Studio One is now Fender Studio Pro 8, and Moises's AI stem tools are built in

Studio One no longer exists under that name. From 13 Jan 2026 the DAW PreSonus launched in 2009 is Fender Studio Pro, and the first release under the new name is version 8. Five months later, on 9 Jun 2026, Fender Studio Pro 8.1 built Moises Studio into the DAW: stem separation, stem generation and voice transformation, without leaving the session. Moises calls it the first major DAW to integrate its workflows natively.

The two releases are often blurred together, so it is worth keeping them apart. Version 8 was a guitar-flavoured rebrand. The AI layer from Moises arrived in 8.1.

What changed in version 8?

Fender has owned PreSonus since November 2021, as Synth Anatomy notes, and January was when the software caught up with the ownership. The headline additions are Fender's own: native Mustang and Rumble amp and effects plug-ins with 57 guitar and bass amp models, which are exclusive to Fender Studio and Fender Studio Pro. There is also a new Studio Verb reverb, updated Impact and Sample One samplers, an AI audio-to-note function, a Chord Assistant and a channel overview. Projects can move from the free Fender Studio app on iPad or iPhone to the desktop with their routing and effects intact, Sound On Sound reports.

Accounts moved from MyPreSonus to MyFender. The Quantum and AudioBox interfaces became Fender products, and PreSonus survives as a separate brand for monitors, mixers and loudspeakers.

Pricing did not change shape. Sound On Sound lists a $199.99 perpetual licence, $99.99 to upgrade, a $19.99 monthly subscription and $179.99 for a "Pro+ Annual Subscription Plus Perpetual" licence. MusicTech.blog's review calls version 8 "more refinement than revolution": no new virtual instruments and no changes to MIDI, pattern or clip-launching tools.

What did Moises add in 8.1?

Three things, according to Moises: separating a song into its parts, generating new parts from one of your own stems, and reshaping vocals with voice models. Moises says those voice models were built with real artists who are paid royalties when they are used. Mixdown reports that Fender says Moises trains on content licensed from independent labels and artists.

The quotas matter more than the feature list. Production Expert and Mixdown both report that every 8.1 user gets 10 audio stem separations, 120 stem generations and five voice conversions a month at no extra cost. Moises's own announcement describes a 14-day trial of Moises Pro features with no separate sign-up, and says existing Moises subscribers can sign in and use their plan inside the DAW. The release does not say what happens once the trial ends, beyond those monthly allowances.

8.1 also added Vocal Tune, a native pitch-correction plug-in, and Studio Assistant, a natural-language helper for production and mixing questions. Studio Assistant is in public beta and limited to Pro+ subscribers. 8.1 is included for Pro+ subscribers, perpetual licence holders and anyone who bought an upgrade in the previous 12 months, per Production Expert.

Didn't Studio One already separate stems?

Yes, and this is the detail most coverage skipped. Studio One Pro 7, released in October 2024, already had a built-in "un-mixing" feature that split audio into four stems. In 8.1 that native separation got faster and lighter on system resources, and Production Expert reports that it still runs on your own machine.

So 8.1 users now have two stem separators side by side: Fender's own, which runs locally, and Moises's, which comes with a monthly allowance of 10. Neither Fender nor Moises says where Moises processing happens. A capped monthly allowance, alongside sign-in to an existing Moises plan, suggests at least some of it runs on Moises's servers; we have not confirmed that.

What we think

This is a sensible deal for both companies, and a mostly good one for users, with one trend worth watching.

Fender gets a reason to stay in the DAW business. Version 8 on its own mostly strengthened the guitar side: amp models only Fender can brand, and a path from Fender's free mobile app to the paid desktop app. 8.1 gives the DAW an AI story it could not build quickly in-house, and it reaches beyond guitarists.

Moises gets distribution without having to build a DAW. Moises says it has more than 75 million users, but it lives in its own app. Being in the DAW turns it from a separate step into a menu item, and the 14-day Pro trial is plainly a funnel into Moises subscriptions.

The trend to watch is the metering. Unlike subscription-only DAWs, Studio Pro can still be bought outright for $199.99. The newest features in it, though, come as monthly allowances (10, 120 and five) and a subscriber-only assistant. That is a quiet change in what "owning" your DAW means. The core tools are yours, but the newest tools have a meter and depend on another company's service and pricing. If Moises changes its plans, those features change with it, and the release does not say what happens to allowances if the partnership ends.

For artists, the voice side is the part to read closely. Paying royalties to the artists behind the voice models is better than the scrape-first approach of much generative audio. But Moises's announcement gives no detail on consent terms or rates, and it is the artists whose voices are used, not the people using the DAW, who need those answers. If you release music that uses a converted vocal, keep a note of which model you used, so you can credit it honestly later.

AI assistance is moving inside DAWs rather than sitting in separate apps; Veena, a browser DAW with an AI co-producer, is one example of a tool built around that idea from the start. The practical advice for Studio Pro users: use the local separator for routine work and keep the 10 monthly Moises separations for when quality matters. Don't build a workflow around an allowance whose terms you didn't set.