Many Choices, Many Opinions

When it came to picking an audio recording software, also called “DAW” (Digital Audio Workstation), I felt like being on a roller coaster ride. There are so many choices and so many opinions. I had some recording software experience with Cakewalk Sonar so I knew at least what basic features to look for. But all of the popular contestants have them. So what makes a software product stand out? What is the right choice for me?

Selection Criteria

I really did not know what criteria to look for at first. My first move was to visit popular retailer sites and check the best rated and most sold products. The following products showed up on most of the best lists (in alphabetical order):

• Abelton Live
• Cubase
• Logic Pro X
• Pro Tools
• Studio One

My next step was to look deeper into each one of them. I visited their manufacturer’s websites, read customer reviews, watched customer videos and had a look at the user interface and features.

On first sight, the technical features seemed to be all very similar. I noticed though that I was receptive to the different user interfaces. So I concentrated on those that I liked most optically. One of them was Studio One by Presonus.

Digging deeper into Studio One, I read and viewed even more articles and videos. I also looked into the company, based in Hamburg, Germany, and into the reviews about their quality and support.

Taking all these factors into consideration, this product convinced me most even though I believe that the other contenders rightfully play in the same league. Studio One Professional comes at a very competitive price as well which finally closed my decision process for this software.

I ordered the product just when the new major release 4 was published: