Why I Chose PreSonus Studio One as a Guitarist and Podcaster

Video Transcript

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[00:00:00] Emily: Welcome to get offset. My name is Emily, and I want to tell you why I chose PreSonus studio one as my digital audio workstation, both as a guitar state, as a podcaster. Uh, this video is sponsored by sweet water. Um, but I actually used a PreSonus studio one. Well, before I was approached to do this video, I’ve actually been using it.

[00:00:27] Probably for a five or six years now. Uh, pretty much daily, if not, at least weekly. Um, and when Sweetwater approached me about doing content, I said, yeah, sure. I mean, I’ve been paying for studio on for, for a long time. Uh, I started with the free version and I moved to the paid version pretty quickly after, and I’ve been using their Mondo.

[00:00:51] Uh, PreSonus sphere suite, which encompasses everything they’ve got essentially for about a year now. And I’ve been really, really happy with. Let’s talk about why, why, why, why study? No one when so many people are using so many other things and why there are so many options out there and they’re all so different.

[00:01:13] Um, so I went to school for music business, and as part of that, I studied. Uh, music production. I did pass, um, recording technology classes. And in those classes we covered both completely analog methods of recording as well as digital ones. And we used, um, pro tools. So when I was looking to record again, I thought about pro tools and, um, I wasn’t ready to dive in to something paid and a lot of these.

[00:01:45] Versions of things that looked normal to me. Um, but that’s to say, like, not Ableton, which did not look like something I was used to, um, they had limitations, a lot of limitations mainly. I think the free version of pro tools limited the number of tracks I could use to like eight and, you know, for a podcast that wasn’t a huge deal, but I also had like a little EPO on to work on and I, you know, I thought that’s just not a lot of tracks.

[00:02:22] So I looked and PreSonus his free version. Didn’t limit it. The number of tracks I could use, it did live with a number of inputs I could have once the two. But I was just me and my bedroom. I had stereo guitar tracks. I was recording one at a time. And that was, that was plenty for me. And for the podcast, you know, one mic, two mikes.

[00:02:45] Yeah. That’s fantastic. It worked great. So, you know, as far as that was going, I really wanted something that I could grow with that wouldn’t force me to. You know, invest right away. So PreSonus studio one. Was that like, I, I, I felt very comfortable that I could try it out, uh, have a lot of room to experiment and get, get wild and not feel like I had to.

[00:03:18] Invest in an immediately. Cause my thought was, you know what, I’ve paid a lot of money for something and it doesn’t work for me. And I only have the workflow and thankfully see one’s workflow made a lot of sense to me right away. I was very happy for that. So, um, yeah, the price was right and it’s something that you can grow with.

[00:03:37] There are multiple tiers, three. Kind of four. Um, so there’s the prime, there’s the artists, which is a level up, it has some more bells and whistles. And then there’s the professional that pretty much unlocks most things. And then there’s the sphere, which is what I have that unlocks pretty much everything.

[00:03:53] You get access to all their plugins. Um, suite speeds, other software, like their, a notion, which, um, is there a notation. Chart it out kind of software. Um, so I it’s pretty affordable. Um, As far as I’m concerned, I’m in it a lot, not as much as I’m in my, um, you know, Adobe suite, which I pay more for and use a little bit more, but I enjoy using, I enjoy using the city one software a lot more.

[00:04:22] So that’s the first thing, you know, um, as far as features in the free version, you know, it has, you know, a drag and drop workflow, which is pretty, pretty easy. Use trimming across fades, hot keys. Uh, you can map that with. There they sell their own fader port, or you can use any kind of tack if you, if you really need tactile kind of things.

[00:04:47] I have another little tactile thing called the tour box. It’s small. It’s um, it’s this, and I’ve had this map. I had this mapped to different, uh, things within. So the one before I got the fader port eight and the fader port eight as much better. It’s cool. If you have an iPad, there’s also a free app with a PreSonus that you can use that enables you to, um, essentially have, and let’s, let’s look at this.

