Farewell Presonus, welcome Fender recording products!

[Wonks]

It seems that FMIC, who bought Presonus back at the end of 2021 have ditched the name Presonus, and are simply calling the hardware and software products 'Fender'. So there's now the Fender Quantum HD8 audio interface and Fender Studio Pro (rather than Presonus Studio One).

Bloody marketing departments!

[Eddy Deegan]

As a Studio One + PreSonus StudioLive III user I'm not bothered about the name change but recent DAW updates have been a little concerning. When Studio One 6 was the current version they announced version 7 would consolidated the various options (Producer, Artist, Pro) into a single "Studio One Pro" product.

This in and of itself wouldn't have been too bad but they stiffed long-term Pro users a bit on pricing as they then announced that rather than do releases once or twice a year they'd roll out more minor updates as they happened. A lot of people weren't happy. I never updated to Studio One 7 as it would have cost me more than the major version updates from year-to-year did in previous years, a decision which I'm glad I made because a lot of people who bought into that new release cycle were left rather disappointed as there were no updates of note after that announcement, leaving version 7 as something of an expensive update with little follow-up.

Most recently Fender Studio 8 arrived. I did update my perpetual license this time as I felt there were some bits and pieces in there that made the discount for users of previous versions worth it. However it's not without issues. There are problems with automation when rendering mixdowns and users on StudioOneForum have reported various other problems.

They also changed the way that a few things work which upset some folks' workflows. None of which is the end of the world but it's clear that Fender are now stamping the product with their own image. A lot of rebranding has taken place and that seems to have taken precedence over stability, at least anecdotally speaking. For the first time in years I've now got one plugin that if used for more than a couple of minutes causes the entire DAW to crash and abruptly quit for example.

I expect they'll iron out those wrinkles but internally I'm a little pessimistic about the licensing model going forward and mentally I'm preparing for a jump back to Logic Pro should they go subscription-only or start changing the way things work enough that it's no longer the product it currently is, although it would be nice if I could stay on the DAW I've come to be most fond of.

It does feel like the end of an era is approaching but I'm trying to keep an open mind at present and we'll see how it all pans out.

[James Perrett]

A lot of rebranding has taken place and that seems to have taken precedence over stability, at least anecdotally speaking.

Sounds a bit like what happened when Adobe took over Cool Edit Pro and rebranded it Audition. The first version that Adobe released was basically the same as the final Cool Edit Pro version but with the Adobe name on it.

The version 2 was fairly different and had massive stability problems. Apparently it was a total re-write, presumably to conform to Adobe's coding style which was rushed out before it was ready and never fixed. This was what made me start to use Reaper.

However, Adobe came good with version 3 (which is the version that I still use) before switching to a subscription model for later versions.

[ajay_m]

Cripes!. The Reddit Live Sound folks, who love to say 'Friends don't let friends buy Presonus' are gonna have to come up with a new piece of snark.
[I don't necessarily agree with them, I know there are people on this forum who use and are very happy with their products].

Will they carry on making all those hardware products, I wonder?. It's viciously competitive out there and for things like live sound mixers, the market has kind of coalesced around Behringer for where money matters, and A&H, Yamaha, Waves, Digico and a very small number of other vendors where in professional live sound, gear riders mean that stuff like Presonus (or for that matter Tascam's attempt to break into that market), are simply not gonna get a look in.

Plus A&H and Yamaha for that matter have been reasonably aggressive in offering lower-end products that seem to be selling pretty well. The market for audio interfaces, per se, as opposed to live sound gear, must also be pretty small. We live in interesting times.....

[adrian_k]

There are echos here of when Gibson bought Cakewalk Sonar - price hikes, quality issues, annoying changes, etc.

[awjoe]

I went through the Cool Edit > Adobe Audition process (yes, Version 3 was the best), and then bailed when they went subscription. I moved to Studio One, which I really like, but now it looks like the software might be paralleling Adobe Audition's fate. What do you suggest my next port of call be if I want to jump ship again? Something good at audio and MIDI recording and editing is all I need. I don't do beats and I don't want instruments.

