Co n te nt Crea t ion G u id e

Table of Contents
1 Check List — 1

2 Installation — 1

3 Preparing Your Files — 3

3.1 Naming conventions — 3

3.2 File Formats — 3

3.2.1 WAV — 3
3.2.2 Audioloop — 3
3.2.3 MIDI — 4
3.2.4 Musicloop — 4

4 Preparing Your Folder

Structure — 5
4.1 Mount Folder as Sound Set — 5
4.1.1 Presets Field Usage Tips — 6

5 Embedding Chord Information

(optional) — 7
5.1 Changing Incorrectly Detected Chords — 8

6 Tagging of Files and Presets — 10

6.1 Special Tags — 10

6.2 The Tag Palette — 11

6.3 Deleting Tags — 11

7 Instrument Presets — 12

8 Pack Sound Set — 13

1 Check List Studio One 6
Content Creation Guide

1 Check List
If you’re already familiar with Studio One content creation or just came back here to
confirm that you’re following the right steps, here are the basics of what you will
need to do:
• Collect all files and create folder structure
• Mount folder as Sound Set in Studio One Browser
• Add metadata and unique ID in Sound Set Properties
• Add Tempo and Chord metadata to loops and samples
• Convert WAV loops to Audioloop format
• Create instrument presets using files from mounted folder
• Add tags to loops, one-shots and presets
• Pack Sound Set
• Test final Sound Set on a different system
• Deliver to PreSonus

2 Installation
Before beginning, you must first install and authorize Studio One. Please review the
Quick Start Guide for instructions. Third-party add-ons and Studio One expansions use a
container format called, “Sound Sets.” In Studio One 6 the Sound Set Builder is pre-installed
and ready to use. If you’re using Studio One 6, you may directly proceed to the next section
(Preparing your files).
In earlier versions of Studio One, the Sound Set Builder extension must be downloaded
and installed to prepare your content for use in Studio One.

1. Open Studio One and create a new Song.

2. Go to the Browser. To download the “Sound Set Builder” extension, open the
Cloud Tab..

3. Sign into your MyPresonus Account.

4. Expand the PreSonus Exchange section.

5. Expand the Extensions section.

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2 Installation Studio One 6
Content Creation Guide

6. Select Sound Set Builder 4 for your Operating System and install it by pressing the
green “Install” button located at the bottom of the Browser window.

7. After installing the Sound Set Builder, right-clicking on any folder in the Studio One
File Browser will reveal two new context menu commands: “Mount Folder as Sound
Set” and “Pack Sound Set from Folder.”

You are now ready to create a Sound Set!

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3 Preparing Your Files Studio One 6
Content Creation Guide

3 Preparing Your Files

3.1 Naming conventions
• File and folder names must be unique and descriptive
• Don’t use special characters in file and folder names (“/ : $ & …”)
• Don’t use ALL CAPS

3.2 File Formats

3.2.1 WAV
Audio files in WAV format can be used where they are not visible to the user, such as within
Presence XT or Impact XT instruments. Very short one-shot samples, such as single drum
hits can also remain in WAV format, even if they are intended for direct use on audio tracks.
Such short one-shot WAVs should not have an embedded tempo (BPM).
All other audio samples, such as loops and files with tempo-relevant content, need to be
converted to the Audioloop format (see next) before finalizing your Sound Set.

3.2.2.1 Adding Tempo Metadata

Loops and samples with tempo-relevant content must have embedded Tempo Metadata
(BPM) to be ready for time-stretching. This is easy to do in Studio One:

1. Create new Song with the desired tempo.

2. Drag and Drop all WAV files to the Arrangement window.

3. Rename audio events, if needed.

4. Select all audio events and export them via Drag and Drop back to the Browser into an
empty folder. The song tempo is embedded into each WAV sample during this step.
To remove embedded Tempo Metadata from samples, like One-shots, that do not need it,
go to Preferences > Advanced > Audio, and deselect “Record tempo information to audio
files,” then press “Apply.” Any audio event you drag back from the Arrangement Window to
the Studio One file browser will have its embedded tempo removed.

