Tag Archives: PreSonus Sphere
Notion Mobile 3.1 Now Available
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.
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| More chord extensions available | Additional common chord types are now available to combine in the chord picker
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| Chord placement improvement | Chords will now automatically go beneath repeat brackets
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| More chord diagrams | Further diagrams have been added for common chords for guitar and ukulele
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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.
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| 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
| Group | Features / Fixes |
|---|---|
| Notation | Time signatures can now be hidden The stem of a grace note now shows when added to a note inside a tuplet Text placement of e.g. Title is now centring when moved back to Top Center Barlines no longer extend outside of system when printing with hidden resting staves Lyrics with short words are now better aligned to the note Multiple lyric hyphens under notes can now be entered Tuplet number now shows on correct side when stems are forced down Tuplet brackets show as expected when tuplet starts with a rest Slurs in guitar tablature now display correctly between two notes Stems show as expected on cross-staff glissandi Cross-staff notation improvements Cross-staff tuplet number now shows under beam rather than between staves Tails on cross-staff notes now show as expected O / + symbols now available for harp, French Horn |
| Editing | Lasso select Delete final measure now works as expected when part of a selection All text size numbers are now showing (e.g. when increasing size to 27.50) Text boxes display where expected when editing [macOS] Line breaks in text boxes can now be made with Shift+Enter Adjusting font size now works as expected when decreasing down to 28 [iOS] Font now does not change when adjusting size ‘Remove Tuplet’ tool added to Context Menu Tremolos now toggle “on/off” when tapping the icon or using the shortcut Diamond symbol now not occasionally showing when pasting Paste does not now overwrite time signatures before the first copied time signature is inserted Pasting a full cut/copied measure no longer pastes into the measure following the target measure When dragging articulations, note accidental previews no longer appear Copy and paste measures with ties coming into them now paste as expected Fixed double tap between systems could open the selection on the wrong system |
| Note Entry | Entering notes at the end of a score automatically adds new measures in both step time and real time Tuplets now working as expected in step time entry Advancing in Step time no longer removes open ties from chords [Android] Preview note no longer displaced when entering tab on the first beat of the bar Fixed applying augmentation dots to selected note when pressing the augmentation dot button in the palette (as opposed to using the keyboard shortcut) Handwriting recognition now works as expected following a clef change |
| Chords | Add multiple chords to empty measures More chord extensions available to combine More chord diagrams available for guitar and ukulele Chord diagrams now sorted by fret position Chord placement improvements, including placement under repeat brackets dim7 chords show as expected Measures space as expected with chord symbols over the top Two digit fret numbers no longer overlap with tab in chord diagrams |
| Parts | Toggle between score and selected part with keyboard shortcut (F5) Score / Part icon toggle redesigned in Score Setup menu Hide key signature option in instrument setup (e.g. for French Horns) Part titles now inherited from full score by default Part name on top left of page includes key by default (e.g. Clarinet in A) Anacrusis / double barline now not breaking a multi-measure rest Rehearsal / metronome marks no longer create individual bar rests during a multi-measure rest |
| Playback | Playback selected staves only Display no longer auto-locks during playback Preview note entry dynamics are now mf Playback of microtones now sound as expected Metronome count-in for compound time signatures now clicks as expected Sounds load as expected for template files Playback improved for imported MIDI trills [Android] Playback improved on entry level devices Clarinet now plays back (sounding) Db3 for Clarinet in A (remove and re-download the ‘Wind’ sound bundle to fix). |
