PreSonus Blog

Monthly Archives: May 2015


Developing Studio One, Part 1: High DPI graphics engine

In this new blog series, we like to share some behind-the-scenes information with you about the development of Studio One 3 – as time permits. Let’s start with the new graphics engine because there seems to be some confusion about what “High DPI Mode” really means.

In general, Studio One and most of the PreSonus software applications such as Capture and UC Surface are based on our own proprietary application framework called CCL. It provides a nice abstraction layer on top of the APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) provided by Windows, OS X, and iOS allowing the majority of the code to cross-compile between platforms. The core part of it additionally expands into the firmware of our AI mixers and speakers which enables us to provide hybrid native/DSP solutions like the Fat Channel – but that’s a different story.

The GUI of Studio One is made from thousands of small pieces. Some of them are standard UI elements like buttons and knobs, tons of little icons, your musical data in the arrangement and editors, plug-in windows, and last but not least quite a lot of text. To make it look nice on today’s high-resolution 4K/5K/Retina displays an application has to be able to render the GUI at different scaling factors.

So, what does it mean? Let’s compare two monitors with the same physical dimensions but different pixel density, a standard 24” monitor with 1920 x 1080 pixels HD resolution and a 24” 4K monitor with 3840 x 2160 pixels UHD resolution: To make an UI element appear at the same size visually, the application has to render at 100% scaling on the HD monitor, and at 200% scaling on the UHD monitor. Makes sense? Technically, the common definition is that 96 DPI (dots per inch) equals 100% scaling, and thus 192 DPI equals 200% scaling. Depending on the size of the monitor and the viewing distance, intermediate scaling factors like 125% and 150% might fit as well.

Studio One 3 High DPI option

Studio One 3 High DPI option

On Windows, the DPI scaling value can be changed in your system settings: go to Control Panel – Appearance and Personalization – Display. With “High DPI Mode” enabled in Studio One, we follow this setting and render the GUI optimized for the scaling factor of your display. In a multi-monitor configuration with different DPI settings per monitor, you’ll notice the difference when you move windows between screens. With “High DPI Mode” turned off in Studio One, the operating system scales the application and you’ll notice the fuzziness caused by pixel interpolation.

On OS X, a similar mode is always enabled to support devices like Retina MacBooks and the 5K Retina iMac. Why did we make it optional on Windows? Because as soon as an application declares itself “DPI-aware” to the system, the automatic scaling provided by the DWM (Desktop Window Manager) is turned off and this affects third party plug-ins in a way that they appear smaller on screen than the Studio One stock plug-ins. That said, contrary to OS X where the scaling-magic always works out of the box, the manufacturer of your favorite audio plug-in or instrument will have to spend some time to make the GUIs work for higher DPI settings on Windows.

Studio One 3 compared to version 2 on high-resolution display

Studio One 3 compared to version 2 on high-resolution display

So, is the new Studio One GUI based on vector graphics? Well, for the most part, yes. All backgrounds that can be tweaked by the user are rendered on the fly, same for the musical data and UI fonts. For version 3, our graphics designers rebuilt all icons as vector files. However, the vector files were then exported as PNGs at different resolutions and the graphics engine selects the PNG which best matches the current scaling factor. For text, we’ve worked with one of the world’s leading type design companies to custom optimize one of their fonts for use in our software applications, and we think the results really look gorgeous.

On OS X, the lower level graphics implementation hasn’t changed a lot since Studio One version 2. The rendering is done by CoreGraphics (Quartz). On Windows, we finally made the switch from “good-old” GDI to the more recent Direct2D and DirectWrite APIs provided by Microsoft. Direct2D allows better use of modern GPUs which leaves more CPU power for the audio processing. It still has some minor issues, but we are confident that Microsoft will improve this technology with Windows 10. If you experience problems on your system, please make sure to install all essential Windows updates and the latest graphics driver. On mobile PCs with multiple graphics adapters it might help to switch between them and see which one works best.

Congratulations, you are now an expert on high DPI! Thanks for reading and please feel free to share this information.

Studio One 3 Demos from Launch Webcast Now Available

Our Most Epic Webcast Ever was a big hit—and, well, a big webcast. We rented some butcher knives so the video crew could dice the webcasts up into more easily-digestible bits, and the first course is presented for savoring below. Dig in with Rick and Josh as they pork out on the new features of Studio One 3, not-quite-live. But still fresh.

