20 Best Torrent Downloader For Macs (2023 Updated)

I use this on stage powered by an iPad Pro. It is small enough to sit on top of a stage keyboard and easy to see the meters and use the monitoring knob to adjust the output. Being made of metal is also important in a stage environment.

I was not interested in it as a recording device, however the direct monitor feature is useful for local summing a mono keyboard up with the iPad audio if the front of house only supplies one mono connection to the mixer.

The killer feature for me was the built-in USB 2. 0 hub. It’s not technically revolutionary at all as it is just a 2 port USB 2. 0 hub inside with the audio interface circuitry hardwired to one port internally and the other port exposed on the back of the enclosure.

However it is super convenient as now your USB 2. 0 hub is inside a super solid metal case and not another thing to get lost, forgotten, broken, disconnected because it’s an awkward form factor or uses adapters, dongles etc.

You’d need to have some other USB based device like a MIDI controller that you use or plan to to benefit from this feature of course. I use the rear USB port to send MIDI clock to my Nord Stage 3 so that the synth arpeggiator is in time with Cubasis on an iPad.

If I’m not using any additional USB devices beyond the Nord then that’s a really simple cable setup. However when adding a Korg nanoKontrol, this works by adding a basic USB 2. 0 hub plugged into the back of the Minifuse 1 so I can connect both the Nord and use the nanoKontrol as a Mackie controller for Cubasis.

Even then, that extra hub is away from the iPad not dangling off it so it’s better that way. USB hubs with long or detachable cables exist to solve the problem another way but I really appreciate this being solved in the audio interface itself.

I bought from PMT Newcastle where Gaz let me try out the interface plugged into my phone and onward to a synth where we could hear the MIDI clock worked as I increased the tempo in Cubasis and the synth’s arpeggiator sped up, so I knew it would all work.

Note 1: The cable supplied is USB A to C, so when using an iPad pro or other USB host directly, you’ll need to provide your own USB C to C cable or C to A adapter. Note 2: Really all that is expected to be plugged into the USB port would be USB MIDI controllers.

It’s not super high speed or high power so isn’t there for attaching super fast, high power SSDs or anything like that. Note 3: If you want to power a phone/tablet simultaneously then this device has no support for power delivery up to the host device.

Only a couple of much more expensive audio interfaces from other brands can do that. This device is designed to be portable and bus powered FROM the host device, not supply power TO it. You need extra gear to allow simultaneous use of any bus powered USB peripheral like this and to charge a phone/tablet at the same time through its single port.

Note 4: The LED on the headphone knob will flash as a reminder to install the Arturia software on a Mac/PC and after running said software this switches off the flashing and the device from exposing itself as removable storage with the link to download the software in the first place.

The device works fine on an iPad without installing the software but the flashing is annoying so I installed the software on my Mac just to stop the flashing and not have the interface appear as removable storage when I plugged it into things.

There are several decent choices for “step above entry level” audio interfaces (and the quirky Audient Evo 4 is a mighty nice budget choice) and this is one of them. It’s $20 cheaper and a bit longer than the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 3rd generation but it has loopback.

The 2i2 is kind of the benchmark so I will compare it to that model. The low end is a hair thinner than the 2i2 but the real screwy thing is the metering. Focusrite got some flak for just having input metering being lighted dials that change color (green, yellow and red) instead of “real” metering as in the Motu M2 (a bit more expensive and bigger than the 2i2 but with loopback and good audio across the board).

Arturia offers output metering similar to Motu but the input metering is worse than the 2i2 — it only flashes red (and with a bit of a delay) when clipping. The green-to-yellow zone is more helpful in maintaining recording levels.

Arturia should have gravitated closer to the Motu. Arturia gets some rave reviews but I don’t see it as the greatest thing since sliced bread. The cheaper Audient Evo 4 is plastic and quirky but good sound while the somewhat more expensive Motu M2 is low noise, great metering and arguably a better lower end.

The 2i2, even in 3rd generation, is getting long in the tooth and maybe Focusrite will incorporate the best of the competition in the update (and then again maybe not). If you can live with the quirks and metering, then this would be a good choice.

The preamps are certainly clean enough and it’s $50 cheaper than the Motu M2 which recently had a price increase. The cheaper Evo 4 has loopback, clean gain preamps and incremental metering (though learning the red zone is trial and error with the Evo 4) in its plastic body.

The 2i2 has the “vintage” air circuitry (which I don’t use) and a bit richer sound. With all the flak the 2i2 gets over metering Arturia should have offered what Motu does, not worse than the 2i2. Many people will never use loopback although it’s nice to have and Focusrite should have included it in the 2i2 3rd generation.

I can’t “officially” recommend the Arturia because of the metering. If that’s not a problem and you can live with a bit thinner low end then you’ll save $20 over the 2i2 by getting this. Certainly competent but not the greatest thing since sliced bread.

If you can spend $50 more, get the M2 and don’t look back.

This is my second review and is follows my support request being answered. If you see my previous review a complaint was the lack of a support response. I lodged two support requests and the first notification I see is that they have replied and saw no response after 10 days.

problem with email, or junk mail? Not sure. The remainder of this review assumes it is just an email delivery issue. 1. 2 simultaneous inputs are now working 2. midi now works well Just be aware, it is essential that you install the MiniFuse Control Centre software.

Without this you will not see the high sample rate options for the audio inputs and the MIDI function will not work at all. I missed this, which I think is because the instructions focus on installing Arturia Software Centre (yes, even now that feels misleading).

MiniFuse is essential, Arturia Software Centre only helps with the licenses for the software that is supplied with the MiniFuse. Recommend: Definitely. If you do not need the MIDI capability, then I would choose the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 instead.

It seems like nowadays every laptop requires a dongle of some sort, to which Satechi makes a variety of dongles to fit your needs. Unfortunately, this one seems like it is made for a very specific user and otherwise seems to be an overkill of sorts.

Firstly, the build construction is great and has plenty of heft to it that makes it feel like it is made of quality material that is going to last. The built-in USB-C cable is a great feature so that you don`t have to carry a long USB cable with you when traveling.

However, the inclusion of the long cable is a nice added bonus so that you can use that at your desk when not traveling. The actual use of the adapter is exactly as you would expect as it has all the usual ports you would find on all traditional adapters to which they all have worked perfectly.

The one bonus that sets this adapter apart is the inclusion of a VGA port which does come in handy for government buildings or schools as many of their projectors still utilize VGA cables. However, the key downside is that even though it does have both an HDMI port and VGA port you are still unable to run two external monitors as it only supports one external monitor at a time.

