PreSonus Blog

Monthly Archives: January 2023


Useful Features I Totally Missed

First, an announcement: version 1.4 of The Huge Book of Studio One Tips and Tricks is a free update to owners of previous versions. It’s currently available from Sweetwater, and will soon be in the PreSonus shop. Revised to bring it up to date with Studio One 6, this is the most comprehensive update yet, and has over 250 tips. It’s also available to new buyers for $19.95.

Okay, on to the blog post, and let me start by admitting…I’m a little slow sometimes. So now that I’ve admitted it, you don’t need to add comments like “Seriously? You just figured this stuff out? Dude, what’s wrong with you?” But maybe you didn’t know about at least some of these features either, so I hope you find this useful.

Insert the Tuner in Your Master Bus

Figure 1: The tuner is easy to use, and the Strobe mode is wonderful.

Solo the channel you want to tune, and when the tuner (fig. 1) is in the master bus, it’s always available. If there are effects that mess up the tuning (chorus, delay, etc.), turn off the associated Insert rack before tuning.

Colorize Plug-In Headers to Match Channel Colors

Colorizing plug-ins helps when you have several of the same type of processor open. The header color matches the track color. So, if your vocal track is blue and your bass track green, you’ll know the plug-in with the blue header affects the vocal track. To colorize, select the Mix view, and click on the Wrench. Under Visibility, click on Colorize Plug-In Header.

Offset an Automation Envelope Easily

Suppose your automation moves are perfect, but the track’s level needs to be offset up or down. You can’t just move the fader, because it’s following the automation. So, you change the automation envelope. Then you realize you need to make another change in the track, so you go back to the track, zoom in, and adjust the envelope again. Or you insert a VCA channel to change the track gain, while keeping the envelope the same. But it’s simplest just to tweak the output level of a processor in the track (like the Pro EQ3’s Gain control). If there isn’t one, insert a Mixtool. Now you can tweak the level offset quickly and easily. [Cue Homer Simpson saying “Doh!”]

Cut Long Notes at Part End

The world of Studio One > Options > Advanced [Windows] or Studio One > Preferences [Mac] is well worth exploring. Working with MIDI drove me crazy until I understood what this check box did (fig. 2).

Figure 2: This checkbox probably added years to my life.

Under the MIDI tab, Cut Long Notes at Part End defaults to being unchecked. This means if you cut a part in the middle of a long note, the section of the note past the cut will continue to play—even though you won’t see it in the part past the cut. This led me to a lot of “where’s that MIDI note coming from?” Checking this option adds a Note Off at the cut, so the note stops playing at the end of the part. But if you want to get it back, no problem. Slip-edit the end of the part back out, and the note will still be there.

Show Channel Notes

Under Song Information, you can enter Track Notes for the tracks—I use that feature all the time. But you can also open up a space at the bottom of a channel to see Channel Notes, and one day I realized that Channel Note and Track Note are the same thing. Eureka! I didn’t have to open the Song Info or Inspector to see the Track notes. You’ll find the check box to show the Channel Notes, aka Track Notes, under Channel Components in the Mixer view’s wrench options (fig. 3).

Figure 3: Show Channel Notes is another Mixer view wrench option that makes it easier to know what’s happening with mixer channels.

Horizontal Scrolling in Edit View

You can scroll horizontally in Edit view by holding Shift and rotating the mouse wheel. I often zoom way in with the Edit view to find little glitches, and this shortcut makes the process easier.          

Tab Through Parameters in the Pro EQ3

Click on one of the parameter value labels. Tab to go to the next parameter, or Shift+tab to return to the previous one. This includes the Threshold and Range parameters in the new Dynamics control section. After reaching the last parameter in an EQ stage, hit tab several times to move to the next stage.

Move the Send Rack Vertically in a Channel

There are three ways to move the Send rack vertically in a channel:

  • Click on the Splitter bar above the Sends, and drag up and down to move all the Sends together, regardless of where they are vertically.
  • Shift-Click on the Splitter bar, and you can move just that Send rack up or down.
  • Ctrl/Cmd click on the Splitter bar, and they all jump to the same vertical position.