| UI | New button added to toggle between normal and extended width palettes Handwriting (‘pencil’ icon) now visible in both normal and extended palettes [Android] Placement of popup faders improved [Android] Sub-menus now open as expected when in split screen mode [iOS] Can now swipe up on the iPhone screen when in Instrument Picker Can now select sub-tools from palette when on small screen Sheet-style dialogs like score setup now resize correctly on iOS when changing the screen orientation Removed the second text style edit option from the context menu Fixed sub-tool not being activated when tapping on it while being in the select tool [Android] When editing text in score settings, the text is now centred [Android] Open dialogs now adjust as expect if screen orientation is changed [Android] Issue fixed where application can sometimes freeze when closing dialogs/popups Metronome Tool dialog is no longer cut off by on-screen keyboard When using the small sized UI, the note duration palette is now proportioned and positioned correctly [iOS] Swiping and selecting over fly-out menus now works as expected Tuplet flyout now shows in two rows on smaller screens Distance between flyout menus and palette now consistent [Android] Instrument picker is no longer cut off at bottom [Android] Manage Features dialog now closes as expected, if still open when the app is closed [Android] Menus do now not close if a dropdown menu item is selected [Android] Text now does not exceed edit box height when entering lyrics |
| Files | New demo scores tab with 10 scores included Template files can now be double tapped to directly open [iOS/macOS] Save document to alternative location if permission denied [iOS/macOS] Browser opens if access to file is denied [iOS] ‘Clear history’ no longer brings up double entries for save locations in some circumstances ‘Untitled’ for new document titles is now localised in selected language Document location path cleaned up [Android] Export to PDF via Share function now working as expected |
| General | [iOS] ‘Restore Purchases’ now lists what was purchased in Notion iOS v2 [iOS] Restore Purchases now shows popup if there is an error retrieving the receipt [iOS] If region is set to USA, then measurement units do not change [FireOS] In-app purchasing fixed on Amazon Fire devices Guitar fingerings now included when exporting as MusicXML Notion now opens malformed compressed MusicXML files (e.g. a .musicxml file that has been changed to .mxl by just changing the file extension) Note heads now print at actual size when printing or exporting as pdf if Screen View is shown Translation improvements Performance and stability improvements Documentation updated |
Studio One 6 has Arrived!
Here’s a quick FAQ of all you need to know about Studio One 6:
What’s new in Studio One 6?
A lot. Studio One 6 is our most personal update ever, fulfilling seven of the top eight feature requests over at Answers.PreSonus.com.
Click here to view the What’s New in Studio One 6 page for all the details. [LINK TO WHAT’s NEW PAGE]
If you don’t want to read that whole page now, here’s a short list of what’s new:
Smart Templates; a customizable UI; a Lyric Track and Lyrics Lanes; A Global Video Track with basic video editing; Track Presets; Online Collaboration tools; Vocoder; De-Esser; a dynamic function for ProEQ3; MPE support for Mai Tai, Sample One XT, and Presence XT; sidechaining in virtual instruments; control Sends from faders (Fader Flip); new stereo panning modes; Channel overview… and more.
Click here to see the full changelog. (Forum link)
[WHAT’s NEW VIDEO EMBED]
If I am a PreSonus Sphere member, do I have to pay extra for Studio One 6?
No, you already paid for it. If you’re a PreSonus Sphere member it’s already in your account. Click here to go get Studio One 6.
Do I have to start using Studio One 6 right away if I’m in the middle of a project?
No! You also still have access to Studio One 5, so if you’re in the middle of a high-priority project, you’re welcome to upgrade whenever it’s most convenient.
But I just bought Studio One 5!
That’s OK. If you bought Studio One 5 on or after Aug. 1, 2022, just log into your MyPreSonus account to redeem your complimentary upgrade. Important: You must redeem this offer before January 1, 2023.
Where do I get it and how much does it cost?
Studio One 6 Professional is available as part of a PreSonus Sphere Membership along with just about every piece of software PreSonus makes and tons of exclusive content and features.
Both Studio One 6 Professional and Artist editions are also available as standalone purchases, or as an upgrade from a previous version.
Studio One 6 Artist is also available for free with select PreSonus hardware.
Prices vary slightly by region, but you can check out our shop to see the pricing in your area:
- A monthly PreSonus Sphere membership
- An annual PreSonus Sphere membership
- Studio One 6 Professional
- Studio One 6 Artist
- Upgrade from Studio One x.x Artist to Studio One 6 Professional
- Upgrade from Studio One x.x Producer/Professional to Studio One 6 Professional
- Upgrade from Studio One x.x Artist to Studio One 6 Artist
I want to try before I buy.
