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Author Archives: Steve Oppenheimer


Hay Bale Studio Relies on StudioLive 32 and Studio One at Bonnaroo

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Photos by Anthony Matula

Most of time, you can find Elijah “Lij” Shaw at his Toy Box Studios in Nashville,

where the Grammy Award winner engineers and produces projects in a wide variety of musical genres. But every year, when the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival rolls around, Shaw and his team decamp for Manchester, home of the festival. There, behind the main stage, they soundproof their double-wide mobile recording trailer with 500 hay bales.

In this once-a-year Hay Bale Studio at Brigadoon—er, Bonnaroo—Shaw and his team record dozens of bands that will appear at the festival. The performances are fed to more than 40 radio markets around the USA.

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Photos by Anthony Matula

For the 2017 Bonnaroo, Hay Bale Studio offered more capabilities than ever before, as Shaw mixed on the new PreSonus StudioLive 32 Series III digital console/recorder, while his team captured the tracks and main mix in PreSonus’ popular Studio One 3 Professional DAW.

“The StudioLive 32 allowed us to bring in all 24 inputs from the recording floor, so we could record a full band. We’re recording in multitrack to Studio One using the console’s AVB audio interface, which can send and return up to 55 streams over one CAT5 Ethernet cable,” says Shaw.

Shaw mixes live while the band is performing, a job made much easier by the StudioLive 32 Fat Channel signal-processing section’s customizable user interface. “I’ve got compressors and EQ on every channel,” Shaw specifies, “and the customizable Fat Channel lets me create my own layout so I can quickly access the processing I want when mixing. I can bring in four onboard effects processors for reverb and delay, and I also patch in my outboard spring reverb. I use Tap Tempo on the mixer to ensure the timing of the delay effects works with what the band is playing.”

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Photos by Anthony Matula

PreSonus’ FlexMix feature also has proven useful. “I choose a FlexMix, and the entire mixer configuration changes and shows me what’s going on with that FlexMix,” instructs Shaw. Using the StudioLive 32’s aux sends, Shaw and team send four custom headphone cue mixes. “We send the cue mixes to the PreSonus HP4, which is a great, simple 4-channel headphone box that is really loud,” he avers. “We have two people with iPads running UC Surface software to control the monitor mixes.”

Main engineer Michael Hardesty also is equipped with UC Surface but he’s running it on a laptop. “Anything Lij can do on the mixer, I can do just as well in the software. My main goal is to set preamps and compressors and do the gain staging so I can get the multitrack feeds recorded properly in Studio One. I am also taking a print of the mix but generally I’m working with individual tracks. I also help with headphone mixes,” Hardesty observes.

With UC Surface, it’s possible to control the mixer from multiple devices at the same time. “That means you can give people different responsibilities,” Hardesty explains. “You also can lock out functions on particular devices; the iPad guys on the recording floor can only control the aux sends for the headphone mixes, while my laptop has complete control of the StudioLive 32.”

The live stereo mix goes straight to mastering engineer Joe Hutchinson. “Joe makes the radio mix sound fantastic,” enthuses Shaw. “He also uses Studio One to capture the performance in stereo. So we’re capturing bands through the StudioLive 32, mixing and mastering, and putting it out to more than 40 radio markets—all within an hour of each performance, with two or three songs for each band every hour.”

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Thanks to the feature-packed, versatile StudioLive 32 and the power and speed of Studio One, Hay Bale Studio had entirely new capabilities at the 2017 Bonnaroo. “The customizable mixing surface, plenty of processing, wireless remote control, recording features, and ease of use let us do things we could never do at a dozen previous Bonnaroos,” confirms Shaw, “and it all sounded great. “We loved using the StudioLive 32, and we’re very happy with Studio One. Bonnaroo is a highlight of our year, and PreSonus helped make it extra special this year. We hope you’ll visit our site and check out some of the recordings!”

Watch Lij demo and show off their StudioLive 32 here:

 

For more information about Hay Bale Studio, please visit www.thetoyboxstudio.com/haybalestudio

Listen to their latest podcast from Bonnaroo HERE!

For more information about PreSonus, the StudioLive 32 console/recorder, Studio One 3 DAW, and the HD4 headphone amplifier, please visit www.presonus.com.

 

Photography provided by Anthony Matula with MA2LA Design.

PreSonus® Notion™ 6.0.409 update

The PreSonus® Notion™ 6.0.409 update includes:

New Features

  • Ukulele chord diagrams: Open the chord library and click a ukulele staff to see chord diagrams for a standard-tuning uke
  • New Korean Quick Reference Guide

Fixes and Enhancements

General

  • Chord Looseness value added to MIDI Import (Windows®)
  • Text size fixed for editor text (e.g., pan/volume/FX when entering a text value for a parameter) (Windows)
  • Tools>Transpose now opens the correct dialog (Windows)
  • Handwriting area on Windows tablets (non-Surface) improved
  • Multi-measure rest options now show in the Part Options dialog if the Full Score Options dialog was opened first (Mac®)
  • Undo tooltip now shows correctly
  • Chords of Fb, Cb, and G# now show as expected when transposing

Layout

  • Left margin of a multi-measure rest now spaced properly
  • No longer shows empty parentheses in tab if there is a tied note in both tab and standard notation
  • Layout handles now do not print
  • Multi-measure rests now print when using the Print Parts dialog

Audio

  • Improvements in searching and setting audio format when opening Notion (Mac)
  • Network discovery check enabled by default in Preferences

User Interface

  • Fix Windows dialogs for high-DPI scaling (About screen, Installer screen, built-in effects, MIDI Commands dialog)
  • Mixer and Effects knob drawing issues fixed (Windows)
  • Numpad Return now mirrors Return when default Notion numpad is selected in Preferences
  • MIDI Device Commands dialog now fits screen

Language

  • Preferences now open when language is set to German (Mac)
  • Fix issue closing Notion when language is set to Italian (Mac)
  • Built-in output now shows in Preferences if language is set to French
  • Solo and Mute labels in Mixer now showing correctly in German
  • Japanese default font for Windows 10 updated

Complete list of new features in Notion 6.

Your copy of Notion 6 should auto-update next time you open it. Alternatively, you can find the download links in your My PreSonus account; simply log in and go to My Products>Software.