Presonus is a company that for years has prided itself as being one of the best mid-level audio equipment manufacturers around. They have long been known for producing some quality audio interfaces and pre-amps and generally dominate that sector of the market along with Motu. It would seem logical then that Presonus would want to get into the DAW space considering how important and integrated an audio interface and the DAW can become these days. The question is of course, did they pull it off?
What is Presonus Studio One?
Studio One is Presonus’ first foray into the digital audio workstation market. Studio One is full featured DAW and comes packed with several built in plugins, a full complement of MIDI features and all of the multi-track recording and sequencing that you would come to expect out of a DAW in this price range. Studio One PRO is priced $400 in the U.S. and comes with not only the DAW package, but also with a mastering suite. The DAW side of the software alone will not be for retail sale and will instead be packaged into bundles with Presonus’ audio hardware.
On the outset Studio One has a lot going for it. It is a full featured DAW and it is well polished. In fact it demonstrates much of the maturity that we see in several others DAW’s and includes as I mentioned before the mastering suite, a 64-bit compatible version, Mac and Windows installation options and a robust audio engine. Presonus has even gone as so far to design the interface in the same color and design scheme that is seen on most of its hardware. As you can see in the picture, the interface is based around a darker color palate with blues and silvers. It is very easy on the eyes, but still contrasting enough to easily identify elements within the UI design.
Workflow and Interface
Launch Screen
When you first launch Studio One you will be greeted with a launch portal screen that appears to be becoming more popular in DAW’s these days. This launch screen allows you the option to select whether you want to create a new song or create a new project. Projects are what Presonus is defining as your mastering tracks. The terminology is rather confusing to be honest and there is not a place that readily defines what the differences are between the two options from the outset. Naturally most musicians would want to start out selecting the song option.
Also prominently displayed on the launch screen are three very useful columns of information. On the left you have your most recent files, in the center you have your audio/midi hardware information and artist profile and on the right you have a “news” feed from Presonus. The entire interface is rather well thought out but does have a distinct “Windows feel” to it, despite the shading and gradient textures used. The heavy use of these gradients also does take a toll on your system resources as the launch of the program takes up to thirty seconds to launch, presumably because it needs to pull in the latest news information as well as launch the detailed UI. I also question the usefulness of the news column in the long term. While it serves as a nice information section, is it really needed when the real purpose of the software is to create music? I am curious if users would utilize it in the long term and questions as to why an email from Presonus with news wouldn’t be more useful?
Now before you can begin creating music you need to authorize the software. Unfortunately the authorization process is not as simple as typing in your registration key. Presonus requires you to setup an online account on their website during the authorization process and link your software and registration key to this account. This is a time consuming and rather annoying process and personally I don’t see why it is needed. I can understand the concerns Presonus might have regarding piracy, but at the end of the day piracy is going to happen and there is no point in annoying the paying customers. Presonus is fighting an uphill battle in the DAW market right off the bat so they need to win customers over by making things as easy as possible.
Working with the Interface
Now if you have made it through the launch screen and registration process you then move on to setup options and launching of a new song. The setup of an audio interface is a very straight forward process, especially if you have a Presonus device. The rest of the setup for midi devices, sample library locations, etc. is self explanatory and very simple.
Moving on to the song section, when you first create a track you are presented a template selection screen similar to what Garageband uses, only it is not as well done. You will notice from the screen shot that the template screen is focused on mixer routings for Presonus audio interfaces. There are a few other basic audio setups basic instrument setups but on the whole the entire template screen just doesn’t appear as polished as what some other software is doing and in fact it can be rather confusing. Wouldn’t it make more sense for the software to automatically detect your track routings when you setup the audio interface, especially if you are using a Presonus interface? It also would have been nice if Presonus could have at least provided templates for other popular interfaces such as those from Motu or M-Audio.
When a new song is launched you are presented with a standard tracking window with transport controls, pattern editing, etc. On the bottom right corner of your screen you will find the three buttons that you will probably be using most often during your composing time within Studio One. The “Edit” window opens up a piano roll screen and the instrument’s or sample’s parameters. The “Mix” window brings you to the software’s mixing desk and the “Browse” window opens up your library for instruments and samples. The entire setup is very standardized and doesn’t bring anything new to the table. In many respects it is using the workflow that many other DAW’s have used for years and it is sticking to that formula. Adding instruments, samples, loops or a Rewire device is as simple as dragging and dropping from the browser library into the tracking window. The appropriate audio track for the most part is automatically created, but if you want to use one shot samples, you will have to load up a plug-in first before dragging the samples over.
Once you load up an instrument editing it is super simple. Simply double click the track and the piano roll editor instantly pops up. The piano roll in Studio One is a competent system that truth be told has a rather Cubase feel to it. Again it gets the job done, but doesn’t present the user with any ground breaking features except perhaps one. Presonus has decided to include an interesting twist in automation within Studio One actually confused me at first. In addition to standard track automation, which can be accessed in the main tracking window via a dropdown under the track, an additional set of two “mini” tracks of automation options for velocity, automation, and panning can be found underneath the piano roll. Now this option can actually be quite confusing for users. The automation within this section is automation assigned per the pattern and not necessarily the track. Presonus calls this “Instrument Part Automation” and the idea behind it is that each pattern has its own automation that can move with it regardless of how you arrange the patterns and tracks. The idea is a fantastic one, but the implementation for me personally was too clunky and confusing. It was not always clear what automation is doing what. It would have been much more efficient if the instrument part automation could have been integrated and displayed in line with the track automation in the sequencing window.