 

Part 1: Songwriting


Part 2: Sound Design


Part 3: Control and Q&A

Studio One 3 Explained Video Series from @Groove3

unnamedScott Fritz is back with a new series dedicated to introducing you to Version 3 of PreSonus Studio One! This series will show you everything you need to get started and find your way around.
Scott goes through Studio One 3 inch by inch, covering all the needed basics such as Activation, Audio Device Setup, Creating a New Song or Project, the New Browser Window, User Interface Overviews and more.
Scott then goes into deeper topics such the Tools and Menu Bar, working in the Arrange window, the new Scratch Pad and Arranger tracks, the new Instruments, Recording Audio & MIDI, Working with Audio and MIDI, the Project Page Mastering area and more!
If you’re thinking about making PreSonus Studio One your main DAW, or are searching for an overview of what’s new in this amazing update to Studio One, don’t miss “Studio One 3 Explained!”
Click here to check ‘em out:
Studio One 3 Explained: http://bit.ly/g3s1v3
Studio One Effects Explained: http://bit.ly/g3s1ev3
Product Highlights
  • 20 Tutorials / 1 hour 41 mins Total Runtime
  • For all beginner to intermediate Studio One 3 users
  • Tutorials written by Studio One 3 Expert Scott Fritz
  • Simple to use video control interface for Mac & PC
  • Watch Online, Stream to iPad, iPhone & iPod

Watch the Studio One 3 Launch Webcasts

Well the news is finally out, the next standard in creative music production, Studio One 3 is now available. We launched the new version of Studio One with a series of three epic webcasts.

Version 3 is a massive release. There’s so much to say about it that each webcast is a little different. Each webcast features a live demonstration of all the new features, but the Hamburg and Los Angeles sections cover different topics. Plus, each webcast kicks off with an amazing performance by Brady Blade and friends, who warmed the online crowds up live from the PreSonus Studio.

If you’re not crazy enough to watch them all, we’ve provided a table of contents below each embedded video to help you decide which webcast to watch.

Webcast 1

  • Brady Blade and Friends featuring Alex Johnson (13 minutes)
  • Introduction by Jim Odom, founder of PreSonus
  • What’s New in Studio One Version 3
  • The Making of Studio One
  • Live Demo: Studio One 3 New Songwriting Tools
  • Developer Interview: New Songwriting Tools
  • Live Demo: Studio One 3 New Sound Design Capabilities
  • Producer Panel: Sound Design in Studio One
  • Live Demo: Studio One 3 New Control Functionality
  • Steven Slate on Multi-touch in Version 3
  • Gobbler support for Studio One
  • Artist Impressions from LA and Tokyo

 

Webcast 2

  • Brady Blade and Friends featuring Alex Johnson (16 minutes)
  • Introduction by Rick Naqvi, PreSonus VP of Sales
  • What’s New in Studio One Version 3
  • The Making of Studio One
  • Live Demo: Studio One 3 New Songwriting Tools
  • Producer Panel: Songwriting and Arranging in Studio One
  • Live Demo: Studio One 3 New Sound Design Capabilities
  •  Developer Interview: Sound Design in Studio One 3
  • Live Demo: Studio One 3 New Control Functionality
  • Steven Slate on Multi-touch in Version 3
  • Gobbler support for Studio One
  • Artist Impressions from LA and Tokyo

 

Webcast 3

  • Brady Blade and Friends featuring Alex Johnson (16 minutes)
  • Introduction by Jim Odom, founder of PreSonus
  • What’s New in Studio One Version 3
  • Live Demo: Studio One 3 New Songwriting Tools
  • The Making of Studio One
  • Live Demo: Studio One 3 New Sound Design Capabilities
  • Producer Panel: Studio One Success Stories
  •  Live Demo: Studio One 3 New Control Functionality
  • Steven Slate on Multi-touch in Version 3
  • Gobbler support for Studio One
  • Developer Interview: Comtrol in Studio One 3
  • Artist Impressions from LA and Tokyo

 

Studio One 3 is Here—FAQ

What is Studio One 3?

It’s rad.

What’s new in Studio One 3?

Where can I learn more about Studio One 3?

Where can I get Studio One 3?

Lotsa places.

I would like to try Studio One 3 before I purchase it.

This is not a question, but you can try the full version of Studio One Professional 3 for thirty days by clicking here.

Can I get a version of Studio One 3 in a box with a hard copy on CD?

No. You will, however, soon be able to get a version on a USB stick installer directly from us or at your local PreSonus dealer. CDs are old hat. Studio One looks to the future!

Is Studio One 3 “purchased” via a subscription model?

No, because Studio One 3 is not a magazine or dessert-of-the-month club. Buy it and receive five activations that can be installed cross-platform.

What are the upgrade costs for owners of Studio One 2? 

Existing owners can upgrade for the following USD prices. International prices will vary. 

  • Studio One Artist 1.0 or 2.0 to Studio One Artist 3: $49.00 
  • Studio One Artist 1.0 or 2.0 to Studio One Professional 3: $349.00 
  • Studio One Producer 2 to Studio One Professional 3: $199.00 
  • Studio One Professional 1.0 / 2.0 to Studio One Professional 3: $149.00
  • Studio One Artist 3 to Studio One Professional 3: $299.00

 

I would like to crossgrade to Studio One Professional 3 from a different DAW.

