Today we have a special guest blogger, our great friend Mats Nermark from Sweden! Mats is a long time PreSonus user and has led the way in his area with his approach to education! Let’s hear what Mats has to say this week!

What Do You Need to Start a Class?

Unfortunately, there’s always a cost associated with starting a project like a class in Music Production or just wanting to incorporate modern music technology in your regular classes.

The trick to make the budget people happy is obviously to keep the cost down, but what do I need at a minimum without compromising my goals and ambitions?

Here’s my list of what I would get.

For each student workstation:

• A computer
• PreSonus AudioBox iOne
• PreSonus Studio One Artist (included with the AudioBox iOne)
• A USB keyboard
• Headphones, like the PreSonus HD-7

For the teacher workstation:

• A computer
• PreSonus AudioBox iTwo (this interface has two inputs so the teacher can record in stereo)
• PreSonus Studio One Artist (included with the AudioBox iTwo)
• A USB keyboard
• Headphones, like the PreSonus HD-7
• Two microphones so the teacher can teach about recording and lend them to students for their recording needs in class. Usually not practical to record more than one thing at a time.
• A pair of PreSonus 4.5 studio monitors so everyone can listen to examples/demonstrations during classes.

I will be back with more posts about what I teach, how I do it and why I love teaching in this field. Hope to see you then!

Mats Nermark

Phantom Regiment recently recorded some snippets for their show utilizing Studio One and a Studio Series audio interface! Check out the video of the process!

For More Information on Studio One, Click Here.

For More Information on Phantom Regiment, visit www.regiment.org

Today we have a special guest blogger, our great friend Mats Nermark from Sweden! Mats is a long time PreSonus user and has led the way in his area with his approach to education! Let’s hear what Mats has to say this week!

Important Points to Consider When Choosing Software

There are a number of points to consider when choosing what software to use in your educational endeavor.

This list is not in any order of importance as your situation is probably different from mine. But please don’t disregard a point as irrelevant until you’ve really thought about it as it may become important at a later point.

• Does it have all the functions you need to use for all the people involved in your classes? Students, teachers and other contributors?
• Is it easy to teach? I have been working with most of the bigger name DAWs and find Studio One with almost everything being drag-and-drop or editable with the mouse scroll wheel being so easy to teach and for my students at all ages being able to grasp.
• Is it platform independent? Your DAW should work on both PC and Mac.! Why? Overall it’s not smart to shut anyone out who doesn’t happen to have access to a certain computer platform. For me it’s a matter of democracy. In Sweden, where I live and work, Mac computers are more expensive than PCs and PCs are also much more used in corporations. So it’s much more usual for students to have access to a PC at home than a Mac.  But I certainly don’t want to shut out Mac owners either as the Mac is a nice computer.
• Is it made by a stable and reputable company? Freeware always seems to be a good deal at first glance, but freeware means that the people making it may find themselves in a situation where they have to focus on other things leaving you in a bind. When a larger company offers freeware, it’s often in the hope that you will get into the product to a degree that you will want to pay at a later date.
• Is it expensive? Studio One is available in three versions. Studio One Professional is on par with the other professional DAWs with the added bonus of Melodyne included in the package. Studio One Artist is less than $100 and contains all the functions, audio processors and virtual instruments I need to teach a class at almost any level. The really cool thing is that if you buy any PreSonus audio interface you’ll get a license for Studio One Artist for free. This license is valid for installation on five computers. Then there’s Studio One Prime that’s absolutely free and includes unlimited MIDI and instrument tracks and a virtual instrument covering all the basics. So all the students can download it for free and use for homework and their own musical enjoyment.
• Can you buy it? This may seem a stupid question but it really isn’t. I personally don’t like subscription models, as they are a cost that may be hard to estimate over time.  Managers and budget decision makers usually want a firm number.
• Is the license transferable? If the computer breaks down, can I transfer the license to another computer? If a teacher quits, can I transfer the license to another teacher’s computer?
• Is material and knowledge portable between the different levels of the software? Can a student take what he/she has done during class in Studio One Artist and bring it home to work in Studio One Prime. Yes, with a little planning, this is easy. If the student has used a fx or instrument plugin not available at home then the Bounce function is very easy to use and renders instrument tracks and fx to audio which can be played in all versions.

In Kungsbacka, Sweden, we have decided to use PreSonus Studio One as it fulfills all our requirements and ticks all the boxes in the list above. So in our classes in Music Production and Computer As A Musical Instrument our students get to learn with Studio One Artist in a class room environment and they take that knowledge with them back home to work with whatever setup they have. Once they have reached a certain level of proficiency they also have the option to book our studio where we have Studio One Professional and a number of plugin packages.

I will be back with more posts about what, how and why I love teaching in this field. Hope to see you then!

Mats Nermark

This winter, for the WGI 2019 Season, long-time PreSonus users Music City Mystique deployed a unique new redundant live performance computer setup, utilizing the Quantum 4848 Thunderbolt Audio Interfaces for their audio input and output!

Closeup of McM’s Quantum 4848’s

“We chose the Quantum 4848’s for our production this year at MCM due to the incredibly low latency. To be able to do some intense live processing on up to 18 mics (9 wireless, 9 wired from our FOH mixer) at once while simultaneously being able to run software instruments with zero latency was pretty incredible. The DB25 connectors made cabling them into our rig way easier and cleaner as well! They were absolutely rock solid all year.” says Matt Jordan, Front Ensemble Arranger for Music City Mystique.

For more information on Music City Mystique, visit: https://www.musiccitymystique.org/

We’ve gathered all the FAQ’s about our PreSonus Software Site Licenses below. If there’s anything else we can add, let us know via email on musiced@presonus.com

FAQ’s

Is it really unlimited? 

Yes, whether you’ve got 20 or 2000 computers on the same single site, it’s one fixed price. We do have a fair use policy, in that we will ask you for an estimate of the number of computers you’d like to install on at your site, and this is subject to our approval. This is to help you manage your activations better (and so that we haven’t put an infinite Studio One license out into the world!). We’ll give you some headroom within this amount, but if you need more, just make a tech support ticket to let us know, and we’ll increase it.

What is a site?

A site is defined as a group of buildings on one physical site. If your school has two or more campuses, or you are a group of schools administrated by a single trust, you will need an unlimited license per individual site. If you are a central instrumental music teaching service, with travelling (peripatetic) teachers, you can also qualify for a site license, just let us know. Email musiced@presonus.com

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We’ve all been to a sporting event in a stadium and said “I can’t understand the announcer” or “why can’t I understand the music?”

This is precisely why PreSonus offers the WorxAudio Stadium Series loudspeaker systems! Their weather-resistant designs excel in the most extreme environments, such as football and soccer fields, baseball stadiums, and amusement parks. The very broad dispersion reduces the quantity of enclosures needed to provide consistent coverage and minimize comb filtering.

Check out this video from our friends at West Feliciana Parish Schools on why they chose the PreSonus Stadium Solutions!