Studio One mix analysis — find what's wrong and how to fix it

Drop a bounce from Studio One and Unveil tells you why it isn't sounding pro yet — loudness, dynamics, tonal balance, phase, and frequency conflicts — then gives you fixes written for Studio One's own stock plugins. No third-party plugins to buy — just a free account to try it.

Studio One: the Song page and the Project page

Studio One splits work between two environments. The Song page is where you record, edit and mix. The Project page is a dedicated mastering environment where you collect finished mixes, apply final processing and run analysis. Knowing what belongs where saves you from the usual mistake of doing mastering moves on a mix bus and then wondering why the next song in the album doesn't match.

The Song page mixer shows peak meters on every channel, and the faders are labeled in dB. Studio One mixes in 32-bit floating point, so internal overs are not clipped, but 0 dBFS remains the hard boundary of the exported file.

Because the Project page can measure loudness and compare multiple songs on a common scale, it is a good place to decide whether a track is too quiet or loud relative to its neighbors before you spend more time on one song in isolation.

Fat Channel and the stock processors

Every channel in Studio One has a Fat Channel, a compact strip with a high-pass filter, gate/expander, compressor, EQ and limiter that you can switch between models. It is quick for corrective work and keeps the plug-in count down.

Pro EQ is the full parametric equalizer, with multiple bands, spectrum display and options for different filter shapes. Use it when you need more precision than the Fat Channel offers. Compressor is the standalone version, with attack, release, ratio and sidechain features. Limiter is the finishing device: a ceiling control and a threshold, with a gain-reduction display.

Level Meter is the useful one for analysis. It can show peak, RMS and LUFS readings, so you can place it on the main output and read integrated loudness. Its K-System scales are also helpful if you like to mix to a calibrated level. Compare the integrated figure with roughly -14 LUFS for Spotify and YouTube or roughly -16 LUFS for Apple Music.

Exporting mixdowns that you can trust

From the Song page, use Song, then Export Mixdown. Pick the Master Output as the source, WAV as the format, and select the bit depth. For a mix going to the Project page or to an engineer, 24-bit or 32-bit float is appropriate; a delivery file at 16-bit should have dither applied at the last stage.

If you intend to master in the Project page, export the mixes at the highest quality, with no limiter on the Main output, and let the Project page do the final-stage processing. If you are delivering the song straight from the Song page, add the Limiter at the end of the Main chain with a ceiling of -1.0 dB.

Check the export dialog for any options such as real-time processing or normalization and set them according to your purpose. For analysis, you want an unscaled file. Afterwards, import the file into a fresh song and compare its meter with the original.

Worked fix: mono-compatibility in the low end

Suppose analysis flags a wide low end: the stereo width below 100 Hz is high and the mix loses weight when summed to mono, which is how many phones, club systems and bluetooth speakers play it back.

1. Open Pro EQ on the bus where the problem lives, usually a synth or guitar group. Check whether the EQ offers a stereo or Mid/Side processing mode for the bands; if it does, use it.
2. Place a high-pass at 120 Hz on the Side component only, with a slope of 12 dB per octave or steeper. The center keeps its low end; only the sides lose it.
3. If your Pro EQ doesn't provide Mid/Side per band, use a separate stereo-width or mid/side utility ahead of it, or high-pass the wide parts on the individual tracks at 120 Hz instead.
4. Toggle the main output to mono, using the mono button on the channel or a mono-summing plug-in, and listen to bass and kick. If either drops by more than about 3 dB, widen the fix to 150 Hz.
5. Look at the Level Meter in mono and in stereo. The integrated loudness should be within about 1 LU; a bigger gap says phase cancellation remains.

Gain staging with Fat Channel in the loop

Because Fat Channel is built into every channel, it is easy to forget what is running. A gate, compressor and limiter in series on a vocal each change level, and the output fader sits after all of them. Check the order of the modules and the gain reduction on each, so that makeup gain does not accumulate into a surprise at the bus.

• Keep each channel's Fat Channel output moderate; a channel peaking at -12 to -10 dBFS before the fader leaves plenty of room.
• Bring the group buses to -8 dBFS or so before the main output, so the sum remains controllable.
• Reserve the Limiter on the Main output for the end of the process, not the beginning.

Common Studio One missteps

• Mastering on the Song page and then again on the Project page, doubling the limiting.
• Exporting a pre-master with the Main output limiter still engaged.
• Trusting a single loudness reading from a loop rather than the full song.
• Forgetting that Fat Channel modules can be bypassed individually; a bypassed EQ looks the same as an engaged one at a glance if you do not check the indicator lights.
• Treating mono-compatibility as a mastering fix; narrowing the low end is much cleaner during the mix.

Short checklist

Run a fresh measurement after any change so that the numbers reflect the file people will receive.

• Level Meter on the Main output; read over the whole song.
• Limiter ceiling at -1.0 dB for finals; no limiter on a pre-master.
• Low end narrowed below about 120 Hz and checked in mono.
• 24-bit or 32-bit float export for further work; dither only for 16-bit delivery.
• Imported export compared against the live mix.

What you get

• A 0–100 mix score with a per-metric breakdown (LUFS, true peak, dynamic range, stereo, tonal balance).
• Time-localized frequency conflicts — the exact moment and band where elements collide.
• Step-by-step fixes using Pro EQ, Compressor, and Limiter — e.g. a corrective Pro EQ band at the flagged frequency.
• Genre-aware targets so a trap bounce isn't judged against an acoustic record.

Questions

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