How To Get Arrange Tracks For Bus Channels - FX Channels and VCA Channels In PreSonus Studio One

I personally don’t make any efforts to conceal the fact that I am a former Pro Tools user of many years. In fact, as I’m sure you may have noticed - a lot of my content is created with the intent of showing other former Pro Tools users the “Studio One Equivalent” way of handling specific tasks that they may have been used to doing in Pro Tools.

That being said, when I first made the move to Studio One - one thing that I found really confusing was the fact that if I created a Bus Channel (Subgroup) or an FX Channel - it was not visible in my Arrange Window (by default). There were steps that could be taken to make it show up, but it didn’t happen by default (as would have been my preference). But this was was quite a while back, and as of one of the updates that we got in Version 3 - a preference was added to mitigate the issue.

Now before you start ambushing me with comments like “why would it show up - Its not a track?” Let me just say - YES, I’m fully aware of that. :) Im also fully aware that Studio One is not the only DAW that functions this way. For example: I know that this is also the default behaviour of Logic Pro.

But what I will say is that when you are used to working a certain way (with a 1:1 parity between your Arrange Window & Console) for 15+ years, it’s tough to adapt to not having arrange tracks for all of the Channel’s in your Console. This becomes especially evident if you prefer to work primarily in the arrange window - with the inspector open for basic mixing requirements.

I will also say that 9 times out of 10, if I create a Bus Channel, FX Channel, or VCA Channel - chances are that I have the intentions of automating it’s parameters, be it volume, or plug-in settings. So I’d prefer it’s available by default to do so.

So having said all of the above, if this is something you would prefer - In this video I demonstrate how to set Studio One's preferences so that an Automation Track is automatically created for Bus Channels, FX Channels, & VCA Channels when using PreSonus Studio One.

For those coming from other DAW's such as Pro Tools, this may be preferable to the default behaviour.

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus

Studio One 4 Quick Tip - Using The Automation "Reduction Level" Setting To Smooth Out Automation

Working With Automation

I find in general that there are usually 2 school’s of thought when it comes to automation, or more specifically - when it comes to recording / writing automation. Those who like to draw everything in perfectly, and those who prefer to record it in using a controller, or at the very least using a mouse.

I myself, am comfortable doing either method, but usually prefer to get some sort of hands on control whenever possible.

But have you ever felt like the result of your record pass isn’t quite what you performed?

Too Many Nodes - or Not Enough?

If you are part of the camp that likes to record in your automation manually using a controller of some sort, I’m almost certain that at some point you may have found yourself in either one of these 2 situations:

1. The automation has too many unnecessary nodes (breakpoints)

2. The automation doesn’t reflect the exact performance that was recorded! ie: It doesn’t have enough.

As most of you know - I come from a Pro Tools background, and in Pro Tools, we had a preference that allowed us to deal with this scenario that gave the user the option to “thin out” the automation at varying levels after each pass.

In case you weren’t aware - this is actually something that was recently added to Studio One in one of the final updates to Studio One Version 3’s life cycle.

In this video I demonstrate the recently added "Reduction Level" setting in PreSonus Studio One's Automation preferences. More specifically, what it's meant for - and when (and why) to use it.

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus

Quick Tip - How To Multi-Select Impact XT Pads In Studio One 4.1.1 & Above

I’m a big fan of keeping things simple these days, and hence I find myself turning to the stock plug-ins and instruments that are included with Studio One on a daily basis. So needless to say Impact XT has replaced my use of Battery in about 99% of the cases when I’m looking to trigger a basic kit with drum samples.

BUT!!

I must admit that in one thing that’s always bugged me about using Impact / Impact XT in the past was not being able to select multiple pads and change their outputs together. Not to mention other parameters as well - but mostly, changing the outputs!

Well, in case you happened to miss it, there was one line in the release notes of Studio One 4.1.1 that definitely caught my attention:

[Impact XT] Multiselect for pads (Shift or CMD)

In this Studio One Quick Tip video I demonstrate how to select multiple pads in Impact XT in Studio One Version 4.1.1 & above. This can be extremely useful when adjusting the outputs of multiple pads at once (in addition to other parameters).

