The Ultimate Studio One Pro 7 Book E-Book

Doruk Somunkiran

• Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 526

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Written by a seasoned composer, music producer, and instructor with over 20 years of experience in the music industry, this comprehensive guide transforms Studio One’s powerful digital audio workstation (DAW) into your creative canvas. Designed for both musicians looking to start producing their own music and audio professionals integrating Studio One into their workflow, this hands-on manual takes you step-by-step through every stage of the production process.
You’ll learn how to set up Studio One for peak performance, create projects, record high-quality audio, and build MIDI arrangements with virtual instruments. The book covers advanced editing techniques, including Melodyne, Audio Bend, and MIDI modifiers, to refine your songs with precision. You’ll master mixing with Studio One’s built-in effects and plugins, apply professional audio mastering in the Project window, and explore immersive audio tools that bring your music to life in multichannel environments for films, gaming, and beyond.
Throughout this book, you’ll develop not just technical proficiency but a personalized, efficient music production workflow that serves your creative vision. By the final page, you'll have everything you need to turn musical ideas into polished, release-ready songs using only the Studio One software.

Leseprobe

The Ultimate Studio One Pro 7 Book

A step-by-step guide to recording, editing, mixing, and mastering professional-quality music

Doruk Somunkiran

The Ultimate Studio One Pro 7 Book

Copyright © 2025 Packt Publishing

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First published: July 2023

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Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

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ISBN 978-1-83620-097-0

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To my students, who inspire me every day with their curiosity, creativity, and perseverance.

– Doruk Somunkiran

Contributors

About the author

Doruk Somunkiran is a composer, music producer, and instructor with 20 years of experience in the industry. Graduating from Berklee College of Music with top honors in 2000, Doruk has since written and produced music for countless albums, commercials, movies, and TV programs. As a teacher, he’s helped more than 5,000 students in defining and reaching their musical goals, and his hands-on, intuitive teaching style has earned stellar reviews from thousands of students around the globe.

I want to thank my family for always being there for me. You’re the best!.

About the reviewers

Yeside Lawal has worked in the audio engineering field for 10 years, with 5 years specifically dedicated to mixing and mastering songs. She has worked with different sound engineering companies and mixed for various artists. She has received different certificates in audio-related courses. She is currently the lead engineer at LiquidSand Productions, where she provides consultation to clients and heads the post-production team. She also heads the training department of the company.

Valentino Vraneković is an audio engineer, musician, and IT specialist with over 15 years of experience in live performance, studio production, and sound engineering. As a keyboardist, he has played in multiple bands and worked as a session musician. His expertise includes live mixing, studio production, mastering, and forensic audio analysis. Throughout his career, he has contributed to numerous live events as a performer or sound engineer.

In addition to his music career, he is an IT specialist with a master’s degree in Digital Forensics and Information Security, specializing in cybersecurity, cloud computing, and IT infrastructure. He is passionate about continuous learning, innovation, and sharing knowledge in both fields.

