eventually and somewhat) bring the threading in line with Reaper's efficiency.

So yeah that's just off the top of my head, I have a whole list somewhere of other things I'd like to see... hoping to see some of them in the next update to convince me to upgrade since I skipped version 7.

 

[Andy_P]

I think it was right after Apple added Dolby Atmos to Logic and tried hard to push the spatial audio as the new standard so some users thought that would happen, panicked and wanted that feature in their DAWs.

So it was likely these users more than who mix Star Wars or Avatar
I wonder what is the current trend with spatial audio music but I know no one that listens to music other than stereo or right off the phone speaker