This is a major downside in my opinion as unless you really need the VGA port then I would recommend the cheaper and more compact models. Overall, it is a solid piece of equipment and does exactly what it is advertised to do.

I just wish at this price point that running two external monitors would have been a possibility. So once again if you do not need that VGA port I would highly suggest a different product.

I’ve been wanting to setup my laptop as a secondary workstation and possibly even considering replacing my desktop at home, but I know I’ll need adapter to support the extra USB’s and monitor ports that my laptop currently lacks but wanted something more than just a bulky docking station as I move around a lot.

The Satechi multiport adapter looked like just what I needed. First off, the instructions are quite bare and don’t really explain anything. They tell you what the ports are and that’s about it. It was quite confusing trying to understand the PD port and understanding the video options, which are better explained on their website.

It comes with 2 USB C cables, one is built into the device and can be removed which is very nice, and a longer one which is separate, but there was no power block which was pretty disappointing. You can add a PD charger up to 100W to it.

Luckily, my Chromebook had one which I was able to test with while connected to my laptop. It showed the PD was connected but didn’t show my battery was charging, but it was slowly charging because the percentage would slowly increase which was nice.

I guess they expect you to have your own since this is more of an add-on device and not a charger. I also tested it out with my Chromebook with the same results, but the PD charger seemed to charge it just fine which is of no surprise since I was using its native charger to plug into the adapter.

Next, the video. There is where it got interesting. The simplest way for me to explain this in bullet points: – VGA only allows to duplicate your PC screen – HDMI (non-4k) allows me to have an extended screen option with my PC – When both VGA and HDMI are connected, they duplicate with one another but can act as one extended screen to my PC – 4k HDMI would not work without VGA connection, only worked when VGA was connected.

Non-4k monitor on HDMI worked fine without VGA though The adapter also adds additional USB ports which is really nice. My laptop only has 2 USB A and 2 USB C, so this doubles them. I was able to access my portable USB HD and peripherals to it and everything worked great.

The form factor of the adapter is really nice and sleek. Its small which is great for portability, and it always has that extra USB C cable in it if you ever need. Memory card slots and Ethernet adapter is the icing on the cake.

Overall, I think it’s a good device but I deducted a rating because of the limited included instructions and the fact that the 4K monitor only worked when VGA was attached, but I would still recommend it.

Seems most ideal for Chromebooks and tablets that you would like to expand their functionality and port options.

This 9 port USB-C on the go hub is the first Satechi product I’ve used, and has been a really great introduction to the brand after some initial confusion. Before receiving the product, I checked out Satechi’s website and tried to get a better understanding of what I’d be getting.

To alleviate some confusion from the product description, the three points that I wanted to make are: 1) The USB-C port for charging DOES provide a data connection, but only at USB 2. 0. This is different from another USB-C hub I have that supports PD, so it’s a nice bonus if you have a hub for your keyboard and mouse, for example.

This could go great with some new USB-C monitors with KVM built in. 2) The USB-C data port does not support alternate mode. It isn’t advertised as such, but this is kind of a bummer. 3) The VGA port and HDMI port will mirror each other – you cannot use this to add two monitors to a PC.

Again, this isn’t advertised that it will, but I wanted to mention it. As soon as you plug a monitor into the VGA port, it drops the resolution of the displays connected to the hub to 1080p/60hz. In practice, this does everything I would expect and adds significant versatility vs the less expensive hub I had been carrying in my bag.

Having ethernet and VGA on the same device means I don’t have to carry two extra dongles. A huge win for the Satechi 9 port hub is that it includes two USB-C cables. One is a short ~6 inch cable that has internal storage built into the hub (it hides inside the hub when not in use— even less space in your bag!).

The other is a 1 meter USB-C cable for more versatility in connecting the hub. Overall, the only downside to the Satechi USB-C 9 port hub is that it is a little pricey compared to other hubs. That said, none that I have seen (including one that I’ve been using for the last year) have all the features of the Satechi in one device.

I think it’s a smartly designed product and deserves a look.

I am interessted in music making since end of 2019. So. i tried to figure out wich programs are used by professional producers. At all, there are a lot of Digital Audio Workstations (DAW’s) on the market.

Big name are Ableton Live, Apple Logic Pro and FL Studio. Most of time i am working on Windows 10 and Arch-Linux. So Apple Logic Pro droped out for me. For both DAW’s you will find a lot of free knowledgment.

So i choose FL Studio cause AVICII, MARTIN GARRIX and other (for me) great Artists use(d) it. After 2 weeks playing a lot with the software and watching tons of videos, i can work with it. For newbies like me, some times it is very hard to implement the idea you have in your head.

cause there is so much functionality. There are so many very professional plugins included like Reeverb 2 or Fruity EQ 2 Yes, you have to spent a lot of time with the program and yes, it isnt easy at all.

Also it isnt cheap and you can buy tons of extra external plugins (VST), but you will get a great tool kit to create awesome music. So if you ask me if i can recommend it for new producers, i would defintly say yes.

By the way. i also used the trick and bought the education licence, after that i upgraded it to an regular license.

This review is more based on Guitar Center. This claims “Download After Purchase!” But it is not that easy. You have to wait for an email for the product key. Which NEVER COMES. Guitar Center does NOT have the software keys.

They take your money and then they have to wait for Image-Line (FL Studio) creators to send Guitar Center the software key and then Guitar Center sends the key to you. Guitar Center is advertising this like you just buy it and get the program moments after paying.

Be Careful. I suggest buying it somewhere else.

i like the clean dark mode look to the interface. I like the mixer, I like the plugins, in fact, the more I use pro tools, and the more I learn about it, the more I am realizing it is more streamlined and polished than some other competing DAW’s.

DSP integration has my interest piqued, so I am looking forward to adding non native AAX DSP plugins in the future, that can help with sessions and mixes. The tutorial videos are also excellent, and in a day and age where any one person can wear multiple hats, it all comes together to be a superior experience for me.

I look forward to the tracks I create, mix, and master on this exciting platform. Of interest is also the collaboration tool with MyAVID, though I am having trouble getting the clips to play, I will revisit, but that looks like a promising way to collaborate with others, without ever leaving the house, which is very relevant during todays Pandemic times.

I had to contact support for an activation issue for my perpetual license, but it was 100% resolved within a reasonable timeframe, with adequate feedback. In the end, (really the beginning of my pro tools journey,) this has been a good experience so far.

