Fender Studio Pro 8

Is this the DAW every guitarist has been waiting for?

- PHIL WELLER

ALTHOUGH IT HAS owned PreSonus since 2021, Fender's consolidation of the affordable gear and software firm - rebranding its DAW, PreSonus Studio One Pro, as Fender Studio Pro 8 - marks the Big F's boldest statement of intent yet. Following the October 2024 launch of Studio One 7, which introduced AI-powered tools like stem separation, Global Transpose and tempo detection, Fender Studio Pro 8 gets a clean aesthetic and workflow refresh, along with other key features, including Studio Verb, a reverb effect with different room modes and a spectral display. Biggest of all? Amp and effects models drawn from Fender's Tone Master Pro.

There's also a great consideration for how the software (available for MacOS and Windows) will be used with every session. Chord Assistant is another new tool, recommending chords to users as they thrash out ideas, which will be welcome news to those with second-rate theory knowledge, and an AI conversion tool for turning audio files (be they recorded or imported) into editable MIDI notes, and notation software making for a powerful one-stop shop.

Fender's modus operandi with Studio Pro 8 is for a DAW ecosystem that puts the guitar at its heart, and so pretty much every detail is built with that in mind. The general workflow leverages a signal chain-like system, with its new Channel Overview panel, giving a snapshot of what's going on.