We would like you to do this, too.

If you can show us proof of purchase of another DAW, we will sell you a crossgrade to Studio One 3 for $299 USD. More details on can be had by clicking here.

Qualifying DAWs include:

  • Cubase 5 or higher
  • Pro Tools 9 or higher
  • Nuendo 5 or higher
  • Logic 9, X
  • Sonar X2 or higher
  • Live 8 or higher
  • Digital Performer 7 or higher
  • Acid Pro 6 or higher
  • Reason 6 or higher
  • Reaper 4 or higher
  • Samplitude 9 or higher
  • Mixcraft Pro 6 or higher
  • FL Studio 11 or higher
  • Notion 5 or higher

But I just bought Studio One 2 and now you guys come out with Studio One 3‽ Waaaaaaaaah!

If you registered Studio One 2 between April 1, 2015 and May 20, 2015, we will upgrade you for FREE.

We understand that it sucks when you put your hard-earned money down on something only to have the new model come out a short time later. As such, we’re offering a grace period that extends back to April 1, 2015. If you registered Studio One between April 1, 2015 and May 20, 2015, we’ll upgrade you to Studio One 3 at no charge. Simply log into your my.presonus.com account after the launch on May 20th, and you will find a Studio One 3 notification that will lead you to your free upgrade.”

If you received Studio One Artist as a pack-in with one of our hardware products, simply register the product at my.presonus.com. Instead of receiving Studio One Artist 2 in your account, you will get Studio One Artist 3, automagically.

Do you still offer Studio One Free? What about Producer?

Studio One Free has been re-named Studio One Prime, and will be available in June. Producer edition has been discontinued in favor of giving you the ability to buy only the features you need via our online store.

Has the recipe in the back of the Studio One manual been updated?

Oh yes.

Join us May 20 for our Most Epic Webcast Ever.

Epic-Webcast-5-Click-anywhere-corrected-times

.@KrashKarma Uses Studio One to Automate his Kemper Profiler Amp, Here’s How it Works

Here’s Ralf from KRASHKARMA showing us how he uses Automation tracks in Studio One to send MIDI Control Change messages to his Kemper Profiler amp. This allows him to automate his pedal changes, solo volume, and whammy/wah effects—all synchronized to the song since the band plays to a click track. Great stuff, thanks Ralf!

Stefan Kengen Creates a Great Studio One Track Using Only Native Plug-ins, Shares Multi-Track Song File for Free

[This just in from Stefan Kengen of 4Sound, in Copenhagen. He produced a great house track in Studio One Professional 2—but the REALLY interesting thing is he did it all using stock Native Plug-ins and bundled loop content. He’s shared the .Song file via DropBox, which you can get by clicking here. Open it in Studio One Professional 2, pick it apart, and learn some of Stefan’s tricks! An added bonus of using Native Plug-Ins and bundled loop content: the filesize is a mere 426k!]

 

UPDATE 6/15/15—Stefan has created a version of this song that is compatible with Studio One 3. You can get it by clicking here.

 

 

Stefan Kengen

Stefan Kengen hard at work

PreSonus: Thanks for taking the time to talk to us, Stefan. Tell us a little about yourself and your history in the music business.

Stefan Kengen: The pleasure is all mine. I’ve been active in the music industry for over two decades as a sales rep in both retail and wholesale, education, production and songwriting. I co-wrote and produced a bunch of Euro-Dance and Pop albums in the 90’s and early 00’s, but these days it’s more about having fun and helping others realize their musical dreams than the pursuit of personal stardom.

P: How did you first come into contact with Studio One?

SK: When Studio One was initially launched a few people in Denmark raised an eyebrow including myself. Most people went “Really? Another DAW?” But with the advent of version 2, and big stars like Teddy Reilly raving about it, people started giving it a shot and in a very short period of time, Studio One has become a household name around here.

P: What are the primary reasons for this in your opinion?

SK: Besides the obvious focus on more promotion and a very competitive price point, the overarching reason in my view is the ease of use despite the high level of complexity. The work flow is very fast and efficient. I come from Cubase and I felt at home in Studio One immediately. This is not just because the guys behind it are also some of the original Cubase programmers—We have Pro Tools and Logic customers in the store who feel the same way. I think the designers have succeeded in taking the essence of what makes each of the other great DAWs out there good and combined that into one, sleek and elegant package.

But besides that, what continues to blow me away is the sound quality of the audio engine. I know there’s a lot of subjectivity involved, but I can honestly say that my mixes sound much tighter, more leveled and punchier in Studio One than they ever did in any other DAW I have worked with. I think it has a lot to do with the quality of the stock plugs and the 64 bit float summing. Everybody basically needs three types of good-sounding processors: Dynamics, EQ and Reverb. The Studio One Compressor, Pro EQ, Open AIR and Room Reverb all sound absolutely amazing, and even the scaled down versions in the entry-level Studio One Artist-version are very good compared to the competition.