That’s not a question, but we understand. The 30-day demo of Studio One 6 will be available soon! In the meantime, we invite you to try a month of PreSonus Sphere for $14.95 and test drive the ultimate platform for music creation and just about every piece of software we make. There’s no commitment, cancel anytime.
KRIS XEN: Modern Fusionist with PreSonus Studio One
Kris Xenopoulos, AKA “KRIS XEN” is a South African guitar player, musician and producer.
Most well-known for his work with South African death metal outfit, Vulvodynia and the meme-tastic comedy metal band xavlegbmaofffassssitimiwoamndutroabcwapwaeiippohfffx, KRIS XEN does not only have heavy riffs on his mind, but also manages to blend multiple genres into a seamlessly flowing track.
He’s also explored instrumental, guitar-driven music with his prog band Technopath… and now Kris is now branching out as a solo artist.
“I’ve been using PreSonus gear since I was 16 years old, I couldn’t be happier to be working with a brand that’s been such a big part of my life over the years.”
—KRIS XEN (2022)
KRIS XEN takes you on a musical journey that could only be described as modern fusion.
Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and raised in Durban, he starting off as a drummer at the age of 11 and became addicted to guitars as a young teenager. He started his first bands at the age of 13 and eventually became a member of one of the most famous death metal outfits in South Africa; Vulvodynia. He is constantly evolving as a guitarist, producer and musician, and developed a great love for expanding his musical knowledge and touring.
During the pandemic Kris focused hard on writing, recording guitar and producing Vulvodynia’s most recent offering Praenuntius Infiniti from his home studio. The album was mixed and mastered by Christian Donaldson.
He has played in Ron Bumblefoot Thal’s (ex-Guns N Roses, Sons Of Apollo) band, done multiple headlining tours in Europe with Vulvodynia and Xavleg, and has headlined tours in the States, Australia, and Africa with Vulvodynia.
In Technopath, Kris has worked with some legendary musicians such as Brian Beller (Bass for The Aristocrats, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani), Mattias IA Eklundh (Freak Kitchen) and Nick Johnston.
Kris has also been featured in Guitar World Magazine and was the cover page for “New Voices In Guitar,” outlining “10 fresh guitarists to keep an ear out for in the coming year” for 2020.
Kris has just released a signature guitar with Ormsby Guitars, available worldwide and is presently on tour throughout the United States with Vulvodynia.
Follow KRIS XEN on Instagram for tour information and musical updates!
Join PreSonus Sphere today to check out KRIS XEN’s exclusive Presets and more by other PreSonus artists!
Only $14.95 per month for Studio One Professional, Notion, and so much more.
James F. Reynolds: VOXPOD Studios and Studio One
So why is BTS (방탄소년단) “Fake Love” official video shown above?
Because their hit song was mixed in Studio One Professional by our latest PreSonus Sphere Featured Artist, James F. Reynolds!
Let’s catch up with the man himself and find out more about what he’s been up to lately:
I started off my mixing career mixing Tinie Tempah’s triple-platinum album Discovery. Prior to this I wrote and produced music and was signed to labels such as Virgin and Defected Records. Since mixing Tinie’s album I have been busy mixing records for many artist including BTS, Sigrid, Dua Lipa, Kodaline, The Disciples, Sigma and most recently Shane Cod and his platinum single, “Get Out Of My Head.”
I have been mixing in Studio One for six years now and it keeps getting better and better. PreSonus really listens to user feedback and implements suggested improvements frequently; I haven’t experienced this with any other DAW.
Studio One allows for a very fast workflow and because of it’s intuitive build and design I can easily focus on the mixing.
During lockdown in 2020, we decided that London was lacking in high-end state of the art podcast production facilities, so we built VOXPOD Studios. My podcast room can host up to eight people and also offers livestreaming and video recording of the shows on five video cameras placed around the room.
The PreSonus PD-70 dynamic mic has proven to be a game changer in VOXPOD studios. Its sound quality and tone set the bar above all the others on the market.
VOXPOD Studios has already started hosting shows for some big podcasts here in the UK, including the James Smith Podcast and Rugby’s leading podcast, “The Good The Bad and the Rugby.”