3.2.2 Audioloop
The Audioloop format is exclusive to Studio One. This helps to prevent unauthorized
sharing with other applications. Once copy protection is applied to your Sound Set, direct
conversion from Audioloop to WAV is not possible, thus locking your loops to Studio One
use only. The Audioloop format uses lossless FLAC compression, keeping library sizes and
download times easier to manage.
Audio samples, such as loops and files with tempo-relevant content, must be converted
to the Audioloop format before finalizing your Sound Set. This is the required file format
for loops and samples that are intended for use on audio tracks, and visible to the user.
Audioloops should always have embedded tempo metadata (BPM). Embedding Chord
metadata is also suggested, but not required.
Note: Short one-shot samples can remain in WAV format, and should not contain embedded
tempo metadata (BPM).
After adding Tempo and Chord Metadata to your WAV samples, select them in the Studio
One Browser, then right-click and choose “Convert to Audioloop” from the context menu.
See Sections 3.2.3 and 5 for more information on embedding Tempo and Chord Metadata.

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3 Preparing Your Files Studio One 6
Content Creation Guide

IMPORTANT: Loops and samples with tempo-relevant content need to have embedded
Tempo Metadata (BPM), to be ready for time-stretching.
Conversion order:

1. Add Tempo and Chord Metadata while your Audio files are still in WAV format.

2. Convert WAV file to Audioloop format.

3. Add Style/Instrument/Character tags.

Power User Tip: We advise adding Tempo and Chord metadata while your Audio files are still in
WAV format, and converting to Audioloop afterward (but before adding Style/Instrument/
Character tags). Unprotected Audioloops are automatically converted back to WAV, when they
are dragged from the Arrangement Window to the Studio One Brower. Since this step is part of
the Tempo/Chord embedding workflow, it would be moot to convert to Audioloop format prior
to this. Also, we recommend adding both, Tempo and Chord information to your Samples and
Loops as part of the same process, as both require importing your samples to the Arrangement
Window.

3.2.2.1 Creating Sliced Audioloops

1. Create slices by “Slice at bend-markers” or simply use the Cut Tool.

2. Create an Audio Part by selecting all slices and pressing command+G.

3. Drag & drop the Audio Part to the Files tab of the Studio One Browser. An Audioloop
will be created containing all tempo and slice information.

3.2.3 MIDI
MIDI loops should be in MIDI format 0 (zero). MIDI format 0 combines all 16 MIDI channels
into a single track, keeping their appearance in the browser neat, and provides a better
overall user experience.

3.2.4 Musicloop
This is a Studio One exclusive format. It consists of everything required to recreate a
musical performance, including the virtual instrument preset, multichannel FX chain
presets and the MIDI music performance, plus an Audioloop version for sound-preview in
the browser.
Musicloops can be dragged in from the Browser, just like MIDI files.
To create a Musicloop, drag any Instrument Part into the Browser.
The Studio One 6 manual covers this format and its usage in greater detail.

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4 Preparing Your Folder Structure Studio One 6
Content Creation Guide

4 Preparing Your Folder Structure

You can freely organize the files, loops, samples and instrument presets into the folder
structure you think will be the most practical for your Sound Set. However, the following
important points should be considered before starting to build your Sound Set and decide
on the final names and locations for your files:
• The folder structure and all file names need to be FINAL before mounting as
a Sound Set.
• Sound Sets and Instrument Presets use case-sensitive sample paths. A small change to
a folder or file name or extension, can cause a missing Sample error for end-users, and/
or make already applied tags disappear (e.g. change from .wav to .WAV).
• The folder organization should be as easy as possible to understand by the user.
• If Instrument Presets are included, they should be placed in their own folder.
• Presets are created in a later step, but it is advisable to already create the location
where they will be located. See Section 7 for more information on Presets.

