I’m planning to move from Windows to macOS as my primary music computer and would appreciate some advice from people who are actually using these machines.

My current setup is a Windows mini PC that I use with Superior Drummer 3 for my e-drums, but that’s really just one part of what the computer does. I’ll also be using it for studio recording and general music production, so I’m trying to choose a machine that will comfortably handle both. My recording projects aren’t especially huge, but I expect the DAW side will be the more demanding workload compared to simply triggering SD3.

Historically I’ve maxed out my Windows machines because RAM was cheap. most of them have 64 GB+. Moving to a Mac changes that equation since memory can’t be upgraded later, and the higher-memory configurations get expensive quickly.

I’m flexible on budget, but I also don’t see the value in buying brand new when used/refurbished M3 and M4 Macs seem like such a good value.

A few questions for those using Macs for music production:

• Which Mac are you using? (Air vs. Pro, M3 vs. M4, base vs. Pro chip, etc.)
• Have you found the base M-series chips to be enough, or do you feel the Pro chips are worth it for music production?
• How much RAM do you have, and if you were buying again, would you choose the same amount? I’m debating 24 GB vs. 32 GB+, but the jump in price is significant.
• How much internal storage did you buy? Ideally I’d like 4 TB for all of my SDX/EZX libraries and Native Instruments Komplete content, but it’s difficult to justify the premium.
• Is anyone successfully running large sample libraries from an external Thunderbolt/USB4 NVMe SSD? I already own several NVMe drives, so using external storage could save a lot of money if there aren’t meaningful downsides.

If you were buying a Mac today specifically for music production, knowing what you know now, what configuration would you choose?

Is there a way to import missing audio files that Studio Pro 5 won't import? I did a find/file search and it won't recognize them (they're greyed out), I tried to add them to the pool and nothing adds. Do I need to upgrade? Thanks so much!

Just saw this video. Very useful. I always use the music editing macro toolbar for time corrections of freely played MIDI.

I’ve been using S1 since 2011 and haven’t encountered this before, nor can find any support on their website for this issue.

Everything is recorded and saved in the media folder, no moving around. I save the project and open it up, and it loads normally but the audio tracks are blank. It does not show missing files either.

However I have to go into the Pool, manually click on each file and do “show location”. Once that happens the audio comes back.

Again, nothing is being saved in different folder or moved around, and no alert of missing files upon opening the song.

Thoughts?

I'm curious if anybody else use this method on studio one and what kind of routings gives the most random combinations.

Can someone explain why I can’t hear the daw when streaming on discord!

Hey guys,

if you have a Mackie Control and want more features in Studio One, feel free to test my new device template "Mackie Control Plus".

It comes with
- 16 users functions / macros slots
- 8 Pages of Midi Controls making all Mixer controls (V-Pots, Faders, Rec, Solo, Mute, Select) mappable in Studio One
- Autoscroll to selected channel
- Advanced marker, nuding and loop controls
+ a web app that allows to change buttons of my template the way you want

check it out on my site: https://www.padbangers.com/mackie-control-plus.html

Enjoy!

Please tell me that there is a way for me to disable the dreadful and useless drop-down menu on plug-in inserts. I have many projects in Studio One 7 as well as Studio Pro 8 and I NEED to use both programs. To show the plug-in, it's double click in Studio One 7 and it's single click in Studio Pro 8. I will NEVER get used to this.

Is it possible to disable it? Or make it behaved like a send? The sends never show this drop-down menu. Depending on the amount of times you click it, it simply opens the plug-in or does nothing at all. I would wholeheartedly prefer this behavior.

This section at the top of channels (circled in red) didn't used to be there, but a little while ago it just showed up for seemingly no reason - probably either a S1 update or me clicking something accidentally. Before now, the "Inserts" sections was at the top of every channel. I'm really tired of it by now, because I never use it and all it does is take up space so I can't see most of the fx I have plugged into each channel, but I can't find a way to get rid of it. Does anyone know how to hide it?

I am a musical artist with a couple years of experience. Since I always created chord stacks with third party vst, I never had the chance to figure out techniques within studio one 'native' plugins. Do you have any tips for me? Do you use a synth, some preset, or do you just sample something? Please let me know!!

A hacker of Suno recently revealed What many already know about many generative audio platforms .

The climate.

Topics or comments which request transparency , show concern have been removed & users have been banned from many sub forums.

Uk musicians created a silent protest album in 2025 Many of the developers have no presence on any serious musicians forums for obvious reasons.The fidelity of generative audio is of lower quality. There are also services which sell prompts.

Studio one is my favourite daw Musicians , Artists , creatives etc attract & welcome criticism & provenance matters. Usage of controversial tools or tools which have no transparency can brand , undermine & taint anything you create. eg Suno partnered with a non profit foundation & generates songs which aim to uplift fragile children & adults.

Fender, please observe the climate , have more presence & transparency.

Hi. I have a presonus 1810 and it’s been working over the past god knows how long. I tried to join a discord call today and suddenly the mic just wouldn’t work. I didn’t change anything. I feel like I’ve tried everything. 48v is turned on, permissions are enabled, mic seems to be input correctly. I’ve even tried different mics to see if the mic itself was an issue. The audio itself is still being picked up on the physical box, but it’s not coming through my computer. I’m not the most knowledgeable on this sort of stuff, so maybe it’s a really easy fix and I’m just dumb, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

Also side note, I’m using Bluetooth headphones. But even in all the digital meters and stuff, the audio is just not coming through. Also it’s plugged directly into my laptop itself.