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus

How To Rename Audio Events & Instrument Parts (MIDI Events) To Match Track Names In Studio One

If you’ve ever done a session in a hurry, you may very well have found yourself in the situation where your Audio Events, and Instrument Parts end up with names like “Track 1” or “Kontakt 5”. It’s really quite annoying (especially if you’re the type of person like me who get’s a little O.C.D. with organizing your sessions) But In all honesty, let’s face it - it happens.

But did you know that there is a REALLY easy way to combat this in Studio One?

In this Studio One Quick Tip video, I demonstrate how to quickly Rename Audio Events & Instrument Parts (MIDI Events) To Match Track Names In PreSonus Studio One.

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus

Improved Manual Tempo Mapping In Studio One 4.1.1 - Part 2 - Tempo Scaling | Working With MIDI | Notion Integration

Picking up from where we left off in last weeks video - In this 2nd video I demonstrate some of the more advanced workflow concepts of the amazing Manual Tempo Mapping Improvements that were added in the Studio One V4.1.1 update.

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus

Improved Manual Tempo Mapping In Studio One 4.1.1 - Part 1

Working With Free Time Performances

I’ve written about this before, and I’ll most likely write about it again, but there are MANY potential cases where a click track may not have been used during recording. Some basic examples of this could be anything from simple scratch tracks, to soulful performances by skilled musicians who let the music define the tempo. Not to mention decades worth of musical performances that were recorded without a click.

Personally, I’ve seen this many times, and in certain genres it’s actually completely “the norm”. And to be honest, I embrace the concept, and have no problems with it. BUT I WILL SAY THIS.. I sure do love having the luxury of having a song mapped out to (at a minimum) Bars in my DAW! It makes my life so much easier even if it’s just for basic navigation and thinking in musical terms during playback or editing.

The Battle In A Modern DAW

Having said the above, I will also say that many times I have opted to NOT tempo map a free-time performance simply because it’s “usually” a huge pain in the ass. So I’ll end up with tons of markers all over the place and I just force myself to think in terms of time based locations vs Bar/Beat based locations. (After all, I did this for years before I started working in a DAW).

But the issue really becomes evident if you want to incorporate things like Audio Loops (With Tempo metadata) or virtual instruments. Essentially without a Tempo Map that represents the musical performance in our timeline - we can’t really make full use of all the amazing tools a modern DAW such as Studio One allows us to use.

A Little Help From 3rd Party Applications

I think its worth mentioning that there are 3rd party applications such as Melodyne which can actually perform miracles (on the right material) and I have used them from time to time to help me out with the above. But I’m also a firm believer that a DAW should handle this process Natively - and that process should be relatively painless if it’s implemented properly.

Native Manual Tempo Mapping In Studio One

First off, I’ll say that in the past - Studio One has been able to do manual tempo mapping, but there was definitely room for improvement. There was a specific way you had to go about it, and in the end, you could get there if you had the patience..

But when they released Version 4.1 it became increasingly more user-friendly. In fact they were SO CLOSE to really nailing it with the exception of one area! And that was snapping to transients. Needless to say, I think PreSonus listened to the that feedback provided by their user base and as a result - we now have a really streamlined workflow for Manual Tempo Mapping In Studio One as of the latest maintenance update. 😊

In this video I demonstrate the basic workflow of the amazing Manual Tempo Mapping Improvements that were added in the Studio One V4.1.1 update.

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus

How To Create Instant 808 Bass Lines Using The Chord Track In Studio One 4

First off, let me start off by saying that I’m a huge fan of MUSIC. And to me it doesn’t matter what the genre is, because I’ll listen to anything as long as it has some substance or something that moves me in a certain way. Now having said that, I’ll also add that my taste’s are constantly evolving, and I think that’s a good thing.

Over the last 2 years or so, I’ve spent a great deal of time showing my son lot’s of different types of music, and as you would imagine - he does the same with me. Now just to add a bit of context here, my son is 13 years old, and needless to say is pretty heavy into trap music, so I find that a lot of our long car rides are spent with him showing me music that (to be completely honest) I would have never heard had it not been for him. For this, I’m grateful because I will always love being shown a cool new track regardless of the genre.

Well, even though this may have not always been the case, it turns out that now I really like certain elements of trap. Furthermore, it would also seem that this is apparent for the rest of the world as the fusion of Top 40 charts meshes with certain stylistic elements in trap as well. Just listen to some of the current tracks that are sitting on the charts and I’m sure you’d agree. Case in point - the 808 Bass Line.