Table of Contents

Preface

Part 1:Getting Started with Studio One

1

Choosing Your Flavor of Studio One

Meeting the candidates – Perpetual, Annual, and Monthly

Choosing the right plan

Sifting through the additional content

Virtual instruments

Effects plug-ins

Loops and sounds

Summary

2

Installing and Configuring Your Studio One Environment

Technical requirements

Installing Studio One and additional content

Installing Studio One

Installing additional content

Exploring online resources

Configuring Studio One

Filling in the artist profile and choosing a language

Configuring your audio device

Buffer size and latency

Configuring your external devices

Optimizing your system for best performance

Working with multiple disks

Configuring file locations

Summary

3

Exploring the Studio One Environment

Technical requirements

Understanding the Song, Project, and Show pages

Touring the user interface

The Song page

The Project page

The Show page

Navigating the Studio One environment

Window management

Zoom levels

Extra navigation tips

Summary

Part 2: Creating in Studio One

4

Creating a New Song

Technical requirements

Setting up your Song and exploring the Song settings

Name

Save location

Sample Rate

Resolution

Other New Document page settings

Changing the tempo, key signature, and time signature within the Song

Using the Tempo track to change your Song’s tempo

Using the Signature track to change your Song’s key or time signature

Summary

5

Recording Your First Audio Track

Technical requirements

Setting up your hardware for recording audio

Setting up a microphone

Setting up an instrument

Setting up Studio One for recording audio

Creating an audio track

Setting recording levels

Applying effects during recording

Setting up the metronome

Understanding different recording modes

Basic recording

Auto Punch

Loop recording

Recording best practices

Summary

6

Adding Virtual Instruments and Recording MIDI

Technical requirements

Introducing MIDI

Connecting devices to Studio One

Adding and configuring MIDI instruments

Adding a software instrument

Adding a hardware Instrument

Inputting and recording MIDI

Recording a live performance with MIDI

Inputting MIDI notes manually

Using Melodyne to convert audio to MIDI

Choosing the right type of audio material

Audio-to-MIDI-conversion walkthrough

Summary

Part 3: Editing in Studio One

7

Editing and Rearranging Your Song

Technical requirements

Exploring the editing tools

Arrow tool

Range tool

Split tool

Eraser tool

Paint tool

Mute tool

Bend tool

The Listen tool

Understanding Snap and various Snap modes

Snap To Grid

Relative Grid

Snap To Cursor & Loop

Snap To Events

Snap Event End

Snap To Zero Crossings

Using the Arranger Track to edit a song

Using the Launcher to try out new ideas

Summary

8

Editing Audio

Technical requirements

Mastering the audio editing tools

Transposing and tuning audio events

Strip Silence

Creating the perfect take from several layers

Working effectively with editing commands

Fixing and enhancing the timing of audio recordings

Understanding transients

Using the Audio Bend tool to fix errors manually

Quantizing audio to fix timing errors automatically

Extracting and quantizing to custom grooves

Using Melodyne to fix and enhance vocal recordings

Fixing an out-of-tune vocal performance with Melodyne

Using Melodyne to create background harmony vocals

Using stem separation to isolate audio events

Summary

9

Editing MIDI

Technical requirements

Using basic editing tools and quantization

Using the Arrow tool to perform basic editing tasks

Using the Select Notes window to make a precise selection

Quantizing MIDI notes to change the timing of a performance

Adjusting note lengths and applying half-time or double-time

Adjusting MIDI data to enhance a performance

Transposing notes

Adjusting velocity

Adjusting modulation and other parameters

Working in the Pattern Editor

Using Note FX to spark creativity

Loading Note FX plug-ins

Arpeggiator

Chorder

Repeater

Input Filter

Summary

10

Using Global Tracks

Technical requirements

Using the Chord Track to control the harmonic content of a song

Getting started with the Chord Track

Detecting and extracting chords automatically

Entering chord information manually

Setting Instrument Tracks to follow the Chord Track

Setting Audio Tracks to follow the Chord Track

Using the Ruler, Marker, and Lyric Tracks to work more efficiently on a project

Keeping track of different time units with the Ruler Track

Using the Marker Track for easy navigation

Using the Lyric Track

Using the Video Track to add sound and music to a video

Importing video files

Navigating the Video Track and Video Player

Editing video

Synchronizing audio and MIDI events with video

Understanding Timebase

Exporting video

Summary

Part 4: Mixing and Mastering

11

Preparing for the Mix

Technical requirements

Preparing a Song for the mix session

Optimizing hardware and software for the mix

Should I convert instrument tracks to audio?

Editing for perfection

Gain staging

Organizing tracks for better control

Setting levels, panning, and automation

Setting levels

Panning to create a stereo image

Adding automation to create a dynamic mix

Summary

12

Working with Effects Plug-Ins to Craft a Mix

Technical requirements

Controlling level and frequency with dynamics plug-ins and equalizer

Compressor

Limiter2

Expander

Gate

De-Esser

Multiband Dynamics

Tricomp

Pro EQ3

Adding depth and space with reverb and delay plug-ins

Reverb plug-ins

Delay plug-ins

Adding color and character with plug-ins

Distortion plug-ins

Modulation plug-ins

Combined mix plug-ins

Using special tools and analysis plug-ins

Special tools

Analysis tools

Summary

13

Optimizing Signal Flow and Elevating Your Mix

Technical requirements

Understanding Studio One’s signal flow

The anatomy of a mixer channel

Using the Inserts rack to add effects

Using FX channels

Using buses to control several channels

Using VCA channels to control volume

Applying advanced techniques

Sidechain processing

Using Splitter for precise targeting

Using groups for a faster workflow

Customizing plug-ins

Exporting final mixes and stems

Exporting final mixes

Exporting stems

Summary

14

Working with Spatial Audio

Technical requirements

Getting started with spatial audio

Understanding different types of spatial audio

The naming convention for speaker configurations

Hardware requirements for spatial audio

Creating a new Song for spatial audio

Mapping speakers

Formatting tracks for spatial audio

Mixing and exporting spatial audio material

Using the Surround Panner

Understanding beds and objects

Using the Object Panner

The Dolby Atmos Renderer

Exporting spatial audio material

Summary

15

Navigating the Project Page and Producing Final Masters

Technical requirements

Creating a new Project and navigating the Project page

Creating a new Project

Navigating the Project page

Integration between the Song and Project pages

Mastering the Project page

Entering metadata

Sequencing tracks

Editing tracks on the Project page

Adding effects plug-ins

Using the metering tools

Using automation on the Project page

Rendering final masters for publishing and delivery

Creating final masters for digital release

Creating final masters for release on a CD

Summary

16

Using Additional Studio One Features

Technical requirements

Using Studio One in live performances with the Show page

Creating your first Show

Exploring the Show page

Working with players

Adding effects to a live performance

Using the Arranger Track to define sections of song

Performing live with the Show page

Using the Score Editor

Opening the Score Editor

Exploring the Score Editor

Entering notes in the Score Editor

Editing notes in the Score Editor

Adding musical expressions and formatting the score

Finalizing and printing a score

Creating and manipulating samples with SampleOne XT

Adding a sample

Editing a sample

Selecting Trigger modes

Summary

Appendix

Customizing Studio One and Following Best Practices

Technical requirements

Customizing Studio One

Creating your own Smart Templates

Working with Track Presets

Using effects chains

Understanding the file and folder system

Exploring Studio One’s file management system

Locating and copying missing files

Removing unused files

Using autosave and recovery

Saving incremental versions

Sharing your files with others

Sharing with a collaborator who has Studio One

Sharing with a collaborator who does not have Studio One

Sharing tracks for mixing

Summary

Index

Other Books You May Enjoy

Preface

Music production is a fascinating and rewarding pursuit, but it can be daunting at times. With so many tools, techniques, and software options available, it can be difficult to know where to start. That’s why I’ve written this book, to guide you through the process of making music with PreSonus Studio One.

Studio One is a powerful digital audio workstation (DAW) that offers a wide range of features and tools to help you create, record, and mix your music. Whether you’re a singer-songwriter, a producer, or a composer, Studio One can help you achieve your musical vision.

In this book, I’ll take you through the essential steps of creating music with Studio One. We’ll start by looking at the interface and the basic tools you’ll need to get started. We’ll then move on to recording audio and MIDI, editing your recordings, and adding effects and virtual instruments to your tracks. Finally, we’ll explore how you can use the mixing and mastering tools in Studio One to deliver professional-sounding final masters of your songs.