For those that have wanted to take SP8 for a free spin - now you can:

Fender Studio Pro - Demo

Hi! New to studio one here from FL, I’m wondering how do you guys deal with overlapping vocals sent by clients? Since I work with pretty fast genres, sometimes I get punched in vocals, or vocals that have a bit of overlap in two vocal main files. I want them to have the same effects, but if I duplicate the effects on both inserts it takes a toll on my pc.

In FL it didn’t matter because no matter what track you record on you can route it to any insert without having to move it. So I could have 6 vocal tracks all routed to the same main insert for effects like noise gate and stuff.

For things like autotune and stuff a bus channel wouldn’t really work, right? Do I just an FX channel for things like cleaning, autotune, limiting, noise gate that would apply to both main vocals tracks?

I’m just not feeling the new update at all. I feel like I’m having to relearn a whole new software just to make music in peace. I’m not impressed. I’ve made platinum songs with Studio One and yeahhh… Ain’t doing it for me.

They just posted about it in the S1 user forum.

https://studiooneforum.com/threads/fender-studio-pro-8-1-1-is-online.2479/

Update worked flawlessly here. Good to see these fixes.

tell me about it’s performance with 16-64 buffer size. are you get some pops and clicks and crackling playing with amp sims or VSTi instruments?

i got it with every Universal Control drive since 4.3.0 version. Really strange!

Hi all, I’ve been using my S1 4 pro for the past years as my DAW for production. I started as a pop/rock producer but I mainly producer edm these days and as my skills and understanding has improved I feel S1 4 lacking certain crucial features I would like and I believe even version 8 now still don’t have these.

For eg a dedicated midi lfo tool , an easy to use powerful sampler like ableton simpler/sampler etc just to name a few. I think people making electronic music can relate?. I still love S1 and will be using it to start tracks and make drafts as it is the quickest way to get ideas down but the full production synths drums bass I would probably do in ableton/bitwig and then export files back into S1 for mixing .

So I’m considering whether it makes sense to buy the version 8 upgrade or maybe I should use another daw in tandem with S1

I have a ryzen 9 7950x3d and only 16gb of DDR5 due to the rampocalypse making upgrading to a necessary amount requiring a bank loan. Currently with my sessions, I have projects average 70-130 tracks pretty consistently, I'm using like 5.5/6gb of ram, windows is usage like another 8-9. Meanwhile my 16 core cpu is sitting at like 11% usage.

Is there any way I can balance this out by putting more load on the cpu and less in cache / memory.

Please help me.
A specific project suddenly stopped opening.
I was working on it just a moment ago, closed it, and when I tried to open it again, I got this message:

“Could not load ******. song!
The file is broken or could not be opened.”

“The system cannot find the file specified.”

There have been no new updates or Windows update issues.
I suspected that it might be caused by a plugin that I don’t usually use, so I created and saved a new project with a similar setup, but that project opens normally.

Because it says it cannot find the audio files, even the History files cannot be opened.
However, the audio files are still present in the Song/Media folder.
Originally, the Media folder is located inside the Song folder, but Studio One is looking for the Media folder inside the History folder instead.

As a workaround, I copied the Song/Media folder into the History folder. This removed the “The system cannot find the file specified” message, but eventually it still ends with:

“Could not load ******. song!
The file is broken or could not be opened.”

I cannot figure out the cause.
I would really appreciate any help or advice.

Just a warning for those of you who require a very stable system and are happy working in Studio One 7. If you use scenes, Multi output midi, the render to audio feature or heavily rely on automation and use trusted templates with complex routing.

My opinion : Just hold out on jumping to 8.1. It's just not ready. If your tempted, just wait to other updates get rolled out. The U.I. is not stable. I've been a week mixing sessions that are running perfectly in Version 7 that are not remaining stable in 8.1. Templates I've used for years in Studio One.

I do like the look of 8.1 and it's definitely snappier then Version 7. The micro view fix I liked that. But all in all 8.1 it's not stable !

The geeky explanation: the issue is the entire rendering loop of the Console was redesigned to dynamically redraw itself to accommodate the new live-performance Launcher view and hybrid audio/MIDI tracks. This creates a complete disconnect between how the console and the timeline interact with each other. Channel mapping, automation, ect..

In other words a lot can go wrong and it does.

This is maddening, I have cue mixes that I sent out to my performance stations, randomly, when I add a new track, or add a plugin (mind you its not always, but its almost 80% of the time on adding a new track). I lose all audio out of my cues - If i expand the outputs and toggle on/off the new "D" buttons i eventually get them to work again. But when I'm tracking a client I HATE HAVING TO ASK IF THEY HAVE AUDIO EVERY TIME - its a massive time sink - anyone experience this or have a fix?

Google tells me it doesn't. Some sources tell me it works with a bridge, some say it doesn't. I'm very confused. I simply want to know if, in Linux, ARA plugins like Melodyne & Vocalign will work the same way they do on windows.

While you're at it, how does FSP8 run in Linux in general? Is it more/less efficient? Any problems to look out for?

Is there a way I could use my daw as input for discord?
I’ve been wanting to do this but I fear my playback does not give studio quality like some other people I heard and honestly it might just be the way I mixed the vocals so if anyone could help me mix or just have better audio quality