I’m still using Studio One 3.3 quite a lot. Here’s a quick update post on some of my opinions regarding it.

I’ve added a Site Map to the page so now it’s easy to find a post on a particular subject.

Alright, I’m setting some basic levels here. Ah, ok where’s the option to setup track visibility in the mixer? I guess I have to check the menu. Nope. The mixer changes the OS Level menu. So in OS X, when you open the mixer, you can’t access any of the other Reaper menu options. You have to close the mixer, use the menu, re-open the mixer.

Mixer does not respond to cmd-`. That’s nice. Rather than the reflexive cmd-`, I have to remember to hit cmd-m, which is not even remotely a comfortable shortcut to use.

Keep forgetting what I am doing when having to think of how to change away from the mixer. Hit cmd-` and nothing happens. Look for menu, nothing there. By time I switch my thought process back to troubleshooting mode, whatever I was doing before is totally gone. Back to the mixer again so maybe I can remember what I was doing! (and forget again)

Right. I’m sure this is just as simple as getting used to things…

DP has some issues with really really tiny UI elements sometimes. Midi note velocity is among the worst offenders, and a lot of users struggle editing note data because of this.

So I made a quick tutorial showing a better way of editing midi velocity data than struggling with the arrows, using the event list or some other methods.

Oct. 24, 2016 -day of capture

Folder tracks don’t show levels when recording sub tracks. Very confusing. Spent ~15 minutes trying to see why my folder weren’t working as groups only to give up and see them working on playback.

Trying to figure out how to zoom to a selection, 30 minutes of fiddling. Zoom commands not listed with shortcuts in the menu. Can’t find ‘zoom undo’.

I’ve already counted 21 floating windows. I’m fairly sure I’ve only just now opened pandora’s modal window.

Oh hey, some things dock. Wait… sometimes. Why is that docked? Why isn’t that docked? Where’d my dock go?! How do I re-dock this?!

WTF!? Why doesn’t cmd-` work for anything. Ugh.

Ok fine, I’m going to just record some tracks. So how do I group some tracks… a groud command? No, a window, of course. Can I cycle it with cmd-`? Of course not.

Tracks recorded. WTF why is a track moved? Oh, I moved it while trying to move the playback cursor.

Ok, let’s re-align these drum tracks a bit. Oh jeez. I keep moving the playback cursor. Why isn’t everything moving together? I have the tracks grouped!

Oh, you have to group the clips… that totally makes sense, not.

Fine, let’s just try and mix this a bit. Let me grab pro-q2 to adjust the kick first and… ANOTHER FLOATING WINDOW. TWO OF THEM. Just to add an effect.

Ugh. Forget it for today.

Yep. Masochism. 1 month, as best I can stand it. Reports here and of course updates to the chart.

I still have ongoing projects in DP, which thankfully will stay there, but anything I can do in Reaper will be done in Reaper. Cthulhu, bless me on this journey for only you understand the feelings I’ll bear.

UPDATE: Please see the new DAW Feature Chart for more up-to-date information and a way cooler chart.

I’ve done a couple projects in DP 9.12, Studio One 3.3.1 and Cubase 8.5.20 recently. I’ve spent some serious time investigating my workflow(s) and manual re-reading. I also went through and read the changelogs and watched the video trailer for the last many versions of each product.

I purchased an iPad Pro 9.7” and subsequently I’ve been using the remote control apps available again. That has had a huge influence on my work for the better. It is really an amazing thing to use when you don’t have an assistant.

My time spent in each DAW as a percentage, according to Time Sink has been:

• Studio One - 43%
• Cubase 26%
• DP - 21%
• Renoise - 12%

There may be a bit of a rounding error there ;)

Overall I’ve become a good bit less annoyed with Studio One. Largely because I’ve had someone go over how to basically totally avoid using drag&drop at all. I also have not had a single crash with 3.3.1. If you read my last post about Studio One, then you may be surprised by how much I’ve been using it. Yeah, I am too. I should revisit that post soon to help clarify the things that I’ve come to understand about the software, and some of the really useful workflow improvements I’ve discovered in it. Largely though… if the documentation wasn’t so incredibly awful, I probably would have liked S1 a lot more than I did 4 months ago. 3.3.1 being very stable also has made a difference in how patient I’ve been able to be while using it.

Cubase has been crashing a lot lately for some reason. I have not yet been able to figure it out.

Still, DP is king in my book. I will still use Studio One until Motu does something about the awful multi-track editing and comping (comparatively) in DP. Where it matters to me though, DP is definitely the best.

So here’s the updated DAW Comparison chart.

A simple open mortise and tenon joint that’s been planed smooth by a 25° included angle blade in a Veritas Low-Angle Jack Plane. The wood is Hard Maple and the glue is Elmer’s Wood Glue Max(A product which I really like).

First what you see…

Then what a Canon T3i with a reversed 18-35mm lens sees…

Cutting threaded rod can be a pain. I’ve seen all sorts of ways to hold it, cut it, prepared it etc… There’s one way though that’s very simple, quick and reusable. Just make a split-nut.

Here’s how to do it…

Why pay upwards of $50 for a mic adapter for a tom?

Made in less than 5 minutes with 2 bolts, a wingnut, some scrap pine and a 1/4-20 to 5/8-27 adapter made out of Jatoba. I may cover making the adapters in another post some day.

I have a Pyle PDMIC78 on there which I purchased for under $10. Surprisingly it works just fine. I figured I’d give it a shot on toms and so far I think I can recommend it for that task.