In 1990, five years before PreSonus launched, PreSonus cofounder and president Jim Odom was in the business of making records the good ol’ fashioned way: 2-inch analog tape, racks of analog outboard gear, tons of knobs, and plenty of blood, sweat, and faders. One of the bands Jim produced was called Func Haus, an amazing power trio from Baton Rouge. They are still rockin’ today, BTW.

In the YouTube clip above, you’ll spot a long-haired, cigarette-smoking, not-yet PreSonus-cofounder-and-president Jim Odom, engineering the Desert Sky album for Func Haus. Thanks to Wendell Tilley for this rare glimpse into some of the formative days of PreSonus Audio Electronics!

Today is a really special Freebie Friday, as Hamburg Audio has created a version of their awesome NUKLEAR synth just for Studio One users called NUKLEAR SOLO. The latest version of NUKLEAR has automatic host detection, and needs no further registration, nor activation. If you’re running Studio One (Producer or Professional), just install and have fun!

Click here to visit Hamburg Audio and download NUKLEAR.

They’ve also just released the new free Protonica Soundset for NUKLEAR, adding 32 handcrafted presets by Piet Kaempfer from the progressive trance artists Protonica.

And to cap it all off, Studio One users can upgrade to the polyphonic version of NUKLEAR for only €89! For this, just send an email to solo@hamburg-audio.com, including a Studio One Song file with one instance of NUKLEAR before or after purchasing.

What a week for Studio One- 2.0.5 release and the introduction of Studio One Free, and now this. Thanks, Hamburg Audio, for making our Friday even better!

Clear trophies don't photograph very well.

Three out of three ain’t bad!  At this year’s Frankfurt Musikmesse, the StudioLive 16.0.2 won the Musikmesse International Press Award (MIPA) in the category “Mixing Desk (Project Studio).”

History repeats itself… the StudioLive 16.4.2 won the same award in 2010, and the StudioLive 24.4.2 won it in 2011.

Big thanks to the powers that be for their support and recognition of the StudioLive family.

Learn about Electronic Music Production in Studio One, starring Florian Veer! 2pm CST / 3pm EST / Noon PST / 9:00 GMT!

http://www.presonus.com/community/presonuslive/

Vigilante touring the US and more soon!

PreSonus industrial artist Vigilante is touring the US very soon, moving on to Russia, Prague, and Czech Republic at the end of the tour! Catch them if they come through your area…

VIGILANTE “REVOLUTION IS NOW!” WORLWIDE TOUR 2012

05 May / Philadelphia,PA / USA / @ Shampoo Nightclub (Show / DJ Set

(http://www.facebook.com/events/295807607153284)

10 May / Pittsburgh,PA / USA / @ The Garfield Artworks (Show) (http://www.facebook.com/events/243904229037028)

11 May / Columbus,OH / USA / @ TBA (Show)

12 May / Indianapolis,IN / USA / @ TBA (Show)

13 May / Dayton, OH / USA / @ TBA (Show)

14 May / St Louis, MO / USA @ The Crack Fox (Show) (http://www.facebook.com/events/169640253150712)

15 May / Kansas, MO / USA @ TBA (Show)

16 May / Omaha, NB / USA @ The Hideout (Show) (http://www.facebook.com/events/382546328429208)

18 May / Colorado Springs, CO / USA @ Subterranean Night Club (DJ Set) (http://www.facebook.com/events/395643973779048)

19 May / Denver, CO / USA / @ Benders Tavern (Show) (http://www.facebook.com/events/285203628220004)

21 May / Albuquerque, NM / USA / @ TBA (DJ Set)

01 June / Baltimore, MD / USA / @ Club Orpheus (DJ Set)

02 June / New York, NY / USA / @ Pyramid Club (DJ Set)13 July / Moscow / Russia / @ TBA (Show)

14 July / Nizhny Novgorod / Russia / @ TBA (Show)

27 July / Bolków / Poland / @ Castle Party festival (Show) (http://www.facebook.com/events/114046671981798)

28 Sept / Prague / Czech Republic / Rock Cafe (Show)

More after the jump.

So it’s just about a week to go before Frankfurt Musikmesse, and we’re starting to get down to the wire on the stage demos. Looks like we’re going to have a lot of demos of a lot of different facets of Studio One, with (as usual) some really great musicians. This time I’ll be working with at least three different sets of musicians, which means a lot of preparation and figuring out how to best play to the strengths of each one. And what features we really have concentrate on, because with a program this size there’s no way you can cover even 10% of it properly in a half hour demo.

But most importantly, getting the music right. Because at the end of the day, it’s about all about the music. That’s the end result, and something I have to keep in my mind all the time: the technology is only a means to that end, and no matter how cool the tech may be, the music is what counts. Luckily I think we’ll have some pretty good music for you next week… 🙂

Well, it appears that one of my previous posts caused a bit of a storm in the media. While it’s nice to get attention I guess, I’ve taken down the post because it got perceived as being some kind of marketing blurb, when it wasn’t supposed to be. Yeah it’s true that I do marketing for PreSonus, but this isn’t the place for it. This is really just me talking about what I personally get up to with Studio One, not some kind of advertising spam. That’s why I started doing the Freebie Friday posts for example – those are plugins that I actually personally like and use to make music with – PreSonus doesn’t get anything out of me telling people about free stuff. My posts here are just me talking about the things I do and like, and that I think might be interesting for you guys too.

So my apologies to anyone that I might have offended with a previous post, but don’t blame PreSonus for it. Anything appearing in this blog under my name is my personal opinion only (that’s why it’s got my name on it) and certainly not some kind of company policy. So blame me, not them.

I got into this business because I love to make music, and I love technology, and even after many many years of doing it I still love it and get very enthusiastic about it. And I guess most of the people reading this feel the same way, so if I sometimes go a little overboard, I hope you guys can understand. I’m a musician first, and a marketing guy second, and it should stay that way. Thanks for listening.

It’s Freebie Friday again, and this week it’s the turn of the mighty Toneboosters.

The man behind Toneboosters is the remarkably talented and knowledgeable Jeroen Breebaart who is a scientist and engineer working in the field of audio processing, and who moonlights making incredible VST plugins in his spare time.

Most of the Toneboosters plugins are commercial, but Jeroen offers them at great prices, and they are well worth investing in. But some of them are free, and very much worth the download. My favourite of the freebies is TB IsoneSurround which allows virtual room monitoring even when using headphones! If you are living in a house with other people and you can only mix late a night in headphones, then you absolutely need this plugin. The virtual room simulation is much better than most commercial offerings costing three figur

e sums! The big brother version TB Isone is even better, so if you like the free one, I definitely recommend upgrading.

TB OmniSone also uses some of Jeroen’s spatial processing tricks, this time to play with the perceived stereo placement and width of a sound signal – it’s pretty wacky, but I think you should try it, you can do some amazing things with it.

And for those who find seven band parametric EQs a little bit daunting, I have to recommend TB EZQ. Want your track to sound brighter? Well… make it sound brighter 🙂

I recently received a kind e-mail from Leo in Norway, sharing his StudioLive experience with us. I found it shareworthy.