First off - full disclaimer here, I am not (nor would I consider myself) a “beat-maker” or someone who specializes in this specific genre by any means…

(**Side-note - If you are interested in those genres, and you work in Studio One, you should definetly check out a couple of my good friends channels Craftmaster Productions & KsndDEF.)

But what I will say is that as a producer - I love pulling elements from different genres into my productions. I will also say that as someone who is very much set in my ways (which can limit you as a producer) - I find it both inspiring and refreshing to see the younger generation of beat-makers and producers working. It reminds me that I still have much to learn in terms of keeping a fresh perspective on things.

So now back to the point..

I was working with my son this past weekend and we were fleshing out a track, and he pulled up a nice 808 sample and loaded it into Sample One XT - and asked me what’s the best approach to use when adding in an 808 Bass Line? My answer to him, was something along the lines of: “Well, there’s really no “best approach” BUT - if you’re just trying to get something down quickly to keep a session moving, you can copy the kick drum MIDI (Note Data in Studio One terminology) over to your 808 track then edit a Bass Line by keeping the same basic rhythmic pattern & editing the midi notes”

His answer was “Hmmmm, I’d rather just play it in” and to be honest, I agree that this is the best overall approach. But going back to a point I make over and over, and what I said to him was: “well that’s true but - sometimes you might not have a controller! And you should be able to both perform & edit the MIDI in your DAW. Because both workflow’s are useful”

Needless to say, that experience was the source of inspiration behind today’s video. So I basically thought to myself, that there must be SOME type of way to streamline that work-flow - and the short answer is yes! There is! By using The Chord Track in Studio One 4.

In this video I demonstrate a workflow that can be used to generate instant 808 Bass Lines (Borrowed from The Kick Track's MIDI) using The Chord Track in Studio One Version 4.

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus

Studio One 4 Quick Tip - Using Invert Selection & Select Lowest Notes To Speed Up Editing

The New Select Notes Options In Studio One 4

Continuing on from some of the other video’s we’ve covered. I wanted to re-visit some of the new “Select Notes” options that were recently added in Studio One Version 4. More specifically, using the “Select Lowest Notes” built in Macro button in the Musical Editor.

But in addition to that, I also wanted to touch upon another function that’s pretty well hidden in Studio One - that function being Invert Selection.

Using Invert Selection

For any one who has ever used Photoshop or any other related programs, you will most likely be accustomed to seeing and/or using the invert selection function. Essentially this does exactly what you would expect. It inverts the selection, providing a short cut for many various editing functions from that point.

Now I think it’s important to point out that in Studio One, this can be used on either Audio Events and instrument parts, OR on the actual Note Data (the MIDI Notes) that reside within an instrument part. This in itself can come in really handy when working with editing MIDI in Studio One.

Using Both Of The Above Together

In this Studio One 4 Quick Tip video, I demonstrate how to go about using the Invert Selection option when editing MIDI to quickly create a Bass part in a song. In addition, I also take a look at how it can be used in tandem with some of the new Note Selection Musical Editing Functions in Studio One 4.

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus

Drag & Drop Tempo Map Extraction From Audio Events In Studio One 4.1+

Let’s Talk About Click’s

Once upon a time, people made Music - and believe it or not, they made music without using a click track! 😱 Fast forward to 2018 and (for the most part) this is simply not the case anymore. In fact I’d go as far as to say that I can’t recall more than 20 or 30 tracks that I’ve worked on in the last couple years that were done free-time - without a click.

Whenever I talk about this type of thing, I always like to equate it to the concept of; learn the rules first, then you can break them all you want. What do I mean by this? Well quite simply, I think it’s important for musicians to be able to play with a click and maintain tight timing, but I also think it’s just as important for a musician to be able to move freely depending on what the song needs, and pay zero attention to a click.

But make no mistake, there’s a huge difference between someone playing with horrible timing, (who could actually use some practice playing with a click) and someone with amazing timing who is letting the music guide the timing of the song.

