Geaux TEC Awards!

Wow. Double wow. We are humbled and honored to have received nominations in Mix Online’s 28th Annual TEC Awards. That’s nominations, plural. In fact, four products of ours were nominated across four categories. They include:

Audio Apps Technology for Smartphones & Tablets 
PreSonus QMix 

Computer Audio Hardware 
PreSonus AudioBox 1818VSL 

Workstation Technology 
PreSonus Studio One Professional V2 

Small Format Console Technology
PreSonus StudioLive 16.0.2 

From Mix Online’s announcement:

“The TEC Foundation for Excellence in Audio announces the Technical Achievement nominees for the 28th Annual Technical Excellence & Creativity Awards, to be held Friday, January 25, 2013, in Anaheim, Calif. Presented by the TEC Foundation, the TEC Awards is the pro audio industry’s most prestigious awards show honoring outstanding achievement in product innovation and sound production.

Online voting will begin in November among members of various professional audio organizations, and qualified professionals subscribing to audio and music products trade publications.”

Big big thanks to Mix Online for their continued support of PreSonus.  November can’t come soon enough, and who knows, maybe this time we’ll actually freakin’ win, which would make this all eligible for the ultra-rare Quadruple Wow.

So, this is really clever!  fostervf16 over at YouTube is using the PreSonus 1818VSL USB interface with his iPad running WaveMachine Labs Auria. He’s found a way to connect the 1818VSL to his iPad using a data card reader, of all things. iPad > Card Reader > 1818VSL. All of this stuff is running off the iPad’s battery.

At the time of writing, I don’t have any insights about what this will do to your iPad’s battery charge. Should you have the necessary components, give this a shot… but save often.

I love that we get stuff like this from none other than Craig Anderton. My first memory of the guy is his seminal DIY book “Electronic Projects for Musicians,” of which I own a 1st-edition copy that was once a loaner at the Bellingham Public Library. It’s one of my favorite books.

That said, the point of this post is to discuss one of Craig’s shorter, lesser-known works, this adulatory slab of verbiage from Electronic Musician magazine.

Thanks much, Craig, for your help in flying the PreSonus flag. My favorite part is his take on our VSL technology:

“PreSonus claims “virtually latency-free monitoring,” and while this may get the skeptics’ attention, it’s true. As a result, there are three main applications. One is using the outs for cue mixes and monitoring with effects, which will make many musicians happy—especially the temperamental vocalists who want reverb, compression, and EQ in their cans.

Read the full review!

SPOILER ALERT: Here’s the best part of the AudioBox 22VSL review from DAWFreak:

What’s in the box? This is.

Pros

• Great build quality
• First class preamps.
• Easy to use
• Great price
• The VSL mixer
• Stable drivers

Cons

• NONE

Kinda says it all, right?

Wrong! The rad dudes at DAWFreak have composed a very thorough review, including close-up input/output shots, a full unboxing-style look at all the included extras, and detailed overviews of all the software thats included: they look at both Studio One Artist and the AudioBox’s VSL functionality.

It’s worth the read, if you have the time. Go make a sandwich or something and check it out!

ROCK DUO BREAKERBOX RELEASE NEW SINGLE “SUMMERTIME”
CO-PRODUCED BY CHRIS BASEFORD RECORDED AT TOMMY LEE’S ATRUIM STUDIOS
“SUMMERTIME” IS AVAILABLE AUGUST 14 EXCLUSIVELY ON BREAKERBOX.TV
AND ON iTUNES AUGUST 28

###

BREAKERBOX TAKES FANS ON A BEHIND-THE-SCENES LOOK AT THE RECORDING OF  “SUMMERTIME”  

BREAKERBOX opening for SEETHER at The Harbor, Buffalo, NY 7-12-12

Rock outfit Breakerbox (Christina DeNee and Scott Calandra) collaborated with producer Chris Baseford (Rob Zombie, Tommy Lee, John 5) on their brand new single “Summertime,” recorded at Tommy Lee’s Atrium Studios.  “Summertime”  is available on August 14 exclusively on Breakerbox.tv and on iTunes August 28th.  Breakerbox  reveals a behind-the-scenes video chronicling the recording of the song today (August 10) on YouTube.  See “Summertime” video here.

“Breakerbox is a talented, hardworking band and being able to dive into the studio with Scott and Christina was an absolute pleasure,” said producer Chris Baseford. ” ‘Summertime’ is going to blow some minds.  We were able to create a heavy, aggressive yet melodic, hooky sound which a lot of people are going to dig!  Can’t wait to finish the rest of the new songs in the works.”

“Summertime,” is a departure from their darker debut album These Are Strange Days and captures the feeling of driving around in the summertime with your crush and just having fun.  Don’t let them fool you…the Breakerbox signature sound of hard driving guitars, integral rock drumming , unique funk synth work and DeNee’s powerhouse vocals are all there to prove #RockisAlive!  Even Tommy Lee praised the song when he messaged the band from the Motley Crue Tour giving them his rock stamp of approval.

“We are in a totally different place, a different mindset than at the time we recorded These Are Strange Days — it was in the midst of a bad Buffalo winter and we felt like we were on a little dark island,” said Christina DeNee. ” ‘Summertime’ was recorded in the middle of a Southern California summer, it is uptempo and reflects how we feel today..it’s a bigger, bolder rock sound and we weren’t afraid to take some chances.”

Adds Scott Calandra, “We have surrounded ourselves with great collaborators and players ,and with Chris, were able to take our music to a new place.  We truly are enjoying the fact we have found our sound and others get it and want to be a part of it.”