Lastly, another new positive feature of 2020 was the launch of PreSonus Sphere. It’s truly a brilliant way of connecting the rapidly growing number or Studio One users, world-wide. I love being able to try out suggested Presets and Studio One shared components from other engineers, writers and producers.
Join PreSonus Sphere today to check out James’ exclusive Presets and from those by other featured artists!
James F Reynolds: PreSonus Sphere Featured Artist
They include: two Reverb Macros, five Studio One Workflow Macros, three Drum FX Chains and a Mix Bus FX Chain for all PreSonus Sphere members to access and enjoy.
Only $14.95 per month for Studio One Professional, Notion, and so much more.
Brody Tullier on using Studio One for Video Game Soundtracks
Brody Tullier (aka Zeno) is a 17 year-old composer based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana who has been composing and arranging original music for the past four years.
His main style of composition is often through complex midi-mapping and programming, although he is also a studying pianist and vocalist.
Delving into advanced audio production more and more in recent years, his music has become the lively, energetic, and polished arrangements that you can hear in his recent Bandcamp releases here.
Brody’s preferred style of compositions lean heavily towards video-game inspired tracks and he aspires to one day seek a career in the video game music industry.
We wish him great success in his ongoing growth as a musician, composer and producer!
Follow Brody’s path in discovering the creative power of Studio One, Notion and the PreSonus software add-ons available.
Join PreSonus Sphere today!
Only $14.95 per month for Studio One Professional, Notion, and so much more.
Mixing Vocals: How To Make Vocal Production Presets in Studio One with Alina Smith
Join PreSonus Sphere today to check out Alina Smith’s exclusive Presets and more by other PreSonus artists!
Only $14.95 per month for Studio One Professional, Notion, and so much more.
Alina Smith: 2000’s Teen
Alina Smith is a songwriter, a producer, and one half of LYRE, who has written and produced records for traditional acts such as Fall Out Boy, ITZY, Red Velvet, Betty Who, Kirstin Maldonado (Pentatonix), as well as for today’s top digital creators like Kenzie Ziegler, Lexi Jayde, Niki and Gabi.
She has accumulated hundreds of millions of streams on songs she’s been a part of and earned several #1 singles. Alina’s work has been profiled in Forbes Magazine, Billboard Magazine, American Songwriter, 1883 Magazine, and more. She’s also well-known in the sound design space with LYRE’s Splice sample pack called “Perfect Pop.”
Here’s what you need to know, straight from Alina:
So I started recording myself singing pretty early on, I wanna say… 2005. I had a dynamic mic I plugged directly into the audio input of my prehistoric laptop and I had absolutely zero training in anything related to production. Then, a few years later I upgraded to an M-Box and a $100 MXL mic which is, funny enough, the setup that I got my first songwriting cut on. From then on, I kept progressing and learning, which I still do to this day, although I do have a pretty large bag of tricks at this point that I can dip into when I record different singers in different genres.
A few years ago I switched from Pro Tools to Ableton Live for instrumental production, but I was struggling with the vocal production side of things in there because at the time Ableton didn’t have playlisting, so recording and comping vocals was super time-consuming and clunky.
I decided to test-run Studio One and fell in love with it immediately! With the ease of setting my own key commands, I was able to choose the commands I was used to and not have to learn a whole new set. Sprinkle in the Melodyne and VocAlign via ARA integration, and I knew that I finally found my soulmate vocal production DAW!
With a PreSonus Sphere membership, I’ve discovered a lot of new plug-in effects I really love, like the Analog Effects Collection. The Analog Delay is chef’s kiss!
I’ve really come to enjoy the PreSonus PX-1 mic, which I use for on-location recording quite a bit. With the right “in-the-box” vocal chain, I can make it sound bright and crispy and much pricier than it actually is!
It’s been a really hectic year for me! At the top of 2021, I set the intention of not holding back in any area of my life or career and for the rest of the year it translated into me pursuing several things all at once. I ended up organizing and hosting an online music convention, called the Modern Music Expo, which you can watch a replay of here:
I also released an EP called 2000’s Teen, which is my first body of work as an artist! And, seeing as my main job is writing and producing music for other artists with mg production team LYRE, I also did a ton of that, my favorite being “Mafia in the Morning” by ITZY, which came out this spring.
