Tutorial Using Piapro Studio's Output Channels

I learned about this technique from a comment @Cyana made--thanks so much! I did some further digging to see how to do this in Studio One, since it's the DAW I use (see the Piapro website's discussion for what looks like an older version of Studio One); the general approach will work in other DAWs too, though. It should also work for other similar instruments, such as Kontakt, which can host multiple instruments at the same time on different output channels.

We're all probably accustomed to dragging various VST/other kinds of effects onto our tracks in our DAWs in order to make them sound different. In the case of an instrument like Piapro Studio, which can host multiple Vocaloid voices simultaneously in the same track, you need to do something a little different in order to apply different effects to each voice. You need to use output channels.

Doing this requires setting each track to output to a separate output channel in Piapro Studio and then creating a bus channel to receive from each of these output channels in Studio One.

Piapro Studio
Each track in Piapro Studio will have one of 16 number buttons selected. These buttons represent which of the 16 possible output channels a track is using. To see the number buttons, double click on a track to view the full list of editable parameters. The buttons are at the bottom of the list, under Out Channel.

Your first track will automatically have output channel 1 selected. To put subsequent tracks on a different output channel, click one of the buttons 2-16 below those tracks to choose a different channel.

Studio One
For Studio One to be able to play back the output from an output channel in Piapro, a bus channel needs to be created to listen to that output channel's signal. (Indeed, while the first track you create in Piapro will be set up on output channel 1 and Studio One will automatically map it up to a corresponding bus channel, subsequent tracks will need to be set up manually if you want to use an output channel for them other than 1.)

To set up a bus for output channel 2 (or subsequent ones):

1. Click Mix (lower right corner of Studio One)
2. Click Piapro Studio in the list of instruments. A list of the available channels with checkboxes will appear next to it (There may/may not be some lag before this list appears--give it a few seconds.). By default, only Output Bus[1] -> Out will be checked. To the right, you'll see that there is a bus (a column with a fader on it, and sections above it labeled Inserts and Sends).
3. In the list of available channels, check the checkbox next to any additional channels you want to use. I.e., for channel 2, check the box that says Output Bus[2] -> Out. You will see that next to the original bus for Piapro Studio, a new bus will appear labeled Output Bus[2].

With the new bus channel created, you can do things like

• Hear the singer who is singing on bus channel 2.
• Add effector VSTs into the Inserts area of the new bus channel.
• Adjust the new bus channel's volume (and, by extension, the volume of the corresponding track in Piapro Studio) independently of the original Piapro Studio track.
• Mute either bus/Piapro track independently.