Question about StudioOne or other DAWs

There are a lot of DAWs that come with decent plugin suites. Don’t chose a DAW because of stock plugins though. Pick one that you like the workflow of. Most people buy 3rd party plugins. You can check out Waves.com as they make good stuff that’s always on sale. Slate (good) and Plugin Alliance (very high quality) are other companies that offer all their plugins for sale, or lease for a monthly fee. FabFilter also makes incredible stuff, but it’s expensive.

 

did you try the pro channel modules in cakewalk? when i tried cakewalk, those actually sounded really good to me. of course it also depends on what kind of sound you´re looking for. i still switched back to studio one because cakewalk was too buggy for me. besides that i second what DudeManBrother said.

 

Yeah, DAWs are all about the workflow. Try a bunch and see which clicks with you. Personally I have Studio One Producer version, which is good, but if you're buying it, keep in mind they charge you a one time fee to be able to use VSTs now (they never used to).
Otherwise it has a ton of options within it. Artist edition is more restrictive with what it offers tbh.

 

Obligatory Reaper recommendation.

It has a free fully functioning demo, and has all the basic stock mixing plugins (plus tons of other little plugins as well). Don't be fooled by the looks of the UI.

 

Like everyone is saying, go with a DAW that suites your needs and has a workflow you can manage. I started using Ableton over a year ago, and I'm still finding new ways to improve my productivity. I don't see people recommending this enough, but research the community of support around the DAW that you're looking at before you make the purchase. (lookup StudioOne beginner tutorial vids to see if you can imagine yourself using the DAW before you drop any amount of money into it)

 

I actually really like Studio One's EQ, compressor, and limiter, but I suppose there are better ones. The amp sim that comes with it has some useable tones for guitar, too.

 

With Reaper, you really have to spend some time configuring it. Make sure to visit the Mouse Modifiers section, the defaults are a little bit crazy (like shifting the edit/play cursor every time you click anywhere).

 

What are you getting the 2A or 3A for exactly? Don’t get me wrong, they’re great compressors, but they are “slow” so they don’t catch transients. They help fatten up sounds. It’s a nice tool to compliment other compressors like the 1176 style (CLA-76 from Waves) that is fast enough to catch transients and make things more punchy. Ideally you’ll use a variety of compressors to accomplish specific tasks. Sometimes it’s controlling dynamics, and sometimes it’s just about adding color.

If I was only buying one Waves plugin, I’d get the Scheps Omni Channel without question. It’s got saturation, eq, gate, multiband compression, and 3 compressors to choose from, including an SSL, 1176, and LA2A style. It does basically everything.

Here’s Andrew Scheps talking about all the features if you’re interested:

 

Yeah definitely. It’s basically an all in one plugin. Using saturation adds harmonics (you can choose odd, even, or a unique asymmetrical clipping) which controls transients and makes the track seem louder. There is also high and low pass filters for cleanup. The noise gate is pretty obvious. The De-esser is perfect for controlling palm mutes (set the second one around 250hz) and fizzy top end. The eq is 4 parametric bands so you have total control, and the compressor gives you the 3 most often used to choose from. Then there’s an extra slot to use any other Waves plugin, or double up on one of the Omni strips. So you could eq into the compressor and add another eq after; or set the FET compressor (1176) to control transients, and add another compressor after, using Opto (LA2A) to fill out the sound.