PreSonus Blog

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.

It’s a lovely Spring morning in Paris, but I’m not seeing much of it because I’m currently in the rather fabulous SAE Paris building setting up for an afternoon introducing the students to the wonderful world of PreSonus. That’s one of the great contradictions of my job – I get to travel all over the world, but I rarely get the chance to see much of it 🙁  On the upside, I love teaching, and I really love teaching about this great technology we make, so I’m not too unhappy.

Ooops, students are turning up at the door, time to go talk to them…

OK, let me get this straight: a 64-bit plugin that comes with a great playback engine, 1 GB of top-quality sounds, has a killer editing interface, and it’s free as well? Yes, it’s Alchemy Player, the free version of the excellent Alchemy virtual instrument. I seriously couldn’t believe this plugin when I tried it. But since I’ve gotten it I’ve been using it all the damn time, it’s that good. The only catch is that you have to register with Camel Audio in order to get it, but seriously, for this kind of quality that’s not much of an inconvenience… Just don’t even think about it – get this killer plugin now.

Oh, and while you are at it, pick up the free CamelCrusher plugin as well. It’s a combo Distortion/Filter/Compressor that can add some serious nastiness to your mixes. And that’s always good by me.

This week’s Freebie Friday features the amazing Togu Audio Line. I’ve been using these plugs for forever and a day, and they really are blisteringly good. TAL have been making FX and virtual synths for quite some time, with great solid basic sounds, and remarkable stability and features for free plugins – they were even fully 64-bit far in advance of most of their commercial competitors, so if you are running the 64-bit version of Studio One these will all still work flawlessly without requiring a bit-bridge.

The first TAL plugin that attracted my attention was the TAL Bassline – a fairly perfect emulation of the classic Roland SH-101 analog monosynth. I used to have one of these back in the day, and it was damn fine bass synth; I wasn’t disappointed when I downloaded the TAL version, it pretty much nailed it right there.

Also really noteworthy in the analog emulation stakes is the TAL-U-No-62. This is another great analog emulation, this time of the Roland Juno 60 – including the original’s famous Chorus section. It’s a great little synth, and there are tons of cool presets to download. Highly recommended.

But the big daddy TAL has to be the TAL Noisemaker. Unlike the other synths, this isn’t an emulation of older hardware, it’s a completely new synth, and it’s the bomb. It follows the classic analog subtractive synthesis route, no flashy modern stuff, so it’s really easy to understand and program; and it sounds really good. It’s become one of my first go-to synths when I just want a good solid sound quick & easy.

There are a ton more great plugins on the TAL site, including Vocoder, Reverb etc. so check them out. They are all free, but the author is asking for donations via PayPal – so if you like them, do show your appreciation, even if it’s only a couple of bucks!