I’m already working on my next release: filming a music video and planning the drop. Writing and producing for various projects and making production tutorials for YouTube and TikTok. But mostly, I’m just trying to relax and enjoy fall, which is my favorite time of the year. It’s so important for artists to replenish their batteries, so that’s what I’m doing!
Let’s welcome Alina into the family as a Featured Artist on PreSonus Sphere!
She is sharing ten of her custom Vocal FX Presets for all PreSonus Sphere members to access and enjoy:
Join PreSonus Sphere today to check out Alina Smith’s exclusive Presets and more by other PreSonus artists!
Only $14.95 per month for Studio One Professional, Notion, and so much more.
New PreSonus Sphere Artist: Emily Wolfe’s “LA/NY” Playthrough
Here’s Emily using the Revelator io24 audio interface to perform her latest track, “LA/NY,” live from her home studio setup!
In conjunction with Studio One‘s Show Page, the pre-recorded backing tracks (drums/synthbass) and her live vocal and guitar audio signals can be professionally mixed and ready for livestreaming.
“LA/NY” is just one of many tracks from Outlier, her latest record. She discusses more about the production of Outlier below.
Tell us a bit more about “LA/NY”
“LA/NY” is a new song off my latest album, Outlier. It is a bit of a different direction for me, because I wanted to put forth a killer pop tune that also shined a light on my love of a fuzzy guitar solo.
Outlier is an album built on exquisite tension: like an endless push-and-pull between desire and resistance, determination and self-sabotage, the instinctive need to belong and the urge to strike out on your own. My songs were produced by Michael Shuman (Queens of the Stone Age and Mini Mansions) and it’s an album full of guitar-drenched sounds that’s wildly unpredictable and immediately magnetic.
What amp/pedals did you use for “LA/NY”?
It was all done within Studio One, using the PreSonus Ampire plug-in. Specifically, I used the Wild Drive, Demolition Drive, Equalizer and Delay pedals running into the Blackface Twin model amp paired with a 2×12 American Cabinet.
(NOTE: if you’re a PreSonus Sphere Member, you can download her exact Ampire Preset here)
How did you first discover PreSonus?
I first discovered PreSonus while working at a music shop in Austin, TX. They sold audio recording equipment from all different brands, but I noticed that PreSonus had the most intuitive software (Studio One Artist) included, as well as the best price point.
What was your first PreSonus product?
It was the Studio 1810c audio interface, but I have since upgraded to a Studio 1824c. I’ve got the FaderPort to the right of my computer keyboard. I also now have their Revelator io24 that you see me using in the video above, of course!
How long have you used Studio One?
About three years now.
What are your Top three favorite features about Studio One?
My favorite aspect of Studio One is how easy it is to use. The drag & drop aspect helps me work really quickly and efficiently. I also really love using Impact for drum sounds, Presence for sample-based instrument sounds, the Mai Tai polyphonic synthesizer, and Ampire for pedal FX and amp modeling.
We’re so stoked to welcome Emily into the family as a Featured Artist on PreSonus Sphere!
She is sharing eight of her custom Ampire Presets, along with a custom Vocal Preset and a Mai Tai synthesizer patch for all PreSonus Sphere members to access and enjoy.
Emily Wolfe: Featured PreSonus Sphere Artist
Join PreSonus Sphere today to check out Emily Wolfe’s exclusive Presets and from those by other featured artists!
Only $14.95 per month for Studio One Professional, Notion, and so much more.
Kisnou: Emotional Journeys Across Sonic Landscapes
Italian musician, composer, and producer Kisnou shapes the undefined chaos that was generated as consequence to profound experiences growing up as his kingdom – a place where to give complete freedom to creativity and imagination.
With masterpieces such as “Alive,” “Falling Deeper,” and “Vertigo,” people from all over the world began to feel a deep connection with Kisnou’s music, counting for more than 7 million total streams on Spotify alone in 2020. Featured on BBC, New Balance, TV commercials and countless Spotify playlists, his music is often defined as otherworldly: perfect for anyone who wants to experience a real sonic journey.
