Recording - June 2016 - 59

The possibilities are as endless as
ever, but way easier to deal with.
Oftentimes I decide to not even try something, given how much of a pain it will
be to set up, and I know I'm not alone.
Extended FX Chains are a great antidote
to this kind of creativity-killing phenomenon; just see how James Lindenschmidt
makes use of them (with illustrations) in
"Great Tone In The Box" on page 20!
PreSonus also introduced the Multi
Instrument in Studio One 3. As the name
implies, this allows you to build a single
instrument out of many, with similar splitting capability as described above.
Layering sounds from multiple instruments
and creating different zones for each
layer is very easy here, with the added
benefit of inserting new Note FX
(Arpeggiator, Chorder, Input Filter, or
Repeater) at the input of any given instrument in the architecture. The end result is
a complex instrument you can save and
recall with a single drag and drop. If you
often layer sounds from multiple instruments, this will be really helpful. See
Figure 3.
Lots of composers work with multipleoutput instruments, and channel routing,
busing, sends, and so on play a huge
role in crafting a sound that you might
want to recall. Multi Instrument presets
save all routings and insert plug-ins,
allowing you to work this way easily. The
only missing part is FX Sends. I like to
create multis for different parts of the
orchestra that I can instantly recall
(where the other benefits of the Multi
Instrument would be great to have), and
while I'm still learning the ins and outs of
the process, this now seems within reach.
Exercise control
Controlling our music software with
hardware that we can reach out and
touch is a universal desire. This has
always been easy in Studio One, with
something called Control Link making it
a snap to set up global and per-plug-in
contextual controls. Studio One 2 took
things a step further with custom key
commands and macro commands, all of
which can be instantly mapped to any
hardware. Studio One 3 adds Macro
Controls, which helps boil this expansive
function set down to just a few controls.
Every channel in the mixer has its own
set of Macro Controls, where you'll find
8 knobs and 8 buttons which can be
assigned to any parameter of the plugins on that channel, and then your hardware can be mapped to those controls
to get hands on.
Here's the cool part-each macro control can control any number of parameters, with adjustable ranges and curves
per parameter. Even in the context of a
single compressor plug-in, this could be
very useful. You might want to turn one

knob to simultaneously adjust the threshold
down, the ratio up, and the makeup gain
up slightly. Setting that up would take
around 10 seconds. Then, whatever awesome signal mangling method you come
up with can be saved as a part of the FX
Chain, so the next time you use that FX
Chain, all your controls are readily at
hand. The time you spend setting up
Macro Controls will pay you back many
times over, and you'll love having this kind
of control at your fingertips. See Figure 4.
2

Smart editing
Studio One 3.2, just released as of
this writing, introduced a smarter Arrow
Tool. The arrow tool has always been
contextual, handling many different
duties depending on where you hover.
This capability is expanded and made
much more intelligent, now switching
between the arrow and range tools
depending on context.
This impacts a lot of areas in Studio
One, but a few key improvements deal
with range selection and splitting and
automation. Automation edits, for instance,
become lightning fast-select a range of
automation, then hover above the points to
see the bracket tool, then drag up/down
to adjust all of the points. This can apply to
all automation across any number of
tracks, based on the range selection. You
can hover above and between any two
existing automation points, then click and
drag with the bracket tool to adjust the
range between. It's very fast, and Studio
One users will love it.

Mix Engine FX
In a physical mixing console, there's a
lot of 'magic' between the output of a
channel and its input into a bus on the
other end. In classic consoles especially,
there's an enormous amount of noise filtering and buffering happening, which
has a tremendous impact on the character of the console. DAW mix engines
have always strived to be transparent
and impart no character on the sound at
all, and Studio One is no different with
its 64-bit floating point engine. And
plug-ins can process signals via inserts
on either end of a signal path, but can't
get between multiple channels and the
bus they flow into to allow real emulation of classic consoles and more.
I've wanted to see a DAW try to emulate the magic of a classic console for a
long time, and the new Mix Engine FX
provides exactly that opportunity. It
allows developers (including outside
ones like the venerable Slate Digital and
Softube) access to the signals between
channel outputs and their bus, which
provides the opportunity for applying
DSP in ways never before possible.
The first module available for this
new platform is the Console Shaper,
from PreSonus itself, which provides
exactly the sort of magic I mentioned
above. It bears repeating that this is not
a plug-in. It's essentially a new mix
engine that you can apply on a bus-bybus basis-a little classic British vibe
here, some old-school American vibe
there-I'm sure you get the point. You'll
definitely want to approach using this
like an actual console, as applying this
processing to existing mixes is sure to
have a major impact on gain staging
and tonal balance... but that's precisely
the point. The DAW mix engine has
officially been freed from the days of
pristine, characterless sound.
Check it out
Version 3.2 brings many welcome
enhancements and innovative new thinking to the Studio One community. Studio
One will continue causing other DAW
creators and users to take notice, and if
you haven't already, now would be a
great time to check it out.
Prices: Studio One 3 Prime, free; Studio
One 3 Artist, included with PreSonus
interfaces or $99.95 as a download,
$129.95 on USB flash drive; Studio
One 3 Professional, $399.95 download, $429.95 on flash drive
More from: PreSonus,
www.presonus.com
Jon Hillman (hillman@recordingmag.com)
is a game audio composer and sound
designer living and working in northern
Colorado. Learn more at jonhillman.com.
RECORDING JUNE 2016

http://www.presonus.com http://www.jonhillman.com

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