Question

Let's say I drag an audio file from the pool into the arrangement and then bend it. Now let's say I need to drag in a second instance of that same audio file, and I need this one to be as-new, without any bend markers. Tough luck, I can't do it. If I drag in a second instance, it will have the same bend markers as the first.

This is madness. Who on earth would want this behaviour?? No other DAW works like this.

There isn't an option to copy things within the pool, so it seems my only option is to bounce the first instance within my arrangement, meaning I can't then fine-tune my bend markers at a later stage.

Is there another way to do this?

Answer 1

Since most DAWs do not duplicate each and every file upon import (which would result in unnecessarily large song project sizes in most cases), the current behavior is preferable for most users.

To workaround your issue, simply right click the file in the Pool and select "show in Explorer [Windows] / Show in Finder [Mac]". From there, duplicate the file with alt+drag. Reimport the duplicated file into your S1 Browser Pool (or directly into your song) via Drag & Drop.

Answer 2

Thanks for your response, Gregor. I appreciate you taking the time to answer, and that's a good workaround, although I still question this whole methodology.

I don't really understand why the bend markers have to be associated so permanently with the audio file. To my knowledge Studio One is the only DAW that works this way, and I certainly wouldn't agree that it's the most convenient way for most users. In Live, for example, the bend markers (OK, *warp* markers) are associated with the event (OK, *clip*) rather than the audio. All the information about the warping, timestretching, pitch-shifting etc. is contained in the event, and the event references the original audio, which is unaffected. You can have as many events as you like in your song, all referencing the same piece of audio and all doing different things with it. There's no need to duplicate anything, and each audio sample is only stored in the project once.

For music editors, like me, your workaround is going to double, treble, quadruple the size of every project compared to the same project in Live. It's also a lot slower and less convenient, and it goes against the whole ethos of Studio One's drag & drop functionality. So I'd like to keep this here as a feature request.

Answer 3

just bounce the event (before bending the first copy), that will generate a second audio file, so you can bend them independently.

this also works for Melodyne since ARA2 was introduced.

Answer 4

Thanks, Vasily. That's an even slicker workaround than Gregor's! Much appreciated.

It *is* still just a workaround, though. My job is to edit music, and every one of my projects contains several events referencing the same music sample. Many of them need to be retimed using bend markers. If I have to copy the audio file for every retimed event, each of my projects would end up several times bigger than it needs to be. My studio machines are synced via cloud storage, so bigger projects = higher costs, as well as longer upload times, slower archiving, more archiving space needed etc. etc. And that's not even looking at the unnecessary extra keypress or the potential confusion of having several identical audio files in your project.

If Studio One is to become the DAW of choice for nine-to-five pro audio professionals (and believe me, I want it to!), we do need bend markers to be independent of the audio files, as they are in other DAWs.