Writing with PreSonus Studio One on Guitar

Video Transcript

Note: a machine made this, so it’s not perfect, but if you’re hearing impaired and have any questions about what we said, please feel free to ask us in the comments or send us an email with the form below. 

 [00:00:00] Emily: Welcome to get offset. My name is Emily and I just have to say that color looks really nice on you. You should consider wearing that again. Yeah. I mean, uh, well, I’m here to kind of talk about how I use PreSonus studio. To write guitar parts. I actually wrote an entire album and my bedroom it’s available on band camp.

[00:00:24] It’s called self objectification with no remorse. And you know, it’s not like the most, it’s not the, I’m not going to down talk about an album. I’m very proud of it, but, um, I pretty much wrote the whole thing using the loop feature on a preset, a studio one. So it was kind of looping things around writing over.

[00:00:43] Um, yeah, so I basically read the whole thing and pretty set a studio one. So, and Sweetwater came up to me and was like, Hey, can you write some. Can you make some videos about studio one? I was like, I would love to, I already used studio one a lot and uh, very, very comfortable talking about it. So, uh, yeah, this video is sponsored by Sweetwater.

[00:01:03] Uh, so thank you Sweetwater for sponsoring this content. If you would like to also support the channel. The best way to do so is subscribing the second best way to do so is to use the affiliate links for Sweetwater in the video description. Um, it costs you zero extra dollars and we get, um, a little portion of the same.

[00:01:25] It’s a little bit of a shared sale. So it’s a great way to support the channel, doing things you’re probably already doing buying gear, including the software and pretty much everything you’re going to see in this video today. So I’m using PreSonus did you one, uh, I’m using the sphere? Um, I have already actually purchased the, uh, professional sphere.

[00:01:46] It’s a subscription that I pay every month for, uh, it gives me pretty much unlimited access to. Uh, several of their suites, including the studio and five. Um, yeah, I’ve, uh, just kind of realized, uh, I’ve been using studio one for a long time now and, you know, I learn new things in everyday, but I also get access to their, uh, pretty much any other softwares that I.

[00:02:14] Um, including and I mean, plugins by that. So, uh, their affects their. Channel strips, like so much stuff that I have not even unlocked. So I really want to do more videos like this, where I get to learn alongside you all and really unlock more incredible city knowledge because they really do get better every day.

[00:02:35] And it’s, it’s really been super duper cool to see. So, um, yeah, let’s, let’s jump into, into studio one, but uh, let me just talk about the guitar I’m going to play today. It’s you can also get this, um, it’s a rev. And, uh, I love it. And just for the purposes of this video to make my life easier, uh, one of the things I’m, I’m using my PreSonus, uh, 18, 10 C interface, but I’m also using a Tyszko interface.

[00:03:03] And the reason that I’m doing that is because it’s, it’s, it’s a little, it’s a little tricky to capture audio from a dull. And a video. So to do that, I had to do a little weird little work around. So I’m using two interfaces today. You can get both of them on and I’ll put links to them. So, um, yeah. To fund things.

[00:03:25] And now let’s bump over to a studio one here. All right. So this is my project. I pretty simply have a vocal, a seven case. I decided to talk or sing a base in case I decided to play bass. I have an arm to guitar track. Uh, so yes. Um, you set up your input, uh, you can do mono or stereo. So that’s what that toggle is for if you’re not familiar with studio and if you are just like, sorry.

[00:03:55] Um, this is my. So in view mode, you can, uh, open up console inspector. This is the console that have down here. Um, you can right click for more options, including adding bus channels. For example, if you have a, if you’re actually miking of an amplifier, it’s not uncommon to set up a couple of microphones on a singular amplifier.

[00:04:19] Uh, once you get a mixed together that amplifier that you’re happy with, for example, let’s say you have an, uh, a 57 re um, you know, let’s say a couple inches away from the center cone, and then you have a. And I know six, uh, right up close, a little offset for the con. And then let’s say you have two condenser mikes, um, kind of off to the side, a little bit to get a little bit of room sound.

[00:04:45] Uh, you mix those all together, uh, in a way that you’re comfortable with you. Like, you can add those all to a singular bus channel, and then you can have that amplifier. You can control the volume and other parameters that amplifier singularly. Just with one channel strip. So that’s a pretty cool feature that they have.

