In 1990, five years before PreSonus launched, PreSonus cofounder and president Jim Odom was in the business of making records the good ol’ fashioned way: 2-inch analog tape, racks of analog outboard gear, tons of knobs, and plenty of blood, sweat, and faders. One of the bands Jim produced was called Func Haus, an amazing power trio from Baton Rouge. They are still rockin’ today, BTW.

In the YouTube clip above, you’ll spot a long-haired, cigarette-smoking, not-yet PreSonus-cofounder-and-president Jim Odom, engineering the Desert Sky album for Func Haus. Thanks to Wendell Tilley for this rare glimpse into some of the formative days of PreSonus Audio Electronics!

Today is a really special Freebie Friday, as Hamburg Audio has created a version of their awesome NUKLEAR synth just for Studio One users called NUKLEAR SOLO. The latest version of NUKLEAR has automatic host detection, and needs no further registration, nor activation. If you’re running Studio One (Producer or Professional), just install and have fun!

Click here to visit Hamburg Audio and download NUKLEAR.

They’ve also just released the new free Protonica Soundset for NUKLEAR, adding 32 handcrafted presets by Piet Kaempfer from the progressive trance artists Protonica.

And to cap it all off, Studio One users can upgrade to the polyphonic version of NUKLEAR for only €89! For this, just send an email to solo@hamburg-audio.com, including a Studio One Song file with one instance of NUKLEAR before or after purchasing.

What a week for Studio One- 2.0.5 release and the introduction of Studio One Free, and now this. Thanks, Hamburg Audio, for making our Friday even better!

Clear trophies don't photograph very well.

Three out of three ain’t bad!  At this year’s Frankfurt Musikmesse, the StudioLive 16.0.2 won the Musikmesse International Press Award (MIPA) in the category “Mixing Desk (Project Studio).”

History repeats itself… the StudioLive 16.4.2 won the same award in 2010, and the StudioLive 24.4.2 won it in 2011.

Big thanks to the powers that be for their support and recognition of the StudioLive family.

Here’s just a few of the updates in Studio One v. 2.0.5… click through to the Studio One site below for the full list of updates!

• Ampire™ XT amp models were reworked for better sound
• Any command can now be assigned to any MIDI CC message.
• Markers have a Stop flag that stops playback at the marker.
• Manual now available in German, Japanese, Spanish, and French
• Exchange and Sound Set Builder now supported in Artist version

For more:
Studio One 2.0.5 update: http://ow.ly/aeMCH

GET STUDIO ONE FREE: http://ow.ly/aeMJC

We just wrapped up a video we’re pretty proud of… take a look at Storyheights Church in Boston, MA. These guys have chosen the StudioLive 16.0.2 for their mobile worship services, and are taking advantage of a diverse array of features… Capture, QMix, StudioLive Remote… these guys are really using the StudioLive to its fullest.

Paul, our video guy, has been acquainted with StoryHeights’ pastor, Tyler Tullos for some time now. Tyler was a youth pastor at Healing Place Church down in Baton Rouge, right in PreSonus’ neighborhood. Tyler moved to Boston about a year ago and set up StoryHeights. They were having great success with the StudioLive 16.0.2 when we touched base with them, so we figured “Heck, let’s fly Paul out there to document their story.” Whatcha see here is the result.

Tyler and company, thanks much for choosing the StudioLive 16.0.2, and for spreading our gospel along with yours. Cheers to you!

Big thanks and a firm handshake to Live2PlayNetwork for this vid. Ken Rengering grabs us by the ear and takes us through his StudioLive 24.4.2‘s workaday rigamaroll. This vid offers a worm’s eye real-deal look at applications for the StudioLive in a live setting. Ken shows us his tricks of choice, using the 24.4.2’s effects functions and routing both creatively and functionally.

All this hands-on know-how is set against the cozy, familiar backdrop of setup racket and roadie-yammer that any live engineer can relate to; an informative romp through the trenches. Thanks guys!

Perhaps “Transforming Audio” isn’t the ideal nomenclature. In the DAW sense, “Transforming” is all about rendering your malleable, time-stretched, VST-, reverb- and Melodyne-saturated audio track down to a single, elegant WAV. Draw parallells less with Optimus Prime turning into a truck and more with flattening layers in Photoshop.

Transform your audio once you’ve dialed in the effects to juuuuust the way you like them—this process frees up your rapidly aging CPU from thinking about all those heady, pitch-shifty convolution-reverberizing plugins you threw at it. Freeing up RAM in this way means you can apply heady pitch-shifty convolution-reverberizing plugins to some other track. Or you can transform to MIDI.

Fortunately, if you checkmark the right li’l boxes, Transformation is non-destructive. If you’re unhappy with the changes you’ve committed to, you can always bring it back to the way it was before, much unlike my relationships with women.

Our dudes over at Obedia stay busy. Visit them!

Learn about Electronic Music Production in Studio One, starring Florian Veer! 2pm CST / 3pm EST / Noon PST / 9:00 GMT!

http://www.presonus.com/community/presonuslive/

Vigilante touring the US and more soon!

PreSonus industrial artist Vigilante is touring the US very soon, moving on to Russia, Prague, and Czech Republic at the end of the tour! Catch them if they come through your area…

VIGILANTE “REVOLUTION IS NOW!” WORLWIDE TOUR 2012

05 May / Philadelphia,PA / USA / @ Shampoo Nightclub (Show / DJ Set

(http://www.facebook.com/events/295807607153284)

10 May / Pittsburgh,PA / USA / @ The Garfield Artworks (Show) (http://www.facebook.com/events/243904229037028)

11 May / Columbus,OH / USA / @ TBA (Show)

12 May / Indianapolis,IN / USA / @ TBA (Show)

13 May / Dayton, OH / USA / @ TBA (Show)

14 May / St Louis, MO / USA @ The Crack Fox (Show) (http://www.facebook.com/events/169640253150712)

15 May / Kansas, MO / USA @ TBA (Show)

16 May / Omaha, NB / USA @ The Hideout (Show) (http://www.facebook.com/events/382546328429208)

18 May / Colorado Springs, CO / USA @ Subterranean Night Club (DJ Set) (http://www.facebook.com/events/395643973779048)

19 May / Denver, CO / USA / @ Benders Tavern (Show) (http://www.facebook.com/events/285203628220004)

21 May / Albuquerque, NM / USA / @ TBA (DJ Set)

01 June / Baltimore, MD / USA / @ Club Orpheus (DJ Set)

02 June / New York, NY / USA / @ Pyramid Club (DJ Set)13 July / Moscow / Russia / @ TBA (Show)

14 July / Nizhny Novgorod / Russia / @ TBA (Show)

27 July / Bolków / Poland / @ Castle Party festival (Show) (http://www.facebook.com/events/114046671981798)

28 Sept / Prague / Czech Republic / Rock Cafe (Show)

More after the jump.