You can mic piano, drums, guitar, voice, and other acoustic sources…but you can’t mic a synth, unless you put it through a PA or guitar amp, and then mic that.

Or can you?

Studio One’s Ampire has mic modeling for its various cabs. However, a cab has its own frequency response, which doesn’t sound at all like miking an instrument—it sounds like miking a guitar amp. Sometimes, you want that sound with instruments other than guitar or bass. But usually, you don’t.

Ampire also has a User Cab for loading your own cab impulse responses.  So, you could load a room’s impulse response instead, and set up Ampire’s mics. However, then you’re not miking an instrument, you’re miking the instrument in a room. What if you just want the sound of a miked instrument?

Here’s the solution, and I think you’ll be as surprised as I was after pulling up an FX bus fader with the sound of the virtual mics. Check out the audio example: the first half is a plain Mai Tai sound, the second half has the virtual miking. There are no effects, only Ampire’s mics. Of course, this is only one of many possibilities.

How It Works

The trick is to bypass the amp, and load a flat-response impulse into Ampire’s User Cab. Then, the audio doesn’t go through an amp or cab sound before hitting the mics. Simple, right?

The downloadable zip file (link at end) includes three flat-response IRs, each of which has its uses:

• Stereo (dual mono)
• Stereo with reversed left channel phase
• Stereo with reversed right channel phase

Ampire Prep

I prefer to set up Ampire in an FX bus, to enable blending the miked sound with the direct sound. However, using the miked sound by itself is viable. See which you prefer. Fig. 1 shows the Ampire settings used for the audio example.

To create the setup:

1. Insert Ampire in an FX bus.

2. Assign a Send to the FX bus from the instrument track you want to “mic.”

3. With Ampire, choose Amp: None and Cabinet: User Cabinet

4. Download and unzip the three impulse responses.

5. Click on the Mic Edit Controls button (the blue button in fig. 1), then click on the + sign next to Mic A. Navigate to your IR of choice, and load it. Or, simply drag the impulse into the Mic’s slot.

6. Similarly, load an IR into Mic B and Mic C. Note: There must be an IR loaded in Mic A, or no sound will pass through Ampire, even if IRs are loaded in Mic B and Mic C. I recommend loading an IR in each one.

7. Go down the fun rabbit hole of mic choices, levels, mic delays, and phase changes.

Extra Tips

• Using an IR with reversed phase for one of the mics can unbalance the stereo image. Compensate by adjusting the Panpot in the Send that goes to the FX Channel.
• In the FX Channel, spreading the stereo image with the panpot’s Binaural function is cool (pre-Studio One 6 owners can use the Binaural Pan plug-in). For the audio example, I turned up the Binaural Pan so the effect would be more dramatic if heard over laptop speakers.
• The audio example mixes the miked sound up quite a bit to get the point across, but subtle settings can add an interesting dimension to synthesized sounds.  
• Preceding Ampire with an Analog Delay set for a very short delay (a few milliseconds) and no feedback can enhance the effect further.
• This isn’t just about synths—try this technique with other non-acoustic sounds, like analog drums.

Reminder!

If you bought a previous version of The Huge Book of Studio One Tips and Tricks, you can now download the free version 1.4 update (with 250  tips and 126 free presets) from the PreSonus shop.

Notion Mobile v3 took mobile music creation to the next level with support for iOS, Android, Windows and macOS. Now v3.1 adds over 100 enhancements and fixes, leading with its innovative new lasso selection that intelligently swaps between handwriting and selection mode before selecting all objects within the drawn area.

Notion Mobile is free, and all add-ons are included in a PreSonus Sphere membership or available through the Feature Bundle in-app purchase. Download from your preferred App Store now

Top 5 New Features

1. Lasso select

One of the most requested features for Notion is now here – the ability to freely draw around objects thereby selecting them. Once the handwriting recognition is engaged (available via the Feature Bundle in-app purchase) a user can select a number of different types of object in one go – from notes and articulations to dynamics and slurs. Notion will also intelligently switch between handwriting notes and creating a lasso selection – this means a user can remain in a single mode.

2. Chord improvements

It is now even easier to create leadsheets with improvements to chord entry for 3.1. 

Add multiple chords to empty measures	Now there’s no need to attach chords to hidden rests/notes to add more than one chord per empty measure. Notion will now attach chords to the nearest rhythmic position over an empty measure.
More chord extensions available	Additional common chord types are now available to combine in the chord picker
Chord placement improvement	Chords will now automatically go beneath repeat brackets
More chord diagrams	Further diagrams have been added for common chords for guitar and ukulele

3. Demo Files

A long requested feature for Notion on mobile devices – ten new demo scores help new users see and hear what’s possible with Notion Mobile. Choose from Tchaikovsky to modern rock – download Notion’s soundsets first to listen. Go to: Create new score>Demo Scores.  