I would highly recommend looking at pro tools for a very professional audio recording, mixing, and content creation platform.

I have mixed on several DAWS over the past 20 years. My first DAW was back in the ’80s when Avid was Digi Design and it was just a 2 track editor called sound designer. Then came session 8 in the ’90s, Then I moved to Pro Tools.

My first pro tools rig was the 002 LE. I stepped away from Pro Tools around 2008 and persued other DAW’s, Sonar Platinum, Ableton, Studio One, Cubase and Mixbuss32. Don’t get me wrong, these are amazing DAWS and I still use them.

This past year I decided to return back to Pro Tools because I missed the workflow and it had many new features that I was interested in learning. It was one of the best purchase decisions I made. Being able to control Pro Tools with an Ipad and eucon enabled hardware was a plus, the ease of editing and mixing another plus, the way plugins are arranged another plus.

Importing and exporting audio is simple, file organization is simple. One of the most important features I like is the quick bounce. I record podcasts that can sometimes be as long as two hours and real-time bounce is not an option for me.

Integration into my studio with time code for video is a huge win. the midi integration is not a feature I will comment on because I did not by pro tools for that purpose. I bought it because I wanted a powerful DAW to take my recordings and workflow to another level.

So what are you waiting for, go ahead and buy it, yes there is a learning curve, but there is always a learning curve for professional products that will give you the results you need. By the way, did you know American musical has flexible payment options? if it was not for American Musical, I would not have been able to purchase and grow my studio as quick as I have.

Thank you American Musical your the best.

I recently switched from Pro Tools LE-8 to the latest 2020 version of Pro Tools and I couldn’t be happier. My biggest fear was losing access to all the plug-ins I purchased separately for Pro Tools LE-8, but Avid was able to assist me in adding my valuable plug-ins to the latest version of Pro Tools.

Like many musicians the uncertainty of the Corona virus has put a damper on my music arsenal budget, but I was ecstatic when I learned that American Musical Supply offered an easy 8 payment plan for Pro Tools, so I took the plunge and I’m so glad I did.

This latest version of Pro Tools Rocks and I’m digging everything about it from the comprehensive workflow to all of the stellar plug-ins that are included and the ease of use. I’m loving it. So if you have thought about diving into the world of Pro Tools, but afraid to pull the trigger because someone said it’s too difficult to learn and much too expensive, I say give the free version “Pro Tools First” a try and if you like it, contact American Musical Supply and let them find a version that is suited for your needs and budget.

No more excuses, just do it!.

I have used Quick Books Desktop since 1995. It has changed for the worst. In the early days you could buy the software and it would work for most functions forever. If you used payroll or the receive payments features you were required to purchase new software every three years.

Now they have switched to a subscription model where you must buy a yearly subscription for both the software and the payroll service. They also made me upgrade two months earlier than the end date of the payroll subscription.

To add insult to injury they attempted to defraud me by turning my payroll off two months after I renewed in January this year, 2022.

After this version, I can no longer recommend any version of QuickBooks, for the reason given above, that it no longer is an option for off-line use. As existing clients need to upgrade in the future, they will need to use a completely different accounting solution.

(This has already started for my clients. ) Thanks to Intuit for the great service in the past 13 years, during which time I have installed hundreds of QB licenses. The QB telephone registration personnel have ALWAYS been courteous, even though they are speaking English as a non-native.

(In the past I lived in another country for 18 years, so I can appreciate how difficult this can be, especially over the telephone, which is more difficult than a face-to-face conversation. ).

I can no longer recommend QB’s due to the ridiculous annual renewal that now has to be done, I thought every three years was bad enough, now it’s down to One. I also can’t even notice a difference between the versions so I don’t understand what I’m paying for.

(this has the scent of a class action lawsuit). I’m fine with the annual payroll renewal but not for the main program itself. Realistically the price should go down due to more revenue coming in every year because of the forced so called Upgrades.

And to top it off this company has costed me more money than the product cost because of how long I’ve had to sit on hold and waste my time fixing a problem because of their software issue’s.

Protools is the ultimate package of efficiency & productivity for your music and production capabilities. The features that stand out to me are the ability to record, edit and mix audio on a professional level.

This is not because a lot commercial recording studios has this software but because it is the top and best there is! I’ve had it previously on my old windows computer for over 10 years and I’ve recently updated it to my Apple iMac for the last 3 months and it has not failed me.

It exceeds all of my expectations simply because I have full capability to mix and edit the sound that I desire.

Quicken for Mac is one of the more comprehensive personal finance apps available but if you’re transitioning from the Windows version, you may be disappointed as the Mac version is less robust in terms of features and friendliness of the user interface.

The user is likely to feel that the Mac version is less intuitive than the Windows version. So, it’s essential that you understand your personal use case and select the Windows or Mac version on that basis.

If you’ve already transitioned to a Mac and need the features offered by the Windows version, you’ll need to run an emulator and opt for the Windows version. It’s not inexpensive. For a few years and since being acquired by a PE firm, the cost of ownership has increased.

Like most software these days, Quicken is subscription based with versions ranging from $42 to $72 per year. At the end of that year, the company prevents you from downloading data directly from your financial institutions.

Further, the system prevents you from importing data to the program. You’re left with a crippled app which allows you manually input every transaction, something I don’t recommend if you value your time.

The most notable changes from the 2020 version were that which related to speed of the app. including: • Faster start-up • Faster loading of charts and graphs • Faster backups One of the more annoying shortcomings is the apps inability to handle warrants and stock options.

If you receive either, the software doesn’t track expiry dates, exercise prices and, eventually, the cost basis of an exercise. You’ll have to track those securities on an Excel spreadsheet.

I wish that when you manually rearrange the order of transactions within the desktop version, as I do so they match the order arrangement in my financial institutions of having cleared, that when you opened the app they would be arranged to match the same arrangement order after syncing.

I wish you could manually rearrange the order of transactions within the app like you can the desktop version. I wish that matched transactions with your financial institution wouldn’t occasionally duplicate.

I love how the desktop and app versions sync, but I wish the app was as fully functional, capable, and independent as the desktop version while still being able to fully sync with each other. The one thing I hate is how Quicken reconciles lines of credit like the amount of credit used is a positive balance when reconciling.

It is borrowed money, and should reconcile like the negative balance that it truly is in reality! As a product with an annual subscription, it should renew at 50% less than its current renewal rate. Maybe after 2 years of being a loyal customer even 70% less than its current renewal rate.

