Questions & Answers

Studio One in favour of midi compositions

+2 votes
1,639 views
asked May 23, 2018 in Studio One 4 by joswylin (1,260 points)
edited May 23, 2018 by joswylin
Like most DAWs, Studio One (Professional) doesn't seem to be very midi friendly. It has tons of features for audio editing, but the midi compositions don't benefit from the same attention and effort from the developers' side. I like Studio One very much (very clean and intuitive with exquisite sonic quality), but I feel that midi users stay somewhat behind and in the cold. Version 4 shows again almost exclusively audio applications and improvements. Are note-based composers a negligible minority? I wouldn't think so. The score implementation from Notion could be improved as well.

3 Answers

+1 vote
answered May 25, 2018 by arndkaiser (2,300 points)

I whole-heartedly disagree with this statement. Adding Music Editor ("MIDI") features has been a main focus for the development of Studio One 4 and many of the highest-ranking feature requests from this forum have been included with this release:

  • Drum Editor
  • Drum and Melodic Patterns and Variations
  • Patterns saved in Musicloop• Automatic mapping (Impact XT)
  • Alternate note coloring schemes
  • Sync option for editors
  • Powerful “Select notes...” options
  • New or improved note event options (Humanize, Length, Velocity, Delete Notes)
  • Multiple Macro toolbars (page selection)
  • Improved multi-editing
  • Preserve and restore zoom states
  • Automatic Lead Sheet creation with Notion 6.4
Plus: you may or may not consider the Chord Track and harmonic editing features plus two new virtual instruments major new "MIDI" and composition features. We do. 
Obviously there are more related features and improvements yet to be implemented, which will naturally happen over time. Many of these are already listed here. You have a voice and vote here to present and promote any specific features you consider missing in Studio One but I challenge the generalized statement that Studio One "doesn't seem to be very MIDI friendly". 
+1 vote
answered May 25, 2018 by joswylin (1,260 points)

Hi Arnd,

I won't discuss your arguments, because they are all true. What I wanted to state is that for us, classical composers who only work with entering notes and the necessary midi editing, the possibilities aren't anywhere near the fantastic possibilities of audio editing.

I'm a longtime Notion user and a Studio One user for 3 versions, so I know exactly what works fine and what doesn't in my practice. You don't hear me complain, because other DAWs have their flaws as well. (I used to work with Logic Pro X also.) But in Version 3, you wouldn't want to now how many crashes I had when working with Vienna Ensemble Pro and MIR Pro. Even without VE Pro, S1 regularly quit for no reason known to me...

I remember experts telling years ago that the days of traditional midi were over. Now, 20 years later, we still work as if nothing has changed. The only difference are the instrument libraries being much more realistic and sophisticated and therefore more demanding.

Some useful suggestions for traditional composers who want to create a decent mock-up of their scores: better humanising features; automated tempo changes (has improved in version 3), but can be made a lot more fluent by drawing or using a slider; insertion of key switches from an editable preset series, adaptable to all instrument libraries like some sort of graphical interface; an exact import of midi data from a Notion score which doesn't work properly now (sometimes it's a real mess); correct midi rewiring in both directions; (Notion-)score image following the piano roll when editing in either the score or in the piano roll; understandable names for CCs (not like dummy1-12-23) when editing sound patches - the common ones are present, like volume, velocity... VSL says that there are so far no exchanges between Presonus and Vienna, except for some minor presets in Notion. That's the reason of the many crashes (so they say).

These are only some suggestions. Older suggestions in Notion (like playable mordents - multiple feature request - have never been realised). But the audio editing functions are really miraculous and improve version after version. Do you understand my point now? A DAW works in two directions: audio AND note input. In my case, I hardly ever work with audio...

For the rest, only positive comments. It's a great DAW and I wouldn't want to work with another one, but I do hope that they will take into consideration the note-bound composers. wink

Jos

+1 vote
answered Feb 22, 2020 by christiangirard (400 points)
I think that both of you are right :) there are some great features made by Presonus and maybe some new ones could be made. In my opinion, I think that Notion integration in Studio One should be Total. Like inside of it so that I could use either the Piano toll or the Staff to edit my midi composition.
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