[00:05:15] So this is an actual. Recording session I did for S for Sunday crush, uh, for recover. We did have a Santa goals, lights out. You can see all the different guitar parts I did, um, from my bedroom as, yes, there’s a lot. I should have color coated them. Um, But yeah, you can see everything here, but this down here, this is the console.

[00:05:39] And if you have the iPad app, which is again free, you can have that on the iPad connected to your computer. And you can control all of this, all of these faders. So you can feel like you have like, almost an analog desk in front of you while you have, um, all of your tracks up here. So you’re not losing any of your recording space.

[00:06:05] So I think that’s really cool. I love that they do that. It makes me feel really super duper fancy. I like it. Um, next, uh, what else? Um, oh yeah, layers, uh, track transform, um, in the free version even had a lot of built in features. They had like a compressor that I used a lot. And one thing I really liked about their plugins, you know, People will say, and this, this was a bomber.

[00:06:32] Is mommy out a little bit first? You can’t use other, uh, other outside non-native plugins with the, um, anything under the professional. Version so prime and artists, you can only use PreSonus as plugins. I still think their plugins are really nice. I’ve actually just the other day, got a comment on the lead tone I was using in one of my videos.

[00:06:54] And in that video, I even said I’m just using, like I was playing through my, um, tone master, super reverb. Uh, and then I just use like one of like the analog delay plugin. One and somebody was like, I really liked that lead down. I’m like, dope. Me too. I just kind threw it on there for some color. I didn’t even spend too much time dialing it in and it just, it sounded really nice.

[00:07:21] I totally agree. I think this plugins sound really good. Um, I don’t, I tend to use my pedals and my effects when I’m like really recording. But, um, when I’m like writing and I’ll do another video on this with the plugins, I would love to do a lot more studio on content. I want to keep this video about the why I chose it, but the plugins are a big factor in that.

[00:07:42] And there really are a lot, um, the free version has fewer, but it still has like the basic stuff that you want. It has like a basic version of amp, uh, amplitude, um, I’m sorry, has a basic version of amp amp empire, which is, um, an. Have simulator, uh, which I really liked because, um, I do, when I record for other people, I like to record just the DEI track and then I ramp it.

[00:08:11] So I do this because though I know what effects I think are gonna sound awesome with a song is a chance the artist and the producer may disagree. And if they do, it’s a lot easier to it. Change that delay pedal or, uh, swap out that river for different one to turn it off via re than it is to just completely rerecord the track.

[00:08:37] So I don’t want to do that. I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s a time-saver if they’re like, I don’t like the amp setting or whatever. Um, I know I can just ramp it and it’s going to be a lot better. But when you recording DEI directly in to your, um, interface into your dog, It doesn’t sound very fun. So I like to use the, the empire, uh, especially even without having to dial it in.

[00:09:04] Um, and also like, I think the base stuff sounds really good. I’ve, I’ve mostly used it for bass too, just for recording, but, uh, to be able to have that on my Dai track and then just take it off later, it makes it a lot easier, a lot easier to record those Dai um, those GI track. When I do that. So it’s been, you know, it’s helped, it’s helped me actually make money.

[00:09:30] So that’s been great. Now you also get access to their virtual instruments for your mini controller. I’ve used that quite a bit. Um, I think there are some drum beat stuff that I’m not. That’s not my like strength is something I’m trying to get more into. Um, but yeah, those are the kinds of things I use.

[00:09:48] I’ve used the compression things a lot. I love that they have presets for vocal types. You know, Andrew has his always had his little, uh, preset that I’d use and it’s, I love presets and compressors. Um, you know, as a starting point, you know, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Someone smarter than me made those presets.

[00:10:14] And I’m just going to find him them as I need to. I’m not ashamed, not ashamed of it. So, um, yeah, that’s, that kind of goes into what makes it so easy to use. You know, I started with, with pro tools. Um, I was trained in it. I’m not. Certified in it. I don’t know if those certifications are real. I know people who like have paid thousands of dollars to get like certified in pro tools.