That is not a reflection of the value of the product, but rather the value of customer happiness and desire for customer retention for Quicken. Other than that, I love Quicken! It has become an invaluable asset to managing my finances! Other than these things I wish Quicken would do to improve their product, it is an amazing product, and I have not seen another to serve my needs as well.

I have used and purchased many upgrades of Quicken since 1992 and love Quicken except their latest subscription policy. I PURCHASED the last 2019 Deluxe version and although it states that I can continue to use it by downloading the latest version before my subscription expires it became unusable after many attempts to follow their instructions.

I wasted over two hours and multiple attempts on the help line to restore a usable version with no success. I do not need or want upgrades as I am a senior citizen and do not do online banking and just use quicken for my checking account and savings accounts.

The tech support could only make my PURCHASED Quicken program operational if I paid them for a yearly subscription fee which they would not even honor the 40% discount that they emailed me to renew my account but instead gave me a token 20% discount.

It looks like I am forced into a yearly subscription fee even though when I purchased my 2019 CD version it was not a subscription but a purchased version. I am on Social Security and do not have this newly enacted subscription fee in my budget and at my age I do not want to learn a new program and loose thirty years of Quicken records.

I am extremely disappointed with Quicken and their lack of ability of their help line to fix an issue that they specifically say can be used without paying a yearly fee. Jim C.

I properly placed a Shure SM57 mic in front of my guitar amp amd plugged it into the mic channel of the itrack solo. But in Garageband, it sounded muffled like it was in another room. Turning up the volume just made it loud.

and muffled. Yes, you can record guitar directly on the right channel of the device but you can only use the annoying and bad-sounding virtual amps in Garageband. My real guitar amp sounds waaay better.

I was doing better using a USB condenser mic and recording my amp into Garageband that way. Unless there’s some secret trick here, the Focusrite itrack solo and the Shure mic and cable were a waste of money.

Nice piece of kit. I emailed the store prior to placing the order as I was unsure which audio interface I needed as I was recording using an iPad rather and a PC/Laptop or Mac. The team at Andertons steered me in the right direction and the interface they recommended is working well, both for guitar and vocals (via the Rode microphone kit).

It’s early days yet to comment on durability but the item looks well made and I have not reason to believe it will be anything but excellent.

The device does exactly what it promises. Issue is the application. Was only able to get it to work with FocusRite applications. I used “Tape” for sound recording and “Impact” for video recording. Had issues with pretty much any other IOS app I tried.

Also, the Impact recording seems to require a headset to listen to; was not able to get the ipad speakers to work with the app to review any video recorded. If Focusrite improved their two apps, this would be an awesome product.

In terms of quality of sound recording, it was pretty good. I am using it to record sound from my Roland digital piano and other than the app issues it has worked well.

My negative issue is with New egg. You charged me $2. 99 shipping for a box with a 2015 cd when I bought a 2016 license. The delivery also included the PAPER key to activate the product. All I needed (or anyone needed was the key!) Are you serious? Nobody uses enclosed CD software any more! I’ve been a customer for a long time.

The key was fine and it reactivated the product for the two years that was promised. Your charging for shipping me what I did not need (And you knew) does not say anything well about New egg ethics. Bye.

Regards, Ron.

Installed and ran ok, then found tune up blocked my usual ‘safe’ apps running, ie MS Office suite. these were not selected in the startup apps selection, I decided to take the AVG suite off again as I do not want to have to fight and weave my way round everything just to use my computer mormally.

Sorry AVG, for me it was a waste of 20.

I have been using AVG on my computers for many years. Now that I have four cell phones, this has been a must have addition. Unlimited devices, unlimited coverage, full service protection, easy to install and manage, and a good price.

What else can you ask for.

If you have used TurboTax or any of other tax return software, you know why you should keep using it. These applications take a lot of the sting out of preparing taxes and do a lot of hand holding for most of the more complex portions and forms.

If you don’t find this software more advantageous to use than slogging through the IRS publications, then either are a tax expert already or your return is so complex that only an expert can help you.

I have tried other brands of this type of software, but return to TurboTax. Maybe it’s just a personal preference, or the familiarity. Certainly not the cost, since you can either qualify for one of the free versions, or TurboTax has a tendency to rope you in for the more expensive editions.

I specifically bought this year’s version because I had to do an Amended return (both Federal and State). If you’ve never done either one of these, I don’t recommend you go it alone with the IRS publications, which were written by neither an English teacher nor a mathematician, but the worst amalgam of both.

I got it at a great price on eBay, but would very likely have paid the full price if necessary.

OK so I don’t often write reviews but I will make an exemption in this case. For the most part Turbotax ran fine however I did come up with one issue that was well maddening. I did the taxes of my wife and she had to do her 2019 tax as well.

That is fine and the program tells you to do prior years first, simple enough. So that is what I did, I saw nothing to change the tax year but had prompted for 2019. It wasn’t till I finished that return and printed it out and netfiled it that it showed as her 2020 return.

Well she had some extra monies from the 2019 return but not the 2020 and then I had to redo her proper 2020 return but could find no way to change her 2019 return so had wasted 2 hours doing her returns and since both have been filed to beat the deadline I have no idea what is going to happen as CRA will have 2 returns for her 2020.

Hopefully someone at the CRA will note that the figures used are from her 2019 separate but that is my review and why I only gave a 3 out of 5 for the program. If it is going to tell you to enter prior years then it should be able to identify the prior years.

I am a little bias concerning TurboTax. I have been using TurboTax for many, many years and I have not tried other tax preparation software. First off, I would like to say that the 2019 version has not changed my mind.

I have every intention to purchase the 2020 version for this year’s taxes. I really like how it allows you to choose to have TurboTax guide you through the process or you can go to the specific forms.

I normally choose the guided process but when I need to look at the actual form, TurboTax allows me to do so. The software was easy to install and I found no arithmetic or other errors that affect my return.

This year, for the first time, I filed both Federal and State taxes electronically. Normally I only file the Federal since the State return costs extra but I finished my taxes on July 14th and wanted to make sure I got the State in on time (additional incentive to finish earlier next year).

There are a number of things that I don’t like but as I said earlier, none of these are important enough not to recommend TurboTax. When you install TurboTax, TurboTax installs a shortcut on the desktop.

To me, no software should do this without asking for permission. I personally do not want a TurboTax shortcut on my desktop. Every time I start TurboTax, TurboTax warns me that I am using Windows 7. No kidding! Since TurboTax works with Windows 7, I see no reason TurboTax should even mention this but if they do, why do it every time? Just once is enough.

