PreSonus Studio One 6.5: Dolby Atmos Integration for immersive mixing
Studio One 6.5 features state-of-the-art immersive mixing with an integrated spatial audio production workflow. Plus new plugins, improved score and support for DAWproject.
Studio One 6.5
PreSonus likes the “point five” updates to be a major deal, and this one is no exception. Studio One 6.5 adds a whole new way of working with fully integrated support for Dolby Atmos immersive audio. This puts Studio One on par with Pro Tools Ultimate, Cubase, Nuendo and Logic Pro X which already support the format.
This is important because even though few people have the ability to listen to fully immersive audio in the comfort of their own homes, Atmos mixes are a requirement for many destinations. Cinema has been doing it for ages, but did you know that Amazon Prime and Netflix both require Atmos mixes for their programmes? I imagine it won’t take long before it will become the default for most broadcast and streaming media. But perhaps the biggest push for musicians is that Apple Music would very much like an Atmos mix for the Apple Spatial Audio format.
So does this mean we’ll have to pack a dozen speakers into our home studio that’s currently in the cupboard under the stairs? Ideally, yes, but there is another way. Studio One 6.5 also supports Dolby Atmos Binaural Headphone Monitoring which means you can do the whole lot on a pair of regular headphones.
Dolby Atmos
End-to-end spatial audio workflow with support for up to 9.1.6 channels and 96 kHz. It comes with updated spatial audio plugins, native monitoring and everything you need to generate the appropriate Atmos export. It’s all in there at no extra cost.
New plugins
It’s not all about Atmos. OpenAir2 (OpenAir-“squared”) comes with a brand new library of true 7.1.4 impulse responses. The new Multi-Tap Surround Delay plug-in gives you 8 taps with individual surround panners. Okay, maybe it is all about the Atmos.
Score update
The Score and Notation engine has had some updates. The tablature, lead sheets and drum maps have all been optimised and streamlined. They are better linked to the Chord Track and add in a lot of expressive marks.
ARA Support on Project Page
The Project Page, which is the part of Studio One where you do the mastering, now has support for ARA. PreSonus calls the main arrangement/session/songwriting part the “Song Page”. Anyway, ARA plugins like Melodyne, Spectral Layers and VocAlign can now run on tracks in the Project Page, so you can use them as the mastering stage.
DAWproject support
PreSonus has been working with Bitwig on a new interchange format for transferring projects between DAWs. It’s Open Source and contains all the critical MIDI and audio data, automation, mixing, plugin, parameters and more. It enabled you to export a project into the DAWproject format and open it in another compatible DAW. This is an exciting development, and I’ve written an article on it here.
Studio One for Linux
While not part of the 6.5 update as such, Studio One will now be available on the Linus operating system for the first time. It requires Ubuntu 23.04, and a public beta will be available to all owners of Studio One 6.
Free update
Studio One 6.5 is a free update to owners of version 6 or those on the Studio One+ subscription scheme. More information on the website.
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