Best Of Both World’s - The Tempo Map

So first off, I’ll be the first to admit that the benefits and merits of working with a click track are definitely useful in a modern day DAW when it comes to editing, virtual instruments, and even plug-ins with timed delay’s, etc. But that doesn’t mean that we have to simply lock down one static BPM for a whole entire song. Now for the most part, that’s what happens for some of the more popular genres, but it isn’t always the case.

To me, this is where Tempo Maps come in handy.. Essentially if we pre-define or “map out” a tempo track for a performance, we can still utilize all the modern tools that make’s life easier for us in the studio like, MIDI Quantizing, bar/beat accurate editing, etc etc. The benefit of course being that we can let our music “breathe” a bit.

Now before you get your panties in a bunch - I’ll be the first to say that yes - a really top notch musician can still do this while playing at a static BPM. I’ve worked with some percussionist’s or drummers for example that were able to stay perfectly in time while being “off the grid” for all intents & purposes. But I will also say that it doesn’t happen that often, and it’s also very genre specific as to when that works for the song. But this is where the Groove comes from - Everything in between the grid.

Working With Audio Files With Tempo Maps

As of the recent release of Studio One Version 4.1 - we got some much needed updates in the tempo dept. And Personally I was really happy to see them. In addition, these new features also prompted me to explore the options of getting more creative with my tempo tracks in general, or more specifically not being afraid of free-time performances. After all, this is usually whats sent to me by an artist in terms of scratch tracks that lay the foundation of the song we are going to be working on.

If you’ve ever programmed any tempo changes into your music, or taken the time to tempo map a rough scratch track, and re-record to its “tempo” you may have noted that upon inspection of the audio file, the word “Map” appears vs a specific BPM. However one thing that you may not have known, is that the Tempo Map of this audio event created in Studio One can easily be extracted to the Tempo Track in new Songs!

If you’ve ever found yourself in the position where you’ve wanted to somehow get the Tempo Map from an audio file (created in Studio One) into the Studio One Tempo Track - In this video I demonstrate how to extract a Tempo Map from Audio Events in Studio One Version 4.1 and above. In addition, I also cover some preferences or concepts to keep in mind when using this type of workflow.

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus

Creating Note FX Chorder Presets From MIDI Regions & Instrument Parts

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve covered some uses as to how some of the various Note FX plug-in’s in PreSonus Studio One can be used. So far we’ve covered the Arpeggiator, and also the Repeater.

The Chorder however is a bit of a different beast. The main reason for this is because where as the above mentioned Note FX plug-ins can literally transform single notes and simple Chords into complex performances - The Chorder on the other hand requires some tasteful chords to be entered in before you can really make any use out of it.

How To Find The Chords?

Well, depending on your knowledge of musical theory, or your ear - this may be relatively easy. But in my personal experience of working with amazing musicians who have a deep understanding of theory, it can also be difficult to pick out the individual notes in chords, unless you specifically train yourself to do so.

3rd Party MIDI Loops & Studio One Musicloops

Having said the above, it’s also worth mentioning that there are literally tons of MIDI packs available with top notch musicians playing carefully selected chord progressions. In addition, there are even 3rd party plug-ins that can generate MIDI Regions in a song format/structure that drag and drop right into your DAW’s timeline.

Creating Chorder Presets For Popular Progressions

Now seeing as the chords that make up a song, fall in certain patterns and groups, and seeing as we can use transposing options (in addition to manually editing Note Data) to alter any of those progressions - I personally don’t see any issue with creating some Chorder presets that will allow me to quickly get some patterns laid down when producing and / or writing in Studio One. In the end, I’m up for any shortcut that will inspire me to create or help me work faster. Even if I end up changing the chord voicings after the fact.

Long story short, I’ve been doing this manually for some time now, by clicking in one note at a time - and usually end up only using the Chorder when I don’t have a MIDI keybaord available. But I just recently discovered that I can essentially extract the Note Data information from any MIDI Event (instrument part) in Studio One which makes the Chorder a lot more useful to me now. Because in the end, I always prefer to “play” or perform vs just mousing in my chords.

In this video I demonstrate how to go about creating custom Note FX Chorder Presets from MIDI Events (Instrument Parts) in PreSonus Studio One.

