DAW: Presonus changes license model of Studio One 7
With DAW Studio One version 7, Presonus is changing the license model. However, there are also some interesting new functions.
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Presonus has released version 7 of the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) Studio One. The most significant change concerns the license model.
Users of the previous Artist or Pro license of Studio One 6 will receive the upgrade to Studio One 7 Pro at the special offer price of 149 euros. The range of functions may also increase, and the company is removing the discounted "Artist" license from its portfolio. In return, buyers receive a perpetual license, but updates and new functions are only available for one year after purchase. Presonus is therefore pricing the Pro+ licenses with more additional functions, which amount to a monthly or annual subscription. Presonus does not specify concrete plans when asked, but emphasizes that Studio One 6 will continue to receive support. It remains unclear for how long.
More than 30 new functions
Presonus explains that Studio One 7 will have more than 30 new features that will make it the "ultimate drag-and-drop digital audio workstation". The new launcher, for example, offers a new way of recording, arranging and producing music. It is based on so-called Cells, which refer to the audio clips in audio and instrument tracks. Scenes combine different cells that are played simultaneously. Scenes, in turn, can be organized in any order in playlists that include parts of songs or complete songs. This should even be suitable for live performances, for example with loops in the clips.
The loop tool for pattern components can now be used for all types of events and pattern parts. It should save time during production and arrangement. The "global Transpose" function, which does exactly that, sounds interesting: it transposes all tracks by the specified number of steps. This should also work on audio tracks without any major loss of quality due to pitch shifting.
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AI should not be missing
Studio One 7 uses unspecified artificial intelligence to separate mixed audio recordings into separate stems for drums, bass, chords and vocals. The result should then be able to be quickly merged back into a single file to create instrumental versions of a track without vocals. However, the function is still in its infancy and significant improvements are already being planned.
The Studio One 7 feature page lists numerous other minor changes that the developers have made to the DAW. It remains to be seen whether these are also worth at least 150 euros a year for amateur musicians who have been happy with a cheap Artist license up to now. There may be numerous alternatives, such as Reaper, which offers a low-cost solution for the non-professional sector and runs on Linux, macOS and Windows. Ardour is also a powerful cross-platform DAW based on open source – if you don't want to pay for it, you can also compile it yourself.
(dmk)