[00:05:03] Um, you can also that for drums, um, background vocals, things like that, uh, that you would want to control all at once and then not have to look at. 50 channels trips. So, um, though, even with the free version, it’s by understanding studio one does not limit you to the number of audio tracks that you can create, which is one of the big reasons I show studio in the first place, but that’s not what we’re really going to be focusing on today.

[00:05:29] What we’re focusing on is a lot of the stuff at the bottom of the screen, namely, this guy right here, this is the loop active. And it was getting cut off just a Scotia. Um, but it’s number pad and a forward slash if the number pad forward slash uh, if you want to activate it or, um, you hit the P button, I’ve already activated it.

[00:05:50] You can see it up here. Um, cause I was playing with it earlier. So what I’m going to do first is, um, I am going to record a little guitar lick that I kind of. Came up with, and I’m, I can’t use a click track because of just for the nature of recording audio and a doll stinks and I can’t kind of get around it right now.

[00:06:17] So, uh, I’m going to be recording this, like

[00:06:28] I’m just going to record it. Do it as many times as it takes and I’m going to create a loop from it. And hopefully, uh, that won’t be too rough. So let’s go back over a studio one, or I told you about this hotkeys booth, going back to the beginning, I’m going to hit record. That’d be really.

[00:07:10] So I think that was enough times that wasn’t enough times. Um, and I am going to normalize this audio there. Uh, and I, you know, wouldn’t normally, normally you would normally normalize audio. Uh, so let’s zoom. We can see pretty clearly like the attack and that’s going to make a little bit easier. Obviously things aren’t going to be clicked in a, which is going to make things a little bit harder.

[00:07:38] But unfortunately I couldn’t work with a click track because of some routing issues that I don’t really want to explain. So, um, let’s play it and see what we have here.

[00:07:51] Let’s see

[00:07:59] so let’s go with over here. Let’s do then.

[00:08:07] Let’s see. Could that be a good sign? Is that like a start? Just this.

[00:08:17] So that’s a starting point,

[00:08:30] maybe there. So let’s try that as a loop, I’m going to hit P to show me that the loop has begun, and I am going to try to click and drag the loop into the place that. And, um, I want to move the guitar channel at the top just so I can visualize it a little bit better and I’m going to really zoom in to see, but let’s just play and see if it works.

[00:09:03] Right. Click Luke follows section.

[00:09:19] so is it happening? Is that the reason it’s choppy or what’s? What is the reason it’s choppy? Okay. Now it’s just, once it really wants to click into place right there. But we are not going to lose. This is a lot easier when you can use a click track just to say

[00:09:39] that’s pretty close

[00:09:49] so it’s pretty close. Let’s try this now.

[00:10:20] it’s a lot easier when you can use a click track.

[00:10:27] Truly a lot easier when you can use a click track.

[00:10:33] So, um, we have our loop going. I am now in the let’s try different cabinet. That’s fine. Um, now I’m in, uh, here with a second guitar let’s I don’t know why I’ve done that. Um, so let’s, uh, Try some other guitar sounds. Um, I have the amp, I have my little. Let’s hear it. I have a kind of quiet. I know I have this arm again.

[00:11:13] There’s some weird routing. Uh, that’s why you can see the recording. So when I do record over this, my next loop, you’re going to notice that it’s going to record that plus that. Unfortunately, um, but just a matter of how this routing process is going and not how my normal process works. So if you, if you know how to both record the audio, and if you, if you understand what I’m going through, cause I’m having a very difficult time convey.

[00:12:25] so now’s the part where I just mess around for as long as it tastes, like, figure something out.

[00:14:48] So I’m going to do now is I’m going to record. Over this loop. Well, not over this loop, I’m going to record another loop of just the,

[00:15:06] the next part that I kind of want to make sure we get down. I asked when I asked them to kind of chunky to that. So let’s go over into studio one and try to get a nice effect to add to that. Um, I know you can still hear the, uh,

[00:15:25] Know, the grit, grit, uh, the, uh, I’m looking for grit. I know you can still hear the, um, The loop, it’s still doing it, going to stop. So pull that over. Pedalboard it’s har it’s got,

[00:16:03] I don’t think I liked that one.

