Question

I was recommended the PreSonus Audio Interface and Studio One Artist because of it's MIDI support and after telling the salesperson I intended to use Native Instruments complete.

Apparently I need to pay $80 to extend Studio One so it can do that. To be honest I have no confidence in that approach. I want the DAW to have that as a core feature and most do. Even GarageBand does that.

So, I'm not going to invest any time at all in Studio One it's pointless.

Answer 1

Studio One has three levels: Prime (Free version), Artist (has some limitations) and Professional (Full-featured flagship version).

Within the Artist version are a bunch of VERY useful and useable plugins natively. It is FAR from "pointless". However, you can purchase the booster pack for Artist, which, among other things, gives you the VST support. You can customise Studio One to you needs if you don't need the Project Page with add-ons.

Answer 2

I have Cubase (old version), Cakewalk (free), Garageband (free), Reaper and Komplete Ultimate and some other plugins. Studio One looks good and I'm sure it enables people to produce good results. Personally I want to use the NI plugins in preference to those shipping with Studio One and if I'm going to invest time in learning S1 I want to initially do that without buying add-ons. I'd be happier being limited to a few tracks.
I stand by pointless though as it applies to my needs. I'm not saying S1 is pointless it would cost me £90 to find that out and the salesman sold me the interface on the basis of S1 and it's compatibility with Komplete.

That said I'm very happy with the interface itself.