• Hi and welcome to the Studio One User Forum!

    Please note that this is an independent, user-driven forum and is not endorsed by, affiliated with, or maintained by PreSonus. Learn more in the Welcome thread!

"Lunafying" Studio One

js1

Member
Apologies in advance for the long post. In summary, Luna Pro (not basic Luna) does have a (really good) sound that I find speeds mixing, and you can emulate it in Studio One.

Earlier this year, I gave Luna a spin to see what it's about. When you first get Luna, UA provides a trial of Luna Pro, which includes two tape plugins (A800, ATR 102), an API channel strip, API 2500 bus compressor and an API summing plugin. In Luna, by default every channel has the A80 and channel strip, every bus has a summing plugin, and the main bus has the 102 and 2500. These are tightly integrated, as the paradigm is to model an analog studio.

What I found was that a mix came together for me much faster on Luna than on Studio One, with much less EQ and compression required. The box character of the plugins did a lot of the heavy lifting.

My demo of Luna Pro (which has the plugins) then expired. Without those plugins, Luna is like any other DAW (i.e. it nulls - I checked), except with way less features and some very small controls. But, my attempts at building something that worked using the (many) plugins I had came short - and I couldn't figure out why.

Luna Pro came on sale over Xmas, and I picked it up. After some experimentation, I was able to get the (almost) same sound out of Studio One. In summary, it came down to these factors:
  • Gain staging - UAD plugins definitely are built to emulate the hardware at a specific input level (CLA confirmed this in one of his videos). Luna Pro defaults the plugins to that level, and has input meters to encourage you to gain stage correctly. BTW, their reference level is -14 db.
  • Channel consistency - Every channel has a tape machine and channel strip that do a good job of emulating the box sound and distortion characteristics of those devices. It seems that this consistency does "glue" things together well.
  • The output tape emulation (ATR-102 Master Tape) with their Luna default. This one shocked me. It really tightens up the bottom end in a way that has eluded me to date and gives it a finished sound. Note that this is NOT the default you get if you instantiate the plugin in Studio One and take the default. In fact, they make it so you can't export the Luna default as a preset and import it into another instance. But I was able to play with the parameters to get close to a null in Luna, and now have a preset.
What I think had only a minor effect:
  • Bus "summing" - Their summing emulates a line amp. Luna doesn't try to emulate the crosstalk that S1 does, nor does the plugin do any of the per channel variability that Plugin Alliance does. I think their summing is the least important factor. This is just as well, since you can't use their summing plugin in Studio One. I used the Lindell API bus plugin instead, but again, I don't think the choice here, or even using their summing at all matters much.
  • The API 2500 bus compressor. Choose you preferred one.
I mention this now as Luna Pro is still on sale. I can get into more details on what I did if there's any interest.
 
Nice! I've been following a similar approach in S1, and agree that mixes come together faster. That said, S1 has much more flexibility as you don't HAVE to setup that way if a cleaner signal chain is what you're after. No chance that I'll jump over to Luna, but I do love how it looks! Would be cool to have those EQ controls in-line on the console like in Luna
 
Softube's Tape is the only third party plugin I know that works as a Mix Fx, I think it's available on the + subscription too. I haven't used it in a while because it was too heavy for my old pc back when I got it on a discount and then I forgot about it, but it basically does what you're describing when inserted as a Mix Fx. Another plugin that may emulate this setup is Flywheel by Fuse Audio Labs, with its group feature (I haven't tried it yet). Presonus' console emulations are top tier imo, as long as you know how to use them and gain stage properly (-18dB RMS iirc). A console+tape hybrid setup may be possible by using a console emulation and inserting flywheel or another tape plugin on the buses and masterbus.
 
Exuse some noob questions, but...
I have softube tape. But why use it in mix fx? Cant i use it as insert instead? What are the benefits
 
Exuse some noob questions, but...
I have softube tape. But why use it in mix fx? Cant i use it as insert instead? What are the benefits
The difference is that a Mix Fx works inside of Studio One's mix engine, meaning the actual summing and structure of the signals (channels summing to busses summing to the master bus, etc.), while an insert affects whatever signal is going through it and nothing else. When you insert a Mix Fx console emulator you're you're transforming your digital console structure to "analog", as long as you use it on "channel" mode. I'm not sure if Tape would work exactly the same, but by definition putting it on Mix Fx will get it inside of the summing engine, similar to what Luna does as far as I understand.
 
Exuse some noob questions, but...
I have softube tape. But why use it in mix fx? Cant i use it as insert instead? What are the benefits
A simple insert FX only works with the signal of a specific channel.

A Mix Engine FX inserted on the main channel or a bus takes the role of the mix engine and has access to the signals of every single channel going into this bus... to replace (or enhance) the Studio One mix engine.
 
A few points from my point of view:

1. Luna to me is a lot less user friendly and intuitive than Studio One. I originally came from ProTool, used Cubase, Sonar, Reason and Reaper, but stuck with Studio One because it made me mix so much faster.
2. The MixFX like the MixFX bundle and the CTC-1 can get you there in a way. It certainly does something to the sound that may or may not make your mix better, but that' s a matter of how you want to work and other preferences. But all in all, especially the CTC-1 to me was a real game changer that I bought very shortly after I had bought Studio One 3.
3. I got a lot of what you describe about the sound by putiing a FrontDAW plugin on each channel. After I made sure I had a preset that was level matched I put that instance on all channels and it was like suddenly the whole mix came together by itself. There is some saturation happening on a level that makes all the elements just glue together like they are really mixed on a large console. Even the mix got better, vocals sat better, guitars were fuller, everything just sounded more expensive. Maybe others have different experiences but this is mine.
4. If it' s the console workflow you want then you should look at SSL 360. You can have that workflow for absolutely free by just downloading and installing the 360 app and the 360 Link plugin. The 360 Link plugin cvan host your VST3 plugins, so simply map one of your go to channel strip plugins in it (best is to do that with a SSL emulation of course). The 360 app shows you all the instances of any SSL 360 plugin, so in this case the 360 Link, so if you have an instance on every channel you get all these channels in the 360 app. Change some settings and it will be your console on screen, all the knobs and buttons layed out in front of you with no need to go back to the Studio One screen during mixing once you have everything set up. All mixing features can be done from here, including panning and even sends andf you can choose whether you want to control the fader of the plugins or the DAW. To me that really is the best of two worlds, an intuitive DAW and a very traditional mixing environment glued together perfectly.
 
As an alternative to SSL 360, I'd recommend Softube's Console 1. I've been using it a couple years now and it's a wonderful console workflow (or just as a channel strip) which gives me most of what Luna provides in that sense. Added bonus is I can use Fabfilter and UA plugins for compressor, eq, or analog tape/console sounds.

Not free like @Dave71 mentioned 360 Link is though.
 
As an alternative to SSL 360, I'd recommend Softube's Console 1. I've been using it a couple years now and it's a wonderful console workflow (or just as a channel strip) which gives me most of what Luna provides in that sense. Added bonus is I can use Fabfilter and UA plugins for compressor, eq, or analog tape/console sounds.

Not free like @Dave71 mentioned 360 Link is though.
I have been looking at that one as well. Looks like an absolute no brainer if you have the money. With the old one I wasn' t sure yet, by now with version 3 it looks like there can' t be a better controller out there. Makes you wish PreSonus would come with a similar product, better integrated with Studio One, plus maybe a specific plugin to host everything and make it compatible with pretty much every plugin available. And of course for a lower price, even though I really don' t think Console 1 is expensive. It' s a lot of money but you get a lot in return.
 
Back
Top