[Watchmaker]

I dunno. I loved Studio One through V4 but after that it seemed the company's focus changed and I was never able to get any later versions stable. I felt they lost the plot so I moved to Logic. It's been rock solid. I doubt Fender has the ability to elevate the brand.

[awjoe]

Shifting to Logic would mean the price of a Mac be added to that of the software, plus the pain of learning both a new OS and a new DAW. A deal breaker, I think.

[adrian_k]

Reaper.

I tested it out when Cakewalk was looking shaky and Reaper does everything you need. In the end I stayed on Cakewalk just because I have 20 odd years of stuff, but would move to Reaper in a heartbeat if Cakewalk becomes difficult again.

[shufflebeat]

Reaper.

Runs on a clockwork mouse and can be portable on a USB stick.

[Arpangel]

Reaper for 23 years here, and don’t want to change, it changed my life when I first used it, all of a sudden here was something that didn’t need a doctorate from a German university to use it.

[Rich Hanson]

Like Eddy I'm sticking with Studio One / Studio Pro for now as it is a fine DAW and I really like the workflow. It's not perfect, but what is? But I do have Logic and Reaper to jump to should I need to.

The price this year is much more reasonable than previously, and it's still the same development team. There were reports of stability issues in Studio Pro 8 but we were using it all day at Eddy's without any issue so YMMV.

[ajay_m]

Justin put that $80 million he got from selling winamp to good use so as long as reaper is run as a benevolent philanthropic dictatorship it'll certainly be a good safe harbour. But it is not open source so, in the future, who knows.... Fingers crossed ...

[Drew Stephenson]

Shifting to Logic would mean the price of a mac be added to that of the software, plus the pain of learning both a new OS and a new DAW. A deal breaker, I think.

If you're not already a Mac user, and don't need a lot of VST instruments, then Reaper is probably the sensible option. Logic is, I think, still a great value tool if you've already got a Mac and are likely to use the included instruments.

[Forum Admin]

Like Eddy I'm sticking with Studio One / Studio Pro for now as it is a fine DAW and I really like the workflow.

Me too. I am a PreSonus fanboy anyways, and also own a Fender 'fat' Strat as it happens.

I've used Studio One since v2 and pay personally for a monthly subscription (even though I could get an NFR freebie from them).

It is not time to jump ship. I love the new Amp modelling (Mustang and the bass one) and its whole workflow. I'm in the market later this year for an upgraded floorboard so might consider a Tonemaster as it integrates well with Studio Pro 8.

The German PreSonus software team listen well to customer feedback and are to be praised; they were behind the creation of Fender Studio app which has raised the Fender profile in the Tablet app user world.

My only concern about the change would be if I see signs of lack of development of Studio Pro from the synth and serious recording/mastering side of the software - but their revamps and name tidying up of the Project page, calling a spade a spade, works fine in my view.

They want and will grow the market for Studio Pro users, and that has to be a very good thing for all of us. It is cross-platform and recently added Linux support, all of which appeals to the widest user-base.

Long may it continue.

I own a MkI (FireWire) PreSonus StudioLive too, used solely as a studio mixer. Whilst I like other mixers too in this genre, the full native integration with the mixers and DAW is way better than the compromises you need to adopt for non-PreSonus mixers. Having said that, if StudioLive specs were not up to it, and not flexible, then of course I'd look elsewhere.

But as a happy Studio One Professional user, now Studio Pro 8, I am happy to see what transpires down the road.

Ian G

[Forum Admin]

Justin put that $80 million he got from selling winamp to good use...

Forgive my ignorance, who is Justin?

[BigRedX]

If you're not already a Mac user, and don't need a lot of VST instruments, then Reaper is probably the sensible option. Logic is, I think, still a great value tool if you've already got a Mac and are likely to use the included instruments.

This.