Throughout the book, I’ll provide step-by-step instructions and practical tips to help you make the most of Studio One. Whether you’re a complete beginner or an experienced musician, this book will help you take your music to the next level.

So, if you’re ready to dive into the world of music production with Studio One, let’s get started!

Who this book is for

This book is for musicians, bands, and composers who want to learn Studio One from scratch in order to create their own music on a professional level. It is also aimed at producers and audio professionals who already have experience in another DAW but now wish to switch to Studio One or include it in their workflow.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Choosing Your Flavor of Studio One, provides an overview of the different versions of Studio One and is designed to help you choose the version that is right for you.

Chapter 2, Installing and Configuring Your Studio One Environment, walks you through the process of installing Studio One and its additional components. This chapter also explains how you can configure Studio One to get the best results for your system and production workflow.

Chapter 3, Exploring the Studio One Environment, provides a guided tour of the Studio One interface and describes the windows, panels, and other components that we’ll be working on in the following chapters.

Chapter 4, Creating a New Song, shows you how to create your first Song in Studio One, with step-by-step instructions on how to set up initial song parameters such as sample rate, tempo, and key signature.

Chapter 5, Recording Your First Audio Track, walks you through the process of recording audio using a microphone or instrument. This chapter also provides a list of best practices that will help you make the most of every recording session.

Chapter 6, Adding Virtual Instruments and Recording MIDI, starts with a crash course on MIDI for beginners. Then, the chapter shows you how to add virtual instruments to a song and explores several alternative methods of recording MIDI, with or without a keyboard.

Chapter 7, Editing and Rearranging Your Song, provides an overview of Studio One’s editing tools and their various modes of operation, which creates a foundation for the next two chapters.

Chapter 8, Editing Audio, shows you how to use audio editing tools to fix timing and intonation errors in audio recordings. This chapter also discusses several methods of using editing tools for creative purposes, such as changing the groove of an existing drum track or creating harmony background vocals.

Chapter 9, Editing MIDI, explores Studio One’s extensive MIDI editing capabilities and discusses several ways in which these capabilities can be used to embellish your musical ideas.

Chapter 10, Using Global Tracks, provides an in-depth look at Studio One’s global tracks and shows you how to harness their power to gain more control of your projects.

Chapter 11, Preparing for the Mix, walks you through several steps you can take to make sure that your mixing sessions run smoothly. This chapter also covers several best practices that will help streamline your production workflow.

Chapter 12, Working with Effects Plug-Ins to Craft a Mix, provides a tour of Studio One’s effects plug-ins. The chapter then goes on to explain how you can choose the right plug-in for a given task and add it to your projects.

Chapter 13, Optimizing Signal Flow and Elevating Your Mix, provides an in-depth look at how signal processing works in Studio One and how you can harness the power of the Mix Console to present your songs in the best light. Then, the chapter discusses how to apply advanced mixing techniques in Studio One, and finishes by explaining how to export stems and final mixes of your songs.

Chapter 14, Working With Spatial Audio, explores Studio One’s immersive audio capabilities and shows how to craft three-dimensional experiences for games, movies, and enriched music.

Chapter 15, Navigating the Project Page and Producing Final Masters, starts with an overview of the Project page, Studio One’s unique mastering environment. The chapter then goes on to explain how you can work on the Project Page to master your songs to the specifications required by digital music platforms.

Chapter 16, Using Additional Studio One Features, explores exciting features in Studio One that fall outside the standard music production workflow, but deserve a special mention nevertheless. These features include the Show Page, which allows you to use Studio One on your live performances; the Score Editor; which allows you to input MIDI data using standard musical notation, and SampleOne, which allows you to create your own unique sound samples for unlimited creative options.

Appendix, Customizing Studio One and Following Best Practices, shows you how you can customize Studio One to match your workflow in the most effective way possible. The appendix also provides an in-depth look at Studio One’s file and folder system and provides best practices for sharing projects with collaborators.

To get the most out of this book

To get the most out of this book, you should already have basic knowledge and experience of musical processes, such as arranging, recording, mixing, and mastering. However, you will learn how to perform these processes more effectively in Studio One.

Software/hardware covered in the book

Operating system requirements

Studio One Pro

Windows 10 22H2 or higher, macOS 12.4 (Monterey) or higher

You will need Studio One Pro version 7 to follow along with all the content in this book.

Keep in mind that this book aims to provide extensive coverage of the functions and features of Studio One. Therefore, depending on the version that you decide to work with, you may find that some of the features described in this book are not available in your system.

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For instance, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in bold. Here is an example: “Go back to the Audio Setup window, but this time, take specific note of the two tabs labeled Audio Deviceand Processing.”

Tips or important notes

Appear like this.

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Part 1:Getting Started with Studio One

In the first part of this book, you will learn about the different versions of Studio One and how you can pick the one that best suits your needs. Then, you will learn how to install and configure Studio One to run smoothly on your system. Finally, you will take a guided tour of the Studio One interface and get to know the windows that we will be using throughout this book.

This part includes the following chapters:

Chapter 1, Choosing Your Flavor of Studio OneChapter 2, Installing and Configuring Your Studio One EnvironmentChapter 3, Exploring the Studio One Environment

1

Choosing Your Flavor of Studio One

Competition is fierce in the world of Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs), with well-established major contenders having, over time, specialized in different aspects of music production. Although Studio One, the ever-popular DAW developed by PreSonus, is more than a decade old at the time of writing, it’s still considered a newcomer. However, it has garnered a well-deserved reputation as the program that does it all.

As exciting as that may be, not everyone needs all the functionality that the full-fledged version has to offer. So, in the past, PreSonus came up with several alternative packages to choose from, offering different levels of functionality, complexity, and pricing.

