PreSonus Studio One v3 Prime, Free DAW - Introduction

PreSonus just recently released their latest version 3 of Studio One Digital Audio Workstation. With it came PRIME, the free downloadable version, for entry level music recording.

In this video I present how to download and install your free copy and run through some of its basic functions and talk about some of its limitations.

Main limitations for Studio One v3 Prime are:
-- Only stock plugins. No VST add-on possible, effects or instrument.
-- Only 2 channels for capturing audio from your Audio Interface
-- No Arranger track
-- No Sub-Bus

But, that should not stop anyone to be creative and dive into making music.

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Closed Caption:

hi everyone it's about you hear from
recording studio 9.com and thanks for
joining me again
in today's video I'll be presenting you
studio one version 3 from personas which
is a 3d aw digital audio workstation
that you can download and install on
your pc or on your mac and start
recording songs but obviously being a
free version
it's a giveaway it has its limitations
so i will guide you through how to
download it install it and set up with
an audio interface and is the in this
example I'll be connecting the
Barringer's FCA 16 16 or your interface
that you might have seen as some reviews
that I've done four part series review
that I've done in the past
so we'll be connecting to that audio
interface and try to have a look at the
graphical user interface GUI and find
out what we can do and we try to record
some tracks on today and will also go
through some of its limitations we're
going to discover what limitations
it has obviously being a free software
you will have some limitations and talk
about some of the advantages and see any
work around we can come up for those
limitations and you have to remember
that limitations
sometimes then bring out creativity so
with limited tools that we're going to
have using the studio one version 3
prime because it has its limitations
with limited tools that we have we see
how creative we can be and what work
around we can use to overcome those
limitations so hopefully this will
entice you to
download and grab your own copy
installed and be creative and make music
to grab a copy of the presonus studio
one version t prime
first you need to go in and log in to
your personal account if you don't have
one
it's free so you can just go there down
and create an account and once you have
created account then you'll be able to
just like myself actually have a copy
and you can download it and the way to
download it is once you log into your
account you go into a shop and then
software and studio one and there we go
prime is the first one and as you can
see it is free so you add it to your
cart and there it is
and then you just proceed to the
checkout put your details in which
probably already know you from your
account and way it goes
ok and then you get invoice but it's
zero dollars it's all free
fantastic and once you've got it you'll
be able to click in 2 i've got another
copy now you can click and download the
software so you can download it for
windows 32-bit or 64-bit and you can if
you're on Mac or you don't automatically
find out and you can download the mac
version as well
and once you download it does now you
can go ahead and download the instrument
volume 1 and volume 2 in music loops
separately but you can also do this in
side
studio-1 and i will show you how you to
that i just clicked and downloaded the
Installer onto my desktop and there it
is day and I didn't really bother
downloading the other three additional
software because i'm going to show you
how you can do it inside personas studio
one so we just double-click and follow
up all of the instructions this
I agree of course and it will go ahead
and install
and it's done it was really quick finish
off and now that's to install we don't
need it anymore so we put it away and
that's the icon that you will start it
up
and we blindly agree to the agreement
now over here this is what you need to
do again to login into your Chris honest
account its then use the name and the
password and you automatically recognize
so you don't even need any serial
numbers and thinks it will automatically
recognize
so I'm just going to put my one
hopefully i entered the right one
ok activate my purchase version
try to full version of play the demo or
run studio 1 prime for limited the free
version featured limited so we activate
that one and says thank you for
activating it and it's done
so now it looks up so we allow access
you need to access to the internet and
obviously here it's configuring how to
download the rest of the additional
content including the music loop samples
and plugins and so on so just say show
what we need to download and over here
as you can see you can click and select
all the instrument
well in one involving to remember
volume 1 is only a hundred forty-eight
megs but vol 2 is nearly one-and-a-half
big so it will be a while for it to
download and so you need have to wait
for it
no difference then you downloading it
from the website so you also get the
loops and sounds and everything else and
documentation demo and tutorials and so
you select what you like to download and
go ahead and download it
I'm just going to click and just
download everything that is recommended
