- Mixing in Studio One 4: step-by-step. First up, listen out for levels. Anything distorting? In general, it’s better to listen rather than look at your mix, but there can be tell-tale signs, such as red peaking on tracks and the output. Time to pull everything back.
- Go to the Studio One browser Files tab, right click in empty space and select the menu item New Folder. To create a new folder there and name it Track Templates. Right click that new folder and select New Tab From Here to create a new tab for it at top of the Files browser.
- In Studio One, an Instrument Track can only receive input from a Keyboard that has been set up in the External Devices menu. To set up a Keyboard, refer to the Set Up Your MIDI Devices section of the Setup chapter.
- I’ve been using the PreSonus StudioLive 24.4.2 digital console mixer for live shows (monitor setup) for a number of years now, as well as Studio One Professional and the trusty ol’ Studio Channel. Studio One Professional has been used in my personal studio, mainly to record vocals.
The following tutorial shows the user how to enable/disable tracks in Studio One 4. CLICK HERE to learn Presonus Studio One 4 one on one with a digital audio professional at OBEDIA. Often times during the mixing stage of a song, the audio engineer might encounter a situation in.
PreSonus Studio One Tips & Techniques
Screen 1: All three of these tracks are playing the same instance of the Presence virtual instrument, yet there is only one stereo mixer channel for all of it. With all the percussion sounds feeding a stereo output, balancing them can be done only by modifying note velocities.
Studio One 4 Group Tracks Download
What’s the difference between a track and a channel? In Studio One, this is not a trick question..
Many DAWs, including Pro Tools, maintain a one-to-one correspondence between tracks in their arrange or edit views, and channels in their mixer views. Studio One does things differently, and its system has its own pros and cons.
Studio One’s mixer, which is referred to as the ‘console’ in some contexts, is at heart the user interface for the actual audio engine, while tracks in the arrange view are basically glorified edit decision lists (EDLs): instructions as to which bits of audio should be played at which time. Other control data such as fades, event levels and automation are also stored as part of tracks, but those, too, are just instructions. Behind the scenes, the audio channel is where it all actually plays out — both figuratively and literally.
There is a one-to-one correspondence between audio tracks and mixer channels; every audio track has one mixer channel. As we shall shortly see, however, virtual instruments are a different story, and can be responsible for a good deal of variation in track and channel quantities.
Linking Up
Tracks and channels both have solo and mute buttons, but their actions are linked only for audio tracks. Muting or soloing an audio track also mutes or solos its channel. But virtual instruments use both an instrument track for performance data (MIDI) and a mixer channel for audio. These are different entities with different functions. As a result, the solo button on an instrument track also solos the instrument mixer channel because both performance data and audio are needed to solo an instrument, but the mute buttons are not linked. To understand why, consider the following example.
Let’s say I’m working on a piece using Latin percussion and have a virtual instrument playing a percussion preset with a different sound on each note. The percussion is active and important, so I split notes playing the congas, tambourine and cowbell to their own tracks. As a result, I have three tracks all playing the same instrument on the same MIDI channel (Screen 1), using different notes to get the desired percussion sounds. Now I can mute the conga track and hear how just the cowbell and tambourine are working together. Download virtual dj pro 8 full version free download. If I’m composing, I can experiment with instrument combinations.
If my virtual instrument has a single stereo output, all of those instruments are mixed in the instrument and fed through a single stereo mixer channel. This results in more tracks than channels.
Screen 2: There are six tracks playing four presets over four MIDI channels in this instance of AIR Instruments Xpand2, a multitimbral instrument with a single, stereo audio output. Many tracks, several MIDI channels, one audio channel.
The track/channel disparity becomes more acute with a multitimbral instrument that still only has a stereo output. For instance, I get a lot of use from the AIR Instruments Xpand2 instrument, which can host up to four presets, each on its own instrument (MIDI) channel, with the audio outputs of all four presets summing to a single stereo output (Screen 2). With four presets I can load two different percussion or drum instruments, each on its own channel, plus two more sounds on the other two channels. I end up with quite a few more tracks than channels.