From ambient to electronic, from orchestral to indie, Kisnou is a never-ending adventure that explores worlds of atmospheric sounds and storytelling. Featuring bittersweet poetry, untold stories, cold atmospheres, field recordings, and broken song structures, each song is a deep cinematic experience you will not forget.
Kisnou began making music using FL Studio back in 2015, eventually working for years within the Ableton Live software environment before recently discovering Studio One and PreSonus Sphere’s creative workflow environment.
In his words:
So… at the beginning, I really had no knowledge, never played an instrument. I just jumped and went for it. I felt like I had some stories to tell.
I’m a self-taught producer. It’s pretty easy to learn so many things online. I also used to listen to a lot of music, every day—while drawing or doing homework, while coming home from school. It was a part of me and of my life, every day. Many people are surprised when I say that I’m self-taught, especially those who are musicians or producers as well. It makes me feel happy, but I have always been down to Earth and very respectful. For example, in 2020 an American writer sent me one of his books, as a thank you gift because he loved my music. The book is called Wounded Tiger, and the author is such a wonderful person. It is a book about World War II and the true stories of multiple people that lived through that moment of history. I can’t say much about it but the author is trying to find the right chance to make a movie out of it… and I might be a part of the soundtrack team. Fingers crossed!
I graduated in 2019 and got my Bachelor of Arts in Commercial Music, but since 2017 I have been making music for a good fan base online that has grown quite fast. I hit my first million streams on a song, and from there it started to get even better! I had an income, collaboration opportunities, and a licensing partnership with Marmoset Music that got me some really good placements! One of my songs was featured in a New Balance commercial and a Tomorrowland video. Now music is my full time job. I currently have around 150,000 monthly listeners on Spotify alone.
The first artist who actually truly inspired me to make music was Koda. He is a talented guy from Los Angeles who wrote some beautiful songs. His songs were just pure magic for me, they resonated like nothing else. I felt like the lyrics were talking to me. My favorite song from him is “Angel.” I loved the video as well, so much that I contacted the video artist a couple of years ago and we created the music video for my song “In The Origin, We Breathe.”
Other inspirations include: The Cinematic Orchestra, Bersarin Quartett, Sorrow (a great electronic/garage music producer), Pensees, and Owsey. I come from the Ableton world, so I am also very much into electronic music, future garage, and ambient. I am in love with atmospheres, long reverbs, evolving sounds, textures and so on.
Lately I have been listening to the YouTube channel Cryo Chamber. Some songs are a bit too dark sometimes, but you can find such incredible atmospheres. I find it very inspiring.
You know, I live in the countryside, so I am always spending time in nature. I feel like I am lucky to be living here, but at the same time you might feel isolated or lonely quite often. It depends on the mood I guess.
I used Ableton for 3-4 years, made great songs thanks to that DAW, but somehow… I wasn’t really feeling comfortable there. I was slowly getting sick of it, even if the creative tools, the stock plugins and workflow were amazing.
By chance I found out about Studio One and then I started to see what you could do with it and it slowly got my interest, until I finally decided to make the switch.
Currently, I just try to make Studio One adapt to my workflow and that was quite easy. The possibility to internally customize shortcuts and create macros is just wonderful in my opinion. I have many macros mapped around my keyboard, and have others on the buttons of my mouse. I have mapped CTRL + ALT as a hold command on one of the two main side buttons, then on the other one I have a Macro that activates the bend marker view, automatically swaps to the Bend Tool so that I can do my edits and then press it again to deactivate the bend view.
On the four lower side buttons I have mapped the editor, channel, inspector and browser for quick tasks. Though If I hold control and press those buttons, or ALT, I have other sets of commands to help me out.
One more functionality that I love is the Transform to Audio Track command, which prints a MIDI file into audio, but it’s better compared to what I’ve seen in other DAWs I’ve used in the past (FL Studio, Ableton, or Pro Tools) because I can print the MIDI to audio and preserve the instrument—so that If I ever want to revert back to the plug-in, I can do that at any given moment. I can choose to render the insert FX or not, which is also great.
