A firmware update for the StudioLive 32.4.2AI, 24.4.2AI and 16.4.2AI mixers has been released to the web! You’ll need to log in to my.presonus.com to get it.  

In this release is a New Feature!

As of firmware version 1.0.5436, the StudioLive AI mixer line will have the ability to cascade two mixers together to create one large mixer. Start with a 16.4.2AI, 24.4.2AI, or 32.4.2AI, then cascade a second StudioLive AI mixer of any frame size to create custom-sized mixing consoles with the hardware and software advantages of StudioLive Active Integration™ systems.

For full details on this update, please click here to download the PDF.

For troubleshooting your cascaded mixer setup, click here.

The Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps won their 16th World Championship on Saturday with a record-breaking score of 99.65—the highest in the history of the competition! 

The PreSonus family is extremely proud of the organization, and we have the utmost respect for the members and staff who worked tirelessly all summer and kept improving until the very end. Congrats!

Check out this video of the Blue Devils doing what they do best with the support of the PreSonus StudioLive AI mixers and loudspeakers.

[This just in from Antony Bedez, Audio Engineer!]

Hey PreSonus! My name is Antony BEDEZ and I’m a French studio and live sound engineer.  Recently,  my bassist brother and I made a
CD from a concert given in France with drummer Steve Ferrone, who has worked with Michael Jackson, Average White Band, Eric Clapton, Slash, and others. I’ve taken care of all
the audio process from the live sound to the mastering.

After his participation on my brother’s last album, Investigations, we decided to invite him to France and
play with him live. With many friends of ours…

FOH and monitors were all recorded via the StudioLive 24.4.2, and the multi-track recording via Capture.

You can hear sounds and learn about the project, musicians here:
http://www.franckbedez.com/steveferroneandfriends/

We’re very proud of the sound and quality of the music, considering the time we had to organize the project!

Best regards,
Antony BEDEZ

[This just in from Byron Gaither, our very own consummate audio expert and Studio One know-it-all!]

[This just in from Vince Walker, Music Teacher at Tasmania’s Deloraine High School!]

Last week Deloraine High School (Tasmania, Australia) held our 4th annual Battle of the Bands, and once again our PreSonus StudioLive didn’t miss a beat! We use our desk for live performances as well as recording our CD each year—thanks to you guys for supporting our school!

The desk was fully tricked out this year, running all six Aux channels (six foldbacks) and the two effects channels, all Fat Channels were being used on effects, auxes, busses, main outs and the normal channels. It is the best desk ever! We use iPad integration to assist tune the foldbacks, and use the Smaart Wizards to tune the whole PA system. Thanks, PreSonus, for building a great desk as well as great software.

We love using Studio One 2 Professional for recording and mastering our own music. The native plugins are very useful, the DAW is so easy to use, and we get a great sound from the software every time. My students have learned to use PreSonus gear and software, and they can take the knowledge they learn to other outboard gear or DAWs… but why would they change?

Thanks!

Vince Walker
Music Teacher
Deloraine High School

The StudioLive AI Mixers, like many of our products great and small, ship with Studio One Artist. For a limited time, you’ll be able to upgrade the included copy from Studio One Artist to Studio One Producer for free. 

Both Studio One Artist and the upgrade to Studio One Producer are worth $99, so, that’s like getting $200 of free software. Studio One Producer includes significant feature upgrades from Artist, including MP3 import/export, virtual instrument support, and a whopping 16 gigs of bonus content.

I’m not sure how we greased this, but somehow we smooth-talked the sharp dudes at Groove3 to include their “StudioLive AI Hardware Explained” video series, a monster 47-part series that would ordinarily set you back fifty bucks. While that alone is a steal at around a dollar per video, we like to think that “free” is an even better deal.

This package will put you leaps and bounds ahead of the guy who buys a vanilla StudioLive AI mixer. With Studio One Producer and an exceptional training video series ready-to-go as soon as you open the box, you’ll be hitting the ground sprinting instead of running.

Interested? Click here to get the required rebate form, and then…

• Click here to find a dealer in the USA
• Click here to find an international dealer

Oh, and if you’re still on the fence about getting a StudioLive AI or not, this video might clear up some of your hesitations.

[This just in from Jean Madani, producer and recordist in Beirut! Jean has been an audio professional for his entire adult life, and PreSonus has been a part of his process for nearly as long. Lately, he has begun using Studio One (and a few other pieces of PreSonus gear) for all of his digital audio needs. But enough from me—let’s hear about it from the man himself!]

