Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s Rusted Root are all about the sonic melting pot, and their status as mainstays of the sweaty outdoor music festival scene probably helps with the “melting” part. Start with a hearty spoonful of jam band folk and fold in a 1/2 cup of vocal harmony. Season liberally with Latin American and African percussion spices. Add genius and let simmer for 45 minutes. Serves 3 Million.

Check out their music by getting a free track here. and when you’re done with that, check out their Nimbit store, which is absolutely stocked. There’s a diverse array of tees (long-sleeve, short-sleeve, no-sleeve) and other apparel, as well as cool merch, including Rusted Root-branded earplugs. In true jam band tradition, there is also a bevy of live tracks to be found. Many—if not all—of their studio albums are available as well, dating all the way back to 1992, so you can root through Root’s roots.

Interested in Nimbit? Sign up for free here. Rusted Root has sold 3 Million records. And if Nimbit’s good enough for them… just sayin’.

Get a free track from Rusted Root below. Note that if and when you sign up for Nimbit, you’ll be able to create your own promo widgets just like this one. Although, it would probably be best for them to give away your music, and not Rusted Roots’.

Melbourne, Australia’s Mia Dyson is five records and countless shows into an undeniable winning streak.  So far, she’s been found touring with Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, Joe Cocker, and Stevie Nicks, leaving a trail of won-over fans and ARIA nominations in her wake. Oh, and one win, for Best Blues and Roots Album. Her songs are clearly those of an artist who prioritizes balance—we hear fresh sounds juxtaposed with the traditional, all wrapped up in toasty blanket of heart and earnest. The result is a experience that is simultaneously warm, familiar, and refreshing, and highly deserving of repeat listenings.

“Idyllwild” is Mia’s new full-length, and it just came out on June 3.  Click here to learn more about Mia and hear/buy “Idyllwild” on Nimbit! And heck, grab a shirt while you’re there, or maybe a copy of one of her earlier works. The Moment, in particular, has piqued some ears and fostered critical praise:

“The Moment puts Dyson in the same league as the great Melissa Etheridge and Bonnie Raitt. It goes down smooth, and pleasantly lingers in hearts and minds long after the record’s over. ” 

-Performer Magazine

[This just in from Sean Ardoin, who recently released his tribute to Pharrell Williams’ “Happy,” recorded and produced in Studio One! I got in touch with Sean and got a little backstory on his experience with Studio One.]

I used to use another DAW and then I got exposed to Studio One. The reduction in click count made my workflow super fast, and it’s so super intuitive that I get stuff done without even thinking about it. My cousin in California who worked with me on this song is one of my converts to Studio One. He bought it, and this was the first time he used it to record. He said that he would be using it a lot more in the future because it was so easy to use. He sent me his waves, I put them back in my session, mixed it down, mastered it in the Project page, labeled everything, and uploaded to SoundCloud—ALL IN ONE SESSION!

Oklahoma’s John Fullbright is a songwriter’s songwriter, the kind of guy that writes lyrics that make other songwriters cry “Why didn’t I think of that?” John delivers his road-weathered ballads from a strong heart—one that’s got a more than a few miles on it, and more than a few left. The man’s a straight shooter; case-in-point, the new record, available now on Nimbit, is appropriately titled Songs.

Despite being a Grammy-nominated songwriter,  killer vocalist, guitarist, pianist, and harmonica player, he is only kind of good at dominoes.

‘Songs’ is a warm, winning and plainspoken Americana album that builds on the authority and charm of ‘From the Ground Up’ not by musical-muscle flexing, but by its clarity and simmering intensity.”
— Jim Fusilli, The Wall Street Journal

Click here to learn more about John, hear/buy his new album, Songs, and become a fan.

Sincere congratulations are due to both the Notion team and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Both are featured prominently in Apple’s new “Your Verse” campaign! Check out the video below.

Esa is highly decorated as a conductor and composer, including the UNESCO Rostrum Prize in 1992, and the Siena Prize in 1993—he was the first conductor ever to receive it. Other merits include the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Opera and Conductor’s Awards, the Litteris et Artibus medal, and in 1998 the French government awarded him the rank of Officier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres—and that’s just to name a few. Furthermore, Salonen has received seven honorary doctorates in four different countries.

Currently, Esa is the Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor for London’s Philharmonia Orchestra and the Conductor Laureate for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he was Music Director from 1992 until 2009.

You can learn more about Notion by clicking here.

Taylor Nauta consistently sounds great, and we felt that the ADL 700 and ADL 600 preamps would really do his tones justice. So, we invited him by the new HQ, brought him to the live room, and recorded a few tracks.

Taylor’s voice is running through the ADL 700, and his guitar is recorded through a direct input into the first channel of the ADL 600, as well as by a mic run into the second channel.

• For more on Taylor, click here
• For more on the ADL 700, click here
• For more on the ADL 600, click here

Seattle’s Brandon Scott has been saying nice things about us for a couple years now. Beneath his infinitely approachable demeanor, the guy is completely PreSonuCore. His home studio is almost completely draped in familiar silver and blue; a rack-mount roll-call finds the AudioBox 1818VSL, FireStudio Mobile, Studio One, and now the FaderPort all present and accounted for. The FaderPort is Scott’s latest acquisition, and he’s already singing the praises of portable power placed in the ‘Port’s petite profile—check out the cool video he made on the matter, below.

Hey Brandon – now that you’ve had some time to learn to love the FaderPort, try taking it away for a week and see what it does to your workflow. I DARE YOU!

Brandon’s been staying busy in true Scott form:

“Of late, I’m still writing some newer songs, recording some cover songs, doing a lot of video, and of course being a new daddy to a 7-month old has been challenging, but also amazing all at the same time. That’s probably my best job ever over anything else.”

“I’ve been doing a lot of mixing projects for people, of course using the amazingly beautiful Studio One. I’ve also gotten into video lately, I use Studio One to render any needed audio effects, and then bounce it back out to Final Cut or Adobe Premiere—and it lines up perfectly!”

“I want to thank you all for what you do for someone small like me. I appreciate you all at PreSonus and love you and Rick. Next time you all are out in Seattle let me know so we can hook up!”

Follow Brandon Scott on Twitter.

Kevin Madigan, front of house mix engineer for a li’l band you may have heard of called Crosby, Stills, and Nash (!) speaks with Phil Garfinkel about his use of PreSonus interfaces and SMAART technologies at NAMM 2014!

Long-time home recording honcho (and team captain of the #TeamPreSonus Men’s Cheer Squad) Joe Gilder has been popping up in all kinds of cool places lately, including but not limited to PreSonus LIVE, The Home Recording Weekly Podcast, PreSonuSphere, and… I don’t know, probably Wendy’s.

Podcast: Play in new window
| Download (Duration: 41:48 — 57.8MB)

Check it out! KATFYR, who was so kind to present for us at NAMM 2014, just wrapped up this excellent demo of the sounds of Goldbaby Essentials, an incredible add-on pack for Studio One that includes meticulously sampled old-skool drum machines, lovingly sampled to cozy, warm, analog tape. Grab yourself a copy of Goldbaby Essentials by clicking here, and save a lot of money (and desk space) over buying all those hard-to-maintain and harder-to-afford analog beatboxes of yore. Hear the sounds of GoldBaby Essentials below!