[00:16:14] Having the town.

[00:16:31] Um,

[00:16:55] All right. I’m going to go back to the beginning. I’m just going to try to make sure I nailed that loop section. And, um, so that’s actually good. Cause I’ll get some practice and I’ll be really engaged with the loop section, but then when I turn the loop back on, it’s still just going to have that loop section.

[00:17:12] I’m still going to just have that good, good loop section. All right. So let’s go back over city hall.

[00:17:30] Kind of, hopefully that hopefully it sounded good. So let’s tend to loop back up a little bit. Whoop, sorry. Penn loop back up a little bit, uh, tend to record off and. Normalize it audio.

[00:18:29] so now that I have. My kind of second guitar and like kind of a, a rhythm you part. The

[00:18:42] part, uh, what I would do next is kind of come up with like a lead line to play, you know, obviously not through the whole thing and it wouldn’t even make it through. Uh, a loop of the section gets a loop is quite short.

[00:19:05] Um, so I wouldn’t record over the loop, but what I would do next is I would take that lift section and I would literally chop it up and repeat it. Um, probably, and I would do that a bunch and I would. Record over it. And I would do the lead section and I will send it to the band and, uh, see what they think.

[00:19:33] So I, uh, I guess I was kind of lying when I said that I was done. Um, I ended up going back to this like, pretty much as soon as I extended the city hall, I was like, I think I can do more. Um, I think I can do better. And I here’s, here’s what I did. I want to go back over and I kind of want to show you, I want to show y’all what I did.

[00:19:55] So I had. Here. Uh, I completely start a new track. I just went and I recorded this. So what I, first things first versus first, what I started out with a looping helped me tremendously, both the lead stuff, the rhythm stuff. Um, the bass track, um, which I’ve called an interview one over here, uh, riff, left and refer right lead.

[00:20:21] Um, that all helped me a lot. And. Ultimately, um, the set up that I had it for capturing the audio as I was doing it, it wasn’t ideal. So what I ended up coming up with, I’m actually pretty happy with, and I hope that. I can like show you kind of what I did. Um, and I’m going to talk to you about like what, what I went through, how I kind of set it up and, um, like the recording process a little bit, the writing process.

[00:20:58] Cause it’s a lot of the same stuff I still made loops. Uh, and then I went and I rerecorded the part. Um, I still did. You’ll still see some slicing and dicing that, that I went through to make sure that. I, I w I didn’t have to record like 10 minutes of a guitar part perfectly. Right. So I could like play over that.

[00:21:20] I still did loops. And, um, then I just remove those loops and did some chopping, and then I recorded parts over that. And this is like, not, this is not something that I would send in, put on band camp and sell, but this is definitely something that I would share with my band and be like, Hey, what do y’all think?

[00:21:41] Do you think. Take this progression and maybe expand upon it and a jam session. See if we can make something else of it. So this is, yeah, I’m, I’m really proud of what, what this was. Um, you know, ultimately, so sometimes there’s pressure when you even put a camera on yourself alone in your bedroom or studio space, office space.

[00:22:02] So here, here we are. All right. We’re in studio one. Um, I’m aware that there’s going to be a little bit of like pausing and the playback. That’s just something that I’ve not been able to figure out. Uh, please know that I have spent a lot of time, uh, looking at it and I can’t figure it out. So I’m really sorry.

[00:22:20] So I’m going to scroll over to the beginning here, but this is the original part of the loop is just, you know, what, what you all heard before. Um, so.

[00:22:33] Got to start from the beginning.

[00:22:39] so I recorded that.

[00:22:45] And then what you heard were supplications that I’d added over here. So I had an ambient delay to some other things, um, which, which you’ll hear when, when I play the whole song, um, then I had, I added a right-hand rail. So maybe I just, uh, maybe I add things in as I go

[00:23:12] so I know how well you can hear that, but basically I did an octave up on the, the two notes that are consistent throughout. I completely dropped. Um, I completely dropped the judge. Judge, judge, judge, judge a judge, a judge, a judge. I didn’t think that sounded very good. So, what I did instead was I added this kind of ambient lick that I think sounds a lot nicer.