4.1 Mount Folder as Sound Set

Adding files to Instrument Presets from locations other than a folder that is currently
mounted as a Sound Set, will appear to work normal on your computer, but will trigger a
‘Missing Samples’ error on any other computer.
Mounting a Folder as a Sound Set and exclusively using files from within that mounted
folder ensures that the path to these files and samples is identical when the Sound Set is
being used on someone else’s computer so that all the samples will be found.
To mount your prepared source folder containing your audio files as a Sound Set:

1. Go to the Files tab of the Browser and locate the folder.

2. Right-click to open the context menu and select “Mount Folder as Sound Set.”

3. This will display the Sound Set Properties Window.

• Title. The folder name will be used as the title.

• Identifier. The Identifier needs to be unique and composed in this format: “vendor.
studioone.title.” Do not use spaces or special characters. (Example: presonus.
studioone.presencesymphonicorchestra)

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4 Preparing Your Folder Structure Studio One 6
Content Creation Guide

• Presets. Type the name of the top-level Folder inside the Sound Set containing
all the presets of your Sound Set. Loop libraries that do not include instrument or
effects presets do not require this field to be completed. See Section 4.1.1 for more
information.
• Icon. Click the “+” button to choose the artwork for the Sound Set. This is the artwork
shown in the Previewer when the Sound Set is selected in the Studio One file browser.
The image must be square with a minimum of 500x500 pixels.
• Vendor. Enter the Vendor name.
• Description. Enter a brief description of the content within the Sound Set (e.g.
Audioloops & Impact Presets).
• Copyright. Enter the copyright date and copyright holder name for the content (e.g.
©2022 PreSonus).
• Website. Enter the URL of the product’s Website.
After pressing OK, the folder will be mounted as a Soundset. The indicator to the left will
change from a folder to the Sound Set bundle as shown below:

IMPORTANT: Do not change the Identifier after tagging or creating presets!

4.1.1 Presets Field Usage Tips

The Presets field determines where Studio One will start scanning your Sound Set for
presets so that they will appear below the associated Instrument icon in the Studio One
Browser’s Instruments tab.
• Do not leave the Presets field blank, otherwise your presets will not appear under the
instrument icon in the Instruments tab.
• Do not enter the name of a single folder containing your presets, as this will result
in Studio One displaying your Presets directly below the Instrument icon without
organizing them into a folder. Without an organizational folder, it will be difficult to
distinguish the Sound Set with which they are associated as the preset names will be
mixed in with other vendors’ presets for the same instrument.
• If you enter the name of a folder in which the presets are organized into sub-folders,
the folder structure from the first subfolder level will appear under the instrument
icon. For example: Entering the folder name “MyCompany” for presets that are located
in a “MyCompany > MyProduct” folder structure inside the Sound Set, will show a
“MyProduct” folder beneath the Instrument icon, that contains all your presets.
• If you enter “/” (without quotes), Studio One will search for presets in the root directory
of your Sound Set, and in all of its subfolders. Using the example above, this will cause
the full path “MyCompany > MyProduct” to appear below the instrument icon and will
show presets in each level of the folder structure where any are found. This is useful if
other Sound Sets by your company utilize the same relative structure, but a different
name for the “MyProduct” folder level. This way, all your presets are gathered within
subfolders inside a master folder that bears your company name. Each subfolder will
be named for each of your products/Sound Sets.

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5 Embedding Chord Information (optional) Studio One 6
Content Creation Guide

