How To Extract Groove Templates From Audio Files In PreSonus Studio One

In last week’s article / Video - we took a look at how we can create custom Groove Templates when working with MIDI Files in Studio One. If you haven’t checked it out already, you can do so by clicking here.

Although having MIDI files is a great way to create Groove Templates, let’s be honest, this isn’t always the case. In fact, I’d say that it is much more likely that one would have access to an Audio Loop (in some file format such as Wav, MP3, or Aiff, etc) vs an actual MIDI file of a performance.

Luckily, Studio One is able to perform a similar task when working with Audio. That being said, there are a few things that one needs to be aware of, in terms of how Studio One performs this task, and more specifically some things that user’s can do to help the process go a little smoother.

Audio vs MIDI

When working with MIDI files - things are pretty simple. We have Musical Data that gets translated to a Musical Performance. Hence, the concept of extracting a Groove Template from a MIDI File (or an “Instrument Part” in Studio One terminology) is relatively straight forward. The Note Data within the instrument part, and more specifically it’s timing, and Velocity become MIDI “triggers”.

Given that when working with drums in particular, each of these triggers, will be triggering an audio sample of some sort, there is a 1:1 relationship between each MIDI trigger and the Audio Sample that’s set to play on each pitch. Providing each sample is cut close to the first Zero Crossing point - this results in a very tight performance - where the Audio “should” follow the MIDI timing extremely well. But when it comes to audio, things are slightly different.

Timing is in the Transient Detection

When it comes to audio, and more specifically creating MIDI Triggers that are accurate and reliable, it’s all about the transients. This becomes a little more complex when we take into account that most of these loops are stereo Mixdown’s that have all of the elements of the drums rendered into a single File. But the great part is that Studio One has some tools to help streamline this process, and the actual workflow of extracting the Groove From a file (after the transient detection has been completed) couldn’t be easier.

In this video, I demonstrate how to extract an accurate Groove Template from Audio Files in PreSonus Studio One. In addition, we will also take a look at how to Quantize other Audio Loops and MIDI Files to the Groove Template - Covering everything you need to know from Beginner level to Advanced.

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus

Impact XT Layer Modes Part 2 - Stack Mode and Edit Sample Offsets

Impact XT is an extremely powerful and easy to use Virtual Instrument that ships with PreSonus Studio One. Although this “style” of PAD based instrument is most often associatewd with Hip-Hop & Pop based productions, I personally find that it’s useful for multiple Genres.

It’s worth mentioning that in addition to being used for traditional Drum and Percussion based productions, Impact XT can also trigger Loops in all sorts of different ways, and can also be used for Live Performances as well.

However the focus of today’s article is to build upon last weeks video, which was specifically to do with the different Layer Modes that can be utilized in Impact XT when mapping multiple samples to a single Pad.

In this 2nd Part of a 2 Part video series, I pick up from where we left off with our Layer Modes, and demonstrate how (and when) to use the "Stack" Layer Mode in Impact XT - in addition to the "Edit Sample Offset" function in PreSonus Studio One 4.

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus

Impact XT Layer Modes Part 1 - Velocity - Round Robin and Random

Impact XT is an extremely powerful and easy to use Virtual Instrument that ships with PreSonus Studio One. Although this “style” of PAD based instrument is most often associatewd with Hip-Hop & Pop based productions, I personally find that it’s useful for multiple Genres.

It’s worth mentioning that in addition to being used for traditional Drum and Percussion based productions, Impact XT can also trigger Loops in all sorts of different ways, and can also be used for Live Performances as well.

However the focus of today’s article is specifically to do with the different Layer Modes that can be utilized in Impact XT when mapping multiple samples to a single Pad.

In this 1st video of a 2 Part series, I demonstrate 3 of the 4 Layer Modes in Impact XT - more specifically what each of them do, and when to use them.

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus

Processing and Converting Samples Using The PreSonus Audio Batch Converter

Working in a DAW such as Studio One gives users an enormous amount of flexibility and control over audio. But having said that, there are cases where someone may need to achieve a specific workflow that would be better off being done in a separate application. A great example of this would be when needing to convert or process a large amount of audio files.

In the case of working with multiple audio files, It’s often preferable to work with the actual files on a 1:1 basis vs having them laid out on a single track.

That being said, Studio does have various different options for converting, and processing multiple files, but its not quite the same as a stand alone application that’s specifically designed to batch process files.