Mixing Window
Now that the basic idea of how to create some tracks is down, the next logical step that one would want to take in a composition is add effects and work on mixing parameters. As appears to be evident thus far in Studio One’s design, the basics of the mixing console are fairly easy to access and implement. The console on its face has a standard interface similar to that of a traditional analog console. Each audio track has a channel which can be supplemented by send buses and effects. From there on out though the console can get fairly complicated very quickly. Plug-in instruments are not clearly represented or distinguished from their sample counterparts. This is a travesty unfortunately because it is mostly likely the case that the majority of potential users for the software will be software based musicians. As soon as effects get into the fray the console interface becomes increasingly more complex and it seems that the complexity is mostly due to a design choice on Presonus’ part. When expanding the console to try to access effect inserts and sends, the effects channels expand next to the audio channel or above it. This seems counter intuitive to how many other consoles operate with the effects sitting below the channel strip. This is largely just a cosmetic issue, but in terms of workflow, musicians who are used to one process may find this one confusing. Overall the console mixing window comes across as a fairly daunting and intimidating section of the software that I believe will be the roadblock to many people using the software. What Presonus has developed is a rather full featured and flexible mixing setup, but the complexity gets in the way of the basic functionality that 90% of musicians will need most of the time.
Built in Instruments
Studio One ships with four basic instruments in the package. Unfortunately the instrument offerings are very sparse and the ones included are mediocre at best. Many other DAW packages out there offer much better built in plug-in libraries. Even the smaller companies have deals that package in free 3rd party plug-ins to at least get the user going. Presonus does neither and unfortunately presents the user which a setup that does not really entice them to dig deeper with the software.
Impact
Impact is a 4×4 pad MPC style drummachine that will work nicely with any drumpad controller. It is a simple instrument, but accomplishes exactly what it needs to do. In fact more DAW’s should ship with basic plugins such as this with the prevalence of pad controllers now in so many bedroom studios.
Mojito
Mojito is a simple one oscillator synthesizer and unfortunately not much more than that. Of the four instruments that are packed into Studio One this one is the most disappointing. These days a DAW needs to ship with a solid virtual analog “bread and butter” type synth that can get someone up and running. It is understandable that they are not offering something akin to what Logic Pro or Cubase offers, but when FL Studio ships with the 3xOSC which can on its own right create great sounding leads, Presonus needs to step up to the plate.
Presence
Presence is a simple sample format player. Presonus calls them “Sound Sets” and it is unclear at this time if they plan to sell these sets or not. In all seriousness though it is a glorified soundfont player and not much more than that. Useful, but not as useful as it could have been.
Sample One
Lastly for the built in instruments is a basic sample playback instrument. It would not go as so far to call it a sampler as it cannot do multi-samples and cannot even edit samples.
Final Thoughts
Final thoughts on the Presonus Studio One are mixed. On the whole there is a good foundation here for a new DAW. Unfortunately though Presonus is not doing enough within the software to really sell the user on it and some of the design choices with regards to workflow could be major turn offs for its potential user base, namely new musicians/producers. Studio One for the most part seems to be getting in its own way and there are too many clicks and menu navigations to get to what you want to. The mixing interface, perhaps one of the most important sections of the software, is just too cumbersome for most users to efficiently navigate into. The software is also severely lacking on the plug-in front. Cheaper DAWs on the market offer more and better built in plug-ins. Cheaper DAWs on the market even offer free third party plug-ins pre-packed. Whatever the case may be, Presonus let the ball drop. They need to offer more to the user to at least give the perception of value and it is inexcusable to not offer a core functional sampler or synthesizer in a DAW these days. When it comes down to it in the end, Presonus is just not offering the value for the money that other entry level DAW manufacturers are offering.
Summary
Pros
- Good tracking/sequencer interface
- Excellent integration with Presonus audio interfaces
- Competent DAW for musicians
- Deep mixing console if you have the patience for it.
- Useful launch screen
- Mastering suite in “Pro” useful for basic purposes
- Windows & Mac OS X support
Cons
- Slow load times
- Too many clicks to do most tasks.
- Interface feels “heavy” in response to user
- No QWERTY keyboard support for musical typing
- Audio routing for non-Presonus interfaces is confusing.
- Confusing interface with automation and mixing
- Included instruments are poor.
- Monopolized audio output on Windows Vista machine
System Requirements
Macintosh
- Mac OS X 10.4.11 or Mac OS X 10.5.2 or higher
- Minimum:
- PowerPC G4 1.25 GHz or Intel Core Solo 1.5 GHz processor
- 1 GB RAM
- Recommended:
- PowerPC G5 or better or Intel Core Duo or Intel Xeon processor or better
- 2 GB or more RAM
Windows PC
- Windows XP or Vista
- Minimum:
- Intel Pentium 4 1.6 GHz processor or AMD Athlon 64 (Turion)
- 1 GB RAM
- Recommended:
- Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz EM64T or better or AMD Athlon 64 3000+ or better
- 2 GB or more RAM
Tested on
- Windows Vista
- Dell Dimension DXP061 32-bit
- Intel Core 2 Duo: 2.4 Ghz
- 2GB Ram
- Mac OS X 10.5.6
- Macbook
- Intel Core Duo 2.0 Ghz
- 2GB Ram