Question

Hi. I had an older audio interface for my PC and they have not yet supported Win 10 drivers. That said I searched for a new product and selected the AudioBox iTwo. I was happy to see that it came with the PreSonus Studio One software. I had never used it before and was excited to try it.

I down loaded it, installed it, got is set up with the AudioBox iTwo and tried some of the instruments that came with it. The surprise came when I tried to load my VSTs. Tried a couple times. Nothing. Then red that the 64 bit version does not support 32 bit plugins. Thinking that was the problem, I repeated the install process with the 32 bit version of Studio One. Another failure to load the VSTs.

I searched more and finally learned that VSTs are not natively supported and I needed to buy another piece of software. I then went back to Amazon (where I bought the AudioBox) and the PreSonus web site. Neither mention in the AudioBox information that VSTs are not natively supported.

I feel I bought the AudioBox in good faith thinking the software would support the most common of features supported by DAWs. VSTs are supported by trial and mid-level versions of other DAWs. That does not seem to be the case here. Can someone explain the logic of this other than that's just the way we do it. I feel really bad because I was looking forward to trying the product and I burned a few hours trying to figure this out. Also, does anyone else sell or provide soundset instruments and/or effects?

Answer 1

Oa5531,

This has been one of the limitations of Studio One Artist per the entire life of the Software and it has been by design in order to provide a very amazing core embodimentof the Professional Version to PreSonus Customers. Studio One Artist by itself is a very powerful entry level DAW; which comes with quite a bit of stock content, plugins and tools right out of the box.

 The copy of Studio One you that came free with your AudioBox is also sold separately for $99.00US

https://shop.presonus.com/products/software/studio-one-prods/Studio-One-3-Digital-Downloads/Studio-One-3-Artist

The AudioBox also sells for $99.00US and comes with software that also retails for $99.00US.

Some of the features you are asking about would greatly increase the cost of the hardware and software package as well as it would close the tiered gap between the Professional Version that sells for $399.99. Every DAW manufacturer makes "lighter" versions of their Professional-Grade DAW and in order to do so, there is a certain level of separation between the Professional Level Version that includes things like the Project Page and Mastering Suite. For example, Ableton has a Lite Version, Pro Version and Suite Version.

PreSonus has always provided a Version Comparison Chart that clearly lists the features of each paid version of its DAW.

- You can find it her on the PreSonus Website:

http://www.presonus.com/products/Studio-One/compare-versions

Additionally, PreSonus has also continued to add features and content to Studio One over the course of each version's lifespan. Not something that you see many other Recording Software manufacturers do.