Studio One 4 Artist Review
- Oct 31, 2019 The one exception is Melodyne, for which you get a second product key.For this review, I tested PreSonus Studio One 4 on a MacBook Pro 15-inch with 16GB RAM and a 256GB SSD running macOS Mojave 10.
- Jun 08, 2018 Studio One 4 DAW Software Review - Duration: 13:53. Sweetwater 134,074 views. PreSonus—10 Reasons Why Studio One Is Right for You - Duration: 4:31.
PreSonus Studio One 4 Artist offers an integrated approach to recording music, from tracking, to mixing, to mastering, and distribution. Featuring a flow oriented, drag-and-drop interface, the software is built for intuitive use, speed, and efficiency.
There’s a very good reason why so many musicians have switched to Studio One from older, more rigid programs. Built on a modern foundation that’s not bogged down by legacy code, Studio One Artist provides an efficient, creative companion from initial inspiration to final export. Its efficient, single-screen interface houses an unlimited number of tracks, intuitive editing tools, and advanced virtual instruments—you spend your time creating music, not wondering what to click next. The 32-bit mix engine is state of the art, while the smooth, analog, superior sound quality of the virtual instruments comes from proprietary techniques that provide much higher controller resolution.
The reason why Studio One resonates with musicians is simple: PreSonus listens. As with previous versions, many new features in Version 4 are the direct result of user feedback. Add a comprehensive and easy-to-use feature set, full integration with Notion for superb notation, carefully curated content, a comprehensive set of plug-ins, advanced step sequencing, unified hardware control with the FaderPort series of hands-on controllers, and much more—it’s no wonder that Studio One continues to gain new followers every day.
Create Without Boundaries • Produce Without Limits
- Intuitive single-window work environment with quick and easy drag-and-drop functionality and multi-touch support
- Unlimited audio and instrument tracks, advanced automation features, virtual instruments, buses, and FX channels
- Pristine sound quality with native 32-bit floating point resolution and support for up to 384 kHz audio
- Exceptional new virtual instruments: Impact XT and SampleOne XT for powerful beat or loop-based composition, live sampling, and robust sample editing
- Patterns allow for intuitive drum and melody composition via familiar drum machine/sequencer style UI
- Presence XT sample playback instrument and Mai Tai polyphonic analog modeling synth with character morphing and modulation matrix
- 31 native effects, 5 virtual instruments, optional AU, VST2, VST3, and ReWire support
- Use Pro Tools, Cubase, Sonar, and Logic shortcut key commands or create your own
- Compatible with ASIO-, Windows Audio-, and Core Audio-compliant audio interfaces
- Dropout protection for native low-latency monitoring
- Transient detection with editable markers, drag-and-drop groove extraction
- Melodyne-ready with Audio Random Access (ARA) compatibility
- Single and multitrack comping
- Multitrack note data editing
- Integrated online Cloud Services include the PreSonus Shop, PreSonus Exchange, and our unique bi-directional SoundCloud integration
*3rd Party VST, AU, and ReWire support is NOT included in Studio One Artist.
PreSonus Studio One
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Pros
- Fast workflow for music composition and audio recording.
- Robust included sound sets.
- Attractive drag-and-drop interface.
- Powerful free version.
- Multitouch-enabled on the Windows side.
Cons
- No notation editor.
- No easy way to import session data or save I/O templates.
- MIDI editing is still weaker than the competition.
- Cluttered mixing console.
Bottom Line
PreSonus reinvented the common digital audio workstation in 2008 with Studio One; the latest version is the most inspired yet.
It's all about workflow. Perhaps more than any DAW I've tested recently, Studio One 4 makes it easy to lay down beats and record audio, and it simultaneously feels like a mature workstation. It's as if someone took Pro Tools, removed many of the unnecessary mouse button presses, and rearranged the menus and dialogs to make sense. Studio One doesn't scale to larger studios as well as Pro Tools, and is still missing some key features, but it's an inspired audio editing choice for anyone who needs a serious DAW and who dislikes Avid's move to subscription pricing for support.
