New Music Gear Monday: Fender Studio Pro 8 Digital Audio Workstation

Many PreSonus users may not be aware that Fender purchased the company back in 2021. Since then it has slowly been incorporating PreSonus tech and products into its own product line, which really came to the fore with last year’s introduction of the Fender Studio DAW. Now the company has just about done away with the Presonus brand as it has premiered its Studio One Pro replacement, now called Fender Studio Pro 8. You’ll now also see a new line of Fender-branded audio interfaces, and now you know where they came from.

Fender Studio Pro 8 is actually the next evolution in the Studio Pro environment. It features an updated visual design, native Fender amp and effects audio plugins, a new channel overview, updated Impact and Sample One instruments, AI-powered audio-to-note conversion for layering sounds, and a new intelligent chord technology.

The good news is that despite a new updated look, the program is basically the same underneath the hood. The toolbar and transport bar have changed slightly, some icons look a little different, the location of some tools have been moved, and songs are now called sessions.

It’s still being developed by the same team in Hamburg, Germany, no features have been deleted, and it will open all the previous sessions done on Presonus Studio One.

New Features

While Studio One has always focused on ease-of-use for creatives instead of engineers, Fender’s version leans into it even more. The whole idea here is to get to creating fast, then get creative help when you need it.

For instance, some of the more exciting AI-assisted tools include the audio to MIDI convertor, the next-chord assistant, and stem separator.

And as you’d expect from Fender, its Mustang and Rumble Native plugins offer 57 guitar and bass amp models and hundreds of effects, which should be everything a guitar player could ever want. If you can’t find something that works in the track from what’s offered here, you probably don’t know what you’re looking for.

You will also find 9 virtual instrument, Splice integration, and 45 effects plugins included that support immersive mixing and Dolby Atmos, and much more.

All in all, this is a worthy update that Studio One users should love, although some creators may have a problem with the re-branded name.

Studio One Pro 8 has a perpetual license of $199, $99 for an upgrade, or $19.99 subscription charge. You can find out more here, or watch the video below.