In other DAWs, I either had to make a copy of the plug-in, print one to audio and leave the other there, just disabled. Sometimes I printed a MIDI file into audio feeling that it was perfect, then days later, I felt like I wanted to edit the plugin… and I couldn’t do it anymore because I had not copied the plug-in instance before printing.
Lastly, I’m pleased to be a featured artist on PreSonus Sphere!
The presets I created revolve around the use of white noise, layering and distortion: aspects that I have been exploring in the last months to create a sort of vintage but modern, textured sound. Warm, lush pads and pluck sounds, distorted reverbs and atmospheres were my North Star when creating these presets.
There’s 20 presets in all in this pack: FX chains, pad sounds for Presence, some Macros, Mai Tai patches, and a custom reverb of mine… enjoy!
PreSonus Sphere members can click here to get them!
Join PreSonus Sphere today to check out Kisnou’s exclusive Presets and from those by other featured artists!
Only $14.95 per month for Studio One Professional, Notion, and so much more.
Hassan El Shafei: Journey Into Studio One
Our newest PreSonus Sphere Artist, Hassan El Shafei, is a musician, producer and founder of THE BASEMENT RECORDS in Egypt.
Hassan has produced records for some major artists in the Middle East, and was also one of the judges on the Arab Idol show (the equivalent to American Idol in the Middle East) for four seasons, which aired on MBC. Hassan started releasing his own records featuring other artists in the region, starting with this track, back in the days when he was predominantly still working in Logic and Ableton Live:
Here’s a more in-depth account of his history and evolution with DAWs and how he’s settled upon Studio One and PreSonus Sphere, in his own words:
I started producing a long time ago, using Logic when it was owned by E-magic (the good old days!) I loved Logic, but I felt limited until I got introduced to Ableton Live. I spent a bit of time on my own experimenting with it, but it was too daunting to use for ongoing projects until I took a quick crash course in London on Ableton Live, and then I switched when I felt comfortable using it. I didn’t switch 100 percent, though, because there were many things that were better done in Logic… but Ableton was a game changer, producing music in a completely different mindset… minimalism yet experimental!
The idea of racks, drum kits, and so on was endless, and it felt like a modular system that I could change according to my needs… BUT Ableton was also limiting in many ways: it was very unstable, and lacked many features—as if they were stubborn to actually fix or introduce features. So I started looking somewhere else after years of using Ableton and experimenting with the folks at Bitwig. (I even have a 1.0 badge, I think I had the beta before they released the first version!)
Bitwig were actually adding all the things to Ableton Live that the community wanted but, again they took their own route… which isn’t what I needed until finally I got introduced to Studio One.
I first tried Studio One 3 and was intrigued, but I couldn’t rely on it 100 percent until version 4 was out, which introduced Impact XT and Sample One XT. That changed everything for me, having its ease-of-use in my production environment—yet I also get the all-in-one kind of vibe, which I have never found in any DAW available and trust me… I have looked in every corner!!!
Studio One was the first DAW that lets me produce my whole record from writing ideas to final mixes in one place. That never happened before: it was always either Logic and Pro Tools or Ableton and Logic etc. Now it’s ONLY Studio One, and after all these years that’s really something special to note, in my opinion!
The workflow in Studio One is unbeatable: the Macros are pure magic, the ability to have Key Commands to assign uncommon commands makes Studio One very powerful. Production is a breeze, yet I have all these powerful tools: I can integrate Melodyne and ReVoice Pro via ARA, and I can use Layers while recording and Patterns for beatmaking.
Studio One is the most stable DAW I have ever used, it handles anything I throw at it. I have a big appetite when its comes to production, from producing pop records to scoring music to picture/video… and Studio One 5 is keeping up at my speed! Last but not least, the folks at PreSonus are amazing at consistently striving to achieve the best DAW out there; they are very active online, enthusiastic and most importantly… they listen to the community.
And that to me is priceless.
And one other thing—my newest projects have started to incorporatethe new Show Page in Studio One Version 5 for performing live perfectly in sync with my session tracks! Exciting!
Join PreSonus Sphere today! Only $14.95 per month for Studio One Professional, Notion, and so much more.
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