Over time, the abundance of options made things complicated – at a certain point, there were as many as seven different flavors of Studio One. So, in order to make life easier for everyone, PreSonus adopted the tagline One DAW for all and dispensed with all the light versions of Studio One, leaving us with the full-fledged Studio One Pro only.

Having said that, as of the time of writing, there are still three different options for getting into Studio One Pro, which can be confusing for newcomers as well as veteran users seeking to upgrade from deprecated versions.

In this chapter, we will go over these options, analyze the differences between them, and discuss which user profile each option would be most suitable for. By the end of this chapter, you will have a solid understanding of which option will best meet your needs, and why.

In this chapter, we will cover the following main topics:

Meeting the candidates – Perpetual, Annual, and MonthlyChoosing the right planSifting through the additional content

Meeting the candidates – Perpetual, Annual, and Monthly

Currently, PreSonus offers two alternative methods for owning Studio One Pro: a Perpetual license, which is a one-time purchase for the core version of the software, or Pro+, a subscription-based plan that offers several additional features. Pro+ itself comes with further options of its own: Annual and Monthly subscriptions. At first glance, these options may seem confusing, but the key point here is to decide whether the additional features brought by Pro+ are suitable for your workflow, production style, and budget.

So, let’s start by taking a deep dive into Pro+ and see whether it is the right choice for you.

Pro+ (formerly known as PreSonus Sphere and then, for a brief period, as Studio One+) is a subscription-based model that gives you access to Studio One Pro and almost every other software product developed by PreSonus. This includes Notion, a powerful music notation program that tightly integrates with Studio One, as well as a huge list of sound effects, virtual instruments, Sound Sets, and loops that are not available when you purchase Studio One Pro normally, that is, with a standalone Perpetual license.

Since the inception of Pro+ and its predecessor, Sphere, PreSonus has really beefed up the package to make it more attractive. Thus, a subscription will get you extra goodies, such as access to exclusive online events and educational materials, cloud storage, cloud exchange and collaboration tools, live streams, and so on.

Now that we know what a subscription-based plan will bring to the table, we are ready to talk about the alternative methods for owning Studio One Pro:

Perpetual license: This is the basic, old-fashioned, one-time purchasing option. You pay the full price for Studio One Pro and it’s yours forever. You get access to Studio One Pro’s core set of plug-ins and content library. Any other add-ons offered through Pro+ will cost you extra. You will not be able to update your version of Studio One beyond minor maintenance updates or bug fixes. Select this option if you need the features of the core Studio One Pro software, but do not really care about the additional content offered by Pro+.Monthly subscription: This option gives you access to everything Pro+ has to offer with no long-term commitment. If you choose to end your Monthly subscription, that will be it. Since you’re reading this book, I assume that you already have, or are considering having, a long-term commitment to Studio One, so let’s just cross this option out to simplify our decision-making process.Annual subscription: This gives you access to all the goodies that are included in Studio One Pro+. At the end of your subscription period, even if you don’t renew your subscription, you will have a Perpetual license for Studio One Pro, which will be yours to keep forever, for the version available at the time when your subscription ends. This is a great option if you want to have a wide selection of loops, sound libraries, and plug-ins at your disposal.

Armed with the preceding information, we are now ready to choose the best option for you.

Choosing the right plan

In deciding between a Perpetual license and a subscription, the first factor we need to talk about is the additional content that a Pro+ subscription brings to the table. Is this content relevant and useful to your musical style and production workflow?

The best way to decide whether a Pro+ subscription is the right choice for you is to take a close look at all the extras that come with it and see whether they will be useful for your productions. We will examine the main ingredients of this package in the following section (see Sifting through the additional content). Be sure to also visit PreSonus’ website to listen to the demos and hear them in action.

Give yourself a couple of days to check out the extra content. If you think you would use at least 30% of the extra content in your productions, go with a Pro+ subscription. If not, purchase selectively.

The second factor we need to talk about in deciding between a Perpetual license and a subscription-based model is the price. At the time of writing, the cost of an Annual subscription to Studio One Pro+ is $179,99 and the cost of a Perpetual license is $ 199,99 for first-time users. So, keeping in mind the fact that you’ll have a Perpetual license at the end of an Annual subscription period, going with an Annual subscription is a no-brainer at the time of writing. However, these prices are subject to change, so it’s a good idea to do a bit of research before pulling out your credit card.

Up next, we will take an in-depth look at the additional content included in Pro+ to assist you in choosing between a Perpetual license or a subscription-based model.

Sifting through the additional content

PreSonus offers a plethora of additional content that can be used as plug-ins or extensions within Studio One. In this section, we will go over the main categories, since this will help you in choosing the right combination for your production style. However, keep in mind that there are far too many items to cover individually here. Once you have a clear understanding of content categories, it’s a good idea to spend some time on PreSonus’ website to go over the product catalog at https://my.presonus.com/products and see which ones will be useful for your production style.

Virtual instruments

The core version of Studio One Pro comes with a variety of virtual instruments that will cover all your basic needs to kick-start an arrangement—everything from sampled acoustic instruments to drums and synthesized sounds. When you outgrow these virtual instruments, Pro+ offers several alternatives that will take your productions to the next level. In this section, we will take a close look at each of these instruments to help you decide which of these alternatives will work best for you. All the core instruments listed here are available in Studio One Pro, with the exception of Lead Architect and Deep Flight One, which are only available through a Pro+ subscription.

Presence

Presence is the standard equipment that ships with all versions of Studio One. It is a sample player that triggers audio samples of actual instruments. Hence, the sound quality you’ll get from Presence is directly related to the quality of the samples that you load into it.

Figure 1.1: Presence

Presence has its own sample file format, called Sound Sets. The standard Sound Set that ships with a Perpetual license for Studio One Pro contains hundreds of instrument sounds, which are mostly run-of-the-mill and nothing to get excited about. They can be used to create tracks for a demo, but are highly unlikely to make their way into a final, polished production.