5 Embedding Chord Information (optional)

Studio One 6 includes the revolutionary Chord Track, which can make loop based libraries
exponentially more useful. This new feature allows non-destructive changes to the
composition of chords within audio files during playback. This is not a simple “pitch up/
down” function that affects everything in a sample equally; rather, it makes it possible to
change the harmonic relationships and tonal intervals between individual notes inside of
an audio sample.
While it is possible to utilize this feature with loops and samples that have not been
specially prepared, writing Chord Information directly into your loops, will ensure the best
possible results. Once the Chord Information has been embedded in your loops, the files
will be compatible with any musical scale or chord structure Studio One 6 users would like
to use.
It is highly recommended that you read the Chord Track chapter in the Studio One 6
manual to familiarize yourself with the operation and capability of this new and unique
feature. This guide is limited to providing instructions how to add Chord Information to
your samples only.
NOTE: We advise adding Tempo and Chord Metadata while your Audio files are still in WAV
format, and converting to Audioloop afterward (but before adding Style/Instrument/Character
tags). Unprotected Audioloops are automatically converted back to WAV, when dragging them
from the Arrangement Window to the Studio One Brower. Since this step is part of the Tempo/
Chord embedding workflow, it would be moot to convert to Audioloop format prior to this. Also,
we recommend adding both, Tempo and Chord information to your Samples and Loops as part
of the same process, as both require importing your samples to the Arrangement Window.
To embed Chord Information:

1. Drag a WAV file from the Studio One browser to the Arrangement window.

2. If multiple samples follow the same chord progression (e.g. samples from the same
Construction Kit), add them as well, to process simultaneously.

3. Identify the loop that best represents the chord progression for the Construction Kit,
then right-click it and select Audio > Detect Chords.

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5 Embedding Chord Information (optional) Studio One 6
Content Creation Guide

4. The detected chord(s) will appear at the bottom edge of the Audio Part. Depending
on the complexity of the audio material, chord detection may not always be accurate.
It is important to verify it manually by playing the same chord and comparing by ear
to confirm that the chord(s) shown in your Audio Part are correct. See Section 5.1 for
information on correcting inaccurate chord detection. Skip to Step 8, if processing a
single audio file.

5. Once the correct Chord Information is shown on the Audio Part, right-click it and select
“Extract to Chord Track.”

6. Select all other loops from the same construction kit that share the same chord
progression (including bass and lead parts).

7. Right-click on the Audio Part(s) and select “Apply Chord from Chord Track.”

8. Once done, select all edited loops and drag them back to the Browser. This will write
Chord information into each audio file as Metadata.
TIPS:
• If you drag the edited audio event back to the same browser location, it will not
overwrite the original file, but create a new file and append a number to the end of
the file name. To avoid creating duplicates in your Sound Set, delete the original file
from the browser before dragging the edited version back. (Deleting files cannot be
undone. Be careful!)
• It is recommended to add missing Tempo Metadata (BPM) to your WAV files at the
same time as adding Chord Information. Because embedding both types of Metadata
requires dragging the files to the Arrangement Window, it saves time to embed both
Tempo and Chord Information Metadata while the WAV file has already been imported.

5.1 Changing Incorrectly Detected Chords

1. Double-click the Audio Part from the Arrangement Window to open the Editor. If the
Chord bar is not shown along the bottom edge, click the “Chords” button.

2. Click into the Chords bar. If a chord change appears at an incorrect spot, click and drag
the separator to the correct location.

3. The detected Chord info will be displayed in the box to the left.

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5 Embedding Chord Information (optional) Studio One 6
Content Creation Guide

4. Use the pull-down menus to select the appropriate chord attributes - or -

Click the “Chord Selector” button for a graphical interface to change chord attributes.

Changes will be written to the loop, when dragging it back into the Studio One browser.

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6 Tagging of Files and Presets Studio One 6
Content Creation Guide

6 Tagging of Files and Presets

Audioloops, WAVs, Musicloops, MIDI files, as well as instrument Presets must be tagged,
to enable customers to quickly locate specific types of content by applying filters in
the Studio One browser. To understand the purpose and importance of tagging, it is
recommended to experiment with the filters found at the top of most Studio One
browser tabs.
IMPORTANT: The file format, file name (case-sensitive) and location inside your Sound Set must
be final before beginning the tagging process. Your tags will disappear from any sample that is
moved, renamed or converted, after tags have been added. For example, do not start adding
tags to WAV loops that have yet to be converted to the Audioloop format (see Section 3.2.2 for
more information on Audioloops).
To open the Tag Palette, select a file within the mounted Sound Set and click on the Tags:
button in the Previewer.