EZ FX Channel

Drag an effect into the space below a Channel’s Send, and it automatically creates an FX Channel with that effect. Has this always been there and I didn’t know it? Was it added recently? Did I just forget about it? I don’t know, but it’s particularly relevant now that Version 6 FX Buses have Sends.

Insert the Free VU Meter in Your Master Bus

As described in detail in a previous blog post, you can download a free VU meter plug-in (or at least you can until someone at PreSonus realizes it’s really cool, and decides to charge for it). Try it, and you’ll see why I like it—the average reading gives a different perspective on your audio. Also, the clip indicator blinks instead of staying on, so it’s easy to see where peaks are causing problems. You can even check correlation, and set a scale for reference levels. Go ahead, insert it—you can thank me later.

So, what other really great features that “everyone knows about” am I missing? Your comments are welcome!

How to Use Virtual Synths as Signal Processors

Some virtual instruments can accept external audio inputs. This lets you process audio through the synthesizer’s various modules like filters, VCAs, effects, and so on. Essentially, the synthesizer becomes an effects processor. To accommodate this, Version 6 introduced a sidechain audio input for virtual instruments.

Not all instruments have this capability. I’ve tested the audio sidechain input successfully with Cherry Audio’s CA2600, Miniverse, PS-30, Rackmode Vocoder, and Voltage Modular. Arturia’s Vocoder V also works. I’d really appreciate any notes in the Comments section about other instruments that work with this feature.

Is My Virtual Instrument Compatible?

Insert the synth, and click on the sidechain symbol in its header. If you see a box with Send and Output options (fig. 1), you can feed audio into the synthesizer. Check the box for either a Send from a track (pre- or post-fader), or the track output. 

Figure 1: Dialog box for enabling Studio One’s audio sidechain.

You’ll probably need to enable the virtual instrument’s external audio input. Fig. 2 shows how to do this with Cherry Audio’s Miniverse, which emulates how the Minimoog accepted external inputs:

  • Set the Input’s Mixer switch to on.
  • Turn up the Input volume.
  • The Miniverse can feed the external input from its own output to obtain feedback, or from the Sidechain. For this application, choose Sidechain.
Figure 2: Preparing the Miniverse for use with Studio One.

Studio One Setup

Fig. 3 shows the track layout for Studio One. Ignore the Gate for now, we’ll cover that shortly.

Figure 3: Studio One track layout to send audio to a virtual instrument.

I chose a post-fader Send from the audio track, not the track output, to drive the synth. This is because I wanted to be able to mix parallel tracks—the audio providing the input, and the audio processed by the synthesizer.

Using the Gate

You won’t hear anything from the synth unless you trigger the VCA to let the external audio signal through. You can play a keyboard to trigger the synth for specific sections of the audio track, but the Gate can provide automatic triggering (fig. 4).

Figure 4: Gate setup to provide automatic synth triggering from the Trigger section (red outline).

With Triggering enabled, the Gate produces a MIDI note trigger every time it opens. So, Insert the Gate in the audio track, and set the Instrument track’s MIDI input to Gate. Now, the audio will trigger the synth. Adjust the Gate Threshold for the most reliable triggering. This is particularly useful with instruments that have attacks, like drums, guitar, piano, etc.

Import JPG/PNG Files into the Video Track

This builds on last week’s tip about splitting and navigating within the Video Track, because one of the main reasons for creating splits is to import additional material. Although the Video Track can accept common video file formats, sometimes you’ll need to import static JPG or PNG images. These could be a band logo, screen shots for a tutorial video, a slide with your web site and contact information, photos from a smartphone, public domain images, etc. To bring them into the video track, you need to convert them into a compatible format, like MP4.

