We’ve been spending some time over the recent weeks getting to know the PreSonus range of hardware and software. As a company, we select the brands we work with really carefully. We’ve been really impressed with PreSonus. A large number of their products have caught our eye and, over the coming weeks, we’re going to starting writing about each one in a little more detail. Not a sales pitch, but rather a highlighting of the features that I think are important for those of us working in education.

First up, we are going to have a look at the Studio One software that underpins the entire range of PreSonus products. This comes bundled with many of their mixing desks and audio interfaces, but can also be bought in different forms: Studio One Artist, Producer or Professional.

But the first thing to say, is that there is a fantastic free product for you to download and play with. Studio One Free is a fully functional and amazingly equipped digital audio workstation (DAW) built around a new 64-bit audio engine. There are no limitations and there is no expiration date. It provides all of the recording and editing features needed for basic music production. It has a single-window, integrated environment for musical production with the smooth, drag-and-drop workflow that distinguishes Studio One from other DAWs, allows an unlimited number of audio and MIDI tracks, has no limitations on plug-in instantiations, comes with eight high-quality PreSonus Native Effects™ plug-ins, offers multitrack comping; and performs real-time time-stretching and tempo-following. You can see a full list of features in Studio One Free here.

For teachers, this is a fantastic offer. Not only can you download and try the software prior to purchase, you can also ensure that your students are able to work, for free, on an amazingly powerful DAW at home whilst they work on mores sophisticated versions of the software in the school. It’s also worth noting that once you have installed Studio One Free, you can upgrade to the Professional version for 30 days to try it out before reverting back to the standard Studio One Free installation.

As you work up the range, from Artist to Producer to Professional, you access a range of other features that will be important if you are teaching BTec course of Music Technology A level. The full comparison chart can be found at the bottom of this page.  But for many teachers, the Studio One Free software is going to be more than adequate for introductory lessons at Key Stage 3.

Studio One is also equipped with various inbuilt solutions for sharing work. PreSonus Exchange is a way for you and your students to share user-generated content including presets, soundsets, grooves, macros, international language packs and much more. Additionally, Studio One has built in functionality to share your work via NimBit or SoundCloud.

The other thing that has impressed us about the Presonus range (and this software) is the extensive library of video tutorial support on their website. This really is first class. One of the key mantras of PreSonus is that you should be able to do something with this software in the time it takes to say what you want to do. We’ve found this to be the case. It is very intuitive and simple to use, with drag and drop interfaces and nothing too far away from the main screen. This contrast heavily with other DAWs (Cubase, for example), which are far from intuitive and very off-putting for many students.

Finally, the integration between software such as Studio One and the various pieces of hardware that PreSonus make is first class. Over the coming weeks we will be compiling various combinations of PreSonus kit for different functions within the school environment. Watch this space for further details. But whether you are using a StudioLive mixer or an USB or Firewire interface, you can confident that Studio One will integrate simply and seamlessly with your hardware setup.

When we conducted a surveys of the technology for Roland in 2007 and again in 2011, key pieces of software such as Cubase and Sibelius dominated the UK education market. Today, times are changing. Both these products are on the wane in my view. Cubase is too complex, too busy and just too difficult to set up and maintain effectively in a school environment; Sibelius is living on borrowed time and customer support and satisfaction has taken a big hit as it moved across to Avid in the US (I would strongly suggest Notion as an alternative here).

We think that the time is right for educators in our schools and colleges to look elsewhere. PreSonus’ Studio One is a fantastic product, with a free entry point and reasonable charges for educational licenses. Please contact us if you want any further details about this great piece of software. We can also provide no-obligation quotes for any purchases for educational licenses that you might want to make.