MY STUDIO ONE STORY

I have been recording, mixing, performing, and producing for and with different artists and different types of music for more than thirteen years, in genres ranging from traditional Arabic music, to pop, rock, hip hop, and jazz.

I have probably used every major DAW available, but Studio One has been my DAW of choice ever since I came across it in a studio session two years ago. Khalil Chahine, an excellent engineer and friend of mine from Germany recommended it to me. I had been complaining during a tracking session about how slowly the session was going with the DAW we were using at the time. I found it to be so needlessly time-consuming and clunky. So, we promptly switched to Studio One mid-session, and I never looked back. In all honesty, it’s the single best decision I have made in my career as an audio engineer. 

The wealth of good things I have to say about Studio One could fill a whole book, but for the sake of brevity, I’ll try to summarize what I like best here. My very first impression was that of pleasant surprise at how fast the software started up. I have tons of plug-ins, so launching any DAW used to be a painfully long wait. Studio One got up and running for me in less than fifteen seconds, and in a matter of two hours I was running Studio One like a pro. It was just simply that intuitive.

The drag and drop features really speed up my workflow, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that they were like a gift from audio heaven. Tasks that took me hours to complete in other DAWs take up mere minutes now. Also, the ease in which audio quantizing is handled in Studio One beats any other DAW out there in my opinion, and the native plug-ins like Pro EQ are simply amazing, and very transparent.

I often record traditional Middle Eastern instruments such as the oud, buzuk, and riq. I’ve found that applying algorithmic EQ can be destructive to the unique character of these instruments’ sound. EQing these instruments while faithfully retaining their desirable frequencies used to be very tricky, but with the “Pro EQ”, this previously critical and sensitive process has become like second nature to me. I almost never use any other EQ in my sessions at all anymore.

I also really like the thorough one-click integration Studio One has with Melodyne; with just one click, audio becomes MIDI. Another favorite feature of mine is the bank scenes. It’s extremely helpful when wrestling with intimidatingly large sessions. At the moment, I’m mixing an Arabic Fusion album, in which smallest session weighs in at about seventy tracks, minimum. Suffice to say, the ability to save and re-load specific channel selections is helping to immensely un-clutter both my workflow and my monitor screen.

To sum up, Studio One has made my workflow faster and my mixes translate much better than ever before. I don’t think I will be using any other DAW again in the foreseeable future, and I feel that it deserves to be the new industry standard.

In addition to Studio One, I also use a PreSonus Studio Channel and the BlueTube DP preamps. The quality of results I get from both products is consistently outstanding. I get a clear,  warm sound when I use the BlueTube’s solid state option, and when I want those extra harmonics, the tube option does the job and then some. I ran a comparison test with so-called “high-end” preamps, and got results that stand toe-to-toe with the supposed best out there. Also, I recently tried adding tube saturation to the signal chain while recording an oud in an acoustic session with the Studio Channel, and it yielded very pleasant results.

Finally, I use a FaderPort in conjunction with Studio One, making its already fast workflow even faster and easier. I like the smooth fader and response so much, that I wish PreSonus would make a larger DAW controller with even more faders!

I choose PreSonus for the simple reason of that they really deliver what they claim to offer, with quality that far exceeds the price point.

Here are some shots of Jean teaching a Studio One / StudioLive workshop at LAU! 

Jean Madani’s current projects: 

• Rayan el  Haber: album to be released this year (Arabic fusion )
• Jad Nasr: album to be released this year (acoustic folk)
• Fer2et 3a Nota: to be released this month (Arabic fusion)
• Oumaima el Khalil: starts recording this July, to be released early 2015 (acappella)

We hauled some video hardware down to Vegas for InfoComm and shot some vids at the booth. If you couldn’t tune in to PreSonus LIVE for this coverage, you can catch it all below! Learn a bit about StudioLive AI Mixer Cascading, Dante, and the latest member of the PreSonus fam’—WorxAudio!

While you’re at it, here’s a the full press releases from our InfoComm 2014 announcements.

• WorxAudio Technologies Joins the PreSonus Family
• PreSonus Delivers No-Hassle Dante Networking for StudioLive AI Loudspeakers
• PreSonus and OBEDIA Offer PreSonus-Certified Music Computers
• StudioLive AI Mixers Add Cascading

Hey there! Here’s the entire 30-Day Worship Tools series of videos, available in a single convenient playlist. These are bite-size tidbits from none other than Doug Gould of WorshipMD, addressing the use of the StudioLive AI mixers during worship services, and includes tips on EQ, making the most of rehearsals, sound check tips, and much, much more.

Dig in!

For info on the StudioLive AI digital mixers, click here.

For more from Doug Gould and Worship MD, click here.