Studio One Pro comes with another Sound Set, called Presence XT Core Library, which has higher-quality samples. A Pro+ subscription will allow you to get your hands on many other sound sets available in the PreSonus catalog, so there’s plenty to explore.

Presence can also load and play samples in EXS, Giga, and Kontakt formats, acting as a gateway between the PreSonus ecosystem and other vendors such as Native Instruments. If you’re switching from another DAW and already have a sample collection in these file formats, Presence has got you covered.

Impact

Impact is PreSonus’ take on the ever-popular pad-based drum sampler, allowing you to program intricate drum tracks. A different sample is loaded into each pad, which can then be further tweaked and manipulated individually, allowing for granular control of your drum sounds.

One overlooked feature of Impact is its ability to act as an instant sample player. Just drag any audio clip or file, either from Studio One itself or from your desktop, Finder, Explorer, and so on, and drop it into any of its pads. You can use this method to create your very own custom kits and save them for your future projects as well!

Figure 1.2: Impact

Impact comes with several drum kits, each of which is a collection of drum sounds tailored for a particular genre. EDM and hip-hop receive preferential treatment over acoustic drum kits in the standard package. A Pro+ subscription gives you access to around 100 GB of additional kits, loops, and sounds.

Mai Tai

A polyphonic, analog-modeling synthesizer, Mai Tai delivers an amazing variety of high-quality sounds and excellent presets, and comes with a simple user interface.

Figure 1.3: Mai Tai

Mojito

A simple, monophonic, subtractive synthesizer, Mojito is perfect for creating and tweaking bass and lead sounds. Unless you’re going for deep-level music synthesis, Mojito and Mai Tai will have your bases covered for most EDM and pop styles.

Figure 1.4: Mojito

Sample One

Sample One is a powerful, feature-packed sampler that lets you trigger any audio recording with MIDI. It comes with a vast range of tone-shaping tools and onboard effects. If you’re into electronic music or hip-hop production, this is something you definitely want to have in your arsenal.

Figure 1.5: Sample One

Lead Architect

Lead Architect is the latest addition to the PreSonus family of virtual instruments, and is currently only available through a Pro+ subscription. It’s a sample-based instrument with synth-style filtering and modulation. With sounds that lean toward the edgy and aggressive part of the spectrum, this instrument is guaranteed to deliver powerful lead sounds that will cut through any dense music arrangement.

Figure 1.6: Lead Architect

Deep Flight One

Deep Flight One first came to life as a creative sound library for Presence XT, but soon evolved into a standalone virtual instrument in and of itself. It lets you combine and manipulate three layers of sound samples to create otherworldly soundscapes, drones, pads, and atmospheric textures. If experimental, creative sound design is your thing, then this tool has plenty to offer. Deep Flight One is currently available through a Pro+ subscription or can be purchased separately to add an element of otherworldliness to an existing Perpetual license.

Figure 1.7: Deep Flight One

In this section, we reviewed the virtual instruments that come with a core Studio One installation and the extra instruments and features available through a Pro+ subscription. We will take a much closer look at these instruments when we work with them in Chapter 6. Now, let’s focus on the wide selection of effects plug-ins available in the Studio One ecosystem.

Effects plug-ins

Studio One users have long been happy and content with its stock plug-ins. The only thing lacking in earlier versions was analog flavor: plug-ins designed to give that elusive analog character or warmth that many people feel is missing in DAWs. In recent years, PreSonus has boldly and successfully entered the analog-modeled plug-in market and released several successful products. Today, there is even less need for third-party plug-ins.

In this section, we will look at the plug-in selection that comes with each version of Studio One, so you can decide which particular version will best suit your needs.

Perpetual license

For most users, Studio One Pro’s stock plug-ins (which include a generous selection of equalizers, compressors, reverbs, and modulation effects, a total of 45 plug-ins at the time of writing) will be all they ever need. There’s a good amount of variety and the overall quality is more than enough for professional music production. PreSonus has chosen to exclude some new and/or unusual plug-ins from the list of plug-ins included with a Perpetual license, apparently to make Pro+ more enticing. However, if you fancy any of these, keep in mind that they can also be purchased individually and added to an existing Studio One installation.

Pro+

This is the way to go if you’re looking for ultimate variety and a dazzling number of choices. As of writing, Pro+ will give you 15 different compressors to choose from, including RC-500, FC-670, and Everest C100A, all modeled after classic vintage analog hardware. At this point, it becomes a matter of personal preference, rather than musical style. Some people like to have many toys to play with (of which I’ve sometimes been guilty, but beware of the dreaded Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS)), whereas some people just select a couple of effects, stick with them, and focus on their music. If you’re in the former group, Pro+ is guaranteed to keep you happy with its abundance of choices.

In this section, we saw that although there are a lot of plug-in options to choose from, identifying your production goals will narrow down the choices and make it easy for you to pick the best alternative. Up next, we will take a look at the final component of the vast collection known as Additional Content, and we will complete our tour of the Studio One ecosystem.

Loops and sounds

Loops and sounds are production-ready elements that can be used as starting points to spark that first flame of inspiration when you’re creating a song, or to spice up and embellish a maturing project:

Loops are pre-made audio recordings or MIDI clips. They can contain anything from a drum groove to a synthesizer arpeggio. When you drag and drop them into your project, they will automatically match your song’s tempo and are constructed in a manner that allows you to repeat them over and over again in your arrangement, hence the name.Sounds, on the other hand, refer to the building blocks that virtual instruments use to generate complex sonic textures. For example, when you load Prime Selection Sounds into Presence, Presence will use that sound set to produce sounds unique to that collection.