In addition to recording new material, the Buffalo, NY natives recently fronted a sold out show with  Seether  at the famed “Thursday at The Harbor,” concert where over 10,000 people were in attendance, the biggest turn out ever for an opening band in the history of the venue.  More dates coming soon.

Listen ::  Summertime
Listen :: These Are Strange Days
See :: Summertime Teaser Video
More Info :: Breakerbox.TV

Press Contact:  Lisa Vega / lisa@lisavegagroup.com / 213.247.3075 / www.lisavegagroup.com

[This comes to us from Steve Freeman of Camp Jam.]

Camp Jam is the ultimate and only national rock music camp. The camp was created by renowned rock guitarist/songwriter Jeff Carlisi of .38 Special and his longtime business partner Danny Lipson. Held in 20 cities across the U.S. and Canada, Camp Jam offers a number of unique music programs for musicians of all skill levels, including a summer day camp for rockers age 11-17, one for pint-size rockers ages 7-10 and week-long overnight music camps in Chicago, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, New York, Dallas, Boston, San Diego, Seattle, DC and Denver areas for ages 12-17.

The camp has gained national prominence since launching in 2004. As an innovative summer camp, the Camp Jam program gives young musicians the chance to collaborate with their musical peers for the rock ‘n’ roll experience of a lifetime—from forming their own bands and playing a concert to hanging out with rock music legends and recording a CD. More importantly, Camp Jam offers them the opportunity to improve their performance skills, build confidence, and practice teamwork; all lessons that last long after their week at Camp jam is over.

As the national director, musician and instructor, it is important to me that Camp Jam has an educational element in addition to the overall band experience. In developing the curriculum we are always looking for ways make it better and more relevant to today’s musician. Audio software has drastically changed how we record music, so it was inevitable that Camp Jam would include recording as part of the curriculum at some time.

At NAMM 2010 I stopped by the PreSonus booth and was introduced to PreSonus and Studio One for the first time. I was really impressed with the software and contacted Brad Zell, their Marketing Communications Director, when I returned home. Brad offered to provide all our campers with a Studio One download code, so I began searching for the right person to write the curriculum and course outline to implement Studio One Professionsal into our 2011 schedule.

I was introduced to Darryl Swann, Macy Gray’s Grammy Award-winning producer, who picked up on the program idea and created a book for Camp Jam (available through the Camp Jam website) titled Killer Song Writing Producing and Recording. The book and course outline is easy reading with pictures and simple explanations.

For the 2012 curriculum, we put together pedal boards dontated by SKB that were crafted into complete studios in a box. Brad loaned Camp Jam several AudioBox 1818VSLs and Digimax D8’s for the project. These studios in a box were used in the recording class to record the original songs created by Camp Jam’s overnight campers.

This has been the best Camp Jam season yet, and we are very grateful to have a company like PreSonus interested in providing the tools we need to help develop these young rockers into seasoned musicians.

Camp Jam is offering readers of this blog $50 off registration for 2013. Just call 800 513-0930, code word PreSonus. This is a call-in only discount, so hit us up!

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Check out this great story from MI7 Japan!

“In live concerts, there are improvisational aspects that cannot be captured in studio recordings. We had a chance to speak with Nobumasa Yamada, known for his works with Love Psychedelico, about his passion in recording these live concerts and his techniques using PreSonus mobile recording gear. Mr. Yamada shared how he built his system, the actual set-up and some techniques, based on the recording of Kemono held in Ogikubo Velvet Sun.”

Read the full article here.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana, June, 2012…

PreSonus™ is shipping AudioBox 1.2, a free update that significantly enhances the performance and versatility of their AudioBox 1818VSL interface and also provides a number of new features for its AudioBox™ USB, AudioBox 22VSL and AudioBox 44VSL audio/MIDI interfaces.

One of the biggest enhancements for the AudioBox 1818VSL is that support has been added for AB1818VSL Remote for iPad®. With this free app, you can control virtually every parameter in Virtual StudioLive forAudioBox 1818VSL from an iPad, including volume, pan, aux sends, FX buses, and Fat Channel parameters.

As a result, users can use an AudioBox 1818VSL and USB-connected laptop as a full-featured mixer/recorder for small gigs, rehearsal spaces, and mobile churches, with the iPad serving as a touchscreen mixing surface. In the studio, manage the monitor mixes from your iPad while dedicating your computer screen to a DAW.

A firmware update rescales the preamp tapers on the AudioBox 1818VSL to add more headroom; Virtual StudioLive for 1818VSL now sends all channels to outputs 7/8 (headphones) by default.

With the AudioBox 1.2 update, all AudioBox-series interfaces become compatible with USB 3.0-a rarity among audio interfaces.

This update also provides enhancements for specific AudioBox-series models:

• The AudioBox USB gains a new, optimized Windows driver for improved performance and a new Windows control panel to adjust buffer size and sample rate.
• The meters in Virtual StudioLive for all AudioBox VSL-series interfaces have been recalibrated to match the RMS meters in PreSonus’ Studio One DAW.
• All AudioBox VSL-series interfaces have been integrated into Studio One™ Cue Mix, providing volume and pan control over monitor mixes with the same near-zero latency that Virtual StudioLive software provides.

This free update is recommended for all AudioBox-series users. AudioBox 1.2 can be downloaded from the Technical Support section of the PreSonus Web site.

AB1818VSL Remote is a free download from the Apple App Store.

We, and our advocates, make a lotta to-do about the audio quality inherent in our products. After all, every weensy component choice in the guts of our gear begets some sonic consequence, so such engineering decisions are not made lightly. Serious business. We’re proud.