PRESONUS STUDIO ONE 5
The latest version of this well-established DAW introduces an extensive list of improvements, many of them user requests. How does it stack up?
As with previous iterations, Studio One 5 comes in two versions: the top-tier Professional edition and the far cheaper, lowerspec Artist edition; but for this review, we’re only looking at Studio One 5 Professional – see the PreSonus website for more on Artist.
We should also point out that you can buy Studio One 5 outright or as part of the new PreSonus Sphere subscription service. This gets you all the company’s software (Studio One Professional and all its plugins, Notion, and a ton of sample-based instruments and loops), and various collaborative and networking tools, for a monthly (£12.05) or annual (£132.97) fee.
One Performance
For us, the new Studio One 5 feature we’re likely to get the most use out of is actually one of the more modest. Clip Gain Envelopes facilitate sample-accurate volume automation directly within individual audio regions, providing a far more targeted alternative to compression or regular volume fader automation. Tick the Gain Envelope box in any audio clip’s right-click menu, then use breakpoints or the Paint tool to shape your gain changes on the clip itself, which are reflected in its waveform in real time. It’s a brilliantly neat solution for making precise corrective and creative level adjustments over time, and we’d love to see an equivalent system for modulating pitch. One for v6 perhaps.
Moving on, Mixer Scenes enable snapshots of the entire Studio One mixer to be saved and recalled – including mutes, effects inserts and sends, and routing – which is obviously hugely helpful when setting up channel groups for auditioning, and experimenting with mix variations. A collection of filters let you decide which mix parameters you want to recall, so you can opt for the whole setup, or any combination of Visibility, Volume, Pan, Mute, Inserts, Sends, Cue Mix and Input Controls; and recall can even be restricted to selected channels only. It’s a solid, intuitive arrangement, and our only issues with it are that an ‘Activate all’ button and ‘Deactivate all but this filter’ modifier key are called for, plus the list of captured Scenes can’t be reordered.
The new Aux mixer channel type streamlines the integration of external instruments into Studio One projects. Essentially, it’s an audio input channel without an associated track, through which a connected synth, drum machine, etc, is fed into the mix and treated like an internal audio signal, complete with effects, automation, and – assuming the source is also being triggered from a MIDI track – inclusion in bounces and exports. Related to this, External Instrument setups can now be dragged in from the browser and automatically routed to the default Aux channel. Very convenient.
The Independent Listen Bus is a separate ‘control room’ output that sits parallel to the main output and houses most of the same controls – level fader, insert effects, etc. Individual mixer channels assigned to the Listen Bus (pre- or post-fader) can be soloed without affecting what you hear on the main output, and although that might not be particularly useful for the average bedroom producer, those working in studios with separate control and live rooms will certainly appreciate it.