Spreading Out
Screen 3: This MOTU MachFive3 multi (centre) has 10 parts, each of which gets its own track. Eight MIDI channels are used to control it, and it results in five audio channels in the mixer. Multitimbral, multi-output VIs can get a bit complicated at times.Multitimbral, multi-output instruments take the track/channel issue to another level. With multiple sounds, MIDI channels, and outputs, anything can happen. Advanced samplers such as NI Kontakt and MOTU MachFive3 are good examples: I have a MachFive multi with three channels for violins, two for violas, three for ’cellos and two for basses (Screen 3). I used this preset on two different projects. One was a hard, fast, cheap job, for which submixing to a stereo strings mix in MachFive3 was convenient. The other project required more detail, so I used one-to-one routing to allow for different controller data for the various instruments, plus greater flexibility in the mix.
Like multitimbral, multi-output instruments, Studio One’s multi-instruments are sophisticated structures; and, like multitimbral virtual instruments, they can require more channels than tracks. Unlike multitimbral instruments, though, I can’t think of an instance where it makes sense to have more than one track playing a multi-instrument.
When a multi-instrument is created, a mixer channel for it is created at the same time. By default, audio outputs of all of the individual instruments in the multi-instrument are submixed to this channel. But if you want to break out the instrument outputs to separate mixer channels, each can be independently routed to a bus channel, FX channel or output: just open the editor for the multi-instrument and click on the instrument you want to route to select it. To the left of the main graphic area is a channel strip bearing the name of the currently selected instrument. The output drop-down menu assigns that instrument to the destination you choose. You can select each instrument in turn and re-route it this way.
Screen 4: By default, all the virtual instruments in a Studio One multi-instrument sum to one stereo mixer channel, but each one can be selected and re-routed individually, as shown here.Elsewhere in the mixer, bus channels, FX channels and outputs do not carry audio from audio or instrument tracks, and so have no corresponding tracks. Or do they?
If I want to automate a bus channel such as a submix, even just its mute, I need to create an automation track to do it. And that leads to organisational issues. If I have three different FX channels for lead guitar, do I want a separate track for each, or am I going to have one ‘guitar fx auto’ track for all of them? I generally lean towards consolidating onto fewer automation tracks, but only including directly related functions, like the guitar effects example.
Get Organised
The down side of giving yourself access to finer granularity (especially as regards individual instrument outputs) is that it necessarily injects a greater quantity of both tracks and channels into your session, which increases complexity and slows things down. The best tactic to combat this drag on creative flow is to apply organisation. Studio One’s folder tracks can be very powerful in managing tracks and channels. All those strings tracks can be combined in one folder track, and even have their audio routed to a single bus channel, VCA channel or output.
Colour-coding is available for tracks in the arrange view, but I find colour-coding most meaningful in the mixer. This is particularly true in light of Studio One’s handling of channel placement in the mixer, which can vary with grouping and preferences. Good colour-coding is helpful for clarifying the role of a channel, even if the order in the mixer does not make that clear.
Screen 5: My MachFive3 strings multi fully organised in the arrange view. Tracks are colour-coded, including different colours for instrument and automation tracks. Note the automation tracks at the top; these tracks cause the submixes and reverb channels in the mixer to collapse along with the instrument tracks, assuming show/hide is linked between the mixer and arrange views.Studio One has no ‘channel folders’, but track folders can accomplish good management in the mixer, as well, when they are linked to mixer channels. Click the wrench icon in the upper right of the mixer to open the mixer options dialogue, and be sure the Link expand/collapse of folder tracks with show/hide box is ticked. Now, collapsing a folder in the arrange view also hides the associated mixer channels, but it only hides channels for tracks in the folder. If I have an FX bus return in the mixer sitting between two tracks that are in the same folder, collapsing the folder will hide the two tracks and leave the FX bus return, because it has no track in the folder. If this bothers you, create an automation track and assign it to control some parameter of the effect on the FX bus or its plug-ins. Now the FX bus has a track that can be put in the desired folder, after which it will hide when the folder is collapsed. I find this kind of utility indispensable.
