On April 30, 2015, we formally christened our new headquarters in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with one heck of shindig.

This video, screened at said shindig, contains  a selection of interviews with some of the luminaries who had a hand in the creation of our new home, including Mayor Kip Holden, architect Scott Ritter, and more—along with some of the regular cast of PreSonus characters. There were a few architectural challenges inherent in peppering a few office spaces around a world-class recording studio core, but the team really pulled it off.

Thanks to everyone who made this possible. This is a great home.

[This just in from Shane Simpson of Express AV / Steele Creek Studios! These guys are using just about every product we make. I, for one, am impressed!]

In my opinion, PreSonus is the most forward-thinking company in the industry! They care not only about functionality, but also about workflow, ease of use, and cost! If you run a live production company or a recording studio, PreSonus offers many cost-effective solutions to our every-day needs. When it comes to signal flow, pre-amps, user-friendly layout, EQs, versatility, and price, the StudioLive mixers are some of the best desks on the planet.

The StudioLive package stands out for me for many reasons:

1. They ship with a complete (free) software package for recording, mixing, and controlling the mixer! You won’t see other companies doing that!
2. They include a version of Smaart in their Universal Control software! Smaart is one of the best Real Time Analyzers (RTAs) in the business. Smaart software is usually very expensive by itself, but comes free as part of Universal Control Software with every StudioLive desk! Allowing you to visually monitor your house and monitor mixes! Smaart also comes with a great setup tool that allows you to calibrate your speakers.
3. The Studio One Digital Audio Workstation software (a version of which is also included free with every StudioLive desk) is fast becoming the industry standard DAW! Other DAWs are dropping like flies while engineers are discovering the great sound and workflow features of Studio One. Studio One is lightweight (meaning it uses less computer hardware resources) and it’s very fast! That would make it worth switching for me, but Studio One just sounds better. Clean, clear, and awesome! I now prefer it over the other majors.
4. The Capture software is the easiest multi-track recording software you will ever use! Enable the tracks you want to record and press the record button, it’s that simple.
5. One of the things that really floored me was that the new AI-series Studiolive mixers have an “A/B” button on every channel on the desk! That means two separate Fat Channel settings for every channel on the board! Let’s say you are mixing a live show and one band member plays acoustic guitar and mandolin. You can have two seperate EQ and compression settings for the guitar and the mandolin, by just A/B switching between the two.

We received a pair of PreSonus Sceptre studio monitors a few weeks ago—Wow! I never thought a co-axial monitor would even work, let-alone be some of the best sounding I have ever heard! They sound like monitors several times their cost, clean and powerful! That is not to discount the Eris series monitors, as they are awesome as well. Our local PreSonus rep demoed a set of Eris for us, and although we wound up with the Sceptres, the Eris blew us away for sounding so good at that price.

We have also been using the PreSonus Monitor Station; man is this thing cool! It makes switching between adjustable audio sources and monitor sets a breeze—we have our subs on one of the outputs, so we can bring them in or out with the touch of a button. The built-in talk-back mic is awesome, and the adjustable Dim feature is really cool as well.

Using the Presonus HP60 headphone amp has been very helpful to us as well. We were using a diffferent brand before we got the HP60, and we were not very happy with it. The HP60 is very clean with lots of headroom.

We also use the AudioBox 22vsl, which has been a great portable interface. We look forward to acquiring an ADL-series preamp (or two), some new A.I. series mixers, a set of Eris near-field monitors, a Temblor T10 Subwoofer, PreSonus StudioLive speaker cabs for our live production, and all the other goodies PreSonus has to offer. PreSonus is a great company that cares about its customers. Our PreSonus rep came to our shop and spent two days with us educating us on PreSonus products and getting to know our needs and our business so he could better serve us and help us grow. He offered invaluable information and insight and showed us how PreSonus products can help us succeed as a business.

Thanks, PreSonus. We appreciate a company that cares enough to spend time with a small company like us—keep on doing what you are doing: Providing us with useful, innovative products, and the help and know-how to implement them.

Dave Williams
Senior Audio Engineer
Steele Creek Studios / Express AV 

Christopher “AudioCzar” Smith is no joke. The man’s been cranking out track after track for a long time, now, and in the last year he’s settled on Studio One Professional for all of his sonic endeavors. Fortunately for us (and you) I was able to get him to answer some questions about his production habits, and why he’s chosen PreSonus.

When he’s not producing music, he’s also producing excellent videos full of Studio One tips; at the time of this writing he’s up to 20 and counting. Click here to see all of the Czar’s vids. 

