PreSonus Blog

Category Archives: Artist


Briana Tyson ADL 700 / ADL 600 Stems Available for Download via SoundCloud

Rick and the RACK OF DOOM

Hey there! I got something for ya. Here’s a pile of 30-second tracks from the sessions we did recently with Briana Tyson. Every signal on this recording was recorded direct via an ADL 700 or ADL 600 preamp. Because we could.

No other processors were used in these recordings. The guitars were recorded with Shure SM57s and Royer R-121s, and the bass was ran direct into an ADL 700. The stereo sources—keys, drum overheads, and two room mics were ran through the ADL 600s.

Here’s the mic list for this session:

Kick (Shure Beta 52)
Snare (Shure SM57)
Hi Tom (Sennheiser 421)
Low Tom (Sennheiser 421)
Stereo Overheads (Neumann K184’s)
Stereo Room Mics (AudioTechica 4080)
Bass Guitar (Direct)
Electric Guitar (SM 57)
Electric Guitar (Royer 121)
Female Vocal (Brauner VM1)
Keyboard (Yamaha P100 direct)

These tracks are available via SoundCloud for download. Help yourself to them and do with them what you will. Mix ’em up! Or down.

We hope you think they sound as amazing as we do.

Here’s the tracks:

 

Here’s video of this session:

Women in Pro Audio Vol. 5: Olesya Star, Producer/Songwriter, Founder of Graffiti Records

Olesya[Olesya Star is a 26-year-old UK singer, songwriter and record producer. In 2010, she co-founded the independent record label Graffiti Records, purely to release her own material. All work on Olesya Star has been done through Graffiti Records to date – including all self-produced videos, recordings, production, photography, artwork, social media and general music management.]

  • According to this article, women account for 5% of producers and engineers—why do you feel this is?

Perhaps it’s a lack of interest in the subject. To be perfectly honest, I got into all this “record and produce myself” affair because I couldn’t afford to pay good studios for all those hours, and pay their producers for every song I wrote. Besides, I wanted unlimited access to recording any crazy idea I got in the middle of the night, be it a song or a beat. I wanted to experiment with my sonic identity. But it is only now that I’m into record production, that I get excited discussing the benefits of a particular piece of gear. Speaking of gear… I must say, I still think that men get more irrationally excited about all the hardware, all the knobs and faders, and the look of a console with its industrial design and funky lights… I, personally get more excited about what it does to my vocals! I care more about the end result than all the reasons and logic behind third level harmonics that tape produces.

It also seems to me that most girls lack confidence, probably because of men, because of all the jokes that men make about women…  Could that be one of the reasons why there are not more females in audio engineering? I read somewhere that many female scientists submit their works under a male pseudonym. Food for thought? Are they afraid of prejudice and being judged?

It could be a cultural thing too, as traditionally it’s a male-dominated field. And many girls think, “Oh god, I’m not going into all this technical wizardry…. boys ‘n their toys, etc.” Our society, unfortunately, still has many gender stereotypes, and it’s very slow to change. How many women are there as fighter pilots? Or train engineers?

  • Do you feel that, for whatever reason, that there are some elements of the pro audio field that women have a more natural predisposition toward than men? If so, which and why?

Girls are highly capable of understanding sound engineering. They’re quite often better at math than guys. Us girls have a knack for multi-tasking. But then again, maybe, the male ability to concentrate on one thing solely, like the harsh frequencies around 2 kHz is a good thing. The smallest gain changes, harmonics and sub-bass frequencies that I hear often differ from the sounds a guy will hear, and vice versa, so I think that you need both sexes to make a truly awesome mix. Like most girls, I tune in to the top end easily—guys will always opt for more bass, often way too much in the mids, and then struggle to find ‘air’ in the mix. This is where you need the female ear!

I think, however, it’d be a good thing if more girls got into record production. Nice, clear mixes that aren’t over-compressed, lifeless and flat—that’s the goal! And girls really get that. I think educating people on the differences between being a producer and a sound engineer would help. Sometimes you don’t need to be the latter to be able to accomplish the former.

 

Rob Seifert Gage Sounds off on PreSonus

[This just in from Rob Seifert Gage, producer/engineer and owner of Audio Evidence Mobile.]

As an independent engineer/producer since the pre-DAW era, I had the opportunity to see the development of the modern-day DAWs. Some had all the bells and whistles but sounded terrible. I have learned so many through the sessions I’ve worked, and I am so excited about PreSonus Studio One 2.5 ! The sound of 64-bit processing and the extensive native plugins  put a smile on my analog face every at session.

