It may seem like a gimmick but the idea of using your Apple Watch to control some the basic functions in Studio One is smart, especially of you are sitting with a guitar, keyboard or drum kit across your studio and working alone and need to record or play from that point.

I was tipped off by Logic Pro Expert Editor, Eli about to a new app called MidiWrist that allows you to control transport and other functions in Studio One and costs just £4.99, I downloaded it just to see if it was any use, and I have to say I’m hooked.So here’s how to set it up in Studio One on a Mac. I’m not sure if it’s possible on a Windows PC, if you know how to do it then let us know in the comments.

What Need To Control Studio One From An Apple Watch On A Mac

• Apple Mac with Bluetooth

• Apple iPhone

• Apple Watch

• Studio One

• MidiWrist - Download it here for £4.99/$4.99

Set Up The Mac

To ensure you can receive MIDI over bluetooth you need to set it up on the Mac.

Open Audio Midi Setup on you Mac. Then go to Window show MIDI Studio and hit the Bluetooth to ensure you have a connection between your iPhone and your Mac. Once you see a Bluetooth Icon with the name of the phone then double clicking on that icon allows you to choose what properties to assign to the interface.To be safe I just turned most things on. I didn’t bother with any of the clocking options as they are not used.

Set Up Studio One

To set up Studio One there is a handy guide on the PreSonus website MIDI: Transport Control Assignment & MIDI Learn that walks you through it.

As that guide shows you need to set up an External Device for MMC Transport and one for other MIDI Commands. Once you set up the External Device for MMC there is nothing more to do in Studio One, however for the other MIDI Commands you also then have to get Studio One to learn each command from your iPhone/Apple Watch.

There’s a helpful guide on the MidiWrist website, but it can take a little while to figure out all the behind the scenes connectivity settings for the iPhone/Watch and your Mac, but it’s worth persevering.

Summary

It took me about 20 minutes to set up the Mac, iPhone and Apple Watch and once I’d grasped the concepts of the app and using MIDI over Bluetooth on the Mac, I was able to not only set up transport controls but also custom map other useful functions on the watch such as Click on and off, Loop on and off, Save and show/hide Console. Being fully customisable you can choose what suits your workflow.

This isn’t really a review but I spent £4.99 thinking what have I got to lose? It seems the bet paid off and has now given me the most useful musical app to date on my Apple Watch.

Find out more about MidiWrist here.