• Acoustic Guitar – The Root
• Bach – Brandenburg Concerto No.4 Allegro
• Chopin – Raindrop Prelude
• Dad Rock
• Jazz Trio Meet me after 5
• MF Blues
• Mozart – Clarinet Concerto Adagio
• Saint-Saëns – Septuor, Gavotte et Final
• Tchaikovsky – Nutcracker Overture
• Tchaikovsky – Romeo And Juliet

4. Note entry playback improvements

Playback of selected staff	Notion is now able to play just the selected staves – make a selection of one or more instrument staves and hit play. The selection will automatically be solo-ed.   Get feedback on your orchestration fast – just select a chord for example across the instruments you’ve scored it for, and hit play. No need to dive into the mixer to manually solo/mute.
Automatically add new measures to end during step-time or real-time record	Notion will now add extra measures to the end of your score if you continue adding notes in either real-time or step-time record. In real-time, the metronome will continue and once you have stopped, Notion will analyse your performance and add the bars. In step-time, bars will be added as you go.
Note entry preview dynamics set at mf	When entering notes, Notion sounds a preview of the pitch to be entered – this is now set at a consistent dynamic making it easier to hear and compare when entering notes for different instruments

5. Part handling improvements

From improvements to multi-measure rests to quickly toggling between score and part views, Notion 3.1 has a number of features to ease the preparation of parts for your players.

Toggle between score/part	If you want to quickly check the part layout of an instrument, select the instrument in the full score, then just hit F5 with an attached keyboard. Press F5 again to return to the full score. If you don’t have a keyboard attached, then go to Score Setup and tap the part/full score toggle button
Show / hide instrument key signature	A long standing request for Notion! Now you can hide key signatures for selected instruments – nowadays most commonly required for French horns, but also in older scores for trumpets too. Horns generally do not have a key signature, rather, their parts show accidentals for each note.
Part title improvements	Now part titles are populated automatically from the full score, if they are initially set. You can still have different titles between score and part if you wish – it’s just they are now set by default.   Part names (in the top left hand corner of a part) also now show the instrument key by default, e.g. “Clarinet in A” making it easier for players to see the key of their part at a glance

All Changes in Notion Mobile 3.1

First, some news: the free update to version 1.4 of The Huge Book of Studio One Tips and Tricks is finally available in the PreSonus Shop. If you purchased a previous version from PreSonus, simply download the eBook again, using the same credentials—you’ll automatically receive the latest version. Now for the tip…

What’s Cool About S-Shaped Fades, Anyway?

An S-shaped fade starts by fading slowly, accelerates to halfway through the fade, then slows down to do the final part of the fade. This provides a natural, smooth kind of fade that I prefer for most song fadeouts. Also, video tracks commonly use S-shaped fades. So, an S-shaped fade for the audio can match an S-shaped fade applied to the video.  

Before version 5.5, the Project Page didn’t have automation or a gain envelope, so I wrote a tip on how to incorporate an S-shaped fade in a Song’s master level automation. Once the song had the fade, you could update the Mastering file to include the fade. But now that the Project Page can do automation and gain envelopes, you can apply that tip directly to Events in the Project Page as well as in the Song page.

However, compared to the technique this post covers, the previous method has one advantage and one disadvantage. The advantage is that it’s easy to customize the S-fade shape. The disadvantage is that it’s more time-consuming to get a perfect S-shape. So, here’s how to add a perfect S-shaped fade—quickly—with the Paint tool and its Parabolic option:

1. Add a Gain Envelope (right-click on an Event and check Gain Envelope). You can also apply this kind of fade to master level automation.

2. Choose the Parabola shape for the Pencil tool (fig. 1).

3. Click where you want the fade to begin. Drag right, and then down to where the fade’s midpoint should be (fig. 2).

4. Finally, click where you want the fade to end. Drag left, and then up to the fade’s midpoint (fig. 3).

And now, you have your perfect S-shaped fadeout. Delete any nodes (if present) to the right of where the fade ends—and your work is done.

Last week’s guitar-oriented tip seemed to go over well, so I figured y’all might like a follow-up. This takes advantage of Version 6’s Track Presets and the dynamic EQ aspect of the Pro EQ³.

Let’s Manage Expectations…

First, it won’t make your electric guitar sound like a vintage Martin D-28—sorry. The goal is to use an electric guitar to give the same kind of vibe an acoustic guitar would provide in a mix. Or, if you gig with Studio One, you would no longer need to bring an acoustic guitar just for one or two songs. Leave it at home—this does what you need.

Second, the settings are rather critical. In general, single-coil pickups (in the middle position) give the best results. The downloadable Track Preset was designed for a Telecaster. For other guitars, pickups, different input levels, playing styles, and anything with humbuckers, you’ll likely need to edit the Pro EQ³ settings.

Here’s an audio example of the acoustic guitar simulator preset in action. You’ll hear the sound being processed by the acoustic guitar simulator, and then the original guitar sound for reference.

How It Works

Aside from creating a more acoustic guitar-like EQ curve, the dynamic EQ provides two important tone-shaping functions (fig. 1).

The HF band increases brightness as you play harder, which acoustic guitars do naturally. The LF band simulates how playing harder “excites” an acoustic guitar’s body, which produces more level at the frequency where the body resonates. I chose 155 Hz, but that’s not a given. It just sounded right to me.

Fig. 2 shows the complete Track Preset, which adds a couple of fairly subtle effects (Chorus and Reverb). This enhances the “acoustic-guitar-within-an-acoustic-space” feel.

Finally, note that this sound can layer well with a physical acoustic guitar. The combined sound often has more animation than if you just added another track of the same acoustic guitar.

Click link below to download the Acoustic Guitar Simulator.trackpreset!