If we take a few basic examples like increasing, or decreasing the gain of multiple files, or potentially normalizing to a specific loudness value, as well as processing them through a custom FX Chain - this becomes evident. In addition, there’s also the fie type to take into account. What happens if you need to export a specific format?

Studio One’s export Mixdown options do offer quite a few choices, but they don’t necessarily work well for processing the actual audio events (the files). They are designed to render an actual “Mixdown” of multiple files based on a specific duration of time.

We have some basic control over what types of files are rendered by adjusting the sample rate and bit depth of our song when using drag & drop workflows with Audio Events to the Studio One browser - but again, still not quite the same thing.

This is where an audio batch Converter comes in really handy. And it’s design factor is perfectly fit for purpose for the above tasks. :)

In this video I demonstrate how to use the PreSonus Audio Batch Converter to Process and Convert Samples in PreSonus Studio One 4.5 and above.

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus

Hidden Gems In Studio One 4.5

New Feature’s and improvement's on existing feature's are always appreciated in an update - but sometimes it’s the little miscellaneous improvements that "squeeze through the cracks" that can really make a huge difference in one’s workflow.

In this video, I take a look at a few of the “not so obvious” features that were added in PreSonus Studio One Version 4.5.

How To Fix The Phase of Multi Mic Performances Using Editing In PreSonus Studio One

Using Multiple Microphones on sources is a great way to thicken up and contour the sound of a recording. That being said, it also has the potential to introduce some un-welcomed issues if not done properly.

Generally speaking, when I’m using Multi Mic setups to record a source, I’m paying careful attention to the phase relationship between both microphones and the source. Flipping (or inverting) the polarity on one of the channels is a great way to check this.

Example: When using a Top Microphone & Bottom Microphone on a snare drum - in order for the phase relationship to be correct - the bottom mic would need to have its polarity inverted . Failure to do so may result in a a thin, weird sound - that loses all it’s bottom end.

But not every case is this cut & dry. For instance in the case of using multiple microphones on an Acoustic Guitar track - it’s not really a case of using a Top & Bottom Mic, where one of them will be 180 degrees out of phase with the other. Having said that - inverting the phase of one of the channels may still very well provide telling results. But furthermore, it may be a case where the phase is “close” but not perfect.

In these cases, I usually try to aim to get things as close as possible while tracking, and if I feel there is a need for further refinements - I will turn to good old trusty manual editing in my DAW.

BUT before I go, one thing I wanted to add (that I really should have mentioned in the video), is that if you can visually see that the waveforms are completely out of phase with each other - you’d definitely want to make sure to invert the phase using a plug-in such as Mix Tool in Studio One. And it might even be worth rendering this into the file using Event FX - so that visually the Waveform updates. The way to see this visually would be that the Waveform would be going down (from the Centre) as opposed to going up from the centre.

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Note that the Waveforms (although not identical) are similar in terms of their positive and negative direction that they are both flowing.

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Note that the Waveforms are heading in exact opposite directions - and hence 180 degrees out of phase with each other.

In this video I demonstrate some basic concepts on how to fix the phase of multi mic performances using basic editing when working In PreSonus Studio One. And to be clear - this is assuming that the Audio files are both generally ‘in phase’ to begin with.

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus

How To Export Raw Audio Files (Regions) In PreSonus Studio One

If you’re collaborating with other engineer’s, producer’s, songwriter’s, or studio’s - then there’s a good chance that you’ve been asked to deliver “RAW Audio Files” (aka regions) before. If you haven’t - then my guess is that you will be eventually. :)

First off, let’s take a moment to talk about what this term means.. Well, essentially we can think of Raw Audio Files, as the actual files that are created when recording to your hard drive. Another term for RAW files could also be “un-processed” but in my personal experience, the term RAW is used more often. In fact If I had to narrow it down even further, I’d say “Raw Audio Files / Regions Consolidated from Bar 1” is the phrase I’ve heard the most.

Regardless of whether you are recording a vocal, a kick drum, or an acoustic guitar - whatever source is being recorded through the preamp (after it has passed through the A > D Converters) INTO your DAW would be the raw audio. It’s also important to note that the actual gain that the files have been recorded at will have been determined by your preamp’s gain settings, and the level at which you recorded them. So any fader levels and panning done within the console / mixer of your DAW - would not have any bearing on the levels of the files.

