# Is Studio One any good for scoring?



## Bunford (Dec 3, 2016)

I used to make scores in Cubase, but left for Ableton to focus on electronic stuff years ago. Now I want to go back to scoring and wondering if Studio One is a genuine Cubase competitor as I quite like the look of it and it seems to have a lot of nice features?

Anybody got any experience using it for this kind of stuff?


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## MarcelM (Dec 3, 2016)

i think it would be best for you to try the demo and see if it works good for you.
studio one improved alot but cubase is still king in midi editing.
workflow is much faster in studio one though.


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## Tysmall (Dec 3, 2016)

All modern daws are capable of the same thing just in different ways, anything else you read is just fancy marketing talk. There is no point to switch unless you are bored and want to learn something new, in my opinion. That being said there are some hardcore studio one followers.


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## jcrosby (Dec 3, 2016)

Studio One has gotten a lot better over the past few years but it does lack certain features that are pretty basic for scoring. If you're a notation guy you have to buy notion separately and it's not natively integrated. tempo mapping isn't great with it either, specifically mapping events and tempo to timecode... I'd imagine they'll address this at some point but I wouldn't hold your breath on it any time soon...

It's a pretty solid DAW, great for writing library tracks... Worth demoing but if you do, demo it by trying to score a scene... I still haven't found it as a replacement for Logic when scoring to picture.


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## Soundhound (Dec 3, 2016)

i like studio one a lot, the scratch pad and other features are great. the thing i haven't gotten past is the one midi channel per track thing. esp for scoring it rules it out for me for that use. others may have workarounds for that i'd think though. but in general it's pretty great.


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## Dr.Quest (Dec 3, 2016)

Great workflow and setup in Studio One. Pretty light on the CPU as well.


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## InLight-Tone (Dec 3, 2016)

It's decent, but in my opinion doesn't hold a candle to Cubase for creating modern media productions. For audio recording, sure, but large scale template projects, no way. The interface is horribly flat and confusing IMO and whn I get back in Cubase I breathe a sigh of relief...


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## jonathanwright (Dec 4, 2016)

The primary strength of Studio One is it's workflow, The drag-and-drop approach really does speed up the composition process immensely. It definitely supports the 'start with a blank project and add instruments as you need them' approach.

Recent versions have introduced 'Disable Tracks' in the same way as Cubase, so if you wanted to set up a large template using that feature you can.

As the previous guys have already mentioned, there are some weaknesses depending on your needs.

There is no in built score editor, and the current integration with Notion is clunky (although it's in its first iteration).
Tempo handling is very basic.
It doesn't allow multiple 'timebases', such as one for bars and one for seconds.
It doesn't have it's own version of Expression Maps.
MIDI processing isn't anywhere near as advanced as Cubase or Logic.
That said, it does have some positives.

You can freely arrange tracks in the mixer.
You can easily render MIDI plugins, and it has a neat 'Transform to Audio' option, which allows you to edit the audio and those changes are kept when transforming back to MIDI.
The 'Multi Instruments, where you can combine VI's and apply MIDI and audio FX to them individually and combined is very powerful.
If you try out the demo, I'd recommend setting up a few presets for your favourite instruments as that saves a huge amount of time when dragging and dropping.

More importantly, take a look at setting up Macros. They're very easy to create and setting up a few of your own to suit your workflow can fill in many of the gaps it currently has.


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## jcrosby (Dec 5, 2016)

jonathanwright said:


> The primary strength of Studio One is it's workflow, The drag-and-drop approach really does speed up the composition process immensely. It definitely supports the 'start with a blank project and add instruments as you need them' approach.



Indeed. This is why I think it's a great DAW for writing library cues, not so much for scoring to picture... Really quick workflow that if I'm not bound to picture I like working in. Hoping they get the video and MIDI end together as I'm planning on ditching OSX at some point, but not until it's a worthy contender...


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## Vin (Dec 7, 2016)

Yeah, long time Cubase user here, but tried Studio One 3 recently and the workflow is just...so much faster. Its MIDI is, however, quite primitive compared to Cubase's and that's totally reasonable since Cubase it on its 9th version, while S1 in on its 3rd. Also, they focused on stealing Pro Tools users for now, so I'd love if they focused more on improving S1's MIDI features now - I'm looking to switch since I transitioned to trailer/library music (frenetic deadlines) almost completely and I don't score to picture that much anymore.