The decoupling of tracks and channels in Studio One can demand a bit of thought to deal with, but it is logical, offers valuable advantages, and is quickly assimilated. Virtual instruments and audio effects can swell the numbers of tracks and mixer channels, sometimes unequally, but this extra overhead can be managed with good organisation, especially using folder tracks. It can be difficult to keep up your organisational systems when you’re on the firing line of production, but a well-constructed session can be a great asset in promoting creative flow by taming technical detail.
Published July 2017
Studio One Tips & Techniques
Omnisphere 2. 6 library free. Understanding the way track grouping works will help keep your Studio One projects under control.
The subject of grouping comes up a lot when discussing DAWs, and for good reason: modern audio production commonly involves substantial numbers of sound sources. When quantity is involved at any level of a project, simply keeping everything under control becomes a primary task, and grouping is a powerful tactic for managing lots of sound sources. So, this month I’ll take a more general look at grouping in Studio One than the glimpses given in previous columns, because, well, it comes up a lot. Grouping in Studio One takes place in two work areas: the arrange view and the mixer.Screen 1: A track folder in the arrange view. Clicking the mute, solo, record, or input monitor buttons activates that function on all tracks in the folder.
Grouping Basics
Studio One more or less maintains a useful old-school paradigm in which the recorder and mixer are viewed as separate components that need not correspond to each other in a one-to-one relationship. But there can be disadvantages to this separation, too.
Some DAWs have edit groups and mix groups; Studio One has a single type of group that combines features of both. Thus, when a channel fader in a group is moved, the other channel faders in the group follow, and cutting audio from one track in a group cuts the same time period from the rest of the tracks in the group.
Studio One has a quick grouping mode that is useful for short-term needs, when it’s helpful to temporarily unite a set of tracks in order to conduct a small number of operations. Just select all of the tracks you want to group and press Cmd+G (Mac OS) or Ctrl+G (Windows). The tracks stay grouped until you either press Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+G or select and group a different set of tracks. Grouping is visually obvious for tracks in the arrange view, and is indicated in mixer channels by a group icon appearing just above the channel meters and in the mixer track list.
Recording
Any time you use more than one channel to record an instrument, the idea of grouping comes up. Drum tracks are obvious candidates for grouping, but there are many others. For example, I often record lead guitar using a close capacitor mic, a close dynamic, a second capacitor mic about six feet back from the speaker cabinet, and a line out from the back of the guitar amp. These four tracks are typically grouped.
Grouping in Studio One is often used alongside a related feature: track folders. Track folders make it easy to collapse groups of tracks, reducing visual clutter. In a typical project, I can clean up my workspace quickly just by creating track folders for drum, guitar and vocal tracks. Serato scratch live troubleshooting video. And by clicking the group button for the track folder, I can make the tracks in the folder into a mix/edit group.
Now, I can create a new layer for another recording pass on all tracks in a folder at the same time by selecting Add Layer on any one of them. Make sure all of the tracks in the folder are selected before you do the operation; clicking on any one will select them all. I can also rename all these new layers at the same time by choosing Rename Layer for any one track and entering my new name. Applying the date-time code I typically use for naming takes to the active layer of every track in the folder, it is easy to guarantee that all tracks have the right layer active.
![Studio One 4 Group Tracks Studio One 4 Group Tracks](/uploads/1/2/6/0/126026437/399339661.jpg)
Grouping tracks in a folder is also vital for overdubbing and punching in, where all tracks in the group are recorded at the same time. I find myself using grouping heavily in nearly any recording scenario.
Studio One 4 Group Tracks For Sale
![Studio One 4 Group Tracks Studio One 4 Group Tracks](/uploads/1/2/6/0/126026437/845762774.png)
Editing
Grouping tracks ensures that edits stay in sync across them in several ways. First, edits are sample-accurate across grouped tracks. Second, start and end times can be trimmed simultaneously and identically for events across all grouped tracks. Third, if you put separate record passes on different layers, as I do, grouping ensures that all tracks change layers together when comparing record passes.
When I need to adjust one track in a group differently from the rest, I can hold down the Option/Alt key and change a channel’s fader or mute and solo buttons independently of the group, but to edit a channel separately one must ungroup the tracks. Stay alert, though: forgetting to regroup the tracks again before executing an edit can get you into some sticky situations.