to me
this will be a while so we'll come back
as soon as all of the downloads are
complete
so what are we waiting for all the
additional instruments in San loops to
download and it is taking a while
because i have a slow internet
connection
this time of the day it's big time we
can actually close in and continue with
our users hosted your one and it
that's indicated by the arrow here so we
could still downloading so you can see
it again so it will do that in the
background while we go ahead
the first thing we probably need to do
and have a look at is configuring our
audio device that's the interface that
we're going to use the audio interface
to tell where the sounds are coming from
and going to for studio one we click
here you are able to select any of your
available for your interfaces as you can
see i have the FCA 1616 available in
another behringer one available in
Windows audio so that's to select I
wouldn't borrowed not much changing any
of these settings at this stage
another thing to look at is in general
is probably you know check for updates
so that you always updated the latest
version of the software and appearance
i usually leave at default so i don't
have to worry about any changes day the
locations this is where you want to save
your files
one good thing to remember is auto save
documents
it's been set for five minutes or so
every five minutes it will automatically
save the work that i'm doing and that's
going to set up we looked at in external
devices here is where you configure any
external USB midi keyboards that you
want to play in for your media input so
in Apple as well so this is where you
stood up
I'm not going to go through that at this
video
it's out of the scope of this video if
the question comes up i might be able to
make another video demonstrating how to
configure external devices as to advance
at this stage I would leave it alone
so we click OK
so let's create a new song
we have optional of two different
templates vocal in the guitar or an
empty song
let's just work with in the empty song
give it a name let's call it demo song
and you know the location
we already selected so we're not going
to border sample rate 44.1 kilohertz for
demonstration purposes it's fine
depending on your audio interface how
high your anointing to face the sampling
rate can go you can select mind goes up
to 96 kilohertz
but i'm just going to leave it at 44 for
the time being resolution is something
that i would like to have 24 bits that
way it gives me more dynamic range and
so on and the rest is
please set pixel entry otherwise you can
always you know play around with it and
see what you can do and we click ok and
this is the personas studio 1 prime
graphical user interface GUI
it's quite simple it's not really
complicated it might look complicated
it's it's quite easy to understand
on our left hand side we will see later
on how we add tracks so they list of
tracks listed on the left hand side and
in the middle we have the timeline for
each one of those drugs
so as song is being recorded and played
back we'll actually see a timeline move
across from left to right and on the
right hand side we have our browser
where we can drag and drop VST
instruments and effects any loops sounds
that we have
have loops or your loops that we have in
our library and any pause from our hard
drive you want to drag on too and and
connect to SoundCloud and in the pool of
songs sounds that we have here so and so
on so it's all day this is your browser
and to turn them on and off so we can
have more of the timeline to click on
the bass a button right down here now to
look at the instruments
well we only going to get one instrument
is such which is the personas one and
that's the presence right here
so once we had a track later on we'll be
able to drag that sprayed on and this is
a VSD San module that will make you
sound like in bed like bass drum kits
effects guitars and you can use your
external midi keyboard to trigger them
and make the sound so we play around
with that at
next video because this is just a simple
introduction
we also have effects so this is the one
of the other limitations is we are now
limited to only this many plugins
we cannot add any more but there is
plenty
one of the useful one would be the
channel strip with the compression and
expansion gate filter and three bend
parametric eq pretty much what we need
we have a delay a bit delay one just
normal delay and then reverb Ranger
chorus phaser and if you're playing
guitar recording guitar you have Empire
where you can actually have all sorts of
the guitar effects
there's also red digital Distortion this
is a sort of the distortion effects
module and a tuner as well so you
continue your guitar
so that's what we are limited to we
cannot actually have anymore
VST plugins so let's cause the browser
and have a look at what else we have on
the screen at the bottom is our
transport mechanism
so tell us all the time which the the
timeline is aunt
fast forward rewind play and stop and
record and loop in everything else
levels and so on and at the top is our
toolbar to cut copy paste slice dice in
all of those things to our audio objects
now that we know what it all looks like
the next thing we need to do is set up
this song
no we have not set up yet so this is
what we're going to do we set up the
studio one so we click on song and go to