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## jcrosby (Dec 7, 2016)

Vin said:


> Also, they focused on stealing Pro Tools users for now, so I'd love if they focused more on improving S1's MIDI features now



Too true... I understand the reasoning, but Pro Tools is Pro Tools... To put out a well rounded DAW these days developers need to put equal focus on MIDI, and if they're smart they'd put a little more focus on video too... Considering we live in the youtube era there's no shortage of people mixing or designing sound to picture...


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## mac88104 (Dec 8, 2016)

I really would like to have a try on Studio One but I wonder if it is able to handle a lemur touchscreen for displaying/hiding certain tracks. I begin to settle this on Cubase without any problem, I am not sure Studio One is able to do that using shortkeys macros as Cubase does.


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## mac88104 (Dec 8, 2016)

If it is possible and convenient I could migrate.


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## rose_aleria (Dec 9, 2016)

In my experience as a composer who is starting to advance more towards professional approaches, a thousand times yes! I find it very pleasant to work with, and most of all it's been rock solid/stable for me. Before this, i was using REAPER. I'm a fairly new (been at it for 2 to 3 years) composer switching to Studio One, so I'm not used to any professional DAWs, and so far, I'm not missing anything.
I haven't scored to picture yet but i have seen videos where studio one handled video material just fine - from what I've seen, one of the recent updates improved the video engine.

Just like some other DAWs, you can load VST's seperately from the tracks if you wish to, then assign midi tracks to channels on multi-timbral instruments. Multi-output works, as well.

I will post a screenshot of my orchestral template later this evening, so you can see what it's like when using it that way.

I will also say that the stock plugins are very good. Some of my friends on the vi-control discord say it's on par with stuff like Waves's creations.
They also look the part. (and have useful displays such as with the parametric EQ called Pro EQ)


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## samphony (Dec 9, 2016)

All I can say is they have Midi editing and articulation control on their radar.

I also hope that they are fixing the auto save issue. As soon as you work on a large project the auto save dialog will block you from interacting with Studio One.
Auto save should be a true background process.

On my setup Logic Pro X is still the most efficient DAW but I work with studio one since 1.6 as well.

Here are two feature requests I've created that might be interesting for you as composers/editors

http://answers.presonus.com/12179/no-overlap-edit-mode-for-copy-paste-duplicate-cut-delete

http://answers.presonus.com//3240/fr-articulation-editor?show=3240#q3240


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## PeterKorcek (Dec 9, 2016)

rose_aleria said:


> I haven't scored to picture yet but i have seen videos where studio one handled video material just fine - from what I've seen, one of the recent updates improved the video engine.



I think Studio One is fine, but just to give something from my perspective, when I was using Video engine in version 3.3, it was not that smooth - it froze a couple of times and it was very difficult to have fluid workflow experience with it - as I mentioned in another thread, Reaper saved me in this situation


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## rose_aleria (Dec 9, 2016)

Right, so I promised I would post screenshots:















This is my work-in-progress orchestral template in Studio One. I personally think it looks very pleasant 



PeterKorcek said:


> I think Studio One is fine, but just to give something from my perspective, when I was using Video engine in version 3.3, it was not that smooth - it froze a couple of times and it was very difficult to have fluid workflow experience with it - as I mentioned in another thread, Reaper saved me in this situation


Funnily enough, I switched away from Reaper because it was crashing every time when loading EastWest PLAY patches.. randomly. Usually it couldn't handle more than 5 to 6 patches before crashing.


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## Chris Hurst (Dec 9, 2016)

For me, it is so neeeeeearly there. 

Really fast workflow which suits the way I work. Disable tracks, Mastering suite. I personally like the midi editing as well. Scratch pads are great and could be developed for work to picture in my mind. Mix FX/Console shaper is a cool idea and the latest iteration seems much closer to a real console with how it deals with crosstalk etc.

However it is not as good as Logic for working with picture. Not as flexible with tempo changes/timecodes, exporting a section of movie etc. If they could build the mastering part of it into working to picture somehow...a bit like chunks in Digital Performer...it would be great.

IF they get that sorted, I'd change permanently. 

If I'm writing library or Trailer music, I tend to use Studio One now.

All in all, it actually is getting better with each version.


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## robgb (Dec 10, 2016)

I personally love it. I came from Sonar, then Nuendo (aka Cubase), then Logic, now Studio One. Studio One is the first time I've spent more time making music than fiddling with the bullshit that goes along with working in a DAW. It's very intuitive and just easy to use.


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## Ryan99 (Dec 12, 2016)

Studio One is my favorite DAW. Even though I have other DAW's, I always use it. Very intuitive and some great features for creativity.


