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Across the hall, the Hartley/Vey Workshop offered a lecture-hall environment, with a variety of speakers digging deep into Studio One (now at version 2—review forthcoming), PreSonus’s full-featured DAW software. PreSonus staff and power users handled four of the seminars, with the final two helmed by author Craig Anderton. Just to give a taste of the huge flow of thought-provoking material being presented at PreSonuSphere, I’ll finish out with a selection of quotes I gathered throughout the day. “The lines between ‘studio’ and ‘live’ are blurred. If you are a musician and don’t know how to record, you’re missing out in a big way... and the same is true if you’re a live engineer.”—Rick Naqvi, PreSonus VP of Sales and Marketing “Investment [in a music release] is no longer a defining factor, creativity is. There are fewer filters [on what is good out there], but I’ll take that if it means more creativity.”— Wolfgang Kundrus, Managing Director of PreSonus Software Ltd. “Don’t just fix the bad... use better musicians, then use a great player’s groove template to breathe life into MIDI tracks.”—Byron Gaither, Studio One Product Specialist “Set up an Ideas tab in your Browser. If a loop or file or anything doesn’t work in your current song, toss it in there so it’s not lost. Don’t be afraid!”—Jonathan Hillman, Studio One Product Manager

Special report by Mike Metlay

Words And Ideas From PreSonusSphere
PreSonuSphere is a conference sponsored by PreSonus to help its users network and learn how to better use their gear. I attended the first annual PreSonuSphere on November 19, 2011, at the Shaw Center for the Arts in downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I’m told the idea for PreSonuSphere came from the users themselves; a group of dedicated posters on the company’s online forums had been batting around the idea of a get-together for some time, and the firm itself decided to step forward and offer a venue and a framework. The plan was to provide speakers and good educational material, offer seminars in a locale near PreSonus’ headquarters, and videotape everything for eventual release on DVD. Attendees would be able to watch DVDs of seminars they missed, and registrants who didn’t want to make the trek to Baton Rouge could wait and watch the proceedings at home. Instead of the 100 to 150 participants projected, PreSonuSphere was full to bursting with well over 200 participants, each enthusiastic and apparently having a blast. The PreSonus staff were simultaneously stunned and thrilled by the huge turnout, and did their best to make their guests happy... starting with a bathtubsized pot of mouthwatering homemade jambalaya served at the party/concert/reception held the night before. The next day, seminars took place all day in two separate “tracks” at the Shaw Center. The Hartley/Vey Studio was set up as a live venue, complete with a stage large enough to hold a band, a lighting system, a projector, and FOH and monitor rigs with PreSonus StudioLive digital consoles. It hosted six seminars on everything from setup and line checking to monitor mixes and remote control of a StudioLive console from an iPad, as well as the opening panel discussion (shown in the photo) and the end-of-day “ask us the tough questions” session with the various presenters and PreSonus officers. Speakers included Recording contributor Mike Rivers and veteran live engineer Ace Baker, whose clients include Aretha Franklin, Paul Gilbert, and Chickenfoot.
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The opening panel discussion—(L to R) PreSonus VP of Sales Rick Naqvi; cofounder, President, and Chief Strategy Officer Jim Odom, and CEO Jim Mack.

“I wish they made a StudioStudio. I miss having a meter bridge all the time.”— Mike Rivers, on the StudioLive console “If someone makes a mistake in the moment, fix it in the moment. Don’t decide to fix it later. Maybe you won’t be able to.”—Bob Tudor, PreSonus CTO “Do we need onscreen faders that look like faders? Why do we need an onscreen Clip LED, why doesn’t a whole channel flash red when you clip? Why must you look away from a fader to see a meter? There is a lack of enjoying the freedom that we have [in software design].”—Craig Anderton “If you see something that has a setting in Preferences, it means the programmer was unable to make a hard choice.”—Wolfgang Kundrus “The most important thing to improve your sound? Write a better chorus!”— Craig Anderton “Most of us [at PreSonus] are gearheads... we make the gear that we want, so we don’t have to buy stuff from anyone else. We feel the concept of “The world doesn’t need another...” is wrong. We are always looking for better ways to do things... if we see a better way to do something, we’ll go after it.”—Jim Mack PreSonus plans to build on its initial success for the second PreSonuSphere in 2012, and I for one am eager to see what comes next. Mike Metlay (mike@recordingmag.com) would like to thank PreSonus cofounder and President Jim Odom and his staff, including but not limited to Steve Oppenheimer, Brad Zell, Rick Naqvi, Jim Mack, Ron Koliha, Byron Gaither, Jonathan Hillman, Ryan Roullard, and Chad Kelly, for making him welcome... and sends best regards to Ace Baker, hoping he survived his trip to Indonesia okay.

Recording - March 2012

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