Every project on my Audio Evidence Mobile studio is different day by day.  As a producer and as a live sound engineer, I work with singer-songwriters and full bands. I archive every show and edit each performance into stems for the client. Studio One has made the process so fast and easy. I use the F keyboard command to separate at cursor, and I can move so quickly to the end of the performance that I can sell CDs within minutes at the end of a show. In other DAWs it took a few bounces to disk to get the same task done. One great thing about PreSonus is that when I first downloaded Studio One version 1.0, this feature was not included—but PreSonus is hip to what is needed and with each update they give us what we need!
As an engineer, I love the sound. My studio is a hybrid analog/digital space allowing me the use of my outboard gear using Pipeline Stereo in Studio One. All my effects are outboard, and my main outs are going into either a

Requisite Audio Y7, or a Universal Audio 2-610 if I need EQ. Then I combine into and monitor through a Dangerous Music D-Box, which is a great tool, but Studio One is doing most of the work.
I use samples and tempo mapping a lot in my work, and in Studio One it’s so easy. It allows the programmer to create tracks that sound like a supercomputer tempo or a human—and combining the two does the trick for me!
PreSonus Studio One is fast, fun, and simply the only DAW for me.

 

Introducing Brad Zell’s SOUNDCHECK! First up: Kevin Randolph

So, (Sound) check this out. Brad Zell had debuted his new vlog series, SoundCheck, over on YouTube. In it, he’ll be visiting PreSonus Artist studios, videocamera in hand, and grab tips, tricks, advice, and words of wisdom from some of today’s hottest professional producers, engineers and musicians.

This debut episode of SoundCheck features producer/keyboardist Kevin Randolph from his Los Angeles-based Studio. Kevin has worked with Keyshia Cole, Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg and many others. Check it out!

Subscribe over at YouTube to receive updates!

Paul Svenson on Why He Left Pro Tools for Studio One

Paul Svenson of Dad's Songbook Music

Paul Svenson of Dad’s Songbook Music

[This just in from Paul Svenson, lifelong audio engineer, AV contractor extraordinaire, and mastermind behind Dad’s Songbook Music. Paul runs PS Audio Video in San Diego. He recently made the switch from Pro Tools to Studio One Professional 2.5—within three hours of using the software! I asked for more detail regarding the reason for his decision. His response follows.]

Hey PreSonus!

I’ve been recording since 1971, starting when I was 18—mostly projects where I was part of the production, engineering, mixing etc., although I also worked as a staff engineer in studios during the 80s.  In 1990 I was a rep for one of the early hard disc recording systems, ProDisk.  Our 8-track machine sold for $50,000. The other guys who were always around were the guys from Digidesign, with their very early version of Pro Tools. After all the rest of us vanished into irrelevance, Pro Tools kept growing to become the de facto standard. I made the switch from analog to Pro Tools around 1997 and had used it ever since.

Unfortunately, the pioneering spirit that helped Pro Tools survive and thrive vanished shortly after they were bought by Avid. Customer service was on a payment basis, and each subsequent version became more and more cumbersome and processor-intensive. A couple years ago, I started looking for a real legitimate alternative. Changing DAWs for me was not something I wanted to do more than once, so the experiments were on. Bottom line is that out of them, all I have chosen Studio One 2.5 to be my new DAW.
One of the experiments I tried early on was to abuse the software and make it or my computer fail. The test involved setting up 32 tracks—each with a McDSP Ultimate Compressor, PreSonus EQ, and Waves L1 Limiter—standard plugins from three different companies. 32 tracks was the limit on my native Pro Tools 10 setup, and my machine (a new iMac27″ 3.4GHz i7 with 16GB of RAM) started getting sluggish at that load. Studio One, on the other hand, just seemed to breeze through, so I doubled all the tracks to 64, using the same plugins. I put all the tracks into record mode and punched in/out several times, then went back and put half the tracks in record, and half in play, and punched in/out. No problem. Still breezin’.  So I doubled it again—128 tracks with 384 incidents of plugins—same result. This was mind-boggling for me.
The next experiment was to listen. In my opinion, in my very familiar room with my very familiar Quested monitors, Studio One 2.5 simply sounded better, not only on recording, but playing back tracks I had previously recorded into Pro Tools 10! Although hard to quantify, the sound to me seemed to be more open and clear across the spectrum. Another huge point for Studio One.
Finally, the thing that put Studio  One over the top was the Project Page and mastering features. All the projects I do still end up on some kind of physical media—usually CD. My clients need something to sell and autograph, so we still make discs. The fact that I can record a project in Studio One, go into mastering and if necessary jump instantly and seamlessly back into the original recording of a song for a last minute tweak was incredible! Studio One Professional 2.5 wins. I imported MS guitar and vocal tracks from an album I started in Pro Tools 10, and am finishing the project in Studio One instead.
Studio One was so easy to learn. It even had a keyboard map for Pro Tools so I didn’t have to memorize new key commands to get started. The online video tutorials and well-written manual are first-rate. The fact that PreSonus hasn’t become impersonal and “corporate” like Pro Tools is huge for me. The projects I do in my studio start and finish here. From now on they’ll do so in Studio One. Thanks PreSonus, you clearly have spent time in a studio and still have that pioneering spirit that makes the recording world a better place!
Paul Svenson
Dad’s Songbook Music
San Diego, CA

Jam in the Van Commits Joshua Tree Performances to History

Aptly-named Jam in the Van travels around in a a KILLER tour van that includes a StudioLive 24.4.2 and a sweet, sweet, paint job. They record all their in-the-van performances, shoot some killer video, and post the results online for the benefit of all musiciankind.

