Hardware and Software Working Together! Kumbaya!
Tight integration between hardware and software is the way of the future, providing superior ease of use and more powerful features than can be achieved with hardware or software alone. Studio One integrates tightly with hardware in several ways, making it easy to use a variety of audio interfaces, control surfaces, instrument controllers, sound modules, and signal processors.
Configuring Your Audio Interface Couldn’t Be Easier
You’ll notice Studio One’s integration with hardware right from the beginning, when you set it up for your audio interface.
When you first set up a DAW, you usually need to assign, or “map,” the software’s inputs and outputs to physical inputs and outputs on your audio interface. Otherwise, the software won’t “know” where to send and receive audio. This is called “configuring” the software for the hardware.
To begin with, Studio One automatically selects, from a list of devices installed on your computer, an audio device to use for audio input and output. If you have a PreSonus interface, it will be selected automatically, and Studio One automatically configures itself for that interface. No messing with matrix routers; the I/O is mapped for you in templates.
It’s also easy to configure Studio One for a third-party interface. Hardware inputs and outputs are assigned to software I/O channels in a matrix router, which is a visual representation of the routing. Software channels (mono and stereo) are each given a horizontal row, and hardware inputs and outputs are given vertical columns. The points at which these rows and columns intersect represent potential connections, or routes, between the hardware I/O and software I/O channels.
Setting up Controllers and Keyboards is a Snap
Studio One integrates with hardware control surfaces and MIDI instruments simply and easily.
MIDI Mapping the Way it Always Should Have Been!
Once Studio One has recognized your control device, you’ll want to assign the various knobs and faders to plug-in parameters. The usefulness of the coolest plug-in or instrument is, after all, greatly diminished if you can’t easily touch it with more than a mouse! We solved this problem once and for all.
Want to use a MIDI control device to change parameters in Studio One? It couldn’t be easier! Just open any plug-in effect or virtual instrument and click on a parameter. Twist a connected hardware knob or press a switch. Click the Link button, and you’re done.
Focus mode lets you map controllers independently for each plug-in. What the controllers do at any given moment depends on which plug-in is currently active or “in focus.” In contrast, Global mode lets you map a controller to a single plug-in parameter, and the controller will continue to change the value of that parameter even after the plug-in’s GUI is closed. These assignments are remembered regardless of what Song or Project is open.
In this way, you can configure hardware-control configurations once for all of your Studio One plug-ins and never have to think about controlling them again.
Control Zero-Latency Cue Mixes with FireStudio™-series Interfaces
If you use a PreSonus FireStudio-series audio interface with Studio One software, creating a zero-latency cue mixes is easy.
When overdubbing, musicians need to hear their performance mixed with prerecorded tracks. Adding reverb and other effects to the live input can enhance what the performer hears while tracking, so the monitor, or “cue,” mix sounds more like a finished product. This all sounds straightforward, until you factor in latency: the time it takes for audio to be converted to and from the digital domain and be processed. Studio One is extremely fast, but even so, the resulting delay can be audible and can create monitoring difficulties during overdubbing.
The best practice is to use your audio interface’s hardware to provide zero-latency monitoring. This means the cue (monitor) mix is derived from the point where the audio enters Studio One, before conversion and processing. This keeps the signal to your headphones or speakers from having to pass through the computer and its variable latencies.
All PreSonus FireStudio-series audio interfaces include an internal software mixer that allows you to set up cue (monitor) mixes with zero latency. You can manage these cue mixes from within Studio One, rather than using the external control panel that’s normally required.
With integrated PreSonus FireStudio interface hardware and Studio One software, creating a zero-latency cue mix is easy. Instead of setting up a zero-latency mix using a control panel outside of the DAW, you can use a single zero-latency button on the tracks in Studio One. Click this button to instantly hear the input on that track with no latency, directly from the hardware input. You can create one or more cue mixes in the Studio One console (the number of cue mixes depends on which FireStudio interface you use), setting level and pan for every track in each cue mix.
Furthermore, you can independently switch zero-latency monitoring on for any number of cue mixes; for instance, your vocalist’s mix can have the vocal track with no latency, while you monitor in the control room through the software so you can tweak with virtual effects.
You can even send inputs to effects and include those signals in the mix alongside the zero-latency signal to achieve zero-latency cue mixes with virtual effects. The send’s return is also routed to the cue mix and out to the artist’s headphones. Studio One takes care of the routing within the FireStudio interfaces and lets you mix live inputs, recorded tracks, and effects, right from the console!
Use Your Beloved Hardware Processors, Too!
Sure, Studio One comes with plenty of effects plug-ins, and Studio One Producer and Professional let you use third-party VST and AU plug-ins. But you may have some wonderful hardware processors that you still want to use. That’s why Studio One Professional’s plug-in collection includes Pipeline.
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