Dear team,
I am a Studio One+ user, having used it since its third version.
I use Studio One for all my mixing and mastering work, including the latest
Dolby Atmos mixes. While using version 6.5 for Dolby Atmos music production,
I greatly appreciate the convenience that Studio One provides. However, I
still notice some features that could be added or bugs that need to be
fixed.
1. I often use some CPU-intensive plug-ins for basic sound processing. I may
adjust the Surround Pan/Object Pan of sound elements while changing EQ and
compression plug-in parameters to get the best positioning and tone. When a
track is adjusted, I usually render the track to save CPU resources.
However, I found that if my track is in Object Pan mode, the track will
automatically switch to Surround Pan mode after rendering, and I cannot
recall the positioning information adjusted with Object Pan before. I hope
Studio One can only render effects when rendering tracks. The rendered
tracks retain the original Surround Pan/Object Pan mode and the previously
set position information. This will save me several hours of recall time for
Pan parameters.
2. In stereo mixing and mastering, bus processing is a great technique,
especially in styles that require powerful and punchy drum such as rock and
electronic music. But in immersive audio production, many sound elements use
Object, so they cannot be routed to a bus like traditional bus processing.
To get the sound characteristics brought by bus processing, I will mount the
Fat Channel plug-in on the Main Bed (many good compressors support 7.1.2
multi-channel processing), and then I will copy the Fat Channel to the
remaining Objects. The effect is very good. But when I want to adjust Fat
Channel parameters, things get complicated. Studio One currently cannot
adjust the same plug-in on multiple tracks at the same time. I hope Studio
One can add a Plugin-Link function similar to Cubase/Nuendo or ProTools,
that is, multiple grouped tracks can choose to control their plug-in
parameters simultaneously. If there is such a function, it is possible for
us to do "bus processing" for Bed and Object at the same time. This function
can better combine immersive audio and traditional stereo craftsmanship and
more conveniently get better sound. We really need such a function.
3. Next is the suggestion about Surround Panner and Object Panner. I noticed
that Studio One's Surround Panner is a hemispherical space (similar to Logic
Pro), but in actual music production, we find that Panners such as Dolby
Atmos Music Panner, Nuendo, and ProTools are more convenient to use. We need
control parameters such as front diffusion and rear diffusion to provide
more possibilities for sound field design.
In addition, we often need to set the left and right channels of stereo
signals separately to different positions in space. In Studio One, both
Surround Panner and Object Panner do not give users a choice, whether to
adjust left and right channel signals together, or to adjust them
separately. We hope to only switch the link between the left and right
channels through a button in Panner, or to split them for adjustment.
If I am not clear in my description, please refer to ProTools's
Surround/Object Panner. Although Studio One's Panner is beautiful and
friendly to new users, in the real mixing process, we find that we still
need a Panner like ProTools‘.
We hope that in the next version, there will be another mode similar to
ProTools Panner for us professional users who have needs.
4. Studio One's Surround Delay and Open Air Reverb are great, and most of
the native plug-ins also support 7.1.2 processing. We think this is where
Studio One is better than any immersive audio DAW. I hope Studio One can do
better:
4.1. More Surround Fx, such as Chorus Flanger Phaser, Auto Pan/X-Trem,
etc., similar to Logic Pro's effects, which will convert stereo into 7.1.2
channels.
4.2. All dynamic FX that support multi-channel processing, such as the
powerful Tricompe, MultibandDynamics, Fat Channel Compressor, etc. Add
Channel Link adjustment for them, so I can focus on processing the Front
signal, let Drum, Bass, and Vocal stick together; then reduce the treatment
of the rear and sky channels, to make the atmosphere sound more relaxed.
Thank you for reading this. I love Studio One and hope it can get better. If
I see the above problems improved in the next version, I will be extremely
grateful.
Best regards,
Yuanming