Versions and Setup
PreSonus offers three versions of Studio One 4. The impressive Prime (free) includes unlimited audio and MIDI tracks, some basic plug-in effects, drag-and drop editing and comping, and the Presence XT sampler (really a 'rompler,' with no sampling capability) with 1.5GB of instruments. You can save as many projects as you want, and there are no nag screens, but you can't add third-party plug-ins.
Artist ($99) adds more editing tools, including track folders and event-based effects, multi-touch support on Windows machines, the excellent Mai Tai analog modeling synth, and the Fat Channel track plug-in that offers a bevy of mixing tools in a single interface. Professional ($399), which I tested for this review, adds built-in Melodyne pitch correction for vocals, many more effects (including a multi-band compressor and convolution reverb), and more virtual instruments. It switches from 32-bit to a 64-bit summing engine. You can also add third-party VSTs and AU plug-ins to Professional, although this feature is also available as an optional add-on to Artist.
Your PreSonus account shows dozens of separate downloads for the various included instruments, loops, and content packs. But don't fret; when you first fire up Studio One, it'll prompt you to download all of it at once from inside the program, rather than having to run all of those as separate installs. The one exception is Melodyne, for which you get a second product key.For this review, I tested PreSonus Studio One 4 on a MacBook Pro 15-inch with 16GB RAM and a 256GB SSD running macOS Mojave 10.14.6.
Interface and Recording
Getting settled in Studio One is pretty straightforward if you're coming from another DAW, although it's probably a little intimidating for first-timers. Studio One automatically suggests dates and names for your new projects to help keep you organized. You can also set the keyboard shortcuts to mirror Pro Tools or another DAW to ease migration to Studio One. A few minor nits: It's tough to get everything on the screen at once, and the interface doesn't scale to higher resolutions the way it does in FL Studio.
Low-latency monitoring was introduced back in version 3.5 and works on both recording and monitoring audio as well as with virtual instruments. Recording and editing the latter seems to require fewer clicks than some other DAWs: Click once to record, once for the metronome, once for rewinding, and double-click to split a clip into two. It's fast, and the program is super-responsive. You can set up instruments so that you just have to drag the plug-ins over, complete with a picture representation. Within moments, I had an offbeat, syncopated groove happening exactly the way I wanted using Impact and its '60s a GoGo' kit. You can easily create your own Split and Multi instruments by dragging and dropping additional ones on the same track.
Most of the regular audio editing features you'd expect in a proper DAW are here. You can trim or split clips, add fades, and adjust the gain of a clip right from the Edit window. Studio One was the first DAW to integrate genuine Melodyne pitch correction directly within the app, rather than having to export audio, correct it, and then reimport it back in à la Pro Tools. Since then, other popular DAWs like Logic and SONAR have added some type of integrated pitch correction. It's not only faster, but it means you can continue to edit the pitch-corrected clips from within Studio One without having to go back out to Melodyne first.
PreSonus has always bundled a large-if-uneven sound set with Studio One, but version 4 includes several useful upgrades. The most obvious are the overhauled Sample One XT and Impact XT, both of which are more powerful and visually attractive than before. You can import audio into Sample One now (meaning you can actually sample with it for the first time), instead of just manipulating existing sounds.
Studio One 4 also adds a drum editor and the ability to step-record musical patterns into a sequencer module that you can then bring into your current arrangement. It supports the ability to loop phrases, and you can switch between them as well as jump in and out of other regular piano-roll-style tracks during playback. Another inspired addition is Chord Track, which lets you create, listen to, and change up chord progressions; with it, you can easily move around song sections and test out arrangements.
