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When you're cooking up music, check out these low-fat alternatives
As a reaction against classic haute cuisine, "nouvelle cuisine" rejected excessive complication, favored shorter menus, avoided heavy sauces, and placed an emphasis on healthy, lightyet satisfying- dishes.
Microsoft and Apple took a similar tack with their latest operating systems; both Windows 7 and Snow Leopard touted efficient operation over new features. Now we have the equivalent in DAW-world, with newer programs emphasizing smoother, faster operation- while existing programs re-examine their code with an eye toward more efficient workflow.
The three programs profiled here represent different ways of approaching a DAW, but share a common characteristic: Each emphasizes a light touch that keeps the software nimble and responsive, while still offering considerable sophistication. They also illustrate that the "anti-bloatware" trend is pervasive, from overachieving budget programs like energyXT and Mixcraft to a world-class DAW contender like Studio One Pro. Efficiency is a trend that's here to stay.
Trial version are available, so this roundup concentrates on the gestalt of each program, with an emphasis on a few unique features- so after reading this article, fire up your modem, and find out which one works best for you.
PreSonus Studio One
(MSRP $499.95, street $399.95; www.presonus.com)
Studio One Pro (SOP for short; there's also a lite, "Artist" version for about $200 street) sometimes seems like a cross-platform ménage a trois involving Steinberg Cubase, Cakewalk Sonar, and Sony CD Architect. But it's far from bloatware, and does its thing (including native Windows/Mac 64-bit operation, and 64-bit processing even on 32-bit platforms) with ruthless efficiency.
This extends to the look- clean and consistent, with subtle shading and a muted "euro" color scheme that relies on shades of grays and blues. You can work with this eyeball-friendly program for hours at a time.
THE MASTERING GAME
PreSonus claims SOP integrates mastering and multitracking to an unprecedented degree, and they're right. However, it's a bit of a stretch to call SOP a comprehensive mastering program; there's no pencil tool, noise reduction, restoration plug-ins, and similar specialized mastering software tools. What you do get is an amazing program for assembling a CD (Figure 1), as well as Bob Katz's «-Metering system, which is ideal for mastering.
SOP accomplishes this integration by...