Just a heads up and NO THIS NOT a complaint about PreSonus and they aren’t trying to scam you. I think they think they are offering you a convenience by trying to keep you in the “PreSonus family” (via plugin Presence XT) but you should understand “value” read on.

If you are new to PreSonus because you jumped on the Sonar to Studio One 3 Pro “cheap” deal (I did “just because” I already had Notion 6 anyway) and especially if you ARE NOT familiar with SampleTekk, and you got an email offer from PreSonus offering a “sale” of 30% off SOME SampleTekk pianos (for PreSouns’s Presence XT) please know:

Sampletekk, a few times a YEAR offers their pianos for Kontakt and Halion on EXS24 on sale at half or 60% off or…., and as a matter of fact the White Grand that PreSonus is selling at 30% off for a total of $79! It is the same White Grand offered in Kontakt (halion & exs24) format at Smapletekk for NORMAL $79 and it's not even the MK II white Grand.

You might want to get on Sampletekk’s mailing list

http://www.sampletekk.com/grand-pianos

I have a LOT of Sampletekk pianos they are good and I LOVE the Rain piano. I even have one or two in soundfont format for use on old XP 4GB laptop for a good piano –less stress and resources on that system.

again just INFO that's all

Larry

So, I just jumped on the Studio One Pro offer ($149); I guess I'm a sucker for DAW punishment. They accepted my Sonar license and provided me the details for getting the special price. I already own Notion 6, so I'll be interested in the interaction between the two. So I guess I'll spend this weekend downloading the 30GB of content they ship you (at least that's less than the 70GB of content from Samplitude). And from there, I guess I'll be spending the first part of the new year deciding the best way to go for the future.

Don't get me wrong. I really like RealBand and am very comfortable with it and find I can do an awful lot; however, programs like Sonar, Samplitude, Studio One, Reaper, etc provide a whole 'nother level of feature capabilities. I suspect my workflow will continue to be BIAB --> RealBand (since it can also work with BIAB content) --> whatever my new choice of DAW is.

As they say, it's all about options.

Yea in last year, since I divorced from Sonar, I've acquired a few additional DAW's, that I didn't already have, and with each one its manufacturers related "detritus" so we all have a a LOT of new plugins now and if like me never use most if any

-FL-12 (no notation really - great piano roll however also just feels smooth and fast)

-Studio One Pro 3 (like you I had Notion 6 that was a another DEAL forget what I think it was because I had Finale?? don't remember). But again if you have Kontakt and and want to use SampleTekk pianos buy direct from Sampletekk (cheaper, just not as "integrated" - since you need to call up Kontakt or Halion and need to call it up)

-finally, Samplitude X3 Pro (it has its own MIDI to notation and back)

I still find myself running to Mixcraft when in a hurry, hmmm....

Larry

Yep, I'm going to have to settle down and decide on something, as it doesn't make sense to learn so many or have projects scattered around in a bunch of different DAW's.

• PGMusic BIAB/RealBand 2018 (but started back with version 8 around 20 years ago)
• PGMusic PowerTracks Pro Audio 2017 (but started with version 5 around 20 years ago - this was my very first DAW and it got me hooked right away as to recording multitrack audio and MIDI)
• Mixcraft Pro 8 (I think I started back with version 5)
• MultiTrack Studio Pro Plus 8 (I've been through several versions of this as well)
• n-Track Studio 8 (started with v5 or 6)
• Reaper (no brainer for the price)
• Ableton Live Live 8.4.2 (very old version, but came free with an audio interface)
• Wavosaur (free)
• Anvil Studio Works! (bought like 15+ years ago, but never use)
• Tracktion 7 (tempted to go to Waveform, but haven't pulled that trigger yet)
• Cubase Artist 7 (they're up to version 9.5, but haven't upgraded as I don't use it)
• Cakewalk Music Creator 7 (started several years ago with version 5)
• Cakewalk Sonar Platinum (lifetime license that just died - didn't realize it meant its lifetime)
• MAGIX Samplitude Pro Studio 2013 (not the actual full professional Samplitude, but a scaled back version that actually looks and works a lot like MixCraft - nothing like naming confusion, eh? This is where I was first introduced to the 12GB Independence Library download, so I had some previous experience there)
• MAGIX Music Maker (came with the Samplitude bundle)
• Presonus Studio One Prime (Free, because well free)
• Presonus Studio One v3 (not free, just got authorization for crossgrade and will get after work tonight)
• Darkwave Studio 5.5 (Free)
• LMMS (Free)

