Three Ways To Record - Pre-Count, Pre-Roll & Autopunch.

5..4..3..2..1 Record.

 When it comes to recording, especially if you record your own tracks at home on your own, Studio One has three little helpers to aid you in capturing that perfect take. The three methods are called Precount, PreRoll and Autopunch.

Pre-count and Pre-roll

 When recording audio or Instrument Parts, it is often useful to give the performer a count-in before recording begins, to alert them that recording is starting, and also to give a guide to the tempo of the song, so that they can play on-beat from the start. Studio One offers two ways to do this: Pre-count and Pre-roll.

 Pre-Count; [Shift+c] lets you specify a number of bars of metronome clicks to be played before recording begins. This helps to count the musician in and start playing to the correct beat and timing on the first note of the track.

 Pre-Roll; [o] lets you specify a number of bars in the Song to play before recording begins. This is helpful when you want to get used to the feel or groove, timing or tempo of the song before recording begins.

Autopunch

Autopunch; [i] lets you select a range, using the paint tool [5], on the timeline scale from which you can start and end recording on the selected clip/event.
 For example, if you wish to record over a specific phrase of a vocal part, but not before or after that phrase, you can automatically begin and end recording at specified points. This process is commonly referred to as “punching in and out,”
 If you use the Auto-Punch to record the newly recorded audio is automatically crossfaded at its edges with the existing Audio Event/Clip, so the transition between the old and new audio is not audible.

 As always these things are easier to show than to write about so please check out the quick video below for more practical help. Happy mixing.

Basic Editing in Studio One 3.

The Tools of the Trade

Editing audio in any digital audio workstation is paramount when it comes to features. The easier and faster one can edit within the program can make or break the general appeal it may aspire to.
Studio One, for quite sometime, had no 'Smart Tool' and although you could still edit audio as much as any other program could, you simply couldn't achieve the speed or efficiency levels that other programs had. Thankfully that has been addressed and a new 'Smarter Tool' was introduced.

So lets introduce you to the original line up of eight editing tools that Studio One had and then we'll dive into the best of them all... the 'Smart Tool'.

The Arrow Tool (1) - Primarily the main tool used for editing. It can move and resize events (clips), create fades, adjust event gain and select single or multi events.
Modifier Keys;

• Spacebar - to drag things faster.
• Hold Shift - to temp bypass 'snap to grid' when dragging to new position on timeline.
• Hold Shift - to adjust both fade in & out at same time when setting fades.
• Holding [Alt]/[Option] on the keyboard and then sizing an Event from the right edge results in the Event being freely time stretched.

The Range Tool (2)- The Range tool is used to select a range, or area, within Events both singular or multi. click-and-drag over the area to be selected; a grey box is drawn over the target selection area.
             Modifier Keys;

• Hold Shift - To select multiple, non-contiguous ranges across any Event, on any Track.

The Split Tool (3) - Using the Split tool, single Events can be split into multiple Events. Just click once on the event (clip) where you want it split.

The Eraser Tool (4) - The Eraser tool is used to delete Events, just click on what event you want deleted.

The Paint Tool (5) - used to create an empty Instrument Part on an Instrument Track. This can be handy if you want to manually insert some midi parts. Using the Paint Tool on the timeline you can draw and adjust Loop Selections. Used when creating automation the paint tool and add nodes and manually draw automation lines. When working on the Piano Roll                   View it is used to insert midi information.

The Mute Tool (6) - In the Arrange view, the Mute tool is used to mute audio events, audio parts, and Instrument parts. Just click once on anything you want muted and again to un-mute.

The Bend Tool (7) - In the Arrange view, the Bend tool is used to manipulate, add, and remove Bend Markers. It comes into its own when working with transient detection and editing.

The Listen Tool (8) - In the Arrange view, click and hold on any Track to instantly solo the Track and start play back from the position you clicked.

Last but not least the most anticipated tool of them all... the 'Smart Tool'

The Smart Tool - with this selected you now have control over the Arrow Tool, the Range Tool simultaneously. You can then set up a third alternate tool by selecting the down arrow on the highlighted Arrow Tool and choose from it's drop down menu options. Simply hold down the [Alt] key to access and use your third tool of choice.

Check out some more practical editing, employing all the tools listed above, shown in the video below.

Making Custom Beats from Addictive Drums

It's All About The Rhythm

These days we are so blessed when it comes to recording. Technology has come on so much from the early perceptions of what was possible, so much so, that you can create, with ease, a full album of songs, to a professional level, in the comfort of your very own bedroom.
 Now when it comes to needing drums in your track we can't all squeeze a full sized kit into our small rooms, or possibly we can't afford one, or maybe we simply can't play drums either. No problem this is where virtual drum machine software, like Addictive Drums, comes into its own.

  Now here's the scenario. While Addictive Drums, likes so many others, comes inundated with loads of midi beats to choose from we may find we want to have more flexibility than that. Sometimes you know what beat you want but scrolling through the included samples is lengthy and when you have that idea burning in your head you want to get it down quickly. So how can we make use of it's many included samples but have the freedom to create our own beats? Well what I am about to show may seem a little complicated at first but once you get into the way of it, you'll be creating beats faster than McDonald's creates burgers.

 In the example below I've used Addictive drums but any other package such as EzDrummer, Superior Drums and others can be made use of in the same way. Yes of course there are a million ways to create drum samples, but this is just another way of using the power of Studio One to be more creative and adaptable to your specific needs..