Whenever I write a blog post with a downloadable FX Chain, it seems there are always questions about how to load it, save it, or use it. Well, there's no time like the present to consolidate a bunch of answers.
Artist vs. Pro
An FX Chain combines several effects, which for convenience, you can save and load as a single virtual multi-effects. For example, if you come up with a cool kick drum sound based on limiting, EQ, and saturation, you can save the combination of effects as an FX Chain. The next time you want that sound, instead of loading the three effects and tweaking them, just load the FX Chain.
Studio One Professional enhances FX Chains with the ability to bring out macro controls to a control panel (Fig. 1).
Figure 1: Control panel for the Vintage Tape Flanging FX Chain.
Macro controls are extremely powerful-they can control multiple parameters at once, as well as scale control ranges. If you have Artist and see that one of my FX Chains has a control panel, you can still tweak the parameters, but you'll have to do so at the chain's individual effects. Often, a lot of effort goes into programming the macro controls, so using these FX Chains in Artist can be a challenge. However, I do try to save FX Chains so that the default settings are useful, and may not require too much tweaking.
Where FX Chains Live
FX Chains are stored in two locations, but the Browser combines these. So, it appears there's only one place where FX Chains are stored. The factory default FX Chains are located in:
[Windows] C:\Program Files\PreSonus\Studio One 5\Presets\PreSonus\FX Chains
[macOS] Applications\Studio One 5 (right-click, and choose Show Package Contents)\Contents\Presets\PreSonus\FX Chains
The User Presets section in this location is for preferences like color schemes and such, not FX Chains. Don't store your custom FX Chains in the factory default location, because it's overwritten when you install a new version of Studio One. Instead, store your FX Chains in the location specified in the program's options for User Data. To find this location from within Studio One:
[Windows] Studio One > Options > Locations tab > User Data tab
[macOS] Studio One > Preferences > Locations tab > User Data tab
The default for the user data is:
[Windows] C:\Users\[user name]\Documents\Studio One\Presets\PreSonus
[macOS] Macintosh HD\Documents\Studio One\Presets\PreSonus
In either case, the PreSonus folder has a folder for user FX Chains. When you save an FX Chain (click on the down arrow to the right of Inserts ), you'll have the opportunity to save it to a particular folder. Any folders you created for your chains in User Data will be shown, and so will the factory default folders. However, if you save into what appears to be a factory default folder, like Drums, your preset will not go into that factory folder. Instead, it will be placed in a Drums folder in your user FX Chain folder (if a Drums folder doesn't exist in there, Studio One will create it). But remember, only one Drums folder will appear in the Browser, because it's smart enough to group together the default and user FX Chains from their respective folders.
Moving Your User Data
With either Windows or Mac, I prefer not to keep too much stuff on the main system drive. For example, with Windows I avoid saving to the C drive's Documents folder. I've dedicated drive D: to music, so everything relating to music-songs, projects, and custom presets-is in one place, for easy backup. So, I cut the Studio One folder from the default user location given above, pasted it at the root of my music drive, and re-directed the User Data tab in Studio One's Options [Windows] or Preferences [macOS] to this new location (Fig. 2).
Figure 2: All my user data is now in the Studio One folder at the root of my music drive.
For Windows, my custom FX Chains now live at:
D:\Studio One\Presets\PreSonus\FX Chains\CA Chains
Is that a User or Factory FX Chain?
If you're not sure whether an FX Chain is a factory one or a user one, right-click on the FX Chain and choose Show in Explorer [Windows], or Show in Finder [macOS]. You'll then see whether the FX Chain lives in your User Data folder, or the factory defaults folder.
How to Evaluate an FX Chain
You might not want to add one of my FX Chains to your permanent collection, unless you think it's something you'll use. To evaluate an FX Chain after downloading it, drag the chain from the download folder to a Channel, Bus, or FX Channel insert. Check it out and if you want to keep it, store it in your User Data folder, as described above.
Here's Where to Get My Friday Tip FX Chains
You won't have to go through years of blog posts anymore! Thanks to the unceasing efforts of Ryan Roullard and the web team to make life easier, they'll soon be posting my FX Chains on PreSonus Exchange, and you'll be able to drag and drop them into your Songs right from Studio One's Browser.
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Whenever I write a blog post with a downloadable FX Chain, it seems there are always questions about how to load it, save it, or use it. Well, there's no time like the present to consolidate a bunch of answers.
