Studio One is now Fender Studio Pro: what changed for owners and new buyers

It is the same DAW under a new name. On 13 January 2026 Fender, which bought PreSonus in 2021, renamed Studio One Pro as Fender Studio Pro and numbered the release version 8. Sound On Sound's review found nothing worth mentioning had been lost in the move. What changed is the account you log into, the price list, the look of the interface, and a set of Fender amp models and AI tools added on top. If you own Studio One Pro 7, check whether you already qualify for version 8 free before you pay for anything.

What actually changed on 13 January

Sound On Sound's launch report lists three renames. Studio One Pro became Fender Studio Pro, the Quantum interfaces became the Fender Quantum Series, and AudioBox Go became Fender AudioBox Go. MyPreSonus, the account where your licences and downloads lived, was replaced by MyFender at my.fender.com. The PreSonus name stays on the Eris monitors, StudioLive mixers and Air loudspeakers, which Fender says keep full support and updates.

Version 8 itself added a redesigned interface, Channel and Arrangement Overviews for seeing the whole session at once, updated Sample One and Impact samplers, audio-to-note conversion and a Chord Assistant. The headline addition is Fender's Mustang Guitar and Rumble Bass plugins, which Fender's product page puts at 39 guitar amps, 39 bass amps and 73 pedal effects.

Robin Vincent's review for Sound On Sound in March 2026 called it mainly a rebrand, with welcome interface changes and guitar-focused additions that may not justify the upgrade for anyone who does not play guitar. His two complaints were practical. The new Channel Overview cannot be resized and takes up the bottom third of the screen. And the name change cuts the software off from close to twenty years of tutorials, videos and forum threads filed under Studio One. Those older tutorials still apply, so search for the Studio One name plus the feature you want and you will find far more help than searching for Studio Pro.

What it costs in the UK

Fender prices are from Fender's UK shop and Thomann prices from its UK site, both checked on 30 September 2026. The £89.99 Fender upgrade figure is the launch price from Sound On Sound's report, because Fender's shop only shows upgrade pricing once you log in.

Thomann undercuts Fender on both the full licence and the upgrade, and sells them as keys by email. The crossgrade is the one worth knowing about if you own an old copy of another DAW: £121 against £156 for the full licence. Thomann's crossgrade page lists 15 qualifying DAWs, including Ableton Live 9, Bitwig Studio 2, Reaper 5 and Pro Tools 11 or later.

The update model is the same one Studio One used. A perpetual licence includes 12 months of new feature releases, and you keep whatever you received when the year runs out. Bitwig works the same way, as our Bitwig and Ableton comparison covers. FL Studio is the main DAW that still gives lifetime free updates, so budget for a paid upgrade every year or two with Studio Pro if you want the new features.

If you already own Studio One

Studio One Pro 7

Fender's support page says you are eligible for Fender Studio Pro at no charge if you have an active subscription, or a Studio One Pro 7 licence within its Extended Support Date. To find that date, log in at my.fender.com, go to My Gear and click the Studio One 7 Professional icon. If the date has passed, the same page has an Extend link to buy more time, and it is worth comparing that price against the £77 upgrade key.

Studio One 6 or older, and Artist

You need the paid upgrade. Fender's product page says discounted upgrades are open to previous Studio One Professional and legacy Artist owners, and Thomann's upgrade key accepts registered Artist, Producer and Professional licences. PreSonus retired Artist with version 7, as Sound On Sound's Studio One Pro 7 review covered, and a lot of Artist licences came free with PreSonus interfaces. If you have one sitting in an old account, £77 turns it into the full DAW.

Fender's upgrade instructions are short. Log in at my.fender.com, open My Gear, choose Recording Software, click the Studio One product you own, click Upgrade and enter the key. Studio Pro 8 then appears in the account ready to download.

Studio One Prime

The free Prime edition does not qualify. Fender's product page says upgrades do not apply to demo or free versions, and names Prime. Fender's free option now is the Fender Studio app, which runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android. Bedroom Producers Blog's write-up found 8 tracks out of the box and 16 once you register a free account, which also unlocks MP3 export. It records audio only, with no MIDI or virtual instruments, so it is a sketchpad for guitar and vocal ideas rather than a replacement for Prime. Sound On Sound's launch report says its projects move across to Fender Studio Pro.

