Studio One: Get Started Recording Audio

The Audio Setup screen is where you select your audio interface and Device Block Size, or buffer size. This will determine your ‘round‑trip’ latency.

We show you how to get started recording audio in Studio One.

In recent workshops, we’ve got down to the basics of recording, editing and working with MIDI. Now it’s time to turn our attention to audio. Recording sound is a primary function of any DAW, and I think it’s good to go back to the original concepts. You might find that you’ve been doing it wrong all this time, or perhaps can find more efficient ways of achieving your aims. Studio One continues to evolve, so the tools and processes we use all the time can change. You might even find something you didn’t know existed that will improve your workflow.

From the Studio One welcome page, you can do a little bit of configuration on your audio interface. Well, I say configuration, but all you can really do is choose the interface and set the buffer size (or Device Block Size as Studio One likes to call it). Sample rate settings and input/output configurations are managed elsewhere, and you can’t get to them at this point. So, first make sure your audio interface is selected.

For audio recording, it’s likely that we’re going to want to monitor our audio through the Studio One mixer, and perhaps through its plug‑in effects. This requires a low input and output latency, which means a low Block Size setting. You are aiming for a round‑trip latency of less than 10ms or so. The ‘round trip’ latency is the input latency plus the output latency. When you plug in your guitar, the audio interface buffers the signal coming in; that causes a short delay, which is the input latency. It then goes through Studio One and maybe through the Ampire plug‑in and back to the audio interface, where it’s buffered again before going to your speakers; that’s output latency. Those two things (the ‘round trip’) contribute to the total amount of latency you experience. Anything more than 10ms and you’ll begin to hear the delay to the audio when monitoring on headphones.

Lowering the latency will make monitoring feel snappier, but it also puts pressure on your computer’s processor. A Device Block Size of 128 or 64 samples should be a good compromise, allowing you to hear what you’re playing without distracting delay, and without hammering the CPU. Alternatively, we can use Direct Monitoring to bypass the Studio One mixer and avoid the buffering latency, and we’ll talk about that later.

Templates

Studio One comes with a wide range of templates that can help you get recording quicker.Now it’s time to create a song and get recording. Click on New at the top of the welcome page, and you’ll be presented with a list of helpful templates. I used to ignore these things, but for version 6 PreSonus have tidied them up, and I’m starting to appreciate the help. For this workshop, we’re going to select the Record Now template for a new audio recording. After you’ve clicked on it, more options will appear on the right side of the window. We can set it up as a single track, two tracks for vocal and guitar, or a full band.

The Guitar/Vocal and Full Band templates are very interesting. They set up multiple channels for recording, and add...