[00:10:42] I don’t know if that’s real. I just don’t think you really need to do that. Um, so you know, when, when I, when I started the podcast again, it’d been a long time since I had you had done recording. And I had never really recorded into a computer. So studio one just made a lot more sense to me than anything else I looked at.

[00:11:05] Like I know, I mean, I’m a windows person, so like I didn’t have garage band and even so like, I mean, I guess I garage band on a mat on an iPad at some point and you know, it was fine, but I want to say more, more involved, more professional and. Uh, studio one had everything and still has continues to have everything that I need.

[00:11:28] Um, and I could grow with it. Like I said, I went from having the prime subscription that was free to the artists to. Going full sphere and I have not regretted it. I’ve not never been like, Ugh, why did I do that? No, hell no. I’m like, this is awesome. So, you know, let me actually go over here. Um, and again, let’s take a look.

[00:11:58] So like there are just tons of cool effects and in precise, And I think I might even have some, yeah. So I have some helix native things and Melodyne like, I have some external plugins in here now, but PreSonus like, they have the empire, I have an empty, empty channel for you. But, um, they have the Ampyra plugin, which has like the presets, some fun based ones.

[00:12:29] So even like a base in your living room, ELA stuff. So things that you can start with, some clean sounds, rehearsal, fun, tremolo king, like, and you can just click on it. You can see what that actually looks like. And you can even like move it around into different. You can like, it just, it feels, so it feels tactile.

[00:12:55] And in ways and that I really appreciate it. Like pretty much all of their plugins that I, well, not all of them, but many of them feel that way. And I really appreciate that. Um, and then of course you can select your cabinets. This is th this is like the, this is the paid version. So this is more than the basic one.

[00:13:14] The basic ones still had quite a few things. So, um, that’s fun. I had the analog delay. I got a lot of compliments on. Again, it’s clear some of these guys, so you can just remove them pretty easily too. I got compliments on that, but this also has, you know, your presets or you can just go wherever you want to go with them.

[00:13:46] You can lock that in. You don’t have to, oh, Um, I don’t know how to turn that one on. Obviously. There we go. The pong. Nice. Um, then we have some auto filter. See, this is where it’s a little bit less. Um, it feels a little bit less like playing with a pedal, but you still have coffee filter. You still have a lot of presets to start with.

[00:14:22] Some of them have very smart names, wall guitar. So yeah, that again, little bit less. Um, automatic. Understanding, and then we have just like your normal channel stripped. I’m pretty sure this, this one is, I’m pretty sure. Just part of the basic plan. Uh, so it has like, I would just go to vocals and I’d be like, okay, this is, Andrew’s a male vocal.

[00:14:53] So it has, um, you know, low cut. There’s some things over here. Um, and then there’d be a little bit of compression. And just the speed of the compression there decided how you want the gains. And ETQ, you can adjust that. You hear you can’t adjust the Q in this one, as far as I can tell that you can make some changes.

[00:15:22] I don’t know. Can you just sit here? You might be able to, honestly, not in that one. Um, but the actual compressor you definitely can, uh, chorus. That’s a fun, fun one they’ve won. Let’s see slightly stereo, but that one’s really fun, different way of shapes, voicings. So many really cool things. Compressor. I use a lot.

[00:15:52] Um, and then underneath these, you can, if you want, you can just go ahead and also, sorry. You’ll see. Underneath here. You’ll see, you can actually see your inserts and your sins and stuff. So like I had a tuner on earlier and then that just, uh, re

[00:16:18] shows you everything that you have, uh, you can turn things on and off just bypass them like that. So I just, I just found this to be very intuitive, a lot of these, uh, elements of that. So, uh, and then you can go under here and if you’re like, oh, I just want to make sure I immediately have like my, I think, I think this compressor is also, I think it’s compressor is also part of the free version.

[00:16:46] Um, so like I would do female pop vocals for, for me, and then you can fine tune them. You can decide chains and stuff.