Do old licences still activate?

Fender has not announced any date for switching off older versions, and your Studio One licences now sit under My Gear at my.fender.com, where the upgrade process expects to find them. A perpetual licence is yours to keep. The sensible precaution with any DAW whose owner has changed its name is to download the installer for the version you use now and keep it alongside your product key, so a future website change does not leave you without a copy.

What the 8.1 update added, and what needs a subscription

Version 8.1 came out on 9 June 2026, per Premier Guitar. Production Expert reported it as included for Pro+ subscribers and for anyone with a perpetual licence or upgrade bought within the past 12 months. It added four things.

• Vocal Tune, a native pitch correction plugin that runs from light, transparent correction to obvious formant-shifted effects.
• Pitch Curves on audio events, which let you draw pitch bends and corrections onto audio the way you draw automation.
• Moises Studio integration for stem separation, voice conversion and generating backing parts from existing recordings. Every 8.1 user gets 10 stem separations, 120 stem generations and five voice conversions a month at no extra cost. Fender's own built-in stem separation was also improved and uses fewer system resources.
• Studio Assistant, an AI help panel that answers questions about features and troubleshooting from Fender's manual and knowledge base. It is a public beta for Pro+ subscribers only.

So a perpetual owner gets everything in 8.1 except Studio Assistant. Fender's Studio Assistant support page says your conversations are not used to train AI models, that it only contacts Fender's servers when you ask it something, and that it can see limited session details such as your audio device, sample rate, tempo, key and track count. Read the Moises terms before relying on the monthly allowance: one Thomann UK reviewer in June called the voice tools little more than a trial, while Fender and the trade press describe a monthly allowance and give no end date.

One integration carried over from Studio One: Splice samples can be browsed inside the DAW and play back synced to your project's key and tempo, the same kind of tie-in Ableton added in Live 12.3.

The hardware that comes with it

Fender's new interfaces are the three-model Quantum LT series and the AudioBox Go. Mixdown's launch coverage gives the Quantum LT range 75 dB of preamp gain and loopback routing, with the LT 16 adding eight combo mic inputs, MIDI and DC-coupled outputs for modular synths. The AudioBox Go is a bus-powered 2-in, 2-out box. Sound On Sound's launch report lists a £129.99 upgrade for AudioBox and Quantum LT owners to turn the six-month demo that comes with the hardware into a perpetual licence.

The Motion 16 and Motion 32 pad controllers arrived in August, and MusicRadar reports that both include a full perpetual Studio Pro licence. That makes them the cheapest route to the DAW if you wanted a pad controller anyway. Older PreSonus interfaces are a different story: the Studio 24c now ships with a six-month trial rather than the perpetual Artist licence older reviews describe, which our audio interface guide covers.

Should a new buyer pick it

It is a strong DAW for recording. It has a linear timeline for tracking bands and vocals, a Launcher for clip-based ideas, a dedicated Mastering page and a Show page for playing live with backing tracks. The Fender amp models make it an easy choice for a guitarist who records at home. Thomann lists Windows 10 64-bit or macOS 13.5 and later, with 8GB of RAM and 40GB of disk space, and five activations per licence.

The case against is learning material. None of the schools or platforms in our directory lists Studio One or Studio Pro as a teaching DAW; Ableton Live and Logic Pro come up far more. If you plan to take a course, buy the DAW the course uses. Our guide to choosing a first DAW covers the wider field.

• Studio One Pro 7 owner inside your update window: claim version 8 free at my.fender.com.
• Older Studio One or Artist owner: the £77 upgrade key from Thomann UK.
• Guitarist setting up a home studio: the £156 perpetual licence from Thomann, or a Motion controller if you want pads as well.
• Owner of an old copy of another DAW: the £121 crossgrade.
• Planning to take a course: match the course's DAW first.
• Just curious: the free Fender Studio app, bearing in mind it is audio only.