PreSonus Blog

PreSonus StudioLive records Allen Toussaint’s 75th Birthday Tribute & Benefit


[This just in from Lu Rojas of Oak Street Recording, who along with Mike Montero recently had a great experience with a rig of four StudioLives and Studio One!]

Hey PreSonus! I just wanted to let you guys know about a recent experience we had with some of your products. On Tuesday April 30 at Harrah’s Theater in New Orleans, we recorded Allen Toussaint’s 75th Birthday Tribute & Benefit. All proceeds were donated to the New Orleans Artists Against Homelessness & Hunger.

We had four StudioLive 16.4.2 mixers. We slaved the first two units together, and then sent a submix from those mixers into the next two mixers, which were also slaved together. The first pair were connected to a custom-built PC running Capture 2, and the second pair were connected to a Macbook Pro, also running using Capture 2. From there, a stereo mix was sent to a CD burner, for reference, and to the HD broadcast truck for WLAE/PBS. The broadcast truck in turn sent us SMPTE time code, which we recorded to both computers for syncing after the fact. They also sent us a video feed so we could mix audio to the video. I handled mixing on the first pair of mixers (drums, bass, piano, main vocal & percussion) and Mike Montero handled the mix on the second pair of mixers—horns, guitars, vocals & audience mics. Mike also handled the mix of the overall balance between both sets of StudioLive mixers, as my mix was being submixed into his mix!

Neither Mike or I had worked with the StudioLives in such a situation before, and we had concerns about figuring out our workflow before showtime. Everything was so simple to figure out, that we ended up having downtime before the show! Imagine that… time to eat and have some coffee and not stressing over whether we had our asses covered! Another thing that impressed us was how well the compressors worked on the mixer. I always worry in a live atmosphere when a microphone is being handed around from artist to artist, and not being able to catch the one that is going to overload the microphone. Fortunately, the compressor section worked like a charm even when switching from artist to artist on the main vocal mic.  We had Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas, Elvis Costello, Deacon John, Jon Cleary, Cyril Neville, Dr. John, Joe Stampley and Joe Henry. The important thing was that we got the main vocal to always sit right on top of the mix without it sounding squashed or distorted.

As of now I have installed Studio One on Mike Montero’s computer, and he will be mixing the audio from here out. Thanks guys!

South Korea’s MayTree on “Sexy” ADL-700

[This just in from PreSonus Artists MayTree, Korean barbershop powerhouse(s) who have been using the StudioLive 16.0.2 for their performances for a while now. They recently added an ADL 700 to the fold and have nothing but kind things to say about it!]

Hello PreSonus! We are MayTree from South Korea. We are writing this email to thank you for the ADL 700. We were all impressed by the high quality of sound and also the appearance. When we first opened the box, we all screamed because ADL 700 is so much sexier than we expected.

We right away hooked it up with the gear we have for recording, then we were so satisfied with the clarity of the  sound and the powerful compressor. Now we will produce an album, and will include the ADL 700 in the process and show people how awesome it is.

Thank you so much again, and we will send you music as soon as we finish recording with ADL700.

All the best,
MayTree

 

Recording’s Mike Metlay on the Eris Studio Monitors

The monitors roll out, and the reviews roll in. The PreSonus Eris monitor speakers are being met with the sort of enthusiastic reception that we previously have only associated with The Beatles or a new Star Wars picture.
Recording Magazine’s Mike Metlay Ph.D. is bona fide qualified, and we’re really excited that he’s the guy who got to review these products for Recording.  That Ph D. is in nuclear physics, BTW.  Here’s a couple pull-quotes from Mike’s review:
“PreSonus’ first studio monitors present very neat solutions to the problem of affordable, good-sounding monitoring for small studios.”
“Let’s talk price. The E5 costs a bit more per pair than a set of cheap-ass desktop computer speakers and a thumpy little one-note sub, but for your money you get monitors you can actually use for real engineering. The E8 is even more of a no-brainer: it basically allows recording musicians who want proper full-range studio monitors, but don’t yet have the budget for high-end products, to get into the game without hurting themselves.”
Readers who want to get into the nitty-gritty details of  frequency response, 12 dB/octave highpass filter options, and more, please download the full PDF of the review by clicking this sentence.