And for general audio wave form editing, I have:

• Wavosaur Audio Editor (Free)
• Diamond Cut Audio Restoration (versions 8 and 10 - I beta test for them, so I get it for free; I've been a customer for close to 20 years and like here at PGMusic, often interact directly with the two owners of the company)
• Diamond Cut Audio Forensics (versions 8 and 10 - again, I beta test for them and end up getting the $1,300 piece of software for free - it's the Audio Restoration version on steroids and is generally purchased by law enforcement agencies to forensically process audio in support of criminal cases - for example, it can remove extraneous noise to where you can pull out a whisper)
• Super MP3 Recorder (no longer available, but I've had this for many, many years, as it was one of the early programs that let you capture in real time anything your computer could play, even if the computer tried to block it; if you could hear it on the computer, you could record it)
• Audacity (because, well free)
• Soundforge (came with the Samplitude Bundle)

And of course for notation:

• Noteworthy Composer
• Sibelius 7 (started with 6 as a Crossgrade price from Finale, but stopped upgrading when they went subscription and Avid fired the Sibelius team)
• Finale Songwriter 2012 (their low-end notation program)
• Finale Print Music 2014 (their mid-range notation program - I use it on my third computer, since Finale only allows two authorizations, so this gives me some cross-computer compatibility)
• Finale 25 (the 64-bit version, started as an educational license many years ago and have upgraded each new version)
• MuseScore (open source notation, at my favorite price - free, and it reads BIAB files)
• Notation Composer (not free, but have used for many years as it does a decent job of importing MIDI files to create notation)
• Forte Home v9 (started with Forte BASIC v8, but got an attractive upgrade offer to the Home version; I'll have to work with it more before deciding whether I want to go to the Pro version)
• Harmony Assistant from Myriad Software (I purchased this years ago, mainly because it was one of the early software offerings that provided a SynSinger like capability; never really used it and the capability didn't work that well, but was very intriguing at the time)

Maybe I need help?!?

For the most part, I use RealBand (occasionally PowerTracks, but they are so similar), Cakewalk Sonar, and MultiTrack Studio as a DAW. I generally use Diamond Cut Audio Restoration v8 for waveform editing. And for Notation, I mainly use Noteworthy Composer, Notion, or Finale.

Yes, John. Sounds like you need some serious therapy. You can offload some of that to me as a start.....

And of course my 1.5 TB D: drive is just about to get completely full with all the sound libraries I've got stored there (that's all that's on that drive). It does add up fast.

I know what you mean there. Just got a new 2 TB external backup recently since the 1 TB one was full. Of course I also have a new PG drive coming for BIAB 2018 so I can remove some of the BIAB backups from the externals.

John

Your list and mine look very similar (I collect junk too "just because" - "look a squirrel" -LOL) but I run with six internal 2TB drives and I am just about to change at least one of my internal drives (E) to a 4TB (watching Amazon and Newegg as we speak).

I might also go ahead and upgrade my "music" drive (D) to a 4TB as well but since I'm building a new PC mid- next year I'm trying to hold off spending more for HW now on this PC. No, I don't want to put used HW in NEW build - I don't care if it is only 6 months "used."


==========

I use to have (before this current build) four external USB drives (2-2tbs, a 3tb and a 4tb) but they could be a PITA even when drive letters were "fixed" in stone - (via Computer Management- Disk Management). Letters can change after SW/HW installs, OS updates. Plus I found that more than one or two USB drives plugged in and on can slow down boots and re-boots or other things. So I now keep all USB drives OFF-LINE. And only plug them in when needed to make redundant "safety" copies, weekly image backups (I keep a once-a-month IMAGE of my three boot drives on an internal drive for FASTER recovery if needed. Its current Acronis compressed size is ~1.5TB so even the internal 2TB drive it goes to that drive is getting a little too small.

Time to start planning for a large NAS for next PC.
Larry

I've thought about larger internal drives, but each new large drive means two drives for backup purposes. And of course my aging laptop is limited by the drive form factor (the larger 2 1/2" drives sit too tall to fit in the laptop).

Maybe one day when I win the lottery...of course, I would actually have to play the lottery for that plan to work (I don't). LOL

And to think about 28 years ago whilst working at a Uni we installed a really huge 10 meg hard drive and that would hold all the info we would ever likely want to store.

Tony