This will open the Tag Palette:

There are three (3) main categories: Style, Instrument and Character. Each file included in
your Sound Set should be tagged with at least one tag from each of these three categories.
• Style. Use only one or two matching Tags (e.g. HipHop or Urban + HipHop).
• Instrument. Use one or more matching Tags (e.g. Synth, or Synth + Pads + Strings).
• Character. Use any relevant tag (e.g. dry + acoustic + vintage + dark).
6.1 Special Tags
In order to make the content as consistent as possible, please follow these rules:
• To ensure your content is found, assign a minimum of three tags per loop, one for each
category (Style, Instrument, Character).
• Feel free to add additional and specific attributes. The more accurate the attributes, the
better the search results.
• Loops should always have the Tag “loop.”
• Samples like drum hits should always have the tag “one-shot.”
• Construction Kits should have the Tag “Construction Kit.” This will ensure that related
loops are displayed in the Browser in a consolidated view under “Construction Kits.”
PLEASE NOTE: This tag should only be used with audio loops, and not with one-shot
samples or instrument presets.
• “Animated” should be used only for arpeggio-like sounds with lots of movement.
• The tag “full” is reserved for mixes (e.g. drum loop + bass + keys etc).

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6 Tagging of Files and Presets Studio One 6
Content Creation Guide

6.2 The Tag Palette

The Tag Palette is bi-directional. This means you can drag & drop a folder or multi-selection
of files to a tag icon, or drag a tag icon to a folder within the Browser. This results in a fast
and easy workflow, making it unnecessary to tag your files individually.
In general, it’s recommended to use multi-selections or text search results as much
as possible.
Let’s examine the following use-case, demonstrating the tagging of an audio loop
construction kit:

1. In most cases a Sound Set will have the same “Style” for all files. Select all files or folders
and Drag & Drop them onto the desired “Style” tag (e.g. “Jazz”).

2. You can use the Text Search in the Studio One Browser to display groups of related files
with descriptive names for easier tagging (e.g. “Drums”):

3. Select the mounted Sound Set, click on the magnifier icon on top of the Browser to
bring up the “Text Search” field.

4. From here you can enter any search term to view a list of files with that string of
characters in their name. For example, if you type “drums,” a list of all files containing
“drums” in their name will be displayed.

5. Select all drum files by using “shift + click” within the Browser and drag & drop them to
the “Drums” tag icon within the Tag Palette.

6. You can save a lot of time by performing text-search based multi selections. If
descriptive file names were used, this approach is very useful for applying Instrument
tags. Depending on your file-naming concept, it may also be useful to quickly apply
one-shot or loop tags, as well as other “character” tags, if their character is reflected in
your file names.
If the Character of your loops and samples changes from file to file, it is usually necessary to
tag each file individually, rather than by using the text search.
All tags are written directly to an SQL-based database file (.db) within your mounted Sound
Set. It is not necessary (or possible) to save / load your applied tags manually.

6.3 Deleting Tags

To clear unwanted tags, drag & drop the files containing undesired tags to the
“Clear Tags” field at the bottom of the Tag Palette. This works for files, folders and multi-
selections, in the same manner as when adding tags.
Please note that Sound Sets without or with poor tagging will be rejected by
PreSonus QA.

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7 Instrument Presets Studio One 6
Content Creation Guide

7 Instrument Presets
To include Instrument Presets (e.g. Impact XT kits) inside a Sound Set, it is critical to have
the final folder structure for your Sound Set in place before beginning to build your
presets.
The samples and files you want to use as part of an Instrument must be added to the
instrument from your mounted Sound Set folder.
WARNING: If you add Samples from elsewhere on your hard-drive - even from the
folder used for your Sound Set - if it is not mounted in Studio One when you begin,
your samples will appear to work while you prepare the Sound Set on your own computer,
but will not be found on other systems, causing missing
sample errors.
The only way to fix this problem is to start over, making sure to only add samples from a
mounted Sound Set folder.
Follow these steps:

1. Make sure the Sound Set folder is mounted.

2. In the Studio One Browser (Files tab > Sound Sets), locate the Sound Set associated
with your source file folder, then locate the folder containing the samples to be used in
a preset.

