Most DAWs offer us everything we could possibly ever need to produce world class mixes, but for the recording musician or producer, the process begins before we press record and after we hit export. PreSonus claim to give us everything we need from end-to-end. We investigate…

Where A DAW Begins And Ends

Many of us run more than one DAW, and most of us have a main one. This can be due to functionality, familiarity, or both. For the recording musician or producer, the need for specialist virtual instruments, compositional tools, and community learning and support quickly becomes apparent in even the most generously-equipped DAW.

Beyond The DAW

Before we even fire up our DAW, many musicians and producers will have the flash of inspiration for a song or composition that might start with a walk in the park, ending with an instrument in a scratch session or just a pen and paper. Having an extended palette of performance effects such as guitar stomp boxes or interesting virtual instruments to play with also makes the whole process more fun and inspiring. Should that idea turn into a full-blown production, many DAWs lack the depth or quality of orchestral content to produce decent mockups to get the idea across to a professional arranger.

What Is PreSonus Sphere?

Bringing all of these elements together is PreSonus Sphere. Essentially it is a subscription-based plan which gives you absolutely everything you need to navigate a project from end-to-end, either side of the DAW itself. Naturally, it does include the company’s world-class DAW, Studio One.

The package gets you Studio One Professional, Notion, and nearly all PreSonus’ music creation software. You also get a library of master class videos, collaboration tools, monthly live streams, exclusive Studio One features, industry veteran-authored presets, and tons of loop and construction kit content that is constantly updated. PreSonus promise no hidden fees or additional upgrade costs.

When it comes to working with notation yourself, it’s possible for some writers to quickly outgrow their DAW’s score editing and export functionality. Particularly useful is Notion’s ability to receive a note or audio data from Studio One which can be streamed between applications or even over a network. Third-party DAW support is also offered with ReWire real-time synced audio and MIDI exchange as well. Notion also lets you make handwritten tweaks on Mac, Windows or iOS devices, with input being transcribed into the score instantly. For film score work, the video window functionality lets the composer view footage and mark hitpoints as well.

The Complete Package?

Not only does PreSonus Sphere bring together all of the PreSonus instruments and audio functionality, but also it brings users closer to other PreSonus Sphere members via its Workspaces and Community allowing collaboration and feedback from others, although you can remain anonymous if that’s your thing. As well as giving us some incredibly powerful compositional tools, also worth mentioning is the live streams that feature PreSonus specialists including Gregor Beyerle who knows the platform inside and out as the face of Studio One on YouTube.

If we’re talking about taking an embryonic idea, to end up with a fully orchestrated magnum opus, PreSonus Sphere has it covered offering something unique that is the closest thing to a complete music production solution right now.