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## jemu999 (Dec 12, 2016)

Chris Hurst said:


> Not as flexible with tempo changes/timecodes, exporting a section of movie


This. 

A great DAW, but not quite ready for full film scoring IMO. Their tempo track is awful to work with, and as stated earlier, they need issues to work on timebased tracks/markers etc. Scoring to film with hit point mapping and such is just not ready.


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## Soundhound (Dec 12, 2016)

How do you guys deal with only being able to have one midi channel per track? When dealing with multiple instruments in an instance of Kontakt for example?


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## rose_aleria (Dec 13, 2016)

Soundhound said:


> How do you guys deal with only being able to have one midi channel per track? When dealing with multiple instruments in an instance of Kontakt for example?



It's simpler than it seems at first:

1) Just go to the mixer, click the instruments button to show the Instruments list, go to the top of the list, click the little plus sign, and add your instrument/VSTi.

2) Create an instrument track and point it to your created instance and the specific midi channel you want to target. You do this by, in the arranger/timeline view, in the bar on the left side with the tracks on it, clicking the dropdown on your desired track that you wish to target to an instrument. Then select your instance, and in the dropdown next to it, select your MIDI channel. You may need to enlarge the vertical size of your tracks to see these dropdowns. Repeat this step for every MIDI channel you want to use. Tip: "add tracks" comes in really handy, especially when you use the "ascending" option.

3) Optionally, if you want to have seperate outputs on the instance, click the little triangle next to your instrument/VSTi in the Instruments list in the mixer, select Expand, then just tick the boxes.

---

That seems like the most efficient way so far to me. But you can also do the first step by adding a VSTi/instrument in a track like you normally would, and then following step 2 and 3 as required.


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## Musicam (Dec 13, 2016)

I prefer Fl STUdio free upgrading!


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## zacnelson (Dec 13, 2016)

Soundhound said:


> the thing i haven't gotten past is the one midi channel per track thing.


I hope you don't mind, but could you please explain this to me? I'm a Pro Tools user and I'm not sure what you're describing.


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## Musicam (Dec 13, 2016)

Well, I use Logic X and Cubase. Recently I discover FL Studio, have allt he functions that I need for OST and I havent to pay for upgrading like Cubase. I use my money for another library. Worth :_)


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## sp_comp (Dec 13, 2016)

I'm looking to move away from Logic so I upgraded my Studio One to the latest version. I tested it out last week on a really short 25 sec project.

One thing that I've found working with video though is that you can't move the video within the project(at least I haven't found a way to do that). In Logic, importing a video creates a video track and you can move that video further down the timeline if you don't want to start exactly on bar 1.
So far, I don't think you can do this in S1. It doesn't create a video track on the arrange page, but you need to open the video player window. There's an offset setting, but that is cumbersome. I would like to be able to just move the video down the timeline.


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## IoannisGutevas (Dec 18, 2016)

What i do is i load the video in cubase and set markers and tempo points. Then i export them and import them in Studio One and write the music there


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## Soundhound (Dec 18, 2016)

Thanks for this. It seems like a long way to go, but I'll absolutely give it a try.

I think what it wouldn't solve though is the ability to have multiple midi channels in one track as in Logic (which can often result in a mess, but even so the flexibility is good to have I think), or am I not understanding what your approach is here?




rose_aleria said:


> It's simpler than it seems at first:
> 
> 1) Just go to the mixer, click the instruments button to show the Instruments list, go to the top of the list, click the little plus sign, and add your instrument/VSTi.
> 
> ...


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## Soundhound (Dec 18, 2016)

Not at all! What I mean was you can't have midi notes assigned to different midi channels in one track. I often find myself doing that when working with multiple instruments in one kontakt instance for example.




zacnelson said:


> I hope you don't mind, but could you please explain this to me? I'm a Pro Tools user and I'm not sure what you're describing.


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## rose_aleria (Dec 19, 2016)

Soundhound said:


> Thanks for this. It seems like a long way to go, but I'll absolutely give it a try.
> 
> I think what it wouldn't solve though is the ability to have multiple midi channels in one track as in Logic (which can often result in a mess, but even so the flexibility is good to have I think), or am I not understanding what your approach is here?


Ohh! I've never experienced that as I have never used Logic very deeply before. My apologies. I do not know how to do that in Studio One... and I am not sure if it has that functionality.

Here's some extensive info on Instrument Tracks within Studio One: http://www.studio-one.expert/studio-one-blog//the-a-to-z-of-studio-one-i-is-for-instrument-tracks
That still does not explain how to do that, however..


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