the song set up
so here we have pretty much the same
information that we had before so we can
leave it
Eddie's any meta information like you
about your song and artwork and so on
can can go day
this is the important bit and is the
audio setup matrix
you might look a little bit complicated
and not sure how it works but once I
explained it will be pretty much
straightforward
now here is the one of the first
limitations that we are confronted with
and we are only allowed to have left or
right or stereo left right input at any
one time
so if we want to record something as an
audio track
we are only limited for two channels
either left and right separately or left
right combined as stereo input as you
can see even though my FCA 1616 audio
interface has 10 input that i can
connect to
I can connect my mic one two three and
four line inputs five six seven and
eight
an SPDIF left and right
I'm only allowed to have two of those
things
so either Mike one in Mike to as stereo
or mono led channels so i could have
stereo mic if I'm if I'm recording a
live piano or a the mic one is vocal and
like to as a guitar acoustic guitar or
let's say from recording my keyboard
which is connected to line five and six
that's what I select and normally in the
professional version you should be able
to do this then click apply and have
multiple inputs so and be able to use
mic one and two and line five and six at
the same time but it could click apply
now they will disappear because it won't
allow you any more than two channels
occupied here
so to be able to do that this is how we
do it so that when i select a stereo
track you'll select line five and six
and a mono track with select five or six
hope that makes sense
so if i click apply now they appear so
that's one of the limitations that we
are only allowed to capture two channels
I the stereo or two single manos and
let's have a look at the input side of
it again the same thing apply you can
only have one output which is the main
output and you need to assign to either
in my case I have up to 10 outputs line
12 line 8 plus spdif ones so i can
actually do that
so one and two three and four five and
six seven and eight or an SPDIF so if i
click apply
so there will be my input so there are
no sub outputs
you cannot create any more inputs as
such
so that's one of the limitations input
and output to at any one time
so let's get started and a track so we
can see what we can do to add a track we
can simply click on the plus sign or you
can go to track and add tracks the same
thing
so we'll take the easy shortcut
now the track we want to and we can give
it a name
I'll just call it i live at piano and
here we are able to select whether it's
an audio track or an instrument track
which is a me d track or automation
track we look at those two later on
so let's select audio and we only want
to add one track at this stage but if
you wanted to add multiple tracks at the
same time you can add the count and it
will add that many tracks as you need
here the format we like it i just stereo
or mono and we can select the preset
let's say we were recording a piano and
we want to have some preset already in
day you can select preset and let's see
what we can find
instruments probably roads on or grand
piano and what this will do is
automatically insert the plugins VST
plugins whether reverb and compression
in eq and so on that is automatically
sit
you know to a default piano sound now
for some people that might be quite easy
so it automatically do things for you
and you just go in there and tweak it or
if you want to start from scratch then
you select no preset i personally in
some cases all choose no preset in a
targeted at other times i might choose
some preset to make it really easy
because i know that i have used that
preset before and I know what the
settings are i can select that in then
going into the final adjustment in day
so for that purpose let's select the
weather instrument and let's we were
grand piano
the next one here is the input we want
to know where it's coming from
it's labeled input l plus R if you
remember from our matrix
that's what we call it and you could
call it anything else in there if you
like but that's what is selected and the
output is obviously there's only one
output which is the main now if we
selected as mono track as you can see
now we have a choice of left or right so
let's leave it at stereo and all
selected and then actually remove that
just to make things more interesting
so you can actually see how we add
effects and VST plugin effects on to the
tracks
so let's click OK and our track is ready
so that's our first track now that we
can see and is using input left and
right
you can still change it here of course
as you can see it's saying line five and
six that we have and you can go ahead
and do the same metric set up here which
is quite handy
so for each track you can go in and
select a separate input
remember only two allowed and then go
ahead and record it so we'll leave it at
that
and this is our timeline now i have my
keyboard already attend on and ready to
go so we'll just arm it and we can
listen to it now
to make things easy I normally bring up
the mixer
this will show us this is our track
which is pretty much the same thing as
what we see at the top so we can adjust
the volume for that track and we can arm
and disarm it and listen to it or not