[00:23:41] It adds some texture, but it’s a little bit less busy. Um, if we completely solo that, here’s what that sounds like.

[00:23:54] So I think it sounds really nice. Um, and then I did this kind of fun, little, the guitar too. It’s just, I got rid of that. I did this fun little trick that I learned from my friend, Steve salvage from the hold steady. Um, Uh, guitar’s not really plugged in, are working right now, but basically the idea is if you find any no fret board and you tap exactly 12 frets up from it, you get a harmonic.

[00:24:28] I don’t know how well you can hear that there, but, um, and uh, I have some effects on it. So let’s go over to studio one. That is, you can see I’ve named those tap left and tap. Right? Cause I have them hard pan that you won’t hear it. Um, I’ll turn the delay off and I’ll just have those, um, both solo.

[00:24:53] Completely solo, then I’ll have them back to the mix.

[00:25:01] So that’s me just having 12 frets up. Then I add some chorus on them as well. Add them back in the left

[00:25:14] leg.

[00:25:20] I mean, I think that sounds pretty nice. And then the thing was the plugins is that, um, when you turn them off, they keep going. So then, uh, we’re going to, uh, let’s just go to the beginning. Let’s go over here. Oh, good earth start. I had a loop going, but for some reason, the loop moved. Um, so let’s add an hour.

[00:25:49] So you solo everything and then let’s just clear the solos. I was just a button on my feet report eight. So now I have, let’s just hit play on everything.

[00:26:35] clear those. Um, and just to hear what the original leads sounded like. Cause I I’ve recorded. I recorded the original lead ish and I ultimately didn’t. It felt a little too blue, blue oyster culty for me, but I here’s what that sounded like.

[00:27:05] so obviously I didn’t remove every element from it. So let’s go ahead and export this very, very rough mix. Um, uh, Clear the mutes clear solo. Um, and, uh, you’ll be able to hear it a little bit, a little bit better. So yeah, I’m going to export that mix down and, uh, in between the start and stop marker, I’ll send it to the band and, uh, we’ll see what they think.

[00:27:35] So let’s pull that up. Hopefully it will sound pretty. Oh, cannot play. So I’m file moved or another something as listening to it. So let me go ahead and pull something down here. Close that voice meter. Hopefully this still.

[00:29:14] All right. Well, thank you so much for watching that. I hope it was helpful to see how I use my doll to write. So, um, I used to write a lot with. Uh, Looper pedal and I would sometimes take videos of what I was doing, but that left a lot of context, especially with the Looper pedal. Um, because I would just have everything like in the loop going, and sometimes I could see what I was playing on guitar and, you know, that was kind of helpful, but like a propel can’t save things.

[00:29:44] It can’t always save track separately. So like if I have everything in the dog, I have the files there. I can see everything separately. I, I can, again, return to the, well, when I feel like it’s dry and recording was studio one, like brainstorming with it. I can do it at night. When I have like bouts of insomnia, I can come down here.

[00:30:09] I can just have my headphones on and do that and not bother anybody. And then I can only get whatever is keeping my brain awake out of there, or just having that distraction helps a lot. And, uh, you know, I can use the plugins instead of plugging it in my, getting my pedalboard out, instead of turning on my amp, it’s just such a great resource and I can organize things in whichever way I can name things, you know, based on the feeling that they have based on the date, uh, whatever, whatever flows going to help me remember things better.

[00:30:47] Um, it might be like, Uh, uh, good natured, uh, Jan slow jam from October of 2020, you know, it might be something like that. It might be uptempo country from March of 2019. Uh, so. I see, then you can go back to these things when, when you’re not sure, like w when you’re either, like, what the have something going then?

[00:31:14] Was it cool? So, yeah, I think there’s a lot that can be done. And a studio one is, is my doll of choice, you know, thanks to Sweetwater for sponsoring this video. It’s content I’ve been wanting to make for a while now. Uh, and I’m glad that they kind of gave me the push that I needed to to finally finally make it and.

[00:31:33] You know, uh, thank you for watching and thank you for understanding until next time. My name is Emily goodbye.