Many online sites offer to “convert JPEG to MP4 for free!” However, I’m skeptical of those kinds of sites. Fortunately, modern Mac and Windows operating systems include tools that can do any needed conversion.

Converting with the Mac

1. Open iMovie, click on Create New, and then choose Movie.

2. Click on Import Media. Navigate to the location of the image you want to convert, and open it in iMovie.

3. Choose File > Share > File.

4. In the window that opens, click Next…

5. Navigate to where you want to save the file, and click on Save. You now have an MP4 file.

If you need a longer video than the default 3 seconds, drag more copies of the file to the timeline before saving. Or, drag the file into Studio One multiple times.

Converting with Windows

1. Open Video Editor (it’s not necessary to install Clipchamp). Click on New Video, and name it.

2. Click on the nearly invisible Project Library button.

3. Drag the image you want to convert into the Library. Then right-click on the image, and choose Place in Storyboard. The default length is 3 seconds. If it needs to be longer, select Place in Storyboard again. Or, drag the finished file into Studio One multiple times.

4. Click on Finish video (in the upper right), then click on Export.

5. Name the file, navigate to where you want to save it, then click on Export. Done! Your image is now an MP4 video you can insert into Studio One.

Basic Video Editing in Studio One

Studio One 6’s enhanced video track now includes basic editing. Yes! You can cut out the section of your band’s live video where the drunk guy came up and started singing along. Instead, just go directly to the part after the drunk was kicked out, and you re-started the song from the beginning.

You’ve likely heard the expression about something being “left on the cutting room floor.” Cutting out sections quickly and precisely is a crucial part of video editing. This requires being able to “jog” the cursor to locate the exact spot you want to split the video, down to individual frames (or even milliseconds). After the cursor is in place, then you can type Alt+X/Opt+X to split at the cursor.

For example, suppose I want to cut the section outlined in white in fig. 1. This is from a video I did on how to create a Pro Tools-like Multi-Mono plug-in mode in Studio One.

Figure 1: The section outlined in white needs to be cut.

Choose the jog calibration you want to use. For precise cursor positioning, use frames or seconds (fig. 2).

Figure 2: The jog calibration is being changed from Seconds to Frames.

If you chose frames, click in the transport’s frames field. Now, every mouse scroll click will jog the cursor forward or backward by one frame. In fig. 3, the cursor has been positioned exactly as desired. After being positioned, select the audio and video events that include the section to be split. Alt+X/Opt+X splits the audio and video events at the cursor position.

Of course, you don’t have to edit with single-frame resolution. For less critical edits, you can just place the cursor at the approximate position, and split.

Figure 3: The start of the section to be cut has a split.

Note: In a real-world situation, you’d have the video window open to confirm that the video is in the right location, and you’d probably zoom much closer in to make sure the cursor is at the exact split point. However, I wanted the screenshots to accommodate those reading this blog post on a smartphone 😊

Split at the end of the section you want to cut, and then select the video and audio sections to be cut (fig. 4).

Figure 4: Almost there—we’ve defined the section to be cut.

Select Ripple editing (fig. 5). Ripple editing moves the video after the removed section earlier on the timeline, so it starts where the removed section started. This closes up the “hole” left by a cut section.

Figure 5: Ripple editing is a common editing technique for video.

Delete the section you wanted to remove, and now the video closes up so that there’s no gap (fig. 6).

Figure 6: Success! The section of the video outlined in fig. 1 is gone.

A Couple Other Tips

  • Splits must be separated by at least one second. So, don’t expect to use splits to edit out a single cough or breath inhale. That needs to be done in a video editor, prior to working on the audio in Studio One.
  • You can link or unlink audio track editing from the video (fig. 7). In this example, we wanted them linked. But suppose you did some time-stretching to the audio track. You might want to split it at a different place than where you would split the video.
Figure 7: You can choose whether editing the audio track is linked to the video.

To move around the video, click and drag on the mini-timeline in the video window (fig. 8).

Figure 8: The mini-timeline allows navigating rapidly around a video.