Generating Song Ideas With Note FX In Studio One 4 Using The Repeater

Really not too much of a description needed here - as the title pretty much says it all, but let’s break it down anyways.. Last week I did a video on adding movement to your productions using the Arpeggiator Note FX plug-in in Studio One. Naturally, I thought it would make sense to also cover using the Repeater Note FX plug-in as well. :)

In this video, I demonstrate how to generate song ideas for your productions using the stock Repeater Note FX Plug-In in Studio One 4. Although version 4 was used in this video, this tutorial applies to Version 3 as well.

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus

Adding Movement With Note FX In Studio One 4 - The Arpeggiator

Playing vs Programming

Without question, If I have one musical regret, it would easily be not continuing my piano studies as a child. Although I moved over to the guitar at around age 10, and was happy to do so - these days, I find myself wishing more and more that I had some really decent piano skills to fall back on when producing. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that I can’t play at all. But what I am saying is that I usually can’t play what I hear in my head most of the time.

If I’ve been hired to work with an artist or band, then of course I can rely on session players or band members - and thankfully I’ve had the great pleasure of working with some phenomenal musicians. If I ask for different voicing’s they can accommodate on the fly, and there’s nothing more amazing than working with top notch talent. But if I’m producing - sometimes I may have to have “something” laid out in advance.. A basic idea that will be replaced after the fact by someone much more capable.

So what does this mean in terms of being a producer? Well, essentially when I can play the part, I will always try to perform it, even if it takes 2 separate passes (Right Hand / Left Hand) - then clean things up via editing. But when I cannot perform what I hear in my head, (or simply don’t have a keyboard controller available) I pull out my “Cheat Sheets”

Studio One Note FX

This is where Note FX can come in handy. Whether it’s a super simple Arpeggiator pattern, or complex Chords. Studio One’s built in Note FX give users the ability to fully realize their creative ideas. In all honesty, the reality is that as long as you have a decent ear, and a bit of patience with editing MIDI. You can get fantastic results. And of course, the best part is, they’re built right into the program.

I think it’s worth mentioning that there are already a ton of great videos and/or articles on Studio One Note FX - all readily available via a quick search on Google. But what I thought I would do today is give a simple example of how easily Note FX can be used when producing in Studio One.

In this video, I demonstrate how to add movement to your productions using the stock Arpeggiator Note FX Plug-In in Studio One 4. Although version 4 was used in this video, this tutorial applies to Version 3 as well.

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus

Studio One 4.1 - Tempo Ramps & Time-Linear vs Beat-Linear Timebase Settings

A Welcomed Update To Working With Tempo Changes

If you’ve kept up with some of the more popular feature requests, you may have seen that many users have long requested a more modern approach to editing Tempo changes in Studio One. Since Studio One Version 3 launched - we have had access to some pretty seamless tools that have allowed users to “mouse in” smooth automation envelopes with ease. But the Tempo Track did not necessarily reflect that same ideology.

Well I’m happy to report that as of the recent 4.1 Update, this particular issue has been addressed by PreSonus, and in general I think they did a great job with it. But in addition to being able to work faster and easier with Tempo Changes, we also see some other improvements in the Tempo Department as well.

The New Beat-Linear Timebase Setting

In addition to the above, we also see a new alternate Timebase Setting that can be used in place of the traditional Time-Linear setting. In all honesty, this sounds much more complicated than it actually is. But the easiest way to explain it would be to say that when changing the Tempo in your Song - the Events don’t resize, but rather the cursor scrolling speed increases or decreases.

One last thing that they have addressed is a greatly improved workflow for manual Tempo Mapping in Studio One. But in all honesty this is something we’ll leave for another day.

If this all sounds super confusing to you, no need to worry, because In this video I demonstrate the differences between Time-Linear vs Beat-Linear Timebase Settings in Studio One 4.1, as well as the updated Tempo Ramp abilities.

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus

Exploring The New 'Select Notes' Options In Studio One 4 - Select Off-Beats

The New Select Notes Options In Studio One 4

I was speaking to a friend / colleague a while back regarding some of the new features in Studio One 4, and he happened to mention being somewhat shocked that one of his favourite new features (The New Select Notes options) has not had a bigger spotlight.

I had seen the new options & spent a bit of time exploring some of them, but admittedly had not dug that deep into the menu. It was more of a: "Oh hey cool... I should check these out in more detail at some point".

