It's not a biggie but it did need Google because I'd never even noticed that mono switch! Now that I know how to do it I have a macro on the toolbar to do it for me, even attenuating the stereo track a little to make the bounced mono version the same volume. I expected that to be in the right-click Audio menu but you have to switch the track switch to mono then bounce it in place. The most recent head-scratcher was when I wanted to convert an audio track from stereo to mono. The console view can get confusing with all the various display options and there have been a couple of times when I've had to hunt around to find out how to display controls that I have previously seen there but lost because I accidentally switched to 'narrow view' or similar. I rarely have to run to the manual or to YouTube to find out how to do stuff - usually a right-click gives you the options you are looking for. And that philosophy runs throughout the software so it continues to win me over further. Studio One initially won me over with the chord track, the arranger track and the marker track - brilliant tools that just work as you expect them to. The built-in effects, on the other hand, are top notch: multiband dynamics, great EQ, decent reverbs etc. But VST instruments are easy to come by so you can tailor your sonic armoury to match your genre/needs.

I use them very much like I use ID8 in Reason - to rough out a song with the intention of replacing the sounds once I have the basic song structure in place.

Between them they have everything you need to make music but the two you mentioned are the stand out ones. If you were to chose a DAW purely on the basis of the built-in instruments I think Studio One would be some way down the league table - it only has 5 instruments.

Cakewalk by bandlab vs studio one 4