PreSonus Blog

Monthly Archives: June 2013


Studio Channel and AudioBox Studio Reviews from 2INFAMOUZ

Ayron over at 2INFAMOUZ recently posted a couple great reviews of the AudioBox Studio and the Studio Channel. His AudioBox Studio review is particularly nice, as he breaks down every component of the package, including the M7 microphone and HD7 headphones.

Here’s some highlights:

“You’re not going to find a better deal than the Audiobox Studio when it comes to a low budget recording package. This package includes everything required to start recording at home, and it’s all superior to other products in the price range.” 

“The Studio Channel’s class A vacuum tube preamp provides you with a handful of different settings and parameters to bring vocal recordings to life… you couldn’t ask for much more in a preamp. The fact that the PreSonus Studio Channel is only around $250 is incredible.”

Thanks, Ayron!

2INFAMOUZ also boasts some great tutorials on production, mixing, and mastering that are definitely worth a read!

Click through to check out the reviews for yourself:

 

 

#TeamPreSonus Spotlight: Johhny ‘TheMuzic’ Geib!

[We decided it best to give some recognition to our more vocal advocates—and what better way than via a blog series?]

Who are you, where are you, and what do you do?

My name is Johnny Geib and I live in Wheeling IL, 24 miles northwest of downtown Chicago. I work 3rd shift for a company contracted by the IL Tollway to do maintenance and systems support of their Toll Collections systems. 45+ hours a week and never a dull moment. Part time, I run a home-based recording facility for both clients and my own music, and have been doing so for more than 25 years. I started out with a 4-track Tascam, then a Fostex Open Reel 8 track, graduated to a VS2480 in 1998 and Akai DPS24 a year later.

 
How were you introduced to PreSonus?

I was a Cubase\Nuendo user from 2003 till I discovered Studio One 1.0 when I bought a Firestudio Mobile. I used the FS Mobile with Cubase and a FaderPort till I upgraded to Cubase 5. The update was a disaster and put me out of business for a month. That’s when I remembered the free copy of Studio One Artist that came with my FS Mobile. Since I had to get something done while I waited for tech support to get back to me, I installed Studio One Artist and was totally blown away. I was recording and mixing within an hour and saved two clients that were ready to walk because of the delay. From that point, I never looked back and purchased Studio One Professional that following Friday. I have been a PreSonus fan boy since. And now, with PreSonus making studio monitors, my studio is about 95% PreSonus!

 
What PreSonus software/hardware do you use and for what purpose?

Well, not sure you’ll have room for this list in the blog but here goes: Studio One 2.5.2, Capture, Monitor Station, FaderPort, Audiobox 22VSL, AudioBox 1818VSL, Studio Channel, FireStudio Tube, FireStudio Mobile, HP-60 headphone amp, Eris E5 monitors, two M7 mics, two SD7 mics, three HD7 headphones, DIGITube and a StudioLive 16.4.2!
 
What’s so great about PreSonus, anyhow?
Presonus gear and software together just works!!! If you have Studio One, you know ANYTHING PreSonus will work with it. There’s a template or a preset for everything. Nearly zero setup time, great tech support and simply the best users forum in the universe. PreSonus’ techs actually read it and even post solutions for anyone having problems with any PreSonus gear and software. I’ve had the pleasure of attending a PreSonuSphere conference and actually sat down with several PreSonus staff members and they are simply the greatest collection of people that I’ve ever met.
 
Where can our readers learn more about you online?
My main website is www.homestudiotrainer.com where I train people how to setup their own home studios (and yes, Studio One is the main DAW) and many of my own songs, all recorded and produced in S1, can be found at https://soundcloud.com/johnny-geib.
Lastly, My Twitter ID is @JohnnyThemuzic. Thanks for the opportunity to share this! You can find me on the Studio One forums with the “Bat” avatar as themuzic!

Video: StudioLive 32.4.2AI Mixer & StudioLive AI PA Loudspeaker Demonstrations at InfoComm 2013

Here’s Rick Naqvi with the latest and greatest from PreSonus at InfoComm 2013! He shares some insights on our new StudioLive 32.4.2AI digital mixer and the StudioLive AI PA loudspeakers.

Polyrhythms Demystified

Look, there’s no two ways around it—polyrhythms are HARD. Playing one beat at a time is difficult enough for some folks, but how about playing a three-count beat with your left hand and a simultaneous four-count beat on the right? Moving on to other time signatures, particularly in odd meter, doesn’t just add to the difficulty—it multiplies.