3. Drag samples from the mounted Sound Set in the Studio One Browser to your
Instrument, such as onto Impact XT pads, and edit as you wish.

4. Save the Instrument preset. This save it to the global Studio One Preset folder.

5. In Finder/Explorer, locate the preset inside the global preset folder defined for Studio
One. By default, the location is:
Documents > Studio One > Presets > PreSonus > ‘Instrument Name’

6. Move the saved preset file(s) to the destination folder inside the mounted
Sound Set folder.
IMPORTANT:
• Do not drag in samples from the Finder/Explorer, or the path information will
be incorrect.
• Do not import samples from the “Volumes” tree in the Studio One Browser or the path
information will be incorrect.

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8 Pack Sound Set Studio One 6
Content Creation Guide

8 Pack Sound Set

The final step to completing your Sound Set is to pack it. This should only be done after the
following steps have been completed:
• Tempo and Chord Information have been added to your samples.
• WAV files have been converted to the Audioloop format.
• Style, Instrument and Character tags have been added.
• Instrument Presets (if applicable) have been saved and moved into your Sound Set’s
Presets folder.
Before packing, the mounted folder needs to be unmounted. To do this, right-click on the
mounted Sound Set folder and select the “Unmount Sound Set Folder” command from the
context menu.

NOTE: If attempting to unmount results in the error message “The Sound Set [Sound Set Name]
is still in use (# files open),” then an Instrument Preset from your Sound Set is still active. Open
the Instrument and click the down arrow in the tab in the upper left, then select “Remove.”
After unmounting, the icon will change back to the normal folder icon and the “Pack Sound
Set from Folder” function will be available again.

1. Right-click or CTRL+click on the folder you wish to pack and select “Pack Sound Set
from Folder.”

2. This will display the “Sound Set Properties” dialog. Verify the entered data one final
time for accuracy.

WARNING: Do not change the Identifier at this point, as this will break all tag
references and sample references.

3. Click “OK” to build the final .soundset file.

4. A progress bar will appear to show the packing progress.

Your Sound Set is now done!

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8 Pack Sound Set Studio One 6
Content Creation Guide

PreSonus recommends checking the finished Sound Set on a different computer in order
to make sure that all files and paths are intact and working. Since the files used to prepare
the Sound Set do not exist in the same location on a secondary computer, this is the most
reliable way to detect if samples were accidentally added to presets from folders that
were not mounted as a Sound Set. If so, they will trigger a “Missing Samples” error on the
secondary computer, when attempting to load an instrument preset.
After delivering the file to PreSonus, we will take care of the copy-protection and the file
encryption for publishing at the PreSonus Shop.

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 Dinner is Served

Added bonus: PreSonus’ previously Top Secret recipe for…

Red Beans and Rice
Ingredients:
• 1 lb dried Red Kidney Beans
• 1 large onion (diced)
• 3 celery stalks (diced)
• 1 large green bell pepper (diced)
• 6-8 C vegetable stock
• 1 Tbs. Old Bay seasoning
• ½ fresh parsley
• 2 tsp. kosher salt
• 2 Tbs. olive oil
• 1 smoked ham hock (optional)

Cooking instructions:

1. Rinse red beans in cold water.

2. In a pressure cooker, heat olive oil on medium high. Sauté onion, celery, bell pepper, beans, and ham hock (if using) until
onions are translucent.
3. Stir in Old Bay, parsley, and salt.
4. Add vegetable stock until beans and vegetables are covered.
5. Close pressure cooker and bring to full pressure on high heat.
6. Reduce heat to low while maintaining full pressure. Cook for 40 minutes.
7. Allow pressure to drop naturally (20-30 minutes).
8. Remove lid and crush with a potato masher until creamy.
9. Correct seasoning with salt and pepper if necessary.
10. Serve over rice with hot sauce and grilled Andouille sausage (optional).
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Be sure to check out www.presonus.com for the latest feature lists, compatibility, and computer requirements.
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