Presonus Studio One

[Squawk]

Studio One 3.5 is beyond a doubt the best DAW software I've ever used, bar none.

This is just my opinion of course, but I've used PTHD (versions 6-12), Cubase (early midi only versions, through Pro 9.5), and Logic 8-10. And others (Paris, etc.)

I tried earlier versions of S1, but while promising, wasn't there yet for me. This version is.

From what I understand, these are the guys who originally developed Cubase. The more current underlying codebase is certainly evident throughout. Performance optimization is so much better that Cubase or Logic Pro X here.
And, Console One integration is insane! I finally am using it again after it gathering dust. This is making my workflow so much easier.

 

[Squawk]

Man, I have to walk this back a bit. As my session grows, CPU usage is quite high and dropouts are happening. Seems higher than Logic and Cubase (at least at 96k).

 

[Monkey Man]

If efficiency is important to you, you could try the 1-month Digital Performer demo, Brother T.

The "Next-gen Pre-gen" implementation seems ridiculous. I saw a demo early on in the piece where they ran, like, 130 instances or something of Kontakt on an iMac (non-Pro - more than a year ago)... easily.

Some cool new features in DP9 too, like the spectral display option in sequence editor and the new plugin-CPU-usage window. If you're anal about wanting to know just what's chewing up what in terms of CPU cycles, that's your baby right there.

Fun fact nobody seems to know:
Did you know that you can open projects from 1984 in DP? It's the longest-running app I'm aware of on the Mac. Who knows, there's probably something else out there, but as far as audio apps go, nothing can come close to that history; the fact that projects enjoy full legacy support going back that far is IMHO insane!

 

[Squawk]

If efficiency is important to you, you could try the 1-month Digital Performer demo, Brother T.

The "Next-gen Pre-gen" implementation seems ridiculous. I saw a demo early on in the piece where they ran, like, 130 instances or something of Kontakt on an iMac (non-Pro - more than a year ago)... easily.

Some cool new features in DP9 too, like the spectral display option in sequence editor and the new plugin-CPU-usage window. If you're anal about wanting to know just what's chewing up what in terms of CPU cycles, that's your baby right there.

Fun fact nobody seems to know:
Did you know that you can open projects from 1984 in DP? It's the longest-running app I'm aware of on the Mac. Who knows, there's probably something else out there, but as far as audio apps go, nothing can come close to that history; the fact that projects enjoy full legacy support going back that far is IMHO insane!

I actually still own a license for DP7. I have tried the demo for 8 (or maybe it was 9).

There's a ton of stuff that's great about Digital Performer, no question. The thing that I could never get past (for the way I work), is the lack of editible regions for midi tracks.

I know that @sdfalk is a big Digital Performer user. I've seen people do amazing work with it, but I am so used to (and reliant on) working with regions for midi, that it's really hard for me to make that leap.

 

[Monkey Man]

I use the Tracks Overview window for region-like editing (cutting, pasting and generally shifting things around / experimenting with song structure).

Still, I'm sure MOTU is aware of the fact that many have requested the option to display MIDI as regions, so you'd think something along those lines will happen at some point. A mute tool was asked for for a while, and lo, it appeared.