In The Mixer
Track folders can be nested, which is useful in mixing, where more organisation can be even more important than it is during recording. A single folder for all drum tracks may be sufficient for recording, but snare, tom and stereo pair track folders nested inside the drums track folder can be more visually and/or functionally convenient for editing and mixing. Likewise, it might be helpful to create separate track folders for acoustic and electric guitar tracks within a master guitar tracks folder.
But the greatest benefit of grouping within the mixer is that it allows you to control, automate and process all the grouped tracks at once. Quick grouping provides a fast way to raise or lower a bunch of channels together. Add automation and a master fader to that idea and you get the ganged-gain controls anachronistically called ‘VCA faders’. VCA faders are particularly useful for ganged level control of channels that are otherwise configured and/or routed differently from one another. Bus channels provide an alternative approach, in which signals in the group are mixed, rather than kept separate, enabling bus processing, such as stereo compression on a tom submix, or sending a snare submix to a snare reverb.
Track folders work hand in hand with submixing, as they have a field that routes all tracks in the folder to a selected bus channel (shown in Screen 1). My snare track folder is routed to the snare sub bus channel, the toms track folder to the toms sub bus channel, then both submasters are routed to the main drum bus. Let’s look at my earlier example of drum tracks and see how all of this fits together.Screen 2: The full drum configuration. In the arrange view the tracks contained in each track folder and routing for each track folder are shown. With the mixer in ‘thin fader’ mode you can’t see that the snare, tom and stereo pair submasters are all routed to the drums sub, as are the channels not in track folders. The yellow fader on the right is the close mics ‘VCA’ channel; the assignments to this channel can be seen just below the ‘snare sub’ and ‘tom sub’ channel faders.
In Screen 2, I have snare top and bottom tracks, plus a heavily squashed version of the snare for parallel compression, all routed to the snare sub bus channel. Rack tom high, rack tom low and floor tom are all routed to ‘tom sub’, and overhead and ‘underhead’ (a pair placed low) stereo pairs to the ‘Stereo Pairs’ bus channel.
The basic drum sound comes from the stereo pairs, seasoned to taste with the close mics. I want separate snare and tom groups, but also control over the overall balance of close mics against stereo pairs, so I assign the snare and tom submasters (bus channels) to a VCA fader. With this setup, I can apply separate bus processing to snare, toms and stereo pairs, and control the balance between the close mics and the stereo pairs. Then, when the drums are gloriously tweaked out, I can visually collapse the whole mess into the drums track folder so it doesn’t dominate the whole screen. Nice.
Follow Me!
Screen layout is an important area we have not yet considered. If tracks and channels do not correspond one-to-one, how do grouped tracks and channels relate to each other? How do track folders, which exist only in the arrange view, impact the mixer? Simply put, tracks gathered in a folder travel together in the mixer. If you move the track folder in the arrange view, mixer channels corresponding directly to tracks will all move as a group. Screen 3.
For example, suppose I have four lead guitar tracks in a track folder, and I also have a bus channel with effects for the guitar in the mixer. Since there is no effects return track to put in the folder, I cannot make that effects return travel with the rest of the guitar channels in the mixer when I move the folder in the arrange view. Fortunately, there is a simple and fairly intuitive workaround, as shown in Screen 3, which is to create such a linkage by making a new automation track and assigning it to control volume (or some other parameter) on the effects return bus channel. Now you have a track you can put in the folder, and the effects return in the mixer will move with the rest of the tracks if you move the track folder around.
But the layout relationship between the arrange and mixer views gets tricky. Deleting the automation track we just made also deletes the bus channel in the mixer. When a folder track is routed to a bus channel submix, the bus channel appears to the left of the grouped channels in the mixer. It can’t be moved to the right, and moving the grouped channels to the left removes them from the track folder. It is sometimes impossible to attain desired layouts in the mixer and arrange view at the same time.
Conclusion
Track counts easily get high, and even a song with only 16 tracks can be bulky to work with. Grouping is essential to handling quantity, and Studio One offers a strong set of grouping features. The key is in understanding the available grouping features and choosing well how to apply or combine them to improve management of tracks and channels in your song.
Studio One 4 Torrent
Published June 2016