The Musicloop File Format In Studio One
When I first began to dip my toe’s in the ‘Studio One’ water’s - One of the first things I noticed when scrolling through the included content in the Browser was Musicloop’s. My first initial thought was - “oh, ok - these are MIDI loops” But they are actually so much deeper than that. Because the minute you drag and drop a Musicloop File to your timeline, you’ll note that a Virtual Instrument get’s loaded, the Preset used to create the Musicloop is loaded, and in addition, any plug-ins used to help create the “sound” of the loop get loaded as well.
In addition, you may also note that when selecting a Musicloop from within the Broswer, Studio One also has the ability to play an Audio Preview of the Musicloop without having to load the Instrument and FX Chain. This of course can also be auditioned at the BPM of your current Song in the case where the Tempo is different.
More Than Meets The Eye
The reason for this is because Musicloops are actually an encapsulated file format that contains multiple pieces of information under the hood so to speak. For example, if a user wanted to use the Musicloop in it’s entirety - they could simply drag it in, and everything need to re-constitute that “sound” would load. Or perhap’s, they just want the Note Data (MIDI) from that file, so that they could trigger another Virtual Instrument in their current song. Or maybe you just want to drag in a consolidated audio file of the Musicloop into your current song - again, entirely doable. Lastly, let’s say that you really like the FX Chain / plug-in’s used in a Musicloop - yep, that’s accessible too.
Right Clicking a Musicloop in the browser and clicking “Show Package Contents”
A Slight Refresh - Musicloops and Pattern Parts
It’s also worth mentioning that something not shown in the video, is that as of the launch of Studio One Version 4 - Musicloop’s got an update. For example, not only is it possible to create Musicloops from instrument Parts, (AKA MIDI Regions/Events) but we can also do the same with Patterns! So take a moment to think about how powerful this aspect can be… As you know, Patterns, can hold Multiple variations, all contained within a single Pattern. So essentially a simple Drag & Drop has the ability to load a preset, and FX Chain, a Pattern with Variations, and in addition - in the cases where you’re working with Virtual Instruments that support Multi-Out configurations (ie: Impact XT), we can also have Custom Named channels.
Take a look at how Musicloops can work with Patterns! It includes, it’s an incredibly powerful tool - all this information is contained in ONE FILE.
In the video I demonstrate the basic's of working with Musicloop's in PreSonus Studio One. More specifically - what they are, what's included in the Musicloop file format, and how they can be used in productions.
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Cheers, Marcus