Fast forward a couple months, and knowing that sometimes these improvements that get added may slip through the cracks, I decided to have a 2nd look. More specifically - a look at some of the built in Macros that PreSonus had included for users as one-click Macro button's for a specific task.

Useful Functions - 1 Click Away

I must admit, I'm glad I did. There are some really useful Macros that have been included. I think it's worth pointing out that having come from Pro Tools, I am very accustomed to working with and using keyboard shortcuts in my daily workflow. In addition, my usual approach is to build a Macro I need, then map it out to a key-command. To take that a step further, I have also never really bothered to take a really detailed look at the included Macro Buttons.

In general, let's just say that I prefer to use the mouse as little as possible. But having said that - I can definitely see the appeal of having some of these buttons one click away, and I think I may start to add buttons for all my future MIDI Macros! It's pretty convenient having them in the Music Editor, and it doesn't take up that much space. This also saves me from the scenario of running out of key-command combinations that don't require me to do finger acrobatics just to pull them off!

In this video I demonstrate how to use some of the new "Select Notes" options in Studio One 4. Although this video is focused on the (included) "Select Off-Beats" Macro, we also take a look at some other options as well as a few tips when working with Select Notes Macro's in general.

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus

Quick Tip - Gain Staging Virtual Instruments In Studio One 4 Using Macros

The Trouble With Most Virtual Instruments (In My Opinion)

I find that in general, most of the Virtual Instruments that I use (regardless of whether they are soft synths, or sampler type instruments) tend to come in very hot. When I say hot, I mean some of them are literally either clipping or a step away from clipping.

As a side-note, I have created some custom virtual instruments myself, and I opted to "split the difference" and made sure that the levels were nowhere near zero (dbfs) but more along the lines of around -12 or so when played at higher velocities. I personally think that this is a happy medium.

Now as to why VI's output at such a hot level, well to be honest, that's another topic altogether. I've heard some arguments from people 'in the know' that it has to do with noise floor levels when playing back the samples at different sample rates, etc. But in the end, it's an issue that I deal with - and found a way to combat it when working in Studio One that I thought might be useful to some of you.

My Solution To The Problem

I think it's worth mentioning that I'm not trying to re-invent the wheel here, I know lots of people are most likely using a gain plug-in of some sort to tackle the above issue, but what this quick tip is all about is simply automating that process. Which of course just happens to be something that Studio One handles really well via the use of Macros.

In this video I demonstrate how to create a Macro in Studio One 4 that will automatically help gain stage your virtual instruments when needed. In addition, I also outline some other workflow benefits to using a Macro vs manually adjusting the global output volume on VI's.

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus

Tip - How To Render Chord Track Changes Into Instrument Parts (MIDI Events) In Studio One 4

Working With The Chord Track

For those of you who may not be aware, The Chord Track is a really killer new feature that was added in Studio One 4. Essentially it allows users to "Map Out" their entire song as a harmonic roadmap - quite similar to what one would do with Markers or The Arranger Track. It then becomes a visual indication of the chord changes that make up your song.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg! Essentially, based on each tracks individual settings, it has the ability to non-destructively alter both Audio Tracks/Events & Instrument Parts in your whole entire song to play perfectly against your chords as defined in The Chord Track. There are obviously some limitations here based on the complexity of the chords being used, but in general it does a great job.

I recently did a video showing some basic work-flow concepts of working with The Chord Track, and how it can be used in a standard production workflow. Long story short, one of the comments that came up was, "How would one go about rendering the changes made by The Chord Track into the actual Instrument Parts?" The reason this question came up is because of the way The Chord Track was designed to work.

Non-Destructive vs Destructive

When working in a DAW, you will most likely hear the above 2 terms being thrown around when speaking to various different work-flows. Let me just get this out of the way and say that in my opinion, there is definitely room for both. As for their meaning, well that's pretty self explanatory.

Destructive would be anything where the results of a process (or action) are rendered into an actual file, where as the opposite can be said for non-destructive.

How This Relates To The Chord Track

According to PreSonus, The Chord Track was mainly designed (but not at all limited) for use in song writing / song production. Hence, their approach was to have the entire process be non-destructive as evident by the ability to toggle the Global "Follow" mode on or off as needed.

But let's break this down for a second. Once you have the results you're looking for, why leave this in a temporary state? If you're happy, then why not commit and render those changes into the file?