Note that Intuit has announced that next year’s version will NOT run under Windows 7. There is some inconsistency in the way you can enter numbers. In some places it automatically rounds to the nearest dollar and other places it allows for cents.

It would be better to allow cents all the time and only round when filling in the final forms. Another inconsistency is some of the inputs require you to enter a zero (0) whereas other fields assume a blank is zero.

I prefer a blank field means zero. When going through the guided questions, whenever TurboTax goes back to the list of sections completed, it always goes to the top of the page and you have to scroll to the bottom to select continue.

I find this to be a poor design choice. And finally, my biggest complaint! You get five (5) free Federal e-files with purchase but no state e-files. You can download one state for free but you can’t file the State taxes.

Considering that State filings are $24. 99 each, you can see why I normally file only my Federal taxes electronically. I wish Intuit would reduce the number of Federal filings and add one free State filing.

The cost of $24. 99 seems excessive to me. By the way, the retail box I got says the State filing is $19. 99. Of course there is an asterisk that says that the price can change at any time! If you read this far, you can see that all the things I dislike are program and company procedures not in the computation or thoroughness of TurboTax.

That is why I have every intention to use TurboTax next year.

I have been using the latest version 2022 of Norton 360 Platinum edition for about a week now on multiple Windows, Android and iOS devices and it is better than I have expected. Many years ago I had less than positive experience with the old Symantec Norton antivirus products that would bog down even the most powerful systems, but not this version.

One of the Windows desktops I installed it on first is nearly 7-years old and did not take a performance hit with Norton 360 Platinum running on it. The installation was fairly straight forward, I had to create an account, download the installer that detected the antivirus and antimalware software I had running and asked to uninstall them.

Once that was done and rebooted, the Norton360 installer automatically started and completed the installation of the new products. It then downloaded and installed a Live Update patch, another reboot and offered to install a number of web browser extensions for safeweb browsing, safe search and password manager.

Norton 360 Platinum is much more than just an antivirus/malware protection product, it’s a complete suite of cybersecurity protection. I’ve enabled most features such as: 1. Device Security that protects against viruses, spyware, malware, ransomware 2.

Dark Web Monitoring for PII data 3. Privacy Monitor that helps you opt out of people search sites 4. Parental Control to protect your children from unwanted on-line content 5. Password Manager where you can securely store your passwords in an encrypted cloud vault 6.

Cloud Backup, 100 GB included to securely backup important PC data and settings 7. Smart firewall, monitors and blocks unauthorized network traffic 8. Secure VPN network connection I toggled the VPN connection on and off and ran a number of tests.

As expected, when the VPN connection is on, your download/upload speeds will decrease considerably if you have a Gigabit fiber connection like I do. For example I get about 900Mbps downloads and 500Mbps uploads on my wired devices.

With the Norton 360 VPN enabled I only got about 150 Mbps down and 50 Mbps upload speeds. That is a considerable drop even when picking the United States as the country of origin. It would be nice if this information was part of the documentation of the VPN specs, and if it varies from country to country, so people know what to expect.

There are a few other settings I hope I can tweak, along the lines of Norton pop-ups and offers to enable additional features/protection, whether they are included for free or not, I generally don’t like any pop-ups.

All in all, Norton 360 Platinum is a comprehensive cybersecurity product that offers multiple layers of protection for 20 devices of the most popular consumer operating systems – Windows, MacOS, Android and iOS.

I am a bit conflicted with the Norton 360 Platinum protection suite, while it has the familiar Norton Anti-virus interface buried deep into the product it often feels like the product won’t leave you alone.

I’ve used other anti-virus suites and Norton has to be the most chatty of them all, especially soon after you install it. Reminding you to use the included VPN (more on that later), the Dark Web Monitoring, Cloud Backup, Password Manager and various browser integrations.

Somewhere you can reduce the amount of prompts, popups and other items via some changes in settings, but the default configuration is just chatty. Lets start with the Device Security, where you can scan your hard drives, removable drives, force updates of virus definitions manually (this happens in the background automatically) and review security logs.

Internet Security which monitors your Internet activity for various threats. Backup, which can backup your PC and important data to the cloud (the version I have provides 100GB of storage) however you need to smartly configure what is backs up as if you have a large amount of picture or videos on your computer you will receive messages that your backup failed due to cloud storage constraints.

Granted you can only configure this if you have administrative rights on your PC, that level of access is also needed to make any real configuration changes with the Norton setup. As part of standard best security practices, you should use an account on your PC that has plain user rights and only use a full administrator account for configuring changes to your applications or PC.

Performance, again you need full administrative right to Optimize the disk, you can do a limited file cleanup which only cleans up your browser cache (note to Norton, Internet Explorer is history, need to update the verbiage) and Windows Temporary files that are under your user profile.

Startup manager requires Administrative privileges but will allow you to configure the startup behavior of your PC. Graphs will provide you a chart of activities Norton performed and when. Any of the actions that require Administrator privileges should really prompt you to enter elevated credentials instead of just saying Access Denied.

Dark web monitoring is part of Norton Life Lock service and can be configured to monitor dark web activity with any of your personal information, such as address and email addresses as well as other Bank Accounts, Credit Cards, Phone Numbers, Drivers License, Mothers maiden name and Gamer tag.

Now this is great service if you are comfortable with providing all this information in one place and with Norton (what if they get breached?). All of this opens a browser and is not integrated into the Norton Interface itself.

Secure VPN – most security suites offer VPN access which can help secure some of your information and web surfing activities. Most VPN connections actually slow your connection down from your PC or Mobile device as all you internet traffic through a setup of servers.

Norton’s implementation does not use Open VPN, but IPSEC instead – from a performance perspective this is good, but it practices seemed to make my connection a bit buggy. Also, it assumes you only want to use a VPN when connected to unknown or public networks, not your home Wi-Fi if it is password protected.

This behavior also occurs with the mobile device VPN in addition to cellular networks, again in practice the VPN seemed a bit flaky when I installed in on my iOS device. There are also reasons for masking your traffic and sites you visit when using your Internet Services Provider (ISP) or mobile phone carrier since some internet providers monitor your Internet traffic and sell or otherwise use this info and/or feed it to third parties.

Thus I prefer to keep my VPN all the time. If you plan to use their VPN, you can only specify a country, not a specific city. Their VPN servers are well known, and most content providers will be able to detect that you are using a VPN (in case you were going to try to spoof Netflix or another service but connecting to a different country).

