Studio One and ARA

[THW]

Sharing some thoughts/questions about ARA and Studio One.

A post on VI Control got me curious about ARA (Audio Random Access). I know very little about it, and my experience with it is limited to Melodyne and RX (to my knowledge, unless there are other plugins or native S1 features/plugins with ARA under the hood).

I read in a Presonus article that "ARA was developed by Celemony in collaboration with PreSonus Software and was presented for the first time in the fall of 2011, with Melodyne 1.3 and Studio One 2 operating in tandem."

I read that as S1 being at the forefront of ARA back in 2011, and wonder what the latest is with ARA, Presonus/S1 and ARA years later.

A plugin I use quite regularly is Bird's "Rolling Sampler" for capturing audio in real time (I love it for sound design and "happy accidents")... highlight what I want and click/drag to a new track.

I get there are other priorities and interests, but I wonder, with ARA, would S1 be able to take that kind of basic functionality of rolling sampler and further develop, with fx processing for example.

In a post about ARA and RX, Izotope lists some benefits like real time processing, non-destructive editing, improved efficiency (workflow). That all sounds great to me. It also listed some drawbacks: not all daws support it, apple native silicon doesn't support it...

Curious to see where things are headed with ARA or if it's been overtaken by AI or something else I'm not tracking.

 

[Lukas]

The basic idea of ARA is this:

Normally, effect plug-ins receive an audio stream only from the current playback position.
This means the plug-in only knows the present moment of the audio. It has no knowledge of what comes next and only processes the signal when playback actually reaches that point. This is how traditional plug-ins (like VST, AU, or AAX) have always worked.

With ARA, a plug-in can access the entire audio of an event or clip instantly, without having to play through the session first.
This enables much more powerful and convenient audio editing workflows - such as those used by Melodyne (or other plug-ins that support ARA: Antares Autotune Pro, Steinberg SpectraLayers, Synchro Arts Vocalign, Revoice Pro, Izotope RX Music Reblance, RX 9 Spectral Editor etc.)

I get there are other priorities and interests, but I wonder, with ARA, would S1 be able to take that kind of basic functionality of rolling sampler and further develop, with fx processing for example.

I don't understand what kind of basic functionality you mean. S1 is just the host. But someone could develop a plug-in that can access and manipulate your audio on a track.

 

[THW]

I don't understand what kind of basic functionality you mean. S1 is just the host. But someone could develop a plug-in that can access and manipulate your audio on a track.

Hey @Lukas thank you for your explanation. That paints a clearer picture for me about ARA. I better understand regarding S1 being the host.
I also see I wasn't clear in my original post. I understand a third party could develop a plugin that could access and manipulate audio on a track.
Thinking about Presonus and Celemony's early partnership and collaboration on Melodyne, I was really just brainstorming...if Presonus had the desire/resources/time/interest, what could be done with ARA and existing stock S1 plugins, or what would be new, helpful, or desirable.

 

[Lukas]

Thinking about Presonus and Celemony's early partnership and collaboration on Melodyne, I was really just brainstorming...if Presonus had the desire/resources/time/interest, what could be done with ARA and existing stock S1 plugins, or what would be new, helpful, or desirable.

Ah, I see. Actually, S1 stock plug-ins don't need ARA because they're already part of the program. PreSonus could give them access to whatever they need. However, not all plug-ins would take advantage of the ARA functionality. Many plug-ins work perfectly well as simple insert effects, such as a delay, chorus or amp simulation. For compressors or other dynamics plug-ins, this could make more sense because they would be able to analyze the complete audio before processing.

 

[theblacklaser]

I'd just be pleased if Izotope would allow the full RX in the ARA plugin. Acoustica and SpectraLayers allow it.

 

[Lukas]

I'd just be pleased if Izotope would allow the full RX in the ARA plugin. Acoustica and SpectraLayers allow it.

Yes. RX customers have to reach out to Izotope - that's the only thing that helps.

 

[John Vere]

My understanding is that a lot of mastering plugins use what is called “Look Ahead “ which allows them to see what is coming next and process it instantly.
Like Brickwall limiters. And im pretty sure Isotope stuff. This of course is not requiring ARA they just use a buffer.
That is why these plugins can cause more latency when in use so best to disable them when tracking.

ARA can also create issues if you don’t render your editing before saving your project.

It’s actually surprising how many Daw’s don’t fully support ARA.. Many only support Melodyne and nothing else. Cubase makes you purchase the full versions so it’s not part of Elements.

I just bought Prism and I can only use it in S1 and Sonar.