This was one of the things that entered my mind when working with The Chord Track, but all the usual approaches that I expected to "work" for rendering did not seem to do the trick. But - there is a way to do it!

In this video, I demonstrate how to go about rendering any changes that were made by The Chord Track into Instrument Parts (otherwise known as MIDI Events) In Studio One 4.

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus

Tutorial - Beat Detective Style Multitrack Drum Editing In Studio One 4 [Updated for Version 3.3+]

Drum Editing - Slicing vs Time Compression & Expansion

Without getting into too much detail, I find that there are usually 2 different school's of thought when it comes to editing Multitrack Drums in a DAW. Full disclosure here - yes I'm generalizing, but for those who have been doing this for the last decade or more, I find that they usually rely solely on a slicing method of working. Whereas some of the newer generation couldn't be bothered.

Now first off, let me just get this out of the way - USE WHICH EVER METHOD YOU PREFER! If it works for you then that's great. But while I'm on the topic, let me also say that I personally will always use a slicing method whenever I can on the right sources. ie: percussive / rhythmic elements. To me, there is nothing that beats it despite how good the current time-stretching algorithms may be.

Drum Editing In Pro Tools Using Beat Detective - What's All The Fuss About?

If you are serious about audio engineering and have ever tracked or edited live drums, I'm almost certain that you would have at least heard of this style of editing. Just to be clear - for some of you, you may not have any interest in using slicing (and that's perfectly fine). But for those who (like me) came from Pro Tools, my guess is that the way in which you have become accustomed to working when editing multitrack drums, involved using Beat Detective.

Now for those who have no idea what Beat Detective is, it's essentially a way of working in which audio events (regions) are cut exactly at the initial transient point of say a kick or snare hit for example, and then the beginning of each audio event (representing the start of the transient) is quantized to a grid value. Example: 16th notes. This will obviously result in a vast amount of audio events that are all cut up and shuffled around on your time-line.

Furthermore, any gaps that remain, are then back-filled, and any overlaps that occur would be obviously canceled out. The last step is adding appropriate crossfades between all the adjacent audio events, and double checking your edits - and when done right it's pretty much seamless.

However one aspect that I haven't yet mentioned, is that although the entire process sounds quite daunting and time consuming - Beat Detective in general involves an automated workflow that handles all of these tasks with ease in a few different steps. But here's the thing that I think not a lot of people realize - As of Version 3.3, SO DOES STUDIO ONE!!

Studio One's Take On Automating The Above Process

When I made the move over to Studio One, the one area that I just kept having to hop over to Pro Tools for was drum editing. At that time, Studio One had a few, well.. let's just call them 'quirks' with the way it handled slicing multitrack drums. Long story short, I got frustrated and worked out a workflow that could be used to "mimic" all the steps needed to achieve what I wanted to do without having to export audio events to be edited in Pro Tools & re-imported.

Long story short, my good friends at PreSonus got wind of the video that I had done, and took it upon themselves to basically re-vamp their entire process. About 5 months or so later when Studio One 3.3 was released, (in my humble opinion) it finally worked as it should. The one cool thing though is that Studio One actually does all of the above in 1 single step!

There are a few differences here and there of course, and I would ALWAYS advise double checking your edits before committing. But in general, it's my opinion that it's right on par with Beat Detective in terms of efficiency when used correctly. 

So if you've made it this far through this article, my guess is that this is something you may be interested in. Furthermore, I would encourage anyone editing multitrack drums to at least have a look at this workflow regardless of whether they've ever used Beat Detective or not.

A Quick Note On The Video Above

Yes, the video is long - BUT! My goal here was not only to show how to set everything up and use it in what I consider to be the most efficient way. But also to show how to do manual editing after the fact, to get the timing of your tracks sounding exactly how you need them to without fussing about.

In this video, I demonstrate how to go about using a 'Beat Detective Style' Drum slicing work-flow when editing/quantizing Multitrack Drums in Studio One 4. Although Studio One Version 4 was used, this video is applicable to anyone using Studio One version 3.3 and above.

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus

Producing With The Chord Track In Studio One 4 - Working With Instrument Tracks

Working With The Chord Track

When Studio One 4 was released, one of the main highlighted new features that was introduced was The Chord Track. Essentially acting as a Harmonic road-map to your Song - it allows Studio One users to do things that were not possible before in a DAW. Without getting into too much detail, let's just say it's pretty wild and opens up the door to new potential work-flow's when working in Studio One.