Collectively, loops and sounds are organized into production kits, which are several musical elements comprising an entire song arrangement, that you can freely drag and drop into your own project. Then you can tweak them to your heart’s content, or since they are royalty-free, you can leave them as is (and sound like ten thousand other songs on Spotify).

As of writing, the core version of Studio One Pro comes with 13 such production kits (with a preference skewed toward electronic music genres). This is a decent selection for home studio use, but if your production workflow relies heavily on using production kits, you will soon outgrow these and find yourself digging for more.

The real blast comes with Pro+. You gain access to a seemingly endless list of production kits, drum kits, loops, and sounds. If loops are the main ingredient of your production style, then this is a no-brainer; a Pro+ subscription costs much less than buying all (or several) of these materials separately.

If you feel that you might need an occasional loop or production kit every now and then, though, this might be overkill. It’s a good idea to go over the catalog at PreSonus’ website to see how much of this additional content may eventually find its way into your songs. Then you can make an informed decision on whether a Pro+ subscription is the right choice for you.

The table below summarizes and compares the main feature sets available for each version. Please note that new features and plug-ins are being added constantly, so it’s a good idea to double-check PreSonus’ website before reaching a final decision.

Perpetual license

Pro+ Annual plan

Pro+ Monthly access

Price as of writing

$199.99

$179.99/year

$19.99/month

Included effects plug-ins

45 native plug-ins

Native plug-ins + all plug-ins from the Pro+ suite

Native plug-ins + all plug-ins from the Pro+ suite

Included virtual instruments

7 native instruments

Native instruments + Deep Flight One, Lead Architect, and instruments from third-party vendors

Native instruments + Deep Flight One, Lead Architect, and instruments from third-party vendors

Loops & samples

20 GB

20 GB + 15,000 loops and samples from the Pro+ Library

20 GB + 15,000 loops and samples from the Pro+ Library

Table 1.1: Comparison of main feature sets available in each version

This concludes our tour of the vast alternatives available in the Studio One ecosystem. While the sheer number of options may be daunting at first, focusing on your production goals and musical style will narrow down the choices and help you decide on which version is right for you.

Summary

In this chapter, we learned about the different versions of Studio One and took a close look at the functions, features, and content provided by each. Then, we examined the additional content offered by PreSonus and discussed which option would be the right choice for several different scenarios.

In the next chapter, you will configure Studio One to run smoothly on your system and learn about best practices that will save you tons of time further down the line.

2

Installing and Configuring Your Studio One Environment

Installing and configuring software is normally a simple task, but when it comes to audio production software, things can get really messy. Computers are designed to process data in chunks, and in between those chunks, they either process chunks from background tasks or wait patiently for your next command. Audio production, on the other hand, requires processing an uninterrupted flow of data at high volumes, something computers are not equipped to handle off the shelf.

In this chapter, we will take an in-depth look at the strategies you can use to optimize Studio One for your production environment and make sure you are getting the best performance possible out of your system. We will go over the process of selecting and downloading the software components and additional content that you will be using. Then, we will discuss several options available for different scenarios – all the way from a portable rig based around a laptop computer to a fully fledged music studio – and see how you can configure Studio One to run efficiently on each system.

By the end of this chapter, you will be ready to start producing music with Studio One, confident in the knowledge that it is running with optimum efficiency, and you will be well equipped to troubleshoot any configuration problems that may occur down the line.

In this chapter, we are going to cover the following main topics:

Installing Studio One and additional contentConfiguring Studio OneOptimizing your system for best performance

Technical requirements

In order to run Studio One, your computer must meet the following minimum system requirements:

Operating System: macOS 12.4 (Monterey) or higher or Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit only)Processor: Intel Core i3/Apple M1 or better, or Intel Core i3/AMD A10 or better, processorRam: 8 GB (minimum); 16 GB or more (recommended)40 GB available hard disk space for installation, additional content, and projectsA minimum monitor resolution of 1280 x 768 dpiAn internet connection (required for installation, activation, and cloud-based integration)

Installing Studio One and additional content

Whether you purchase a perpetual license for Studio One or have subscribed to Studio One Pro+, your journey will begin by creating an account on PreSonus’ website. This will be your hub for everything Studio One. Once you complete your purchase, log in at my.presonus.com. There is a lot to explore here, and lots of valuable content to help you make the most of your Studio One experience. We will take a closer look at these resources, but first, let’s get Studio One up and running on your computer.

Installing Studio One

From the my.presonus.com home page, head over to the Products page. Here, you will see a list of all the software, virtual instruments, effects, samples, and loop libraries included with your purchase:

Figure 2.1: The Products page on PreSonus’ website

At the top of the list, you will find the latest version of Studio One. Click on it and you will be taken to a page where you can find the installer:

Figure 2.2: Studio One download page with Download links and additional content

Download the installer and run it on your computer. When the installation is complete, your shiny new Studio One will ask you to log in to your MyPreSonus account. Once you’ve done that, it will automatically retrieve the activation code and activate itself.

Tip

You can install Studio One on up to five different computers using the same activation code. This is an excellent – and very generous, compared to competitors – option for those who need to work on different platforms. So you can, for example, install Studio One on two different computers in your studio, on your home computer, your laptop, or your live rig, and share the same project across all of these computers using workspaces. It is important to note that these computers must belong to a single user; sharing an activation code between users is not permitted.

Installing additional content

You will notice that the core installer for Studio One is pretty lightweight. PreSonus has maintained a modular, open buffet approach, where you pick and install only the components that you will actually use, saving you time, bandwidth, and disk space.

Free extra content and plug-ins

If you go back to the Products page, you will find additional software, effects plug-ins, sound sets, and loops, which are not part of a standard Studio One installation but are available to you for free as part of your purchase. Take your time going through the options, checking out their demos on the PreSonus website and picking the ones that you would like to use.

