PreSonus has released a second feature update to its Studio One 5 Professional digital audio workstation software for macOS and Windows. Version 5.2 brings more than 30 new features and improvements, many of which are based on user requests, including major new features for composers and performers.
Studio One 5.2’s new Sound Variations can handle complex virtual instruments and orchestral libraries regarded as essential for modern composers. The core of the new system is a powerful, yet easy-to-use mapping editor that provides tools for managing complex articulation maps.
Each Sound Variation can be customised with its own name and colour and can be dragged-and-dropped in any order and placed into custom folders. Sound Variations can be triggered by key switches, as well as from remote commands, including hardware controllers, keyboard shortcuts and custom macros. The Paint Tool can be used to enter Sound Variations directly into the associated automation lane inside the Note Editor or any number of notes selected and assigned a Sound Variation from a pop-up menu.
A new API allows third-party developers to enable VST2 and VST3 instruments’ articulations to be queried by Studio One so that Sound Variation maps are automatically generated. Currently, all Synchron-enabled Vienna Symphonic Instruments and instruments from UJAM support dynamic Sound Variations mapping with Studio One.
The Score View received another major update with the addition of drum notation and tablature. Users can choose between viewing standard notation with tablature or select tablature only to print lead sheets and more. The new drum-map interface supports adding both the drum and note names to a corresponding notated pitch. A General Midi map is included for quick set-up.
New symbols in Score View allow open/closed/half-open techniques to be added as well. A new Voices icon allows up to four voices per staff to be created. Select the desired voice, then enter notes and rests as normal; Studio One will automatically handle stem direction and rest positions. Notes can be entered into multiple voices for a single instrument; up to four voices can be created per staff.
Studio One Professional v5 introduced the Show Page, with v5.2 adding Studio One’s Arranger Track that allows users to experiment on the fly with new arrangements. Each Arranger section in every Setlist item has five playback mode options – Continue, Stop at End, Skip, Loop, or Loop and Continue; the latter repeats any section for a specific number of times before playback continues to the next Arranger Section– for extending solos and breakdowns on stage. The new Arranger Track also supports patch changes mid-song, making the Studio One Show Page the ultimate live and streaming performance rig. Live Arranging in real-time is available on both the Song Page and the Show Page, with an updated Performance View.
An imminent update to Studio One Remote supports the use of mobile devices as master controllers for live performance – loop song sections, change patches and more, all from a mobile device. Multiple devices can connect to the same computer running Studio One, so each player has control over their own patches.
Version 5.2 adds a number of other features, including the ability to create multiple clip versions, allowing users to apply clip-based edits in Gain Envelopes or Melodyne independently to Events sharing the same audio; a new ‘Smart’ tool for editing Note Events in the Piano Roll editor; and deeper integration with both Atom SQ and FaderPort-series controllers. PreSonus Sphere workspaces are also now available directly from the Studio One Browser for easy bidirectional file transfer. And Studio One is now officially supported for Apple Silicon ARM processors in Rosetta 2 compatibility mode.
Studio One 5.2 is a free update to all registered Studio One 5 customers and is free to PreSonus Sphere members.