But quite often, with features such as this, there is a basic learning curve that one must go through in order to fully understand how (and potentially when) to use it. Having said this, I though it would be a good idea to do a simple video of how to incorporate The Chord Track into your workflow when fleshing out basic song ideas.

In this video, I demonstrate the basics in terms of how to go about using The Chord Track (on instrument tracks) in Studio One Version 4 while producing.

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus

Double Clicking MIDI Events In Studio One 4 - The 2 Different Behaviours

Previous Versions

For those who have been using Studio One through the last couple version's, (Version 2 & Version 3) you may have noticed the default behaviour when double clicking Instrument Parts (MIDI Events) has gone through a couple different revisions. This is something that has come up quite a bit with respect to which behaviour user's prefer.

Essentially it boils down to whether a user prefers a "zoom to fit" type of view, or whether they prefer the Music Editor to remember (and recall) the last "zoom state" of the Note Data within the instrument Part. In all honesty, this sounds a bit confusing when written out - but it's actually quite simple.

A Simple Solution

The great news, is that Version 4 allows user's to do both by the simple addition of adding a modifier key when double clicking MIDI Events. In the end, it all comes down to personal preference - and PreSonus have made it pretty easy for user's to choose which behaviour they prefer to use for their personal work-flow.

In this Quick Tip video, I demonstrate the 2 different behaviours that are possible when double clicking Instrument Parts (MIDI Events) in Studio One 4.

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus

Importing A Tempo Map & Markers From Pro Tools Into Your Studio One 4 Song

Picking up from where we left off in last week's video, I thought it would be good to do a "Part 2" with respect to AAF work-flow that talks about how to go about getting any additional information carried over from a Pro Tools Session into your Studio One Version 4 song.

If you did happen to catch the first video, you'll recall me saying that having the audio come over via AAF is great, as it allows us to essentially pick up from where we left off in Pro Tools. The benefit here of course being that we still have access to our original edit boundaries. So no need to consolidate files and find out down the line that you (or someone else) missed a bad edit.

But as you may or may not have noticed - one BIG thing that did not get translated during the process is your Markers, Tempo-Map, and any time signature changes!

Tempo Maps, Time-Signature Changes & Markers

Now first off, let me just state the obvious. If you have a basic song, in 4-4 - at 120 BPM, this isn't really a huge issue. Just recreate your markers manually, and it's not a big deal. BUT - if you have spent a great deal of time adding various Markers with specific names, and detailed tempo changes, it would be a shame to have to re-do them. The good news is you don't have to.

Using MIDI Files To 'Carry' The Information

As someone who has spent a great deal of time collaborating with various other engineer's and studio's, one thing I got into the habit of doing long ago is using MIDI files to carry over information that I wanted to translate to another DAW. Regardless of whether I was handing off my work to another studio, or simply working on my own productions, in most cases the material I work on can get pretty complex with respect to tempo changes and time-signature changes, so I really don't want to have to repeat that work, or hand someone else a session where they have no clue what's what.

So essentially this is pretty much the last step I take when exporting content, and this is something I do regardless of whether I'm printing consolidated stems, or using AAF work-flows.

MIDI Files & Markers

One thing that you may find is with specific DAW's, (not going to name any name's here - they all have a different approach) not all the information you would expect to translate over - comes across. A really good example of this would be with respect to Marker's.

In my experience, there is usually (again it depends) some little quirk, where for example creating a NEW SONG from that MIDI file will bring over the markers, where as Importing the MIDI file into an existing song will not. And like I mentioned, this isn't always the case, but I've encountered this with at least 2 major DAW's that I've worked with. (Studio One being one of them)

The Magic Of Import Song Data

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, Import Song Data is BY FAR at the top of the list for my favorite new features. The reason being because it essentially eliminates the whole concept of "not being able to bring something into an existing song". Again the keyword here being "existng".

Having said all that - In this video, I'll show you how to go about importing your Markers, Tempo Map, and any Time Signature changes from Pro Tools into your newly created Studio One 4 Song. Presumably created using an AAF from Pro Tools - but the work-flow works regardless of how it was created.

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus