Presonus Studio 1 for free

[bri]

Hi everyone
Here's a link to Studio 1, made partly by the guy who invented Kristal, which I use all the time for my recording. It sounds great, you can write MIDI into it (I think), it has - I would say - several hundred VSTi's, FX and loops onboard. The only drawback with the free version is that it doesn't seem to save MP3 formats and it will also not accept outside VST's and VSTi's - don't forget, that's the free version. I've only tried it a bit, but it sounds wonderful. Hey, if it's good enough for Michael Jackson, it's good enough for me.
Here's a backing track I made many moons ago on Kristal that I transferred onto S1 to try cleaning it up, more to learn about it than anything. If anyone would like a copy, please feel free; beats paying for it ;D ;D . Please excuse the never ending ad before it starts.

www.4shared.com/mp3/GPeUpHg-/Impossible_Dream_BT.html

and here's the link to Presonus...have fun.

studioone.presonus.com/free/

As always,
Take care,
Bri

[ziggy]

Looks good, so I downloaded it to try it, but when I load a midifile I get no sound. What am I doing wrong?

[bri]

Hiya Ziggy
No good asking me mate. I'm just reading through the manual a page at a time, but only the parts that interest me. Ive played the VSTi's via my keyboard, after much trial and error, my daftest one being when I couldn't get my keyboard to play a VSTi - and then realised I hadn't loaded one. I'm not an expert on MIDI, so as I say, just consult the manual. I'm sure it'll be in there somewhere. Just stick with it and GOOD LUCK!!! It really seems a good DAW, but you gotta get to know it. I know Kristal like the back of my hand and I think it will always remain my fave, but this looks tremendous...and for free........
Take care
Bri

[bri]

OK, think I got it
Load Presonus S1. Click on Create a new song, then on (in my case) empty song and click OK. On the resulting screen you should have a list of options down the right hand side...Instruments, Effects, Sounds, Files and Pool.
Along the top of your screen are the usual File, Edit, Song, Track etc. Click on Track, then click Add Tracks. Name your track (or not) and click OK. Now, in the right side of your screen, click on Files and in the next screen navigate to your midifile. Click and drag it over to the tracks screen. An option may appear asking about using general MIDI or not. Click on your preference and it should all load onto your tracks.
Actually, I'm not sure if you needed to click on Track/Add Tracks earlier, but that's how I achieved it. I know it sounds complicated, but I had a look though the Manual and couldn't find it, so did it all by guesswork. Took about three mins from scratch - knowing nowt to loading a midi file, so it's easy enough. All the best and most of all, have fun. As always,
Take care,
Bri

[bri]

OK, exactly as described earlier, but click the "Yes" option when asked about General MIDI. Hope that's right and that it helps. All the best.
Take care,
Bri

[ziggy]

Thanks for taking the time, Bri. Still not working for me, but I'll keep trying. Midi is loading fine & appears to play, just no sound. It'll probably turn out to be some silly little thing I've missed, lol.

[Tommydee]

Same thing happened to me Ziggy

Tommy

[bri]

Hi guys
Couldn't understand why my midifile would play, but yours wouldn't. So, I had an idea. I loaded another file and lo and behold, it wouldn't work. So it seems I let lucky with the first midifile I picked. Picked a couple more, they wouldn't play either. Picked a final one, ticked yes to "do you want to load general MIDI sounds" and guess what - yep, it worked. But here's the thing. All the midifiles that wouldn't play never gave me that general MIDI option. Now I'm thinking that maybe they must be a different MIDI format. The only thing is that I don't know the first thing about MIDI. I've never used it, apart from creating some midifiles of my own, which the keyboard itself created as I played, pretty much like a tape recorder. I only did all this as an experiment to see if I could get it to work and now I have to admit, I'm flummoxed. What I'm going to do next (but not tonight) is go and ask on the S1 forum. I can't find anything at all about it in the manual. However, I'm sure it's probably there...if I only knew where to look to find it. If I do manage to find anything out, I'll get back to you both and let you know - unless of course John G might like to come to the rescue? As always,
Take care
Bri

[frankie]

May 31, 2012 21:41:27 GMT bri said:

Hi guys
Couldn't understand why my midifile would play, but yours wouldn't. So, I had an idea. I loaded another file and lo and behold, it wouldn't work. So it seems I let lucky with the first midifile I picked. Picked a couple more, they wouldn't play either. Picked a final one, ticked yes to "do you want to load general MIDI sounds" and guess what - yep, it worked. But here's the thing. All the midifiles that wouldn't play never gave me that general MIDI option. Now I'm thinking that maybe they must be a different MIDI format. The only thing is that I don't know the first thing about MIDI. I've never used it, apart from creating some midifiles of my own, which the keyboard itself created as I played, pretty much like a tape recorder. I only did all this as an experiment to see if I could get it to work and now I have to admit, I'm flummoxed. What I'm going to do next (but not tonight) is go and ask on the S1 forum. I can't find anything at all about it in the manual. However, I'm sure it's probably there...if I only knew where to look to find it. If I do manage to find anything out, I'll get back to you both and let you know - unless of course John G might like to come to the rescue? As always,
Take care
Bri

Need to check if they are formatt 1 or 0 that plays anyone using this application and has cakewalk can check.

[bri]

Hi Frankie
As I said, I don't know the first thing about MIDI, but if one format gives you the option to load general midi sounds (whatever they are) and then it will play, then surely the one that doesn't offer that option should be expected to be the other MIDI format and therefore it should play anyway? But , as b4, I'm a total thicko where MIDI is concerned - don't even know what format 1 and 0 are, but presumably they are the only two MIDI formats in existence. I do know that some midifiles give you that general MIDI option...click no and your midifile won't play, click yes and it will. The other midifile just doesn't play. Anyhow, thanks for your tip Frankie, but I personally think I'll just stick to playing keys.
Take care,
Bri

[freeway]

Hi Guys......

I'm not really familiar with this prog but it seems a pretty decent Prog and free as well but its not very midi friendly and designed totally for mp3 and wav use I feel.

Can't get any midis to play for me either at first it seems straightforward enough just opened my midi chose my sound setup and it seemed to play away but like the other guys no sound whatsoever. Got me stumped as well tried about 10 diff midis and both midi formats anyone else got any suggestions hate this Prog getting the better of me.........lol ;D

Anyway thanx for sharing the link Bri....... pretty amazing and haunting sequence by the way well done .... pity though the key is prob the original and way too high for me otherwise woulda chanced it myself

Barry

[bri]

Hiya Barry
I hate to be beaten as well, even though I don't use MIDI. It's still nice to know how it works. With that in mind I went to the S1 forums, only to be met with, basically, "Don't bother coming to the tech support if you have a prob with the free version." In the same part of the forum, the first reply from someone is, "So why don't you provide support for the paid for version either." Somewhere else, one of the tech support team has written, "Welcome to the forums, a great place to be if you need help from the forum members." But they tell you not to come for help or you're gonna get yelled at!!! I don't get it. Anyway, I still left my question after all, along with a strongly worded opinion of the "Help" team, basically repeating what I've said here.
Anyway, I'm off over to Kristal now, see if anyone there might have an answer. A few of the members have S1, so they may know summat we don't...yet!!
All in all though, I still think S1 is a great DAW, from what I have seen of and done with it so far, with some brilliant sounds and FX on it, even if you can only use the onboard ones in the free version.
Thanks also Barry for the comment about the music. I think maybe I should've posted the pre-treated version also. Ah well. Just thought it might be handy for someone who might want it as an MP3 backing. Glad you liked it anyhow. As always,
Take care,
Bri

[bri]

Hi guys
Next page of the epistle
So, you've got your midifile looking like it's playing, but there's no sound. That's because there's no instrument selected. Back to the right hand screen in the track window. If you look at the bottom, you'll see Instruments, Effects, Sounds, Files and Pool. Click on Instruments and you'll either get just Presonus come up with a forward pointing arrow, or you'll get Presonus with a down arrow and Presence underneath with a forward arrow.
If you get just Presonus, click on it and then on Presence and you'll get a list of all the instruments.
If Presence is already up, just click on that for the instrument list to appear.
Now, on your midifile, let's say the first track is piano. In the Instrument list click on Keyboards and a list of many keyboards will appear. Drag Piano to track 1 (make sure that you're dropping it onto the correct track - you get a warning about it) and voila, you get a picture of a synth. Turn it off via the X in the top right of the synth VSTi (it will still be on) so that you can see the remaining tracks to drop your instruments onto. Repeat the preceding for each instrument on each track. It's a bit long winded but I enjoyed doing it, as I know absolutely nothing about MIDI so it was all new ground for me.
I think the tempo is set by default to 120. The tempo set is to the right of the transport, metronome and timesig at the bottom of the screen; just set to the correct tempo for your song.
Should anything be out of tune, right click on the track in question and underneath the name of the instrument on the drop down list that appears, you will see transpose. Set your instrument to the correct pitch and that's it. Iv'e tried to cover all bases here...hoped I've done it.
The reason I mentioned tempo and out of pitch instruments is because I picked the worst midifile ever to do this with (didn't know it at the time but at least it made me able to warn you about it). Tempo was 180 so I had to reset it from 120, and the choir and trombone were both out by a semitone (sharp). Actually I corrected one and the other self corrected.
Finally, I have to thank the lads over on the Presonus forum for guiding me through all this. In retrospect, guess it's obvious. If there's no chosen instrument, then your midifile can't play anything, but when you don't know...... Just don't understand how two of my midifiles actually played without all this kerfuffle. As always,
Take care
Bri

[frankie]

Bri ,re your update. Some midi files the instrument appears in the instrument panel,others have them in the event list.
That is probably why some play and some dont.Maybe Barry can confirm this.

[freeway]

Thanx for the info on that Bri. ........

Geez that would drive me bonkers going through that ritual for every midi file. Plays mp3's and wavs no prob and has some pretty good features and effects etc. but seens though I use mainly midi to edit etc. for me it would be just too time consuming .I'll stick with my old Cakewalk Pro Audio much more user friendly. ;D

But cheerz Bri for sharing the link........

Regards

Barry