There are certain cases where having access to the RAW audio files (vs exported stems) may be preferable, but without getting into too much detail, the main reason would be to have maximum flexibility/control in terms of mixing or producing. Case in point, you’ve done some vocal tracking, and someone has requested that you deliver RAW tracks so that he or she may continue to work on the song, and have full control over any processing that may be added.

“Translation - Don’t do any mixing, I’ll handle that on my end… Just record the tracks as best as you can, and send them to me..”

One last thing to point out, is that I think it’s also important to note that in most cases - even when delivering RAW Audio files, it’s pretty common practice to do some basic house keeping, such as deleting unwanted sections of audio in between phrases, and adding basic fade in’s & fade out’s. But the end goal is to usually render a new contiguous audio file that starts at “Bar 1” with no additional processing.

In this video I demonstrate how to export Raw Audio tracks (Regions) in PreSonus Studio One 4 using a Drag & Drop workflow from the Arrange Window to the Browser.

Although this video was done using Version 4, the same concepts can be applied to previous version of Studio One.

Exporting Stems In PreSonus Studio One - Follow-Up Q & A Video

Its safe to say that although it sounds simple enough, exporting Stems can be a tricky subject. Especially when there’s parallel processing, FX Returns, & Mix Bus Processing involved. That being said - In last weeks video we covered the basics on using the ‘Export Stems’ function in Studio One, and more specifically - the difference between using Tracks vs Channels.

In this weeks video, I wanted to dig down a little further into some of the questions and comments I received from last weeks video "Tracks vs Channels - Exporting Stems In PreSonus Studio One”.

So essentially - a Q & A Video Response that will hopefully help clear things up a bit more for those who had further questions.

Furthermore, last week was all about how to export Stems from your Studio One Song - (and the difference between Tracks vs Channels) whereas this week I wanted to focus more on routing options, and how to go about structuring your Studio One Song to ensure that exporting Stems doesn't become a tedious process. Not necessarily any hard rules - but more along the lines of some guidelines and tips that I’ve picked up over my years of having to deliver stems for various clients.

However - one thing that I do want to mention with respect to exporting Stems, is that the minute you involve ANY Mix Bus Processing (on your Main Outs) the whole entire concept of ‘Stems’ kind of goes out the window.. Or to be more clear, Specifically when dealing with things like Mix Bus Compression, or any dynamics processing that may be potentially reacting to the whole mix vs individual elements.

Case in point: If you have some epic SFX Tracks that are kicking your Mix Bus Compressor or Limiter into overdrive - if you muted those tracks and played back the same mix - you would most likely note that your levels would be different. This is because the tracks are summing together and effecting the cumulative level that your dynamics processing is responding to.

This can also be the case when dealing with saturation as well.. It’s a cumulative effect. So the short answer is that “usually” (not all the time) this is something to be taken into consideration when printing stems. In my personal experience, things like basic EQ curves usually translate pretty well and don’t drastically alter the sonics - unless of course you are aggressively pushing gain or drive to saturate the Mix Bus on purpose.

At the end of the day, your deliverables will usually provide the best insight as to how to deliver your stems, and how to set up the routing in your DAW. So if it’s a matter of having to deliver stems that perfectly match your Stereo Mix Down - there are way’s to accomplish this. And in some cases Getting your stems to come ‘close’ to your final mix might be good enough as well.

But regardless, there is NOTHING worse than getting an email AFTER you’ve mixed a track saying “oh yeah, by the way, we’re gonna need stems printed for this mix” and having to go though your mix and find a way to print stems that even remotely resemble your finished Mix. Needless to say, you will only need to go though this once to see how much of a pain it is. And my guess would be that once you do have to go through this, you will most likely find a way to structure your songs to avoid being burnt a second time.

All in all, Stems are a regular part of my world - I deal with them all the time, but they don’t have to be a pain, as long as you think ahead, exporting stems can be a breeze.

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus

Tracks vs Channels - Exporting Stems In PreSonus Studio One Demystified

Working With Stems

If you’ve spent any time working in a DAW then you’ve most certainly heard of the term “Stems” before. Without getting into too much detail - the concept is actually pretty simple. If you are looking to collaborate with another person, whether that may be a producer, a mixer, or an artist, you will most likely be asked to deliver Stems to them - so that they may import the audio files into their DAW of choice and continue working on the song.

The general concept with Stems is that certain elements may be ‘grouped together’ and rendered out as an audio file. In some cases, this may be quite simple, such as: Drums & Percussion, Bass, Guitars, Keys, Vocals, FX.