I’m Christopher “Czar” Smith, originally from Memphis, but I live in Nashville, TN. I am an audio engineer specializing in recording and mixing.

I bought Studio One Artist during a NAMM sale few years ago, for about $20. It was an impulse buy I’m glad I made. Actually, I remember my first recording setup back in 2000—I had a PreSonus TubePRE for vocals. 

Every mix I’ve done since 2013 has been done in Studio One Professional, and every song or album I’ve mastered since upgrading to Professional was also done in Studio One. When I work out of Groove Box studios here in Nashville I use the DigiMax FS for tracking drum or hardware inserts for my analog gear I bring with me. I also have a FaderPort that I use when mixing. 

PreSonus is great because unlike a lot of other companies, you can tell they are really passionate about their products, and they listen to the consumer. They also have excellent customer interaction. If you tweet them, they will tweet back. Everyone I’ve met from the PreSonus staff at NAMM or Gearfest have all been friendly and helpful. And all the products are well thought-out and designed. PreSonus is one of the few companies I look forward to seeing new products from every year.

The last big project I did was a mix for Diane Betts, a very talented singer/songwriter here in Nashville. Her song was mixed and mastered using Studio One Profefssional.

Right now I’m finishing up mixing and mastering The Equalizers debut album, “After Hours.” Next up, I’ll be mixing an album for a rap group from Nashville, and I’m doing some production for a rap artist from Nebraska. I also just got hired to do some mixing and mastering for an artist in France. It’s the first time I doing work for someone overseas, so I’m excited about it!

•  www.audioczar.net
• AudioCzar’s blog
• YouTube
• Twitter (@audioczar901)
• SoundCloud
• Google+

PreSonus was proud to be a part of the 2013 ASCAP Songwriters Retreat, held September 25^th to October 4^th at the 14th-century Château Marouatte in the Dordogne region of France—an inspiring place for the lyrically inclined.

And that’s the point. ASCAP has designed this retreat to bring out the best in talented writers. This year’s 30+ participants were divided into different groups, every day, to write and record, keeping collaborative spirits fresh and healthy. At the end of the session, attendees return home with renewed artistic vigor, their hearts and hard drives full of song.

In fact, a dozen of the songs written at the camp this year are already on hold for major label artists, including The Temper Trap, Kelly Clarkson, Melanie Fiona, Nylo, Jessie Malakouti, and Jon Bellion.

PreSonus was happy to provide a metric heap of equipment to foster the creative process, including:

[This just in from producer Guy Perchard! He recently contacted us about his experience with Studio One, and we just had to share. ]

Hi PreSonus!

I recorded Steve Heron’s song “I Swear Blind” after-hours at Red Dog Music, the instrument shop I work at in Edinburgh, Scotland. I was an early adopter of Studio One. In more than two years of using it to track bands and songwriters, I’ve never experienced a glitch, crash or artifact in the recorded audio. I’ve worked with Steve before on full-band productions (the usual four-piece plus backing vocals and a horn section) but for this B-side track, he wanted something a little more raw and natural. Everything on this session was tracked in one take, with minimal editing.

I’m a huge fan of the in-house effects built in to Studio One. Pro EQ is ludicrously useful for subtractive EQ and I apply it as an insert to every track on the mix; its interface makes finding the mud and taming it a doddle. The Compressor plug-in is also a mighty beast! The knee parameter is really useful for making the compression a little more transparent and subtle. The Room Reverb plug-in also used regularly;  I send the vocal, guitar and Fender Bass VI all to a slightly tweaked version of the “medium studio” preset.

One element that has a bit more going on is the ghostly sounding guitar, played with an E-bow. The E-bow guitar was processed via an insert chain consisting of: Autofilter, Compressor, Pro EQ, Beat Delay, Analog Delay, and finally Binaural Pan. Even though it sounds pretty extreme when you solo it, it works well as a subtle element in the whole mix. The whole master buss is then running through the awesome RedLightDist valve-sim plug-in on a very gentle setting to knock-off a little of the clarity and to excite the mids.  The only non-PreSonus plug-in on the mix is iZotope Ozone, to provide some subtle multi-band compression and a few dB of loudness.

I find working in Studio One is an absolute joy, but it has slightly ruined me for any other DAW software on the market. I frequently face-palm when I see people fumbling around with the clunky menus in Pro Tools… If they only knew they could make things so much easier for themselves!

Well done, PreSonus! You’ve made producing music as fun and intuitive as playing it.

