Mapping Another Program's Shortcuts to Studio One

Studio One comes with keyboard shortcut mappings for Cubase, Logic, and Pro Tools, so those switching to Studio One can use the keyboard shortcuts with which they're familiar-as well as navigate the trial version without having to learn a lot of new shortcuts. To add to that list, I mapped Sonar's shortcuts to Studio One; these mappings are included as an alternate key scheme in the most recent update. What I learned in the process might be useful if you want to create mappings for a program you were using prior to migrating to Studio One.

Spoiler alert: Ultimately I think it's best to learn Studio One's keyboard shortcuts unless you use multiple DAWs and don't want your brain to explode learning all the variations. Many of Sonar's shortcuts are based on the traditional Windows approach of using control keys to navigate quickly through menus rather than calling up functions directly. Also, many functions for which Sonar has few or no keyboard shortcuts (e.g., automation) have shortcuts in Studio One, and assigning some shortcuts to Sonar can overwrite useful Studio One shortcuts, so you need to create a new shortcut for any you remove. For example, Studio One's reverse audio shortcut is Ctrl R-the same as Sonar's shortcut to refresh the Media Browser. A Sonar user will more likely want the refresh function, although that means creating a new shortcut for reverse audio.

Another example is for Sonar users who miss its ProChannel. Yet Studio One has a functionally similar Console feature when you open the channel-you see what effects are inserted, and a thumbnail of their settings. So I mapped Studio One's Open Channel to Ctrl I (the screenshot shows assigning this in the process of creating the key scheme), Sonar's shortcut for opening the ProChannel. Although this overwrote Studio One's shortcut for Invert Selection, I think Sonar users will be willing to sacrifice Invert Selection for having something similar to opening up the ProChannel. The shortcut I is another conflict, which opens Sonar's Inspector. In Studio One, I enables auto-punch, which you can also enable by clicking on a transport button-but since Sonar users have always enabled auto-punch via a Control Bar button anyway, it made sense to give up I for the Inspector.

Then there are the design differences. For inserting effects in clips (Events), Sonar includes an FX rack that behaves like the one in its Track or Console view. In Studio One, the equivalent appears in the Event's Inspector. However, having already mapped a Sonar shortcut to open the Inspector, I assigned Studio One's Insert Event FX to Sonar's Open Clip FX Rack shortcut. Sonar users can use that to insert an Event FX quickly, and hopefully they'll realize they can open up the Inspector to see all the options for Event FX.

Nudge is another example of accommodating a common Sonar function. In Studio One, the number keypad is more for navigation and marker recall and with Sonar, nudge operations. So I assigned Sonar's greatest hits nudge functions to the keypad.

Then again, sometimes you get lucky. For example, Studio One's Audio Bend panel relates to what Sonar's AudioSnap does, so I just assigned the AudioSnap shortcut to it. And while there's a shortcut to hide selected tracks in Studio One, I find Studio One's Track List the most convenient way to manage track hide/show. Sonar's Track Manager handles show/hide well, so I used its shortcut to open the Track List. Another sneaky trick is that

Studio One doesn't have a dedicated Navigator pane like Sonar, but if you reduce the track heights to the absolute minimum, the visual representation of a song is very similar.

Studio One doesn't have screensets per se, but the five Console Scenes for which shortcuts exist are similar, so I assigned number keys 1-5 (which Sonar uses for screensets) to the scenes. Only problem is the tool shortcuts also use number keys, so I changed them to Ctrl Shift [function key] because Sonar users are familiar with using function keys to call up tools.

Finally, note that Sonar has many functions that aren't assigned to default keyboard shortcuts, yet some of these functions do have default keyboard shortcuts in Studio One. So if you've created your own custom shortcuts in Sonar or another DAW, if Studio One has a similar function it may already have a default shortcut. If not, you can create similar (if not identical) custom shortcuts in Studio One. Another nice touch: When you open the list of keyboard shortcuts from Help, they reflect whichever mapping you've chosen-not just the Studio One defaults. And don't forget you can create Macros to re-create another DAW's workflow in Studio One, and then assign the Macro to a shortcut.

Still, after spending way too many hours going over the similarities and differences between Sonar's and Studio One's keyboard shortcuts, I have to say that I'll be learning Studio One's shortcuts. It's clear a lot of thought went into choosing and assigning them, so I believe a little effort spent now will save a lot of time overall. My recommendation for learning shortcuts is to print out the list, and learn a new one every few days-you won't regret it.

Click here for further notes on Sonar's Shortcut Mappings in Studio One. [PDF]

LINK:	http://blog.presonus.com/index.php/2018/02/02/mapping-another-programs...
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