Until today, I had never before seen such a lucid, impressive, and concise demonstration of polyrhythms as robertinventor has assembled on his YouTube channel. His expertly-crafted visuals (created with his own software, Bounce Metronome) drive home the timing in a much more digestible manner than the best drummer you know may be capable of. All of these videos begin at a slow tempo and gradually accelerate. Play along!

The playlist embedded above has some of the more rudimentary demonstrations robertinventor offers. Once you’ve picked your jaw up off the floor and are ready to move forward,  I strongly recommend checking out the rest of his channel for a look at more advanced, esoteric polyrhythmic concepts, including syncopated harmonic polyrhythms, sonified pendulum waves, and my personal favorite, the Inharmonic “Golden Rhythmicon” Fibonacci Sequence.

 

 

PreSonus LIVE – Straight outta Orlando!

Join us for PreSonus LIVE today – straight from InfoComm Show in Orlando! We’ll be showing off the StudioLive 32.4.2AI!

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

 

InfoComm 2013

It’s that time of year again! We flew out to Orlando to set up a booth and showcase our latest and greatest! More pics to come…

 

#TeamPreSonus Spotlight: Eric Peterson of Rust Magazine!

[We decided it best to give some recognition to our more vocal advocates—and what better way than via a blog series?]

Who are you, where are you, and what do you do?

Hello, I am Eric Petersen, head writer and publisher of RUST Magazine which focuses on writing thorough reviews and doing interviews of emerging artists, mostly in the indie rock space. I’m also DJ Slack, and at my events I play a mix of the new music that comes to me at RUST plus vintage vinyl from thrift stores and garage sales. A typical night with me on the decks mixes punk rock, scratchy old lounge LP’s and fresh new music.

  
How were you introduced to PreSonus? 
Recently I picked up a BlueTube DP V2 to add analog warmth to my DJ kit sound. It worked so great, I reached out to PreSonus to get more involved with their family. 

 
 
Tell us how you use your BlueTube DP V2! 
I use a BlueTube DP V2 as the very last piece of equipment on my signal path for the purpose of adding strength and personality to my sound. Not only is most of the music I play digital, but there’s even a second digitizing EQ along the chain. Adding the BlueTube DP V2 allows me to “warm up” the digital sound with a pair of real tube amplifiers. The result is a richer, fuller sound with a stronger low end and an old-school feeling that most digital music and devices are lacking today. The PreSonus BlueTube DP V2 totally upgraded the personality of my music and people are constantly asking me about it. They hear the music and ask what kind of equipment I am using and I always tell them that having the twin tube amplifiers is what makes my sound so unique.
  
What’s so great about PreSonus, anyhow? 
What’s so great about PreSonus is that their physical equipment is designed by people with a real passion and understanding of music technology. They’re like your twin, finishing your thoughts. They know what you want, and they work their butts off to make quality pieces that are intuitive to use, and affordable to buy. PreSonus equipment has a vibe, a groove, and a style all it’s own. For me it delivers a personality that adds a whole new dimension to my events. It sets a mood that other gear just cannot compare to. 
 
Where can our readers learn more about you online? 

Jeff Blackwell Archives Music History with his StudioLive


[Jeff Blackwell is the lucky guy who was recently bestowed an incredible collection of lost recordings from the Old South Jamboree from 1973 to 1976.The recordings include performances from many local Louisiana acts of the era, but the Old South Jamboree’s roster also included true luminaries of country music, including: George Jones, Buck Owens, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Ernest Tubb, and Porter Wagoner. Jeff took on the daunting task of archiving these 16 reels of history to the digital world, and his PreSonus StudioLive 16.4.2 had a hand in it! I called Jeff and got the word from the horse’s mouth on this once-in-a-lifetime story. WBRZ recently aired a piece on this tale as well, embedded below—note StudioLive front-and-center in the video—but I HAD to talk to Jeff about some of the nittier, grittier details of this fascinating project.]

Hey Jeff! First, can I get some background on yourself and your work in audio?

Jeff: “I was a DJ at WYNK-FM back in the day—they are still on the air today. Back then, we used to sign on at 5 a.m. and sign off at midnight, it wasn’t a 24-hour station. We’d turn the transmitter on every morning before the show. They would pay me 45 cents an hour plus all the records I could eat!”

How did you come across the tapes?

