PreSonus’s Studio One has quietly evolved into a very capable DAW, and now the company is attempting to further enhance its reputation with the launch of version 4. This is billed as a ‘best of both worlds’ solution that will please both audio recording traditionalists and the beatmaking generation.
There are creative and functional new features to tell you about, starting with the Harmonic Editing options. Designed to assist you at the compositional stage, these enable you to experiment with harmonies, transpositions and chord progressions, and can work across instrument and audio tracks. There’s a Chord Selector, while the chord detection feature extracts chord from audio or instrument tracks.
Harmonic Editing is exclusive to the Professional Edition of Studio One 4, but the Patterns feature is included in the Artist version as well. This replaces the step sequencer and integrates with Instrument Parts and automation, giving you more expressive options than a standard step sequencer.
Faster workflow
Editing features have been enhanced, too: the Musical Editor is designed to speed up your workflow and simplify recurring tasks, while the Drum Editor promises to provide a fast and intuitive way of honing your rhythm parts. There are extended note editing options, and a more flexible Macro system has been implemented.
On the plugin side, Impact XT has more than 20 new feautres that turn it into a complete production environment for beats and loops, while Sample One XT has evolved from a sample playback device into a far more fully-featured beast that comes with multiple synthesis options.
Elsewhere, Melodyne users will appreciate the support for the ARA 2.0 standard, which offers access to data from multiple tracks. There’s also compatibility with AAF (Advanced Authoring Format), which makes it easier to switch from certain other DAWs.
Studio One 4 Professional is available now priced at $399.95, while the Artist version costs $99.95. Upgrades and crossgrades are also available. Find out more on the PreSonus website.