Here they talk a bit about their use of the StudioLive and QMix in getting their productions done. Hot stuff comin’ through!

Learn more about Jam in the Van at—wait for it—www.JamInTheVan.Com!

The Return of Swamp Grease!

Those of you who have been watching PreSonus LIVE for some time now will likely remember the time we lugged a bunch of cameras (and talented dudes) into Oak Street recording and tracked Terence Higgins’ Swamp Grease II. We had 11,000 people tune in. It remains our biggest PreSonus LIVE ever.

We followed it up with a show on mixing the record, and we wanted you to know that the record is
finally done and available on Nimbit! Have at it!

 

Joey Stuckey Relies on PreSonus for his Critically-Acclaimed CD, “Mixture.”

Joey at board 3

[This just in from Joey Stuckey, Macon, GA’s highly-decorated jazz (and more) guitar virtuoso. He recently sent us a kind e-mail about his experience with PreSonus and updated us on some of his latest projects.]

Hey PreSonus!

My new CD, Mixture, was recorded with Studio One 2.5, has spent five weeks on the CMJ top 40 charts, peaking at number 9 alongside other jazz greats like Lee Rittenour, Chick Corea, Marcus Miller and Diana Krall. We’re getting many great reviews!

One of the powerful tools we used in producing this record is the PreSonus  Studio One. My co-writer and co-producer Tom Rule used Studio One for his demo keyboard tracks at his home studio. When we brought the tracks in to my pro studio, Shadow Sound Studio, to finish adding real instruments and mix and master, I fell in love with many of the sounds included with of Studio One. In particular, we loved the stand-up bass sound that shipped with Studio One so much, that we actually left it on the record and never had a live bass player come and replace the MIDI. I have now made Studio One part of my studio tools and of course use PreSonus for my jazz band’s live performances.

I just can’t say enough about Studio One—it is so affordable, the workflow is great, and again, the stand-up bass is really something. I hate to say this to stand-up bass players, but they are probably out of a job—at least at my studio! All the PreSonus gear is so affordable and provides many features that gear triple its cost doesn’t provide, I can honestly recommend PreSonus to all my friends and colleagues.
Joey Stuckey Stuckey Review

Andrew Oye’s Carhartt Commercial

PreSonus Artist Andrew Oye just wrapped up a suitably stompy score for this rough’n’tumble TV advert for Carhartt T-shirts. Per the norm, Andrew relied on PreSonus Studio One for the task at hand. The result is a gritty homage to the workin’ class alpha male, complete with ropin’ cattle, roofin’, layin’ concrete and wreckin’ stuff with sledgehammers.

This music makes me feel tougher than Mickey Rourke in Sin City. Please enjoy the following video while I go smoke a pack of unfiltered Marlboros and hit on your wife.

 

 

Nikola Jeremić on The Awesomeness of the AudioBox USB

[This just in from all-around badass and PreSonus Artist Nikola Jeremić!]

Just wanted to tell you that you guys really are making AWESOME products, and most of my musician friends have started using them and a lot of them praise Studio One.

Last night I had a recording session at Belgrade Music Academy with a not-so-traditional string quintet called Infinity Quintet. These guys have cello, viola and three violins, instead of traditional quintet which has a double bass instead of the third violin.

I wanted to record them in an old-school way with just one stereo mic setup. I chose two AKG 414s in M-S setup, but get this: I recorded with nothing but a friend’s AudioBox USB and Studio One Free on my laptop, and for monitoring I used the PreSonus HD 7 headphones. I just told the band to sit down and play their asses off, and they did just that. We recorded cover versions of “Sweet Child Of Mine” by Guns ‘n’ Roses and “Black Magic Woman” by Santana, and we are all happy with the result.

I used this recording for my competition entry in “Traditional Acoustic Recording” for 134th AES convention in Rome. And, by the way, I’m using Studio One also for editing sound to picture for my competition entry  in “Sound For Visual Media” also for AES in Rome.

Anyway, just wanted to say a BIG THANK YOU to you and all of the guys at PreSonus, your support means the world to me! 🙂