Question

Hello!

I have about 16 years recording experience, all of it in the Sonar world. Last year I purchased an AudioBox iOne which came bundled with Studio One Artist 3. At the time I was in the middle of a large project and didn't want to put in the effort to learn a new environment.

Well, that project is finished and I am now ready to dive in! Problem is I have ZERO idea where to start.

I'm on Windows 10 and have been using Sonar X3 for far too long at this point. I have a lot of VST 2/3 plugins so I'm planning to buy the $80 upgrade to enable their usage within Studio One. Almost all of what I do is basic mic the instrument/s, send it/them in. MIDI now and then but not a focus.

Any advice on tutorials, video series, blogs, etc? Is version 3 still usable or is an upgrade to 4 needed?

Thanks

Answer 1

I switched from Sonar to Studio One when Gibson killed Sonar.  I started by getting the fully functional 30 demo of Studio One Pro and figured out if I could quickly learn Studio One.  There are excellent, official tutorials on YouTube. Also, Studio One is much easier to use and learn than Sonar.  Almost everything is either immediately available in the unified interface, or at most, one click deep.  I suggest you try this approach.  

Also, v3.x is still very usable, but if you find that you like Studio One, I suggest you go with Studio One Pro v4.x.  If you are patient, Studio One Pro is available 1/2 price a couple times if year.  Also, you could write Studio One sales and see if you can still get a discounted Studio One Pro license as a competitive cross grade for Sonar. I bought Studio One Pro as a competitive cossgrade.  It’s a good discount.

Finally, as a previous Sonar owner, I can’t say enough good things about Studio One.  There’s no weird bugs that crash your project, there are no silly workarounds to get things to work, there’s no saving every 10 minutes because you are worried it will crash, etc. Studio One is supremely more stable and usable than Sonar and is well worth the investment in time to learn and money spent.

Answer 2

Like Matthew I migrated to Studio One when Gibson bailed on SONAR (which I'd been using and a beta testing for ages).

Get onto YouTube and search for Studio One.  Gregor (Studio One employee) has some really good ones.  Other users have provided good basic getting started walk-throughs as well.

Other than that, the biggest pain point is re-learning the keyboard shortcuts that your fingers have memorized.

Go through the reference guide and write down the ones you will likely use the most and practice them!

Good luck!

Steven