PreSonus Releases Studio One Free

Free is good, right? And in the case of PreSonus’ newly released Studio One Free, it may even be pretty useful.

If you've already been able to afford a computer, PreSonus' Studio One Free is an added bonus.

Studio One Free is an entry-level version of PreSonus’ Studio One DAW for Mac and Windows. Intended for beginners who don’t yet need the advanced features in Studio One Artist, Producer, and Professional, Studio One Free is intended to provide all of the recording and editing features needed for basic music production.

Users interested in checking out Studio One Free can download the Studio One installer from the  Studio One Web site, install it, and then choose to run it as Free when the activation dialog comes up. Once the application has been downloaded, it can be used immediately; no Internet connection or user account is required, no product key is involved, and Studio One Free will not time out.

Studio One Free has many of the features originally found in Studio One Artist, including:

— single-window work environment,
— the content browser with Search,
—  powerful drag-and-drop functions,
—  Control Link MIDI mapping,
—  sidechain routing,
—  automatic delay compensation,
—  real-time audio timestretching and resampling,
—  unlimited audio and Instrument (MIDI) tracks,
—  unlimited effects channels, and
—  unlimited channel inserts and sends.
—  Use native key commands or choose key-command sets from Pro Tools, Cubase, or Logic – or users can apply the included editor to creating their own key commands.

Studio One Free also offers some of the new Studio One 2.0 features, which include:

—  multitrack MIDI editing,
—  single and multitrack comping,
—  Track Transform (advanced track freezing).
—  the same 32-bit sound engine found in Studio One Artist and Producer.

Eight Native Effects plug-ins come with Studio One Free:

—  Beat Delay,
—  Channel Strip (which includes dynamics processing and EQ), Chorus,
—  Flanger,
—  MixVerb (a mono/stereo reverb),
—  Red Light Distortion, Tuner, and Phaser
—  Presence virtual instrument with more than 100 presets.

In a major restriction, Studio One Free does not support ReWire and third-party (VST, AU, etc.) effects plug-ins and virtual instruments.

Speaking of limitations, there are several compared to Studio One Artist. A number of Studio One 2 features are not available in the Free version, including Folder Tracks, Transient detection and editing, groove extraction, and PreSonus Exchange integration.

Studio One Free is available now from the PreSonus Studio One Website.

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