Track Transform

Audio Track Transform

Audio Tracks always have a directly related Channel in the Console on which Insert effects can be configured. In the editing and arranging process, it is sometimes necessary to render an Audio Track so that the Insert effects and automation moves become a part of the audio waveform on the Track. You might do this for creative purposes or simply to enable you to remove the Insert effects in order to save CPU power.

Studio One makes this incredibly simple with the Track Transform feature. With any Audio Track that has effects inserted on its corresponding Channel selected, [Right]/[Ctrl]-click on the Track and select Transform to Rendered Audio from the contextual menu.

Check Preserve Realtime State if you would like to be able to transform back to the original Track. It is then possible to switch between Automatic Tail Detection, with a Max Length property, and a fixed tail of a given length by toggling the Auto Tail option. Auto Tail is useful if there is a reverb or other effect that you want to render beyond the Event length on the Track. Note that Auto Tail may not work well with lengthy delays or extremely long reverbs, as it works by detecting a range of silence at which to cut off and fade out the transformed audio. In that case, setting a fixed tail is the best option.

Click OK, and the Audio Track is bounced with its Insert effects and mix automation applied; then the original Audio Track is replaced with the newly bounced audio on a new Audio Track with the same name. If Auto Tail was engaged, or a Tail amount was specified, fade-outs are applied automatically across the specified Tail duration for each Event. The Insert effects are not inserted on the new Track, as they have been rendered into the audio on the Track.

If you check Preserve Original Track State, it is possible to transform back to the original Track, with effects inserted on the corresponding Channel, by [Right]/[Option]-clicking on the Track and selecting Transform to Realtime Audio from the contextual menu.

The effects of Volume and Pan settings (including automation) are applied to the Track as it is bounced to audio, so the value of those settings and their automation data is set to its defaults in the resulting bounced Track. If you wish to edit those parameters later, be sure to check the Preserve Realtime State option when Transforming the Track. This allows you to revert the Track back to its original state, with original settings and automation data intact. Note that send levels, bus assignments, and other mix parameters retain their settings as normal after Transforming a Track.

Every Track Transform operation creates bounced audio files that are placed into the Pool for the current Song. These files remain in the Pool (for later access or reference) until you decide to clear them out. As mentioned in the Pool Commands section, you can delete a file from the Pool view in the Browser by [Right]/[Ctrl]-clicking the file and choosing Remove From Pool (which removes the file from the Pool but retains it on disk) or Delete File Permanently (which removes the file from the Pool and deletes it from disk). You can also automatically remove all unused copies of files from the Pool by [Right]/[Ctrl]-clicking in the Pool and choosing Remove Unused Files.

Note that it is possible to Transform multiple Audio Tracks at once, in which case they are all rendered simultaneously, which can be a huge time saver.

Instrument Track Transform

Instrument Tracks contain MIDI music performances that control virtual instruments. The virtual instruments output to one or more Audio Channels in the Console, and you can configure Inserts, Sends, and Output routings for the Channels. With this approach, it can be difficult to render Instrument Tracks to audio correctly.

Studio One makes it simple by transforming Instrument Tracks into Audio Tracks in one step. [Right]/[Ctrl]-click on any Instrument Track and select Transform to Audio Track from the contextual menu. You can then see several options in the pop-up menu:

  • Render All Channels If the connected Instrument has more than one audio output engaged, this option appears. If this option is disengaged, only the Channel related to the selected Track is rendered, as specified in the Track Inspector.
  • Render Inserts If you would like to render the Insert effects (as well as Volume and Pan settings and automation) on the related virtual instrument's Output Channel, check this option.
  • Preserve Instrument Track State If you would like to be able to transform from the new Audio Track back to the original Instrument Track, check this option.
  • Remove Instrument If you would like to remove the virtual instrument in order to save CPU power after rendering audio and creating the new Audio Track, check this option.
  • Auto Tail Choose between automatic tail detection and a fixed tail of a given length, as described in Audio Track Transform.

Click OK, and all of the parts on the Instrument Track are rendered to audio and placed on a new Audio Track.

If a Tail amount was specified, fade-outs are applied automatically across the specified Tail duration for each Event. Also, the send configuration and output routing of the new Audio Track is identical to the original Instrument Track.

As with Audio Tracks, it is possible to Transform multiple selected Instrument Tracks at once, in which case they are all rendered simultaneously, which can be a huge time saver.

Every Track Transform operation creates bounced audio files that are placed into the Pool for the current Song. These files remain in the Pool (for later access or reference) until you decide to clear them out. As mentioned in the Pool Commands section, you can delete a file from the Pool view in the Browser by [Right]/[Ctrl]-clicking the file and choosing Remove From Pool (which removes the file from the Pool but retains it on disk) or Delete File Permanently (which removes the file from the Pool and deletes it from disk). You can also automatically remove all unused copies of files from the Pool by [Right]/[Ctrl]-clicking in the Pool and choosing Remove Unused Files.

External Instrument Track Transform

The Instrument Track Transform command is also suitable for use with external hardware instruments—though due to the real-world nature of physical hardware, of course, the audio must be rendered in real-time. Choosing this will render the external instrument's performance to a new Audio track while creating an associated channel in the Console.

External Instrument Track Transforms are non-destructive. After a Track Transform, removing an external instrument will also remove its associated Aux channel from the Console. Restoring the instrument will also restore its Aux channel.

As with virtual instrument Track Transform, simply right-click on the Track header and select Transform to Audio Track from the contextual menu to execute the transformation. Later, you can select Transform to Instrument track from the same menu to restore the MIDI performance data—it never really left!

Quick-Convert Instrument Parts to Audio

When working with a virtual instrument, you can drag Instrument Parts directly from the related Instrument Track onto any Audio Track in your song. The Instrument Part is rendered to audio, and placed in the location you've chosen.