In other cases it may be more complex, such as: Kick, Snare, Hats, Toms, Over Heads, Room, High Percussion, Low Percussion, Bass, Acoustic Guitars, Electric Guitars, Lead Vocal, BG Vocals, etc etc..

In addition, Stems can also have different channel width’s as well. Such as 4.0, 5.0, Stereo, Mono, etc etc.. But for the sake of today’s example, let’s keep it simple and deal with stereo.

**Before we move on, I also want to point out that there is another approach to exporting audio files as well, which would be “Raw” tracks.. Meaning that NO processing is applied during the exporting - but this is something that I plan to tackle on another day. For all intents and purposes - let’s assume that we want our Stems to have any plug-ins, Fader level’s, and Panning rendered into the Stereo File.

The Benefit’s of Stems

There are many different reasons why stems are a preferable way to work. The most obvious being that in the case where someone is using a different DAW - they would quite obviously NOT be able to open up a session from YOUR DAW (we do have AAF options available - but that’s a different article all together). Another good example would be when someone may have the same DAW, but NOT the same plug-ins.

And lastly, In all honesty it’s just a great way to keep things clean, tidy, and simplified when collaborating with others, or archiving your productions. Case in point, if you are 100% completely happy with your drum sound - then why complicate things any further? Just print a Drum Stem and be done with it. Your Drums will now be 1 Stereo track and 1 Fader in any DAW that the stem was imported into.

Conversely if you feel the need to leave your options open, then perhaps it’s better to “Stem Out” the drums into all of the individual elements to allow for additional processing and mixing further down the line.

But regardless, using Stems is a fantastic workflow - that simplifies the production / recording / mixing process immensely.

Exporting Stems In PreSonus Studio One

If we take the above into account - it’s quite easy to see how having different methods of exporting Stems can be useful. And thankfully - Studio One offers a plethora of different options for rendering audio depending on what needs to be accomplished - whether it’s a simple Stereo Lead Vocal Stem with ALL the FX and processing rendered in, or discrete Stems for each element of the Vocal.

The 'Export Stems' option in Studio One is an extremely useful way to quickly render out Stems from your Song. But did you know that there are some fundamental differences between using Tracks vs Channels?

In this video, I demonstrate the key differences between the 2 methods - as well as when (and why) to use one method over the other.

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus

How To Embed Chord Track Metadata Into Audioloops In PreSonus Studio One 4

Since it’s introduction in Studio One Version 4 - I’ve been trying my best to make use of the Chord Track wherever I can. Although I must admit that with the exception of using “Import Song Data” features, (chord track information on Audio Events will come in when using Import Song Data) this is usually on a song by song basis. ie: I use it in certain songs as a production tool - but it’s not yet 100% engrained into my workflow. I also haven’t seen any Soundset’s that make use of this feature - (yet).

Then one day it dawned on me - “Wouldn’t it be nice if I could export all my Audioloops with the Chord Track metadata already having been detected… There MUST be a way to do this!”

This would save me the step of having to detect chords (and verify they’re all correct in the Editor) if I wanted to use the chord track in my production workflow. Also, depending on how I have the tracks in my Studio One Song setup, those Audioloops could potentially “auto-conform” to my Chord Track (in my source Song) when dragged in. ie: if I had some blank tracks setup in a template for dragging in Audioloops - and they were set to follow the Chord Track.

furthermore, my guess is that we will eventually be able to audition Audioloops in the Studio One Browser against our Chord Track in our Studio One Song. IMHO - This seems like the next logical step to take. That being said, I’m simply hypothesizing here, so don’t quote me on this.. (Although it would be pretty cool).

However if that DOES end up happening, I thought to myself - wouldn’t it be nice to “future proof” all my Audioloops I’ve been creating by embedding the Chord Track data into them before exporting. In addition, this could also prove to be useful in the meantime for my own productions. But all of that depends on whether or not this is even possible!

Well the short answer is, Yes - it is..

In this video I demonstrate how to export Audioloops with Embedded Chord Track Metadata In PreSonus Studio One.