I couldn't in all honesty recommend Reaper to any Mac user. The base price of "free" or about £60 looks good, but most Reaper users I know have then spent several hundred Pounds on 3rd party plug-ins of the sort that come as standard with Logic.

I dabbled with Studio One for a year, because I liked the look of the live performance section, but I could never get it to work quite how I wanted, and all the little differences in how Studio One worked compared with Logic made getting up to speed somewhat frustrating. The final straw came because I had opted for the subscription model and we turned up at a venue with no WiFi and Studio One wouldn't load without first authenticating. Luckily we were able to tether my laptop to the singer's phone long enough to get us back up and running, but after that I cancelled my subscription and figured out how to do what I wanted with Logic plus a macro generator.

[Wonks]

Justin Time?
Justin Case?
Justin Today?

[Chet Leeway]

Justin put that $80 million he got from selling winamp to good use...

Forgive my ignorance, who is Justin?

Justin Frankel, the guy behind Cockos/Reaper

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Frankel

[Sam Spoons]

I'm a Mac user who uses Reaper since before Logic was free. I wouldn't change, even to the free version of Logic partly because Reaper is platform agnostic so if I decided to return to Windoze or adopt Linux I could still use Reaper but mostly because I like their business practices and general approach. And, because Reaper just works. FWIW I haven't found the need to buy any plug-ins (but my recording needs are simple so I'm probably not the best example) I have a few free VSTi's (drums, hammond, minimoog and piano IIRC but I rarely use them).

[BigRedX]

My choice of platform is based entirely on the software I want to use.

When I bought my first computer in the early 90s, as well as music I also need to be able to run the industry standard graphic design applications which meant buying a Mac because Quark Xpress at the time was Mac only. Also the biggest and most varied type libraries were only available in Macintosh PostScript format.

I chose Logic, because at the time I was collaborating with another musician who also used Logic, so it made sense to us to both be using the same software for ease of transferring song files.

I now have over 30 years invested in learning and using Logic. Having dabbled with a couple of other DAWs either out of interest or because I was working with someone who used something different I have to say that I now no longer have the time or inclination to learn a different way of working. The same with the OS. The last time I seriously used a computer with an MS operating system it was DOS and Windows 2. From what I've seen of Windows over the last 20 years there is absolutely no reason for me to want to change back. On top of that because Logic is now Mac OS only that's even less reason to try to switch to a different OS or DAW.

Edit: Also because when I bought my first copy of Logic it was just a MIDI sequencer (albeit a very powerful one and much more user friendly compared with the hardware I had being using previously), I use the MIDI facilities a lot more than those who mostly treat their DAW as a multi-track recorder. From what I've seen of Reaper the MIDI editing isn't as comprehensive, sophisticated or easy to use as those DAWs that were originally MIDI only.

[Sam Spoons]

Yup, the most intuitive DAW is the one you know how to use

I started with a midi only 'sequencer' back in the day, and yes, Reaper is, apparently, not a great midi sequencer so that could make it a poor choice for some users. I don't know as I use very little midi.

[James Perrett]

I started with a midi only 'sequencer' back in the day, and yes, Reaper is, apparently, not a great midi sequencer so that could make it a poor choice for some users. I don't know as I use very little midi.

Reaper works fine as a Midi sequencer and I don't think there's anything lacking there. Most people's complaint is that it lacks virtual instruments which are seen as integral to much Midi software these days. However, if people were to actually look at Reaper's online stash of resources,

https://stash.reaper.fm/

and take a look at the JS section then they'd find a whole host of additional instruments and effects to download.

[resistorman]

Branding is a two edged sword. I feel that Fender has been coasting on its legend for decades, the name meaning the opposite of innovation to me. I'd hate to see it on my screen

[Forum Admin]

Justin Frankel, the guy behind Cockos/Reaper

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Frankel

Thanks for the heads-up. What a fabulously interesting guy Justin appears to be. Co-developed Gnutella peer-to-peer file sharing network - wow!

He seems to have done well selling companies/software over the years. Happy for him.