Recording - December 2012 - 49

even on a budget. A live session was captured and turned into music loops for use in Studio One right in front of an audience, complete with tips on how to do it for themselves. There was a demo of how to hook up Studio One on a laptop to a StudioLive mixer so the DAW’s plug-ins could be added to the console’s power during a live session. Perhaps most ambitiously, in a series of six seminars that ranged from the Conference room to the Studio Theatre to the Workshop Theatre over two days, PreSonus’s Rick Naqvi and Grammy®nominated producer Brent Milligan planned out a complete song to be performed by Jordy Searcy, recorded scratch tracks, did preproduction, tracked a live rhythm section, overdubbed a lead vocal and created harmonies in Melodyne, mixed the song, mastered it with the help of returning PreSonuSphere presenter Craig Anderton, and as a final touch, uploaded it to the Nimbit site for distribution to fans. At the closing panel, the audience looked a bit shellshocked by all the information they’d been given (and once again grateful that the seminars were all videotaped and will be offered on DVD as a purchasable option). CEO Jim Mack, CSO and CoFounder Jim Odom, CTO Bob Tudor, EVP of Product Development John Bastianelli, and VP of Sales Rick Naqvi fielded questions from the audience and riffed on the possible futures of PreSonus technology, while dropping some tantalizing hints about where they were going with upcoming products (hints: keep an eye on Thunderbolt, and get ready for a new generation of mixers that will feature flexible wireless control and networking without having to have a computer attached—because they will be computers themselves). As with last year, I’ll close with a few choice quotes from show participants: “The main equation of acoustics is that the speed of sound, which is fixed in Nature, is equal to wavelength, which is controlled by how your room is shaped and sized, times frequency, which links to how your ears process audio. In other words, God equals architecture times hearing.”—John Storyk “There are two types of acoustic construction. Transfer and isolation (controlling what sound gets out vs. what sound gets in), and how the room itself sounds. Most of the money is in the former, and most of the glory is in the latter... it is very hard to fix the former, and relatively easy to fix the latter.”—John Storyk “Theory and practice are the same, in theory. In practice, they’re not.”—Mike Rivers “Know where you want to get to, and know when to stop! Knowing your eventual vision beats having all the skills to know how to create sounds but not knowing what you’re going for.”—Fab Dupont

“People are saying the music industry is over... the bankers and accountants are over! We are now the music industry!”—Craig Anderton “We made an entry-level studio in a box, but our quick-start guide still had 30 steps... As part of a survey of 30,000 people we did with Guitar Center, we have learned that within 90 days of buying a ‘starter system’ for recording audio (any brand, not just ours), 50 percent of new users have given up and put the system on the shelf. There’s a definite need for systems that are truly beginner-friendly here.”—Jim Mack “With the StudioLive, people started unthinking what a digital mixer was and started relearning what a digital mixer should be. Everyone else was thinking bigger screen, more color, more layers, fewer controls.... eventually we were going to end up with an Etch-A-Sketch!”—Bob Tudor

“We don’t just consider what features to put into a product. What not to put in is something we also agonize over.”—Bob Tudor “‘The world doesn’t need another...’ That’s one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard in this industry. What the world doesn’t need is another copy of what you have already. We’re all hungry for something that works better.”—Jim Mack “We like to be known for that element of invention that sets us apart. We don’t listen to our competitors... we listen to our users. We listen to us.”—Jim Odom “Where is PreSonus going? Wherever the people want to drive the car.”—Jim Mack And finally, a bit of perspective from an anonymous attendee: “If you told me ten years ago that I could do the stuff you let me do now, I’d have said you were crazy.” PreSonuSphere 2013 is already in the works, and they’re talking about making it even bigger... hopefully including those two pots of jambalaya. More from: PreSonus, presonusphere.presonus.com All photos courtesy Daniel Keller/Get It In Writing PR.
RECORDING December 2012

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Recording - December 2012

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