I recommend that you install the following:

Ampire: A suite of plug-ins comprising digital simulations of vintage guitar amplifiers, cabinets, and effects pedals. While targeted mainly at electric guitars, you can use it to add vintage color to just about any sound.Fat Channel XT: A collection of digital models of highly prized vintage analog effects processors found in top studios all over the world. These processors will be extremely handy when we talk about mixing your projects.

Once you’ve selected the materials you’d like to use, download them. Go ahead and run the installers for the effects plug-ins, but leave the sound sets and loops in your download folder.

Included sound sets

Back on the page where you downloaded the installer for Studio One (Figure 2.2), click on the button that says Show n Bundled Downloads (where n is the amount of additional content available for free depending on your version of Studio One). Click that and you will see a list of sound sets containing a large selection of instruments, ranging from symphonic strings to synthesized textures, as well as production-ready loops that you can use to kick off or spice up your production. Take your time going over each item. Listen to their demos on the PreSonus website and see whether they match your production style.

Regardless of your production style, I recommend that you download the following:

Studio One Instruments Volume 1 & 2Impact XT Kits and SoundsStudio One Musicloops

These offer a generous palette of sounds that will cover your bases on a wide variety of genres (however, availability depends on your version of Studio One).

Though those are the ones I recommend, download any others that you like and leave them in your downloads folder for now. We will come back to them later in this chapter, in the section titled Configuring file locations.

Melodyne Essential

Further down the same page, you will see a section titled Downloads. Here you can download Melodyne Essential, a bundled third-party program that lets you do pitch correction on vocal recordings and convert audio recordings to MIDI. Download and run the installer; it will introduce Melodyne to Studio One and take care of all necessary configurations. We will talk about Melodyne in great detail in Chapter 8.

Exploring online resources

Now that we have installed Studio One and some additional resources, let’s take a quick guided tour of the excellent resources available at my.presonus.com, so you don’t miss out on any of the features:

We’ve talked about the Products page already. It’s a good idea to check back here every now and then – there may be some new goodies!On the Learn page, you will find a collection of videos that will show you how to perform specific tasks or use certain features in Studio One. An even larger collection is available for Studio One Pro+ members under the Exclusives section. (Since you’re reading this book, it is highly unlikely that you will ever need them, but they may still be nice to have!)The Support page is where you will open and monitor tickets if you ever need assistance from the PreSonus support team.Workspaces is the gateway to an innovative feature available to Studio One Pro+ members only. It lets you share your mixes and stems with collaborators and communicate with them in real time using mark-ups and performance notes. This is a brilliant tool for collaborating with fellow musicians or receiving feedback from clients over a distance.The Exchange page is an excellent platform where users share resources that they have created for Studio One: everything from sound sets to drum patterns, and from FX chains to color schemes. If you ever need a feature that Studio One does not have, this is the first place to look; chances are someone else will have already needed that feature, written a macro for it, and shared it for other users to enjoy. All the content on this page is free!Finally, the Community page hosts a very active discussion board with a wide variety of topics. Thread topics are not limited to Studio One; you will find discussions on everything from woodwind instruments to video post-production. A MyPreSonus account will let you read the posts; however, in order to join the conversation, you’ll need a Studio One Pro+ subscription.

Great! You have just completed the first step in your journey with Studio One. You have chosen and downloaded everything you will need for your Studio One-based production environment. You are now ready to customize Studio One and optimize it to run smoothly on your system.

Configuring Studio One

When you launch Studio One, the software will take a moment to familiarize itself with its new home – it will analyze your computer’s hardware configuration, search for any friendly or unfriendly plug-ins you have installed (yes it does have a blacklist!), phone home to PreSonus, sniff out the peripherals connected to your computer, and then greet you with the Start page:

Figure 2.3: Studio One’s Start page

Now, let’s start configuring Studio One.

Filling in the artist profile and choosing a language

Right in the middle of the Start page is the Artist Profile window. When you installed Studio One in the preceding section, you logged in to your PreSonus account, so Studio One already knows who you are, and it will populate this section by pulling your photo, name, last name, and website link from your account info. If for some reason (e.g., due to a firewall) this section is still empty, go ahead and fill in the information manually.

Studio One will use this information to give you a warm welcome every time you launch it, but it’s for much more than a friendly greeting; this information will also be used by Studio One to populate meta tags within the awesome audio files that you will soon be exporting. Ever wondered how additional information such as album name and year of release appears when you play MP3 files? That information is stored in meta tags contained in the MP3 files. So, the next time you export an MP3 to share a rough mix with a friend or client, your name and other info will be added automatically.

This is also a good time to ensure that Studio One is using the language you feel the most comfortable using. As of the time of writing, the Studio One user interface supports nine languages. If you’d like to use it in a language other than English, go to Studio One on the top menu and make your selection under Language:

Figure 2.4: Selecting your language

Now that Studio One knows who you are, it’s time to introduce it to the other members of the team: the hardware devices in your studio.

Configuring your audio device

When you launch Studio One, it asks your operating system about the audio devices available on your computer and makes an educated guess about which one you will want to use. Now let’s make sure that the correct device is selected and optimized for best performance.

Back on the Start page, right under your photo and name, you will see a section called Setup. Here, click Configure Audio Device, which will open the Audio Setup tab of the Preferences window:

Figure 2.5: Audio Setup window

There are two drop-down menus on this tab:

Playback Device: You can think of this as the audio output coming out of Studio One. The device you select here will be the device that you will be connecting your speakers or headphones to.Recording Device: This is the input going into Studio One. This is the device that you will be hooking up your sound sources to, such as microphones and instruments.

In most home studio environments, these two devices are one and the same; a typical audio interface will serve as both a playback device and a recording device. So, for the great majority of users, all you need to do here is to select your audio interface on both of these menus, and you will be good to go.