Password Manager – useful for some, annoying for me. Parental Controls – useful for those with young offspring, again opens a browser to configure instead of doing it within the app. Pros: – Good performance, not a huge resource hog – Fairly high rated as it catches a majority of threats – Fairly configurable if you have Administrator rights, logging into an elevated account to do that is annoying.

– Cloud storage (100GB) with my subscription level (Platinum) – VPN included, albeit not the best in class – Software Firewall included and mostly configure itself Cons: – VPN automatic configuration seems a bit overbearing and the connection sometimes varies in speed and connectivity.

– The product out of the box is too chatty, need to change items (admin access required) to quiet it down. – Antitrack is not included in Deluxe. – VPN is only configurable by country, not a specific city within one, most services seem to be within the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud.

– Limited amount of VPN servers worldwide.

I’ve been using various flavors of Norton 360 for over a decade and have been using Norton products in general since the early ‘90s. I began with Norton Utilities and Norton Antivirus for DOS and Windows 3.

1 and began using Norton Internet Security when it was introduced years later. Just sharing this to point out that after three decades, I’m more than a little familiar with Norton products. I stopped using Norton around the turn of the century and experimented with numerous other AV and Internet security apps before ultimately returning to Norton.

I stopped using Norton originally because it simply got too bloated and resource hungry. I returned after Symantec replaced the bloated version with a lean, lightweight, resource friendly version. This current iteration lies somewhere in between.

It’s not as lightweight and resource friendly as it was several years ago but it’s not as bloated and laggy as it was around the early 2000’s. Like nearly every other commercial app out there, Norton is now subscription-based with annual renewals.

The program requires a product key and a Norton account for activation and use. When activated through the Norton account, it requires a payment method and automatic renewals are enabled by default. Renewals tend to be pricier than simply buying a new retail license, so I usually disable renewal immediately after activating.

Norton usually sweetens the pot by offering a few extra months if you keep auto-renewal active. Performance wise, I have never experienced a malware or virus infection while using Norton. The realtime protection is fantastic at detecting and preventing malicious files and apps from running and Norton Insight is helpful for those questionable borderline apps that I’m not familiar with.

Other features include no-log VPN and dark web monitoring. The VPN is super easy to use, even for total PC novices. Although most home and ISP routers now typically offer SPI firewall capabilities, Norton provides an excellent first, or second layer of defense in case anything sneaks through.

It also provides robust application control, which many hardware firewalls typically don’t offer. Norton security is excellent and provides a good measure of safety but some degree of common sense is still required.

Risky behaviors like frequently using P2P to exchange or download files from strangers, visiting dangerous sketchy websites, sharing removable media like flash drives among multiple foreign systems and exhibiting other reckless behavior will likely result in an eventual malware incursion regardless of the security software being used.

Norton utilities is useful in some regards but aside from general housekeeping, largely unnecessary. Registry cleaners have always been questionable at best. Most systems don’t need registry cleaning and if any critical registry keys are accidentally removed, it can completely wreck a system and require a full Windows reinstall.

File cleanup can be accomplished for free using native windows utilities. High resource startup programs can be manually disabled in task manager. Defrag may be useful on systems still using mechanical drives but again, is a feature available natively in Windows.

Modern SSDs don’t require defragging and TRIM, the SSD equivalent, is usually enabled in Windows by default. So, in a nutshell, non-technical users may find some benefit in Norton Utilities but anyone comfortable and savvy enough to use native Windows utilities can accomplish most of the same results without a third-party app.

Norton has traditionally been resource friendly with Windows 7, 8 and 10 in the past decade. However, it seems to be a little more resource greedy lately on Windows 11. It caused a noticeable hit to frame rates on my gaming PC.

I tried enabling silent mode but it didn’t result in much improvement. I eventually uninstalled Norton since I only game on the PC and don’t even browse the web on it. I also had an issue where Norton kept blocking Teredo for one of my games which prevented me from playing online.

Nothing I tried could fix it other than completely uninstalling Norton. Norton Utilities was also unable to help resolve the issue. So far, I’ve been mostly satisfied with Norton 360. The anti-malware and Internet security are both top notch, although a little resource hungry.

The Teredo issue was quite annoying and I think I’ll skip the mostly unnecessary utilities on the next go-round. It’s ironic that the very utilities that initially introduced me to Norton three decades ago are basically unnecessary these days thanks to OS advancements and native utilities.

I usually am carrying over one thousand photos on my phone. I never thought about the memory space I was using until I saw this gadget. This Sandisk Expand Flash Drive Go holds 64 GB of data including photos, videos and contacts.

Videos especially eat up a lot of space on your phone. Using this product, I can take all the photos and videos that I want and then easily and quickly back them up on the iXpand Drive app which you can download from the App store.

It is very user friendly and works with a long list of models of iPhones and iPads. Just plug the flash drive into your phone and follow the prompts. You can have your photos and videos automatically upload to the iXpand drive or you can manually choose which you want to save on the drive.

You can use the USB connector that is on the flip end of the flash drive to move the photos onto a computer if you wish. You can also password protect your files. The choice is yours whether you want to keep the photos on your phone once you back them up, or delete them from your phone to free up space.

I did not have any problems using it, but it does come with support information if you do need help. This flash drive is great. I am very pleased with this product.

I’ve never used a usb storage device for my iPhone, but I’ve consistently ran out of space and have needed to pay for additional storage for years now. I do take a lot of photos. This sandisk flash drive is awesome! It was the first time I’ve used anything like it, and I’m glad it’s compatible with my phone and iPad.

It’s incredibly easy to “install” and to use in my phone. It was easy to find the iXpand drive in the App Store too. I was pleasantly surprised to see how easy the app was to use with the flash drive.

What’s really nice is that my whole family can share this drive, or I can use it to share and transfer large videos to family members’ devices, which previously required I transfer the video to my Mac or laptop and then back onto their individual device.

The drive is pretty small and I put it on a lanyard. I wouldn’t personably put it on a keychain, but you can. This is an incredibly useful device and so easy to use. 64gb is great storage capacity. I’ll definitely be taking this on nature hikes with me and putting my daily photos on the flash drive to save phone storage.

This flash drive is easy to use and has allowed me to be able to save files and photos so that I can have more free space on my phone. The software that you need to download it easy to find and download from the app store.

It is as simple as plugging the flash drive into your phone and using the software to move the data over to the drive. The drive itself seems to be made well. My only concern is the flip slide top it has that covers the connector.

I feel like it it is being stored on keys or a lanyard that is moved around alot, it may break off easily but overall it is a good device.