so you can listen to it let me go and
play something on the keyboard
there we go
there are sounds day and we can record
for the for the fun of it
the excitement of it let's click the
record button and i'm just going to play
something on the keyboard as a just a
demo music from my keyboard and we can
record it and have a listen to it
yeah
yeah
yeah
okay well that's long enough we can stop
it and remove it from our me
we go back to the timeline
the good thing about version 3 is you
can actually adjust this now
you couldn't do that in the previous
versions and let's have a look here this
is our track that has been recorded
that's the object and we can use this
arrows here to make it smaller so we can
see more of it or we can really go down
and into further details of of the track
and we can also expand the track for the
down so we get to see the waveforms
it's recorded there we go
it's all recorded now we can turn the
mixer off and up in the editing as you
can see down here
it's the same as what we have up there
but in further details so you can play
around
edit things through here but let's have
a quick listen of our song song
we can adjust the volume on the track we
can mute the track
so you can hear me
that's the solo track
so if you have multiple tracks what
would that do is so low it out so you
can only hear that track at any one time
so yeah that's it so that's out
recording so we just recorded something
and we can play it back
yeah
and this is a studio one from personas
hope you enjoy it
ok now we can add some effects to this
let's close the browser the mixer and
open up the browser
let's select the channel strip and we
can just regular on today
the channel strip is basically now going
to apply the effects to that track that
we choose and then if we open the mixer
back again
just move that out of the way and we
click on this arrow right here
- expanded you will see that these are
inserts so it automatically put it in
there
now we couldn't quite easily click the
insert here and choose any of the
effects that we want but you can just
drag and drop to each track
whatever affects you want to apply so
you want and you can stack them as well
so if you have let's say the channel
sleep so you can apply compression and
eq what you can also do is maybe add
reverb after you've done that
so you can add make sure it's so you can
add as many as you like or as many times
of which one you like
so you can have to channel strips you
can have to mix verbs in a delay and and
so on
so that's how you get to see what you
want and this icon here you click test
them on and off
so if you want to try we down to reverb
and see how it is
you can click there or you can click
here it's the same
so if you're going to the channel strip
then you can turn it on and off bypass
it by clicking this button here so let's
go ahead i'm going to tend to the river
ball first and see what you think
can apply I'm just going to make that
small
i'm sam and just drag that that thing
there is right at the top
that's where you can actually select the
tracks and i'm just going to turn on the
lip
so what this will do is allow me to loop
from there today
constantly so I can do some adjustment
so when I could play
ok let's have a look at some of the
effects
let's add some compression
so that's the effects that we are
actually getting due to compression that
sound louder
or let's add some butter base
ok
or and you can add some height as well
we can play around with it
yeah
yeah
yeah
and let's compare the difference that we
made by using the channel strip
that's the original sound
and that's what do you think
ok when we had some that may be some
River
yeah
ok
yeah
so as you can see i think i've dragged
down quite long enough now as you can
see you can do quite a lot even though
it's limited but in features but not
really
you can be really creative so you can
add more tracks you can record more
tracks let's say if you recorded drums
first and then you can record the bass
guitar and the lead guitar the
acoustically done to read them guitars
and vocals and background vocals you can
keep adding the tracks you can add the
pianos and so on
and for each track you can apply one or
two
multiple effects for it and yeah is it
really as simple as that really simple
as that
and I'm hoping that in the future videos
I'll be able to go through some of the
other transport options at the bottom at
the same time some of the options that
the the toolbar options of how to cut
copy and paste in the insane things to
the the grade of the timeline and
someone now you know what personas
studio one version 3 prime the aw as to
offer you
it's a free download so you can't really
go much wrong and you know its
limitations
what you can do what you cannot do so
use those limited tools to come up with
a creative song record your next song in
see how far you can go and how he
created you can be if you have comments
please do leave below and more than
happy to answer them
obviously as i mentioned in future
videos i will talk about any new
workarounds
in and tips and ideas and tricks
if I come up with i will make the video
so make sure you subscribe to my channel
that way you'll be kept up to date and
yeah so you just need to go out there
and be creative and make music
so until next time thanks for watching
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