PreSonus Audio Electronics, Inc. (often known and styled as PreSonus) is an American manufacturer of

professional audio Professional audio, abbreviated as pro audio, refers to both an activity and a category of high-quality, studio-grade audio equipment. Typically it encompasses sound recording, sound reinforcement system setup and audio mixing, and studio mus ...

equipment and

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

, used to create, record, mix, and master music and other audio. This includes their line of

digital audio workstation A digital audio workstation (DAW ) is an electronic device or application software used for Sound recording and reproduction, recording, editing and producing audio files. DAWs come in a wide variety of configurations from a single software pr ...

(DAW) software, Studio One. In November 2021, it was announced that the company was being acquired by Fender.

History

PreSonus was founded in 1995, in

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, Louisiana by

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

graduates Jim Odom (also a member of the rock band LeRoux) and Brian Smith, to solve technical issues with engineering music CDs. It was initially based out of Odom's garage. The company's first product was the DCP-8, a multi- channel digital processor (including compression, gating and mix automation) that could control

analog audio Analog recording is a category of techniques used for the recording of analog signals. This enables later playback of the recorded analog audio. Analog audio recording began with mechanical systems such as the phonautograph and phonograph. La ...

using

MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, ...

(resulting in a new

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

). Subsequent products include the DigiMax multi-channel

microphone A microphone, colloquially called a mic (), or mike, is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and publi ...

preamplifier with

ADAT Alesis Digital Audio Tape, commonly referred to as ADAT, is a magnetic tape format used for the Sound recording and reproduction, recording of eight digital audio tracks onto the same S-VHS tape used by consumer VCRs, and the basis of a serie ...

output (2000), the Central Station monitor controller with talkback (2004), and multi-channel

FireWire IEEE 1394 is an interface standard for a serial bus for high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data transfer. It was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s by Apple in cooperation with a number of companies, primarily Sony a ...

interfaces, including the FireStation (2002), FirePod (2004), and FireStudio series (2006). In 2006, KristalLabs Software Ltd., a start-up in

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founded by former Steinberg developers Wolfgang Kundrus and Matthias Juwan, began working on the Studio One DAW and on the Capture live-recording software in cooperation with PreSonus. KristalLabs subsequently became part of PreSonus when the company acquired all of their assets in 2009 (leading to the creation of the new entity ''PreSonus Software Limited''). In 2008, PreSonus developed the AudioBox USB audio/MIDI interface, and in 2009, the company launched its StudioLive series of digital mixers, the first version of their Studio One DAW, and the first version of their Capture live-recording software. This was followed by their Virtual StudioLive (VSL) control software in 2010, and their QMix control app in 2012. In 2011 PreSonus jointly developed the Audio Random Access (ARA) plug-in extension with Celemