PreSonus Blog

Obviously, Willem Rebergen, or better known as DJ Headhunterz, is an incredibly talented EDM artist. A part of his genius is a result of his detailed understanding of the functionality of Studio One 3.2.2 and the ease he’s reached working with the DAW. After our initial conversation with Rebergen a couple months ago, we realized that he is a wealth of knowledge that we would love to hear more from—and we knew you would, too!

Here’s part 2 of tips and tricks for Studio One users from DJ Headhunterz!

“I’m not over exaggerating when I say that Studio One brought back the fun of making music for me,” Rebergen states. “I finally experienced what it feels like to ride the creative wave without constantly falling off it. Studio One motivates me to keep perfecting my workflow and I keep discovering new ways to do so every week.”

Rebergen starts off with tips that will ensure an easy, creative flow with Studio One. “If I were to give a tip it would be to make full use of the browser features and the MusicLoop feature. When I finish a song I completely undress it and save all sounds I made in the form of channel presets,MusicLoops and audio files. With every song I make my library expands and whenever I’m in the creative process I can recall any sound I am looking for without having to get into sound designing or endlessly searching through sample libraries. I make sure that every sound I save in MY library is on point. So they rarely need a lot of tweaking to fit into a song and I can just get on with concentrating on the creative part.”

“On the other hand I spend whole days making new sounds, collecting new drum samples, tweaking them etc. So that when I start a song, I’m loaded with content where I can just pick from very quickly.” Rebergen goes on to say, “Another thing I do is I keep an app open on the side called sticky notes where I type down all my newly made key commands (yes I constantly make new ones). I then force myself to use them all the time so they become a natural part of my workflow. Key commands make everything so much quicker and Studio One allows for using them for almost anything.”

Rebergen goes on to share general production tips that have worked for him over the last decade.

• Another thing that I have learned over time, and often read but always somewhat ignored, is that it is absolutely crucial to work with the right sounds. So often, I have found myself trying to fit things in a mix that simply did not fit. It’s very useful to learn to be honest to yourself when making music. Even if you’ve spent hours on making something. Those couple of hours don’t mean anything when you listen to your song by the time it gets released months later. Try to be alert and not be afraid to throw stuff away. It can open up for new ideas when you clean up.
• Nowadays more and more I make sure I have my pallete of sounds ready when I start a song. So that I don’t stumble upon these issues so much. I make sure the sounds are right so that it really comes down to the idea of the song at this point.
• Some tips on making saw leads like I often do in my tracks. I love to use chords underneath but I also love using portamento. So to keep that intact, I just make 3 copies of my lead, nowadays mostly Spire or Serum and I play on each one a note of the chord. This way I can still play a chord while maintaining the glides that are a big part of how the melody is expressed.
• Set the portamento so that it’s only triggered when two notes overlap so that you have complete control over when and how much it glides. I find that using this function instead of pitch bend automation feels more natural because I assume it has a different curve to it.
• Also in the synth itself I often link an envelope to the pitch of the sound and give it a very short attack and set it to about 2 semitones down. So that each note has just a slight pitching up in the beginning. This also brings more expression into the lead sound and makes it less static.
• Find the sweet spot with detuning. LFOs can also help for nice detuning without making it sound too false.

One last reminder from Headhunterz before we wrap. “Keep a beginner’s mind and acknowledge that the learning process is endless. I still feel like a noob sometimes. But I’m very passionately curious, I always want to keep discovering new ways.”

Keep an eye out for more from Headhunterz with part 3 of this series coming soon.

• Follow HeadHunterz on Instagram!
• Follow HeadHunterz on Twitter!
• Studio One 3 is 25% off in June 2016, including upgrades! Click here for more.

Interested in adding a new tool to your music creation process? Notion’s got a lot to offer, and the free demo is available to all. Check it out! Perhaps you would like to compose for orchestra or horn section? Create guitar tablature to print and share with your bandmates? Notion’s got you covered.

You don’t need to know how to write or read notation to use Notion, by the way. You can input your music in a variety of ways outside of the traditional staff, including by guitar fretboard, keyboard, or drum pad. We’ve even got you seven-string guitarists covered. Notion also includes an interactive chord library that allows you to create and store your own chord structures.

Notion also plays nicely with Studio One and your VSTs. You can export the audio for each staff or bus as an individual stem and import it into PreSonus’ popular Studio One® DAW. Or export audio from Notion as a PreSonus Capture Session that will open directly in Studio One and retain instrument name, score order, pan and gain settings, rehearsal marks, initial time signature, and metronome marks.

Notion sounds incredible thanks to world-class orchestral sample library recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios, and guitar and bass samples recorded by Neil Zaza and Victor Wooten, respectively. All of the samples include dynamics, articulations, and various performance techniques to bring human nuance into your compositions. Notion offers the key features composers need while keeping ease of use as a top development priority.

How to get the Notion demo:

• Log in at my.presonus.com. If you’re new here, you’ll need to create an account, but it’s a relatively painless procedure. You don’t need to own a PreSonus product to get an account.
• Scroll down until you see the “Click here to try the Notion 5 Demo!” button.