[00:17:03] Speech dual pan expander, generally use noise removal. I have a nine people with this before, because sometimes I put it in the wrong place. You gotta be careful about that one.

[00:17:23] Oh yeah. Sometimes. You mess up the noise removal. Um, yeah, lots of, lots of really fun things. There’s gating. You can do ducking in there. There’s ways. This is another thing about the ease of use is there is a lot of documentation about studio one, cause it’s not some fly by night software. It’s been there.

[00:17:45] It’s been around for a very long time. So from. YouTube videos that are on website. There’s, there’s a lot out there. They have a tech talk thing that has like a 62nd tips. So I, and then like, I even, I learn new things from that. Occasionally, like I learned that with w you can use your, your mouse scrolly to adjust the cue, the cue.

[00:18:08] So, you know, like if, if you’re doing like EEQ thing, you, you have the. The, um, the, like how the curvature of, oh God, I’ll just show you screw that. And I am losing my mind doing a great job of talking. So like probably Q you have your, um, let’s go to this. I had a guitar. Player as a full electric lead. So you have any, any of your dots there, you can change the depth, the cue that see the sharpness, let’s just call it the sharpness of the wave form with the scrolly wheel.

[00:18:55] So I’m just scrolling on my wheel right there. And, um, I learned that from their tick-tock account, 60 seconds. Great. I love that man. So great. Um, yeah, so those are just a couple of reasons, but like when you’re picking your dog, you gotta, you gotta think, you know, you gotta fix when you grow with and you don’t want to have to like relearn any softwares.

[00:19:22] That’s why I like garage man is kind of fun for like writing, especially like, if you’re on the go, like you just got the core. Right there with you. Like I get that. I do think that’s fun. Um, there are definitely some benefits to a lot of these programs. Um, but I think that, you know, commit, commit to something that can commit to you back.

[00:19:42] And that’s why I really liked studio one is because I didn’t have to make a huge commitment to something. I got to try it out for a very long time. I got to have basically unlimited tracks. I’ve recorded the entirety of self objectification with no remorse. My AP. You can find it on band camp. Um, I recorded the entirety of that on studio one.

[00:20:04] Um, not really knowing what I was doing. That whole process was just me figuring out a studio one and relearning how to use a doll. And it was great. I had a great time. I didn’t really cry too much doing it. And I’ve been editing the podcast in there for years. Um, it’s been great. I’ve recorded. I got paid gigs and their, uh, stuff for Sunday crush.

[00:20:32] Uh, we did the cover of lights out by Santa’s goals for a compilation, uh, gossip girls covered. Soundtrack compilation thing on band camp. That was really fun because I got covered in like Brooklyn vegan and stuff. Um, and what else? Uh, I recorded, oh gosh. Yeah. So, so many like skosh and just some really great songs in city Alon kind of good memories and, you know, I use it to write, so maybe that’ll be my next video showing you how I use, um, studio into rights on.

[00:21:05] So cool. Well, um, big, thanks to Sweetwater for sponsoring this video. Finally convincing me to like, talk about Madonna and for everyone else out there. Um, thanks for watching. Thanks for understanding. Uh, please like comment, subscribe below. Check us out. Um, as far as on Patrion on patrion.com/get asset, uh, please consider using our Sweetwater affiliate links in the video description.

[00:21:33] Um, there are lots of great PreSonus tools. I actually am getting, I just got an upgrade, so I have I’m going full PreSonus. I have the fader port aid, and now I have this big 18. 10 C a PreSonus, uh, interface. And I’m really, really excited about it. I think it’s going to be a big game changer. This is a huge upgrade for me.

[00:21:59] I just had a little focus right before and it was fun. Until it died. I’m borrowing a friend’s interface right now. Thanks Dan. My drummer, I edited a video of him today. It’s his birthday? Happy birthday, Dan. Well, um, yeah. Thanks for watching. Thanks for understanding, please like comment, subscribe below, then I say thanks for watching.

[00:22:26] Thanks for understanding until next time. My name is Emily goodbye.