Studio One 4 also supports 'ripple editing,' which lets you insert a section into the middle of a song; the remaining content then ripples down automatically so you don't have to do complex cut and paste maneuvers. Magix Sequoia and Samplitude have both offered this for years, and it's great to see it here. Chord Track even allows for harmonic editing; you can play an instrument, drag the clip to Chord Track, and then see what you played written out harmonically and then add new ones that complement it.
Is Studio One Good
While Studio One is 10 years old, it's still several decades younger than its major competitors, so it's expected that some of its features will not be as fleshed out as they are in the older programs. One such is a proper score editor, which is completely missing. If you need this and prefer Studio One, PreSonus sells Notion, a full-featured notation program that can work alongside Studio One Artist and Professional (the top two tiers); on the plus side, you can also export material from the new Chord Track straight into Notion. Teamviewer mac connect when asleep.
Other omissions include an easy way to save I/O routing templates or track templates. There's also no Pro Tools-like Smart Tool to help out with MIDI editing, although you get an alternative tool you can switch between like you do in Logic Pro X. And you don't get some other more advanced MIDI editing features, like the ability to stretch clips or scale velocities over a period of time. Finally, the UI remains particularly busy, both for arrangement and for mixing. Studio One offers a streamlined workflow once you learn how it works, but you wouldn't know it from the visual presentation.
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Mixing
Despite the aforementioned clutter in its appearance, the mixer is laid out well, as long as you understand one quirk going in: You must click the Expand arrow on a channel to open up the insert and send panel to the right. From there, you can insert all kinds of effects, and PreSonus provides dozens of Extended FX chains in a separate drop down folder that helps you mix faster. You can search for plug-ins just by typing, and you can drag inserts from one channel to another and mirror them immediately like you can in Logic. That said, if you're working with multiple plug-ins on each mixer channel and have them all open, you begin to lose your overall look at all the meters, and the view ends up quite an eyesore.
One feature I love is setting up a reverb on a send; all you have to do is drag the reverb to the track. Studio One automatically sets up the send, the plug-in, the return, and the level so that you've got a reverb happening instantly, and you can then activate the same send on additional tracks. You can also click the send to bring up the reverb plug-in to change the release, the type, or any other parameter, without having to hunt up and down the mixing board for the correct channel first. This is all significantly faster than it is in Pro Tools.
Using Studio One's Mix Engine FX and its Console Shaper plug-in, you can model the sound of an analog console from within the mixing engine, including drive, noise, and crosstalk. The mix bus, even with the standard compressor, sounds good when set to a low ratio (1.3) for just a few dB of reduction on the peaks. In the box, you get enough effects to bring a project from start to finish, including mastering (though I'll always recommend having an experienced second pair of engineers do the final mastering if the budget allows).
Studio One 4 Download Free
A big addition for those looking to collaborate with other studios is the ability to import and export AAF files. For mastering purposes, the Project page lets you set up multiple songs for Red Book-compatible CD burning, digital publication for streaming sites, DJ sets, and even DDP import and export for duplication houses. Studio One won't replace Magix Sequoia here, but it could save you from having to buy a separate mastering program.
Studio for All
On the Mac, Apple made it difficult for just about every competitor by slashing the price of Logic Pro to $199 back in 2011 with version 9. Eight years later, other DAWs are thriving nonetheless. Pro Tools remains the pro-studio standard; there have been some high-profile switches to Studio One, and there probably should be more, given how good this program is. Pro Tools still excels in importing session and individual track data, and its Smart Tool-based approach to audio editing is second to none. But Pro Tools is more expensive up front and requires monthly support fees, and it lacks integrated pitch correction. Unless you have the need for Avid's support for broadcast standards and massive control surfaces, or want to have maximum compatibility with other studios and sessions, going with Studio One could well be a smart, alternative choice for a pro-level DAW.
PreSonus Studio One
Presonus Studio One 4 Artist Review
Bottom Line: PreSonus reinvented the common digital audio workstation in 2008 with Studio One; the latest version is the most inspired yet.