PreSonus is now shipping Studio One Free, a new entry-level version of its DAW for Mac and Windows that is intended for beginners who don’t yet need the advanced features in Studio One Artist, Producer, and Professional.
Studio One Free provides all of the recording and editing features needed for basic music production—and as its name implies, it’s free.
To get Studio One Free, download the Studio One installer from the Studio One website, install it, and then choose to run it as “Free” when the activation dialog comes up.
Once the application is 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.
This new version of Studio One has some of the features originally found in Studio One Artist, including the single-window work environment, the content browser with Search, 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.
Native key commands can be utilized, or users can choose key-command sets from Pro Tools, Cubase, or Logic. The included editor also allows users to create their own key commands.
Studio One Free offers some of the new Studio One 2.0 features, notably multitrack MIDI editing, single and multitrack comping, and Track Transform (advanced track freezing). And it also includes 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 – plus the Presence virtual instrument with more than 100 presets.
Like Studio One Artist, Studio One Free does not support ReWire and third-party (VST, AU, etc.) effects plug-ins and virtual instruments.
Studio One Free does have limitations compared to Studio One Artist. For instance, 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 presents a very easy to upgrade to from Free to one of the advanced versions. At any time, even after the demo times out, it can be converted into Studio One Free with a single click.
Studio One Free is available now from the PreSonus Studio One website.