Still not sure? Come on, it’s free. Check out some of the nice things folks are saying about Notion:

It’s been a long road since Bryce Avary first started putting out music under the name The Rocket Summer 16 years ago. With roots in pop and alt-rock, Avary showcases his talent by writing, producing and playing instruments on all 6 of his albums. The Rocket Summer is currently on tour for their newest record Zoetic which was released in February. We recently caught up with him to see how the tour was going and how the RM32AI Mixer was working for them.

Avary’s assembled a killer live band to take his songs on the road! They’re using the RM32AI Mixer for their in ear monitoring system and mixing everything on their own. Hear more of Avary’s thoughts in the video below.

The RM32AI is obviously a perfect fit for The Rocket Summer and it may be just what you’re missing. All summer long (and then some) select dealers in the USA are offering discounts of Kozmic proportions on StudioLive mixers – See more HERE!

• Follow The Rocket Summer on Instagram!
• Follow The Rocket Summer on Facebook!
• Follow The Rocket Summer on Twitter!

Our friend David Vignola, owner of Home Recording Made Easy, has an incredible new video tutorial series on that ever-mysterious topic: Drum recording! Recording Drums Made Easy is now available for free to anyone who upgrades to or registers a new copy of Studio One 3 Professional during the month of May! BONUS: if you’re already a registered customer, you can save 33% on the series!

Already got Studio One 3 Professional? Cool, thanks. As a bonus to you, you can get 33% off David’s series. 🙂

Click here to learn more about Recording Drums Made Easy and sign up. 

Pete “Boxsta” Martin with Boxsta Music is an award winning, multi-talented producer/songwriter and one of the most sought after mix engineer in the world. He has worked with a variety of top selling artists such as Arrow Benjamin, Jessie J, Sugababes, Alexandra Burke, and Missy Elliot. Here he discusses leaving Pro Tools for Studio One 3.2 and the ease of the transition.

“Studio One is an incredible platform because it’s the best of every DAW out there. It’s totally new and fresh; it encompasses everything you need.” – Pete Martin.

For more on Studio One 3.2, click HERE.

Try Studio One Professional Demo for FREE for 30 days!

For a limited time, we’ll give you a copy of Studio One Artist—a $99 value—with purchase of the PreSonus Ceres 3.5BT or 4.5BT speakers! This is an ideal combo if you or someone you know is interested in getting started in music production. Good speakers are a must for audio work, and Studio One 3 Artist offers one of the most intuitive music production experiences available.

The Ceres are versatile, powerful speakers for their size, and are ideal for working at the computer or as desktop speakers in the living room, bedroom or den. They offer a wide variety of physical audio inputs in addition to a wireless Bluetooth connection, allowing you to amplify nearly any audio signal you can imagine in true PreSonus quality.

Interested but not sure if Studio One is right for you? Click here to learn more about why Studio One is the fastest-growing Digital Audio Workstation on the planet. All you need to do is register your Ceres at my.presonus.com and Studio One Artist will appear in your account.

• Click here to shop online!
• Click here to find a dealer in the USA

The new Studio 192 has been enjoying rave reviews of late, but we’ve found a way to make it even better—by adding free stuff! If you’re looking to upgrade your recording interface to a Studio 192, you’ll be upgrading your workflow as well, as we’re offering a free FaderPort with purchases of the Studio 192 for a limited time.

The FaderPort is a mainstay of the PreSonus line, and has remained one of our best-selling items since we introduced it. You get intuitive, motorized fader control of Studio One of your DAW of choice in a tiny desktop footprint that doesn’t eat up your valuable, ever-decreasing desktop space. Once you’ve tried a FaderPort, there’s NO going back to mix-by-mouse. A FaderPort will usually set you back around $129 USD, but with this deal you get the following for FREE:

• Motorized fader for controlling track levels and writing automation tracks
• Transport control and Mark functionality
• Mute, Solo, and Record control
• Channel selection and navigation
• Customizable key mappings

Interested? Find a dealer in your area and take home a Studio 192 and FaderPort. This combo can’t disappoint.

Click here to get the required rebate form.

• Click here to find a dealer in the USA
• Click here to find a dealer outside the USA

Note that the Studio 192 Mobile is not eligible for this offer.

Paul Drew is the D of DWB Music Ltd/ DWB MIXING. The DWB Music team have sold in excess of 50 million records and have worked with a plethora of artists from around the globe. Here Paul discusses the ease of transition from Pro Tools to Studio One 3.2 and the speed of the workflow with the DAW.

Paul is also a member of the Studio One Expert team where he shares his tips and tricks with thousands of users. Paul states, “As a long term Pro Tools user I’m finding this DAW really inspiring to work on. With Studio One my workflow has been refined, I’m excited and inspired every morning I travel in to the studio.”

If you’ve been holding off on crossing over to the most quickly-growing DAW on the planet, there’s never been a better time than now! Save $50 to crossgrade until April 30! –See more here!

Looking to hit the ground running with the Studio 192? Look no further! Justin shows you all you need to do to get rolling with your new interface and take advantage of low-latency monitoring, Fat Channel processing, speaker switching, and more via UC Surface.

You’ll also learn how to use Studio 192’s integration with Studio One for remote preamp control, Fat Channel DSP, and Z-Mix outputs.

For more on the Studio 192, click HERE!