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus

Studio One Quick Tip - Using 'Define Tempo' To Timestretch Audio Events In Studio One

I always love finding a new feature that I didn’t know existed in Studio One.. And it just so happens that this happened to me a couple of weeks ago - and I wanted to share. :)

For anyone who has ever worked with Audio Loops in Studio One, be it Wav Files, MP3 Files, or AIFF - You’ll know that there are a bunch of different options we have at our disposal with respect to tempo - but a really simple way to “snap” an audio loop to your songs Tempo (when it’s BPM is undefined) is to simply use the alt / option modifier when clicking + dragging - and snapping an Audio Events edge to a Bar Boundary.

This works as expected for most cases, but one thing to note is that although it does snap the loop to work within your current song - there is still no File Tempo metadata information in the Audio Event. The simple solution for this is to do a quick bounce and create a new file. The new file takes on your Studio One Song’s BPM and all is well in the world again… So if you do end up making any changes to the BPM - your loop will play back at the proper BPM as long as the track is set to Timestretch in the inspector.

But did you know that Studio One has 2 completely different approaches that a user can utilize to Timestretch Audio Files? Well - to be completely honest, I’ve been on Studio One since ~2014/2015 and I had no idea until a couple weeks ago…

In this video, I demonstrate how to stretch Audio Files (Loops) using 'Define Tempo' vs the traditional 'Stretch Event' approach. Whats the difference? Well, Define Tempo is a unique approach that can be used when timestretching Audio Events - which (in some cases) may be preferable to use vs basic timestretching.

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus

How To Properly Export One-Shots and SFX Samples In PreSonus Studio One

Have you ever noticed that sometimes when you're trying to import One-Shot samples into your time-line - that they end up time-stretching to your song's BPM? In reality, when dealing with One-Shots, this isn't really what we want.

Regardless of whether you’re using drum samples or SFX samples, the whole idea of using One-Shot samples is that if it’s a kick drum, or a snare hit, or hi-hat - the duration does not really matter.. If we’re talking Loops - then sure, but simple One-Shot samples (IMHO) shouldn’t need to be time-stretched. In fact it’s my preference that they aren’t.

This becomes even more evident when there’s drastic differences in Tempos. So let’s say that you import a sample that has an embedded BPM of 120 (the usual default) into an 75 BPM song. If a user has the “Stretch Audio Files To Song Tempo” preference enabled, (which most user’s do) Studio One will automatically time-stretch the sample to play back at 75 vs 120. This amount of time-stretching can really degrade a sample.

So the obvious thing to do here, is open the inspector and delete the tempo field of the audio event - and all is well. The file will play back with no processing and no extra artifacts. But wouldn’t it be easier if we could just avoid the issue all together?

Well, if you’re into creating and exporting your own samples, there’s a way we can handle this when working in Studio One.

In this video I demonstrate a workflow that can be used to remove Tempo Metadata when using a drag & drop workflow to export One-Shot Audio Files via the Studio One browser.

And as always, if you enjoy this content, please - Share, Subscribe, and hit that like button. :)

Cheers, Marcus

How To Export Your Custom Impact XT Kits To Share With Others In Studio One 4

One things for certain, the recently updated Impact XT, and Sample One XT instruments in Studio One Version 4 are extremely powerful - and in many cases can easily replace your previous ‘GoTo’ 3rd party VST’s. (No need to name any name's here, but I'm sure you know which I'm referring to.)

To make things even more enticing, they also have a handy feature built right in that allows users to easily export and share their own custom virtual instruments with others!

Now I know what some of you may be thinking - "Why would I need to do that?" Well the simple answer is, when you are working on one system, or sharing a song file, it's not that big of a deal. BUT, the minute you need or want to use the same instrument on another song, or more importantly another system, you may run into problems.

Presets created in Impact XT, or Sample One XT need to reference the location (file path) of any samples used. The minute you accidentally move or delete those samples, you may find yourself out of luck. This becomes even more apparent if you are working on another system all together.

Now before I go any further, there's one thing that I want to point out. the absolute BEST way to create virtual instruments that can be shared or used in multiple systems - is to use the Sound Set Builder which is available as a free download in the PreSonus Exchange / Extensions. This is the proprietary format that PreSonus uses for all of their content, be it Loops, Kits, or Presets.

But having said that, it does take a bit of getting used to the proper workflow. BUT if you're just wanting to quickly share some cool presets, or export some of your instruments to archive - then using a Sampler File is a super convenient feature. The result is a simple encapsulated file that can be dragged and dropped into any Studio One Song, and your Instrument preset, and samples are all retained!

In the above video, I'll show you how to save and package your custom virtual instruments, so that they can be shared with others, and/or recalled on other systems.