The same thing applies to USB microphones, which are becoming increasingly popular due to their ease of use. A USB microphone is basically a microphone with a built-in tiny audio interface that connects to a computer with a standard USB cable. If you have one of these, select it from the Recording Device drop-down menu, and it will be ready to go.

If your studio requires a more complex setup, you can get creative with the options on the Audio Device tab. Let’s explore some options:

If you have a more elaborate setup comprising discrete analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters, you can set them independently as recording and playback devices, respectively.If you’d like to route Studio One’s audio output to a streaming or screen-capturing software (to play a project to a client in an online meeting, for example), you can set loopback software as the playback device.

For the purpose of this book, though, we will stick with the most typical home studio scenario and assume that you have selected the same audio device for both menus.

Important note

If your device is connected to your computer but you cannot see it in these lists, most likely the driver software for your device has not been installed or has not been recognized. Studio One uses the ASIO protocol to access audio devices, so go to your device manufacturer’s website and download the ASIO driver that matches your operating system. After that, restart your computer and you should be fine. If a suitable driver is not available (it happens), you can try installing the free and generic ASIO4ALL driver on Windows machines.

Buffer size and latency

Audio production requires the uninterrupted flow and processing of a huge amount of data, and computers are not natively equipped to handle this. Digital audio workstations and audio devices work around this problem by using buffers.

You can think of a buffer as a water tank that protects a house from water outages. Working with buffers buys time for your computer’s and audio device’s processors to perform their tasks gracefully. A larger buffer means much better performance, even on a modest computer. But as with many things in life, there is a trade-off: latency. Simply put, latency is the time delay between when you sing into your microphone and hear yourself back on your headphones. Just like water going into and coming out of a water tank, it takes time for audio data to go through a buffer. There are several buffers along the signal path, and the delay introduced by each of them will add up.

When you hook up a microphone on your audio device and sing into it, the sound captured by your microphone must go through several buffers before you can hear yourself back on your headphones. This is the roundtrip latency imposed by your entire system, measured in milliseconds (ms). Anything above 10 ms will be very noticeable and distracting. You will not be able to record with a latency above that level. The solution is to decrease the buffer size. As you decrease the buffer size, the latency will decrease, but you will be placing a heavier burden on your system. You will start hearing clicks, cracks, and all sorts of artifacts as the computer struggles. Eventually, you may experience audio dropouts or system freezes.

This dilemma has existed for as long as digital audio workstations have existed. The classic workaround is to decrease the buffer size when recording (because that’s when latency becomes noticeable) and to bring it back up when editing and mixing. But Studio One introduces an innovative and more effective approach by letting you adjust your audio device’s and computer’s buffer settings independently.

Here’s how you can configure your system to work with minimum latency and maximum performance. Go back to the Audio Setup window, but this time take specific note of the two tabs labeled Audio Deviceand Processing.

The Audio Device tab

The Audio Device tab displays, and lets you adjust, the latency created by your audio device:

Figure 2.6: Latency measurements and settings for the audio device

When you sing into the microphone, converters in your audio device will convert the analog signal from the microphone into digital data. This conversion takes some time and is listed as Input Latency here on the Audio Device tab.

Once the computer does its magic and sends audio data back to the audio device, the digital-to-analog converters in the device will then convert this data back to analog signals so you can hear yourself on the headphones. The time spent for this conversion is listed as Output Latency.

Together, input and output latencies account for your audio device’s total share in your system’s overall latency. This can be adjusted by changing the Device Block Size value here on the Audio Device tab, but don’t touch it just yet; we will come back to it after we have covered the Processing tab.

The Audio Device tab also has a specific option only available for Windows users: Release audio device in background. This controls whether or not Studio One will allow other programs to use your audio device when it’s minimized. Let’s say, for example, that while working on a project in Studio One, you decide to take a break, open your internet browser, and watch a video. The browser may change the settings of your audio device and this may cause problems when you switch back to Studio One. This option is disabled by default, meaning Studio One will not share the audio device with other programs when it’s minimized, but you may experiment and enable it if you find that other programs are playing nicely.

The Processing tab

Now, head over to the Processing tab of the Audio Setup window:

Figure 2.7: Processing tab of the Audio Setup window

This tab lets you monitor and adjust the latency added by Studio One itself. At the bottom of this tab, Audio Roundtrip gives you the exact time, in milliseconds, it takes for you to sing into the microphone and hear your voice in the headphones. Anything above 10 ms will be noticeable.

Here’s how you can keep latency at a minimum while allowing your computer to run efficiently:

On the Audio Device tab, set Device Block Size low enough that Audio Roundtrip in the Processing tab falls below 10 ms and leave it there.When you are recording and need minimum latency, set Dropout Protection on the Processing tab to Minimum.When you are finished recording, set Dropout Protection to a higher value. You will have higher latency but it will not be a problem (when you’re mixing a song, waiting for an extra 20 ms when you press play is no big deal). You will need that extra buffer protection when you start adding plug-ins.

There are no hard and fast rules or fixed values for these settings; it all depends on your computer’s processing power and your audio device’s driver efficiency.

Configuring your external devices

Now let’s introduce your MIDI controllers, keyboards, control surfaces, and other peripherals to Studio One. Most of these devices support plug-and-play operation, but you will need to configure them manually if you want to use them beyond standard MIDI functionality, which may be too basic for most purposes.

Studio One groups external devices under three categories. Let’s go over these one by one, so that you can place your devices under the right category:

Keyboard means a hardware MIDI device that is used for playing and controlling other MIDI devices and software instruments.Instrument is an external hardware device such as a synthesizer, sampler, or workstation. It uses incoming MIDI data to generate or manipulate sound.Control Surface