Jeff: “Well, Going back in time… back in the 70s, WYNK would broadcast the shows from the Old South Jamboree every Saturday night. There were a few shows like that back in the day, like Louisana Hayride, which goes back to the 50s. That’s where Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, all the old greats got their start to the music biz. Anyhow, another guy who worked at WYNK, Page Dew, knew a guy who had been recording these Old South Jamboree shows at home on a consumer reel-to-reel deck—a total of about sixteen reels.”

How was the condition and quality of the original recordings?

Jeff: “Well, most were quarter-track recorded at 1 7/8 ips. Doesn’t provide a heckuva lot of bandwidth! When quality is at stake, faster tape speed is preferred to create more bandwidth, but that didn’t happen here. Not only did I have limited bandwidth to work with, but these songs were recorded off the air from a mono FM radio broadcast. Next, add that the band was recorded with only three mics, and their signal was being transmitted by a Marti transmitter (used for remote broadcasts back in the day), sent to an FM station, and then recorded by a listener at home at only 1 7/8 ips!”

“So, It was a really challenge to get quality out of that source. But when you hear it, it puts you in a very different frame of mind. It takes a listener back to a different era, when one speaker getting music out of the air was enough, regardless of how it sounded! When I heard the first reel I was transported back in time.”

Any way we can track down the guy who provided the tapes? Are there any more?

Jeff: “He’s long gone. I talked to Page, who lives in Colorado, and asked him that. He said that this guy and these tapes are dated from early 1973 to 1976. He said it was an old listener, and apparently someone at the station gave him the reels to record these shows—tape was six or seven bucks per reel back then.”

What hardware did you use to transfer and restore the recordings?

Jeff: “I used the StudioLive 164.2’sEQ on these recordings because I really love the Fat Channel. I was first on the list when I heard the StudioLive was coming out. Once I got my hands on it I was like ‘Cool!’ It’s my main console, everything goes through it to get into the computer.”

“My wife found the reel-to-reel I used, a Pioneer quad, at a garage sale. Got it for 50 bucks. The material recorded at 1 7/8 ips would only play at 3 ¾ ips on this tape machine, so it was still twice as fast as real time. Of course I couldn’t EQ that, so I had to pitch it down in software and then run it through the StudioLive. There were 3 reels recorded at 7.5 ips that I could process through the StudioLive directly before taking it to software for fine-tuning, pitch correction, and noise reduction.”

Will the recordings be made publicly available? Or is releasing all these old songs form these artists a licensing nightmare?

Jeff: “Exactly. Contracts were looser back then. I gotta tell ya, over 90-95 percent of this music was performed by local artists. Some are way out of tune, some can’t hit notes, and of course the mix was awful by today’s standards. I need to be careful about the copyright issues. Several friends of mine have asked for copies, there were a couple of artists who were pretty popular in the day who are now gone, singing some of their hits.”

Thanks, Jeff. Anything else to add about the StudioLive?

Jeff: “I don’t use it as a typical recording or musician-guy. Most of my use has been for advertising and corporate events. I learned early on that if I was gonna work with bands, I had to work with no budgets and weird hours! I figured that wasn’t for me.”

“Since I’ve had the StudioLive, I’ve recorded Scott Innes, whose voice credits include Scooby Doo and Shaggy, who lives in Baton Rouge. I’ve also done quite a bit of work with Warner Bros. using the StudioLive.”

“Another thing I use it for is the Louisiana State Medical Society Annual House Delegates meeting. I use the StudioLive’s noise gates on their mics—it’s a big live room, and there’s a lot of interaction going on. So, I don’t have to worry about running gain on my mics. I love it. It has that finesse I need to mute a mic when not in use, but when the person starts talking it breaks the gate… good to go! I also rent a StudioLive 24.4.2  for the annual Acadian Ambulance Service Paramedic of the Year award program.  More like a theatrical event with lots of wireless mics, skits and over 80 sound cues!”

Improving Student Performance Assessments with AudioBox Studio

John Mlynczak, Education Market Manager for PreSonus, shares a bit about the benefits of using the PreSonus AudioBox Studio during your students’ performance assessments. With the AudioBox Studio, students can record their tests in private, and you can listen and evaluate them at home!

For more on the AudioBox Studio and Studio One, visit the following links:
http://www.presonus.com/products/AudioBox-Studio
http://www.http://studioone.presonus.com/

PreSonus LIVE Airs Today! 2 p.m. CDT / 3 p.m. EST / Noon PST / 19:00 GMT

 

Join us today at http://www.presonus.com/videos/presonuslive!