More new vids from Frog Leap Studios

The hits (and laughs) keep on rolling with this team. Here are more of their StudioLive-produced acoustic (and one kinda-acoustic) videos from Leo Moracchioli and friends. Great stuff!

Acoustic cover of Alter Bridge – Blackbird:

Acoustic (kinda) cover of Black Sabbath – Paranoid:

Metal guitar sound test:

Incredible photos from Kei Suzuki’s performance during Hatsune Miku in Kansai!

These just came to us from our fine dealers in Japan, MI7! Thanks, team!

The full story is linked below. It’s in Japanese, but Google Chrome has a great built-in translator.
http://www.mi7.co.jp/story/kei.suzuki.php
http://www.mi7.co.jp/story/kei.suzuki_page2.php

Spud Too Tight presents VSC

Check out this demo from Studio One hyperproducer Spud Too Tight! In this video, he’s using Studio One to demo a bold new technology called Virtual Studio Control, or VSC, which allows producers to collaborate online by streaming audio straight from their DAW.

From Spud: “V.S.C. creates a gateway that allows audio to be streamed directly from any DAW or analog setup over the web in real-time, instead of using a USB Microphone. Audio is available to stream in stereo depending on which VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) chat service you choose to use.”

For more info visit www.SpudTooTight.com!

 

Baton Rouge: Open your hearts and veins for a great cause tomorrow, get a PreSonuSphere T-Shirt!

Baton Rouge residents: PreSonus is partnering with The Blood Center for a blood drive on Tuesday, May 21, from 9 a.m. to 1:20 p.m. There is currently a national shortage of blood, and sadly, deposits made to a blood bank do not accrue interest—so the Red Cross needs all the help they can get! Just a pint of blood can save up to three lives!

Please Click HERE to ensure you are eligible to donate. It is important to eat a good breakfast before donating blood and be sure to bring your photo ID!

The blood mobile will be located behind the Bon Carre buildling, near the PreSonus Audio Electronics entrance.
7257 Florida Blvd.
Baton Rouge, LA 70806

If you are interested, email jobs@presonus.com to confirm a time slot, and here’s some handy tips from the Red Cross for a successful donation.

Generous souls not suffering from trypanophobia will walk away with a bandage on their arm, a song in their heart, and a killer PreSonuSphere T-shirt!

 

 

FREE Webinar May 21: bringing music tech to your students!

This Tuesday, May 21st, at 7 p.m. EST,  PreSonus’  Education Market Manager John Mlynczak will be presenting a free webinar on incorporating technology into music curriculums at all levels: Click here to sign up!

This session will cover:
  • Using Studio One Free to teach composition, theory, and much more
  • Recording your own school performances
  • Sharing recordings with students and families
Check out these resources before the session:

Studio One 101 Songwriters & Musicians Toolbox from macProVideo

Gary Heibner over at macProVideo has been putting together an incredible tutorial series for PreSonus Studio One. There’s currently three great tutorial videos up for all to see. While the first batch is free, the rest will cost ya, but they are so good that it’s totally worth it.

Studio One isn’t the only thing happening over at macProVideo. You can buff up your skills in about a quarter zillion other Mac productivity applications. Check ’em out, they’re doing great work.

Here are the freebies:

Why Pepper chooses the StudioLive 24.4.2 for in-ear monitoring

Pepper has been touring hard for some time now, and they’ve turned to the StudioLive 24.4.2 to make the rigors of the road a little more comfortable. Band members and FOH engineer Mike Sutherland sing the praises of their StudioLive and how it applies to their in-ear monitoring solution.