P: You use a lot of RedLight Dist, Pro EQ, automation and side-chaining in your track. Can you talk a little about how you built the mix and what you used?

SK: I made the track to showcase how well the aforementioned important plug-ins, as well as the free content, sound in Studio One. You can talk about something all day long, but in the end a live sound demo in the store makes much more sense to any potential customer. So I make heavy use of the Pro EQ, not just as an individual channel EQ, but also as a master filter. It is so smooth and transparent, that you can make really cool lo/hi cut sweeps and even resonating effects that simply sound awful with most other digital EQ’s. And because it is literally a breeze to automate any parameter in Studio One, it just begs to be played with and taken to the extreme.

It can be difficult in other DAWs to set up side-chaining, but in Studio One it’s very simple and almost self-evident. I love the fact that all the dynamics plugins have a side-chain button and the Studio One (Producer/Professional) Compressor is a real jack of all trades. I can almost always get it to respond in a musical way when doing that typical 4 on 4 ducking effect that is so popular these days. It may seem trivial, but this can be a real pain to get right in other DAWS, unless you add expensive 3rd party compressors. This effect is very obvious on the Bass and Chords tracks in the song, whose side-chained Compressors are triggered by the kick.

It’s great to have a pro level impulse response reverb plug in the form of OpenAIR, but I must admit that the quality of the algorithm based Room Reverb has me picking up my jaw from off of the floor every time I use it. Not only can it do those long, never ending, lush caverns you normally need an expensive Lexicon for, it can also do those real tight, almost undetectable room placements that very few plugins can without sounding like a bad chorus effect. The only thing I sometimes miss in it is some modulation options, but then I think about how easily I can just automate e.g. the ‘Population’ and ‘Plane’ parameters with some random LFO curves and presto! Instant luxury!

The RedLight Distortion is another stroke of genius in my view. It’s a really useful coloration tool when you want to add some beef or grit to stale sounds, and it can be made to scream your ears off without sounding digital, unless you want it to. Unlike many other distortion plugs, the RedLight Distortion always sounds very rich and powerful and all of the different distortion algorithms have their uses. I use it on many tracks in the song, with both subtle and more extreme settings. In the build-up towards the outtro I dial in some Ampire, which is also very good at making things messy in a cool way. In Studio One I never have to worry about mono/stereo operation of plugins, and I’ve never experienced any phasing issues either, which can sometimes occur in other DAWS when you get overly creative.

 

P: Thanks a lot for your input and thanks again for sharing your song and your thoughts on Studio One.

SK: Thanks. Anytime.

 

Get a $200 Instant Rebate When you Buy a StudioLive RM16AI Before June 30

RM16_Rebate_Digital_Flyer_05-01-15Until June 30, we’re offering $200 the purchase of the StudioLive RM16AI in the USA. No rebate forms, no mail-in anything, just money in your wallet. This is a similar offer to the $300-500 off we’re offering on the StudioLive AI Console mixers, which you can learn more about by clicking here.

Make no mistake—because we kinda did. The StudioLive RM16AI is a 32-channel mixer. While it boasts 16 analog XLR inputs on the face, (I bet your face only has 5) there’s another 16 digital inputs available under the hood that allow you to pipe in multi-channel audio from a workstation or laptop. This positions the RM16AI as an exceptional choice for a gigging band that makes heavy use use of backing tracks—a model that is becoming increasingly common. For example, Check out what Startisan has been doing with it:

 

Of course, since there’s no faders, you also get UC Surface control software (for Mac, Windows, and iPad), Capture 2, QMix AI, and Studio One Artist. The mixer additionaly features monstrous onboard Fat Channel DSP, Wi-Fi and wired networking—plus built-in AVB.  It’s a real powerhouse, despite an inability to adhere to long-established conventions of nomenclature. Click here to learn more about all that good stuff.

But perhaps coolest of ALL, and why this is such a good deal right now—the RM16AI is designed to be elegantly controlled by the StudioLive CS18AI moving fader Ethernet/AVB Control Surface, allowing complete hardware control of all mixer features.

Oh, and the StudioLive RM16AI is also one of Mix Magazine’s “Most Innovative Products of 2014.” We’re flattered and thankful for the recognition.

Click here to find a dealer!

Backwards Enter Sandman Cover featuring Studio One via @RobScallon

RobScallon over on YouTube just posted this killer video of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman.” In it, the ode to boogymen is performed backwards and recording—which is then flipped again when the video is run in reverse. The perplexing result is that the song comes out forwards while sounding backwards. If that doesn’t make sense, just watch the video and you’ll get the drift. And watch fast for Studio One!