The software works well in terms of Anti-virus, shredder and the valuable Trukey password manager. Setting these up is pretty easy via the interface. Trukey is great in generating and saving passwords and notes for any average user.

However, the Firewall feature is mediocre and recently has been causing grief because if you choose to manually monitor the access of programs, the alert viewer (to grant program permission) hangs consistently and hogs your system memory forcing you to reboot your PC.

McAfee has not fixed the bug in last 4 months despite repeat complaints from users on Community centre. Also, you can’t email Customer Support directly to keep track or get tickets as they only provide Online chat/Community blogs and Phone call.

So, they basically want you to waste your time chatting with or calling them for an issue reported by multiple people already. The firewall program access list also lacks the feature of “searching” programs that’s been allowed/blocked by McAfee or the user.

You have to scroll the entire list to find your application and then click Edit buttons at the end to make any modifications to firewall access. For above-average users at the same price, I would recommend switching to Norton or other products without all these hassles and have similar features but not memory hogging bugs.

Purchased this to replace a version I purchased last year. Made the mistake in putting the country as Canada so it defaulted to French. Tried to resolve the issue through McAfee but no luck. I will not be able to switch the language to English unless I allow the subscription to expire.

Not willing to allow that to happen so I guess I’m stuck with the French version. I’ll never buy this product again. The customer service from McAfee is terrible and they are very condescending. If you buy this product don’t make any mistakes when signing up or you’re stuck.

Mostly satisfied with the protection. I’m not a huge fan of getting alerts about possible security threats to discover they’re on emails or accounts that I haven’t used in over 15 years and I didn’t remember I even had.

Even more annoying is their touted VPN security which then makes websites load so slowly I wish I had a virus on my computer to justify just how slow everything loads. Probably worth the protection in the end but it is annoying to use and turn off certain alerts which my computer tells me I don’t have certain features to even be at risk.

Not happy that it requires the app to work with iOS. Apple updated a long time ago to support external storage on a system level in iOS so you can plug in any external storage with a lightning connector and it’s instantly in the Files app that’s already on the phone by default.

The app is free, it offers things the standard files app doesn’t have like free offline backups without the need for a computer or paid iCloud upgrades, there’s built in security features even on top of standard iOS security, but to REQUIRE the app to use it? No.

I doubt android is locked out from using it without the app but I can’t confirm. Im not happy with this but im not returning it since it was on sale for a price I couldn’t refuse, and as of now it’s the only flash drive I can find with USB-C and Lightning on one unit.

Rant aside, it’s got an incredibly premium build, cap is tiny and super easy to drop off and lose but not a big deal, Always buy storage of any kind new in box from a known branded retailer like Best Buy, the lighter blue one with 2 self checkouts open but one is broken, or the red one with the circles for example (leaving out names to satisfy review guidelines).

Selling drives online 3rd party sites is the easiest fraud for scammers. They can modify the tiniest thing to force it to report higher storage than whats actually available. Sell you a 16gb Flash Drive but label it 256gb and when you plug it in it even shows in your computer as 256gb.

Getting photos off an iPhone and onto a desktop computer used to be fairly simple before everything was connected with wifi and Bluetooth. Connect a cord between the phone and device, then select and drop.

Sometimes it was mildly inconvenient because you could only drop one at a time, but the process was simple. Now the process has become wildly complicated. You can move pics to the cloud, if you want someone else to be manager of your photos, and you want to pay monthly for storage.

For the privacy and/or budget minded, you can move them to an external hard drive via and app, but it’s one more app to download on your phone, and you have to have the right login, because if you don’t, your access is sunk.

Not to mention, the up front cost of an external hard drive with ample storage usually isn’t cheap. As someone who had maxed out my photo capacity right before my kiddo’s graduation, and who didn’t want to upload photos to a cloud I’d have to pay for monthly, I spent an entire afternoon when I needed to be doing other stuff, and tried all of the above things.

I tried connecting my iPhone 12 to my husband’s Mac – crap! Wrong Apple ID. I tried connecting it to an old laptop. It kinda worked, but the laptop was so old it was wicked slow. I tried downloading the app and connecting it wirelessly to our external hard drive.

My husband couldn’t remember the password he set up. Skunked again. So I researched buying my own external hard drive so I’d have my own place to keep my own data. I especially looked for something I could connect directly to my iPhone with a cord instead of an app.

Most external solutions were pricey, and I only found one hard drive that said it could be plugged directly into an iPhone, independent of a computer. It was on the low end of pricey, but it only had about a dozen reviews and they felt sketchy.

Not a gamble I was willing to take. WHY was this so CoMpLiCaTeD?? Then I came across this little SanDisk photo stick. Other than still having to download an app to use it, the price was reasonable, it took two seconds to plug it into my iPhone, the controls were pretty straightforward, and my life was back to quick and simple.

Game changer. No more feeling overwhelming tech angst. Totally worth the money. And so portable that I can quickly move photos while riding somewhere in the car or sitting down to watch TV. And this thing has a TON of storage on it.

Which is good because I have close to 1500 photos after 2 years of phone use. A lot to move. But I do it in small bites of 100-150 photos, which probably takes me about 5-10 min each session. The only small drawbacks: I wish it let you choose your photos oldest to newest, instead of the other way around.

That means I have to scroll all the way to the end of 1000+ photos each time, and then start selecting. If there’s a setting to change that, I haven’t found it. But let’s face it: we’re most likely to show folks our photos from the last couple of weeks, not 2 years ago.

It’s the old ones we’re most likely to want to store. It’s small, so it’s easy to set down somewhere and misplace. I’ve done it several times. I was also concerned I’d leave it in a pocket and launder it.

I’ve done that to a tiny cell phone before. Ouch! So, I solved both of these challenges by putting this on a lanyard. The other connector on the adapter isn’t a standard USB, so I couldn’t connect it directly to the photo printing hardware at the store when I wanted to print photos.

I also can’t plug it directly into a computer’s USB to move photos off the stick. I think a standard USB would be a much better option. Now I’ll have to see if an adapter is available. That stinks. The warranty is short for the kind of item that usually works for years.

I’ve never had a memory stick go bad on me. Why is the warranty only a year or two? Is this built for failure and/or obsolescence? Probably. Will I have to find another avenue to store my photos in a few years? Sigh.

Probably. But I just bought myself some time. And it was comparatively cheap and worth the money to get things done now, when I needed it asap. Maybe by then a trusted brand will decide to make a hard drive with an option to run it directly from your phone.

A girl can hope.

