- I have hundreds of plugins, and I have fewer issues with Studio One.
- Studio One has as good support for VST, and it even supports AAX. I don't think owning a global standard means anything these days.
- The preference is respected. I was talking about a songwriter (real instruments or MIDI instruments).

 

So was I which is all I use it for. The EDM features I can live without in any DAW. I think we're both instrument recording people by the sound of it and I use MIDI for orchestrations. . Still is preference and I respect yours. I have had no issues with Cubase Pro but Studio One crashes often - The exact opposite of your issue. Too many variables - Different mainboards, cards, audio interfaces - too much in the mix - If we both had identical gear I imagine my feelings would be the same as yours.

 

Go for Cubase.

 

Best balance between WORKFLOW and FEATURES :
Studio One
More INCLUDED features :
Cubase
More CUSTOM features :
Reaper

Easiness :
S1 Cb Re
Features :
Cb Re S1
Custom :
Re S1 Cb

WORKFLOW WISE :
S1 is Mac
Cb is Win
Re is Linux

 

Great post. But my head almost explodes... I don't know shit about video

 

I switched from Magix/Steinberg/S1 to Reaper. I was reborn...

 

I think Studio One is a very impressive software in terms of usability.

At least in my case, I believe I've learned everything there is to learn about it in just a couple of weeks, mostly on my own, effortlessly. This is very rare in the software world.

Feature wise, Reaper is of course much better, but man, I've been messing around with it for years and it never really conquered my heart as my main DAW.

Studio One really gets out of the way, while Reaper feels like a mess of menus and boxes within boxes within more boxes.

In terms of sound, I don't think there's a difference. Both will get you from point A to point B. The difference is that an action that takes two clicks in Studio One will take ten (or more) in Reaper.

If the guys from Cockos managed to make Reaper more user friendly, it would be amazing.

Cockos should do what the community did to Blender, which went through a major overhaul on version 2.8 and finally became a serious player in the CGI field. Before that, it was pure usability chaos.

Just my two cents.

 

Last edited: Jun 19, 2021

I am a Reaper user, so I may be a little biased, but I would say Reaper. It has the most possibilities to customize the DAW to your personal workflow, it works the most efficient, ist rock solid and is the most affordable in the long run.

On the other hand, Cubase has some features that are especially useful if your focus is on ITB production.

 

Definitely NOT. Reaper's action based workflow is so advanced that with one click you can execute way more than 20 single tasks with a custom action if you want. For example, I perform pre fx level automation for 120 tracks fully automatically with one keystroke. Then I make a few small adjustments. Takes me 5 minutes max. But yes, directly out of the box - may be...

True!
The design of the surfaces in Reaper, is definitely sometimes very unergonomic.

 

Been using Ableton for the longest time. Earlier this year, I finally decided to try Reaper. I completely understand and agree where Metaller and ArticStorm are coming from. I've been using Ableton to write songs cuz it's really easy to set everything up to quickly make a draft. Workflow feels fluid when throwing in instruments, editing samples, and building up loops, etc. Reaper on the other hand is very cpu efficient. Though it did take me a good week or two to set all the scripts and hotkeys that I needed for mixing. It can be intimidating at first. But once that was done, Reaper felt as fluid when mixing as Ableton is when writing songs with it. Basically, I'd suggest Reaper as a great secondary DAW for mixing. Keep using the DAW that helps you write songs fast then use Reaper for mixing. Also, Reaper is very customizable. Maybe in time you can set up enough scripts/hotkeys that could allow you to have a fluid workflow catering to both writing and mixing songs, which would end up being your primary DAW.

 

Cubase is all you need.

 

If you read his I.T. posts, he's also very knowledgable/savvy with computing science and network communication.

 

I was a Cubase user for many years. I switched to Studio One around V2 and I've never looked back.
My workflow is much smoother and frankly I think Cubase has become a bit bloated these days.
I have a friend who's a hard core Reaper freak and tried to get me into it.....don't care for it...
...too cluttered IMHO.

 

If you have higher than average intelligence, try Reaper. If you don't, then you will find learning Reaper and looking for solutions to problems much, much more time-consuming than with other DAWs. (I learned this lesson the hard way and am now happily productive with Studio One. I believe all the claims that are made for Reaper, but my poor brain just doesn't work fast enough.)

 

I use Reaper since 2009 and have found it to be the best for my workflow because I can practically do anything with it.

 

If S1 had better video support I would go for it.

 

It's less complicated than it sounds.

It just means things show up on your timeline according to a preset clock signal and that they are always in sync with the video frames that correspond to those sounds.

The rest is just a searchable asset system, so that you don;t have to dig in a folder for scene <112 Jimmy Pineapple Audio Overhead Mic - Happy Ending>. In multi-camera, multiple mic editing the audio isn't usually packaged with the video. So timecode sync and frame lock is important unless you're making old school dubed kung fu movies.

 

I have researched, demoed, and reviewed just about every DAW imaginable on a Mac . . .
Depends on:

1. Budget (Assuming you are buying. If not, disregard)
2. Style(s) of music
3. Preferred workflow
4. User base and/or tech support

They all do about the same thing with the exception of some advanced features, e.g., film scoring, etc.

 

@Donut Nyamer - The thing you have mentioned is your system is not very grunty is that correct?
If so, as good as what everyone has mentioned you may find disappointment where you would not on a grunty system. Therefore, Reaper is possibly the best solution because it will load decently on a less grunty system if you are not intending to upgrade in the near future.