Studio One

Studio One, developed by the hardware manufacturer PreSonus, is the major modern challenger to legacy DAWs like Pro Tools and Logic. It was built relatively recently from the ground up, meaning it isn't bogged down by twenty years of legacy code. Because of this, it is famous for having an incredibly fast, highly intuitive "drag-and-drop" workflow that makes older DAWs feel clunky by comparison. Its most unique feature is the "Project Page," which explicitly bridges the gap between mixing a song and "mastering" an album. In most software, an artist mixes 10 songs individually, exports them, and imports them into a completely different software to master the album. Studio One integrates this. If an artist realizes the bass is too loud on Track 3 while mastering the album, they can instantly jump back into the Mix page, lower the bass, and the Master page updates automatically. It is heavily favored by independent singer-songwriters and rock musicians because it integrates heavily with "Chord Track" and "Harmonic Editing." A songwriter can map out the chords to a song on a master track (e.g., C Major, G Major). If they change the master track to D Minor, the software will automatically pitch-shift the recorded guitar audio and MIDI keyboards to match the new key instantly.