I wanted to replace my older external hard drive that has been backing up my computer for quite a long time. It was 2TB, old and with my backup routine of backing up my desktop computer it was starting to get close to getting “full”.

I figured I would double the space and this fit the bill and was fairly inexpensive. I’ve only had it for a few days but have backed up my drives on the desktop without a problem. I use a 3rd party backup software and this is just sitting on top of my computer for whenever that software triggers a backup.

This is small, powered by the USB port and seems to be transferring data fairly quickly. WD has always been a good drive manufacturer in the past so I bought it. I’ve only have it for a few days so I can’t speak of longevity but hopefully I get as much time with it as my last drive.

I absolutely live these drives. I must have about 5 or 6 because they are so versatile. I have 1 attached to my router as a NAS type setup. I have 2 for my Xbox, 1 for captures and 1 for games. I use like 2 for captures on my pc and the rest for backups.

WD is my go-to because of the reliability. The one attached to my router has lasted me over 8 years and is still going strong. Speed has been quite good and gaming off one on Xbox is sometimes faster than the internal drive and does well on pc for games although obviously an SSD would be faster, they still aren’t near the value these drives have.

It’s crazy how affordable they are and if they are on sale, I always tend to pick up one or two because you can never have enough storage. Highly recommend.

I’ve been using these external storage drives for years to backup critical information. This makes my third WD device. From “day one” I have had problems unmounting the drive from my computer. Normally with any drive, you can right-click then select “safely remove” or “eject”.

But with this drive, you do not have that option, and so you’re left with hoping everything is closed and just unplugging it. The problem is that 50-60% of the time when you go to plug it back in, you get a prompt that there’s an error on the drive and a recommendation to scan/repair the drive (which I usually do).

This generally does the trick and balance is restored to the universe, but it’s an irritating second step that I must undergo to use the drive. I now no longer use it as a backup drive but rather to transport files between my work and home PC that I don’t want parked in the cloud.

Perhaps I just received a defective unit, but this is something I’ll definitely look out for (and avoid) when purchasing another drive.

Sadly, this is one of those times where the product simply is NOT what it is shown on the box. 1) It is NOT a true “Quicken” product. It is produced by NOLO as “Individual Software” and branded as Quicken presumably for marketing credibility.

2) The install instructions DO NOT WORK as presented. Rather, the user is required to search for the proper “. exe” file. 3) Software navigation is problematic, in that screens appear with little or no options as expected.

4) Finally, Best Buy will not allow return of opened software, even when defects can be clearly be demonstrated. I was offered a choice to “exchange” the software, BUT, WillMaker is the only software on the shelf.

Managers have a rehearsed “script” to “Blow-Off” customers with no effort to even consider helping. I gave two stars because Documents produced appear to be legit, if the user can decipher the “instructions”.

I like this software. It makes it very easy to do your will. It doesn’t matter if you have any easy one or a detailed one it walks you through the process with all of the pertinent questions and it’s simple/easy to understand explanations are given for various legal documents.

Excellent tool for many related documents. Very easy to use. Can create documents for family members.

I ended up only using the Enhanced Payroll subscription part of this purchase because my workstation is still running Windows 7 (I really don’t like the Windows 10 interface). I am posting this review because I was unable to find any information about whether the Enhanced Payroll portion of this package can be used with the original Desktop versions (non-Plus).

The answer, luckily for me, is absolutely yes. You can give the QuickBooks support person the License # and Payroll Product # (sent to you after purchase of the software) and after a looooong wait, they will give you a new payroll key to enter in QB.

They also canceled my previous (about to expire) subscription so I wouldn’t get charged for the auto-renewal. I suggest contacting QB help by pressing F1 w/in QB, then clicking the Contact Us button at the bottom of help page.

It was a fairly painless process. Good luck!.

Overall: I recently upgraded from the artist version to the professional version, and I must say it’s well worth the money. There’s quite a bit you’re missing out on if you just have the artist version.

If you’re looking for a daw you can’t go wrong with studio one. The Artist version will get you up and running and show you some amazing capabilities and work flow, BUT if you’re serious about a daw and want ALL THE GOODIES and not just some of them then the professional version is the one for you.

Save yourself a little time and just go with pro instead of artist, unless you’re on a budget, or upgrading. its super affordable through zounds. So give that some thought. Just YouTube how to upgrade it, there’s a 2 minute video that’s super easy to follow.

The professional version has way too much stuff to explain why its so great, but I promise you will be more than satisfied with it, especially if you already have artist and are wanting to upgrade. I use to have abelton and was about to switch back to it, but between the work flow of studio 1 and the way it’s set up its just amazing.

I love everything about it. And I think most of you will agree as well. Shipping was super fast, and all in all I am super happy with this product.

I compose mainly classical music in Dorico and then work with the MIDI files in Studio One 5 Professional to work with the transport and mixing controls on my NI S88 Mk2 to get the balances sounding good.

Studio One Pro integrates really well with my Native Instruments S88 Mk2 Controller keyboard and the documentation available online by Presonus is excellent for learning the integration. I have done a little audio recording, but not enough to really comment on it, but what I did was easy to accomplish.

There are tons of videos online, on YouTube, Presonus. com, and other sources to learn how to use Studio One Professional. I did buy an older version of the unofficial manual (not published by Presonus), but they really screwed up the page numbers; however, going forward, I’ll stick with pdfs, forums, blogs, and videos, because the fast changing pace of software updates, it no longer makes sense to create a physical book (although I highly prefer a hard copy book).

I’m looking forward to diving in deeper to learn much more about Studio One 5 Professional. I’ve heard that a certain competitor is better for composers, in particular, orchestral composers, but I haven’t seen any negatives in Studio One thus far.

If you’re looking for a great, general purpose DAW, this is the one to get. And that’s not just my opinion. Many reviews I’ve read online of DAWS in general mention Studio One as a great general purpose DAW.

ProTools: Subscription payment BSAbleton: Steep learning curve Logic: Mac only (I’m on Windows)Cakewalk: needlessly complicated interfaceCubase: feels like a “DAW lite”Studio One: Well rounded, easy to use, works on windows, has some nice thoughtful features that other DAWs don’t have.

I’ve really grown to love studio one over the five years I’ve been using it. It’s a complete DAW and it isn’t trying to be flashy. Basic tasks are easy and intuitive. Learning to use Studio One was easier than other DAWs for me.

(Tried Ableton and a few others). It still has some bugs and there are a few housekeeping things they may want to do in future updates, but overall it’s a very good program and seems to be thoughtfully crafted by the developers.