On October 5 2013, The Ruth Paz Foundation hosted Paz Fest III: A New Orleans Tribute to Joni Mitchell. The lengthy bill featured none other than PreSonus Artist Roland Guerin! Paz Fest is all about great music helping a great cause; the all-star show donated proceeds to help the Ruth Paz Hospital for Burns and Pediatric Surgery in Honduras.

“While the negative and overwhelming media attention of Tropical Storm Karen prevented us from having a great turn out for the event, we still managed an amazing show with over four hours of Joni Mitchell songs performed by some great artists,” says Micheal Paz, President of the The Ruth Paz Foundation.  “We also were blessed to have many of the people in attendance and many people across the USA write personal checks to the foundation that helped the night be a great success!

“I am in the process of going through a total of 16 hours of music that I have recorded over the past three PazFest events, and will be producing a “best-of” compilation collection. I will also be producing a one-hour radio special to be broadcast on Meg Griffin’s show on The Loft on Sirius/XM Radio that will be broadcast sometime this winter.”

Paz Fest I occurred back in May of 2000, when the Ruth Paz Foundation hosted an event to build a burn hospital in Honduras. It was the first of many fundraisers toward this effort, and in 2004 construction began on a 20 bed burn and pediatric surgery hospital at a cost of $1.5 million.

In August of 2010, the organization opened The Ruth Paz Hospital for Burns and Pediatric Surgery, in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, offering crucial services to poor children of Honduras. The grand opening was celebrated with Paz Fest II!

With this history, The Ruth Paz Foundation is certain to continue their honorable work in the spirit of helping those in need. Thanks very much to Michael and his team for their incredibly selfless work, so far Paz Fest III has raised over $6,000! Photos from the fest are below.

[I noticed a jovial exchange between two of our most vocal advocates on Twitter, @BSWorship and @RayManuelMuzik. Both are diehard Studio One junkies, and in discussing our software via Tweet, the two decided to collaborate on a remix of Brandon Scott’s “Do You Love Me?” The original track and remix are both available here for your listening pleasure, and the two artists were kind enough to spare a couple paragraphs about their experience.]

Brandon Scott:

“So, what happened was Ray heard my song “Do You Love Me” thought he could do a killer remix on the song that I could add as a bonus track to the EP coming out July 4th. We met on twitter through PreSonus releasing my new endorsed artist article. I listened to what Ray was doing himself in Studio One and thought, “I don’t listen to much Latin music, but his stuff is really good and sounds great! If he wants to have a go at making a remix of one of my songs, then I’d be honored to have him be a part of it!” So, we started talking more and more via Twitter (I never have met him in my life, FYI) and just hit it off. I stemmed out the mixes of each instrument for my song, dropped it in DropBox and he was good to go. Studio One makes online collaborating so easy it’s sick! I love how simple it is to send files to others around the world to collaborate on amazing music!  Music is what we feel, it moves us, and Studio One is the software that will move you into making amazing music with others around the world. It really is the game changer to music as we know it.”

Here’s Brandon’s original song:

RayManuel Perez:

“Brandon is pretty much in the ball park! We became friends because of how much we love Studio One and became good Twitter friends— its all about #TeamPreSonus! We decided to collaborate and make something crazy happen since sharing session and stems with Studio One is so easy. Studio One is the best DAW because we can do everything in one place;  producing,  recording,  mixing, mastering, and beyond—even uploading the music to the Internet! I actually got rid of all my other DAWs. Brandon and I just became PreSonus buddies and we are happy to share our music, our talents and our culture, using Studio One as our platform to make it happen! Like Brandon says, Studio One is a game changer. It definitely changed my approach—and speed—to making music.”

Here’s RayManuel’s remix:

Rhett Mouton: Producer, engineer, writer/composer.

Years ago I was asked by a young band to go to their rehearsal studio to help them record a song. That rehearsal studio turned out to be in Jim Odom’s back yard.

I use the Central Station for monitoring, ADL 600 for obvious reasons, StudioLive 24.4.2 for live sound and multitracking, Studio One 2 Professional for writing, composing, producing, mixing and mastering.

They always seem to be thinking a step ahead of the curve when developing new products.

I produced, mixed, and mastered a band called Meriwether’s debut album titled, “Make Your Move” which resulted in a distribution deal and record deal with Suretone/Interscope records.

I am currently mixing and mastering projects for clients. I am also composing/writing original music with the intention of licensing for placement in film, television and video games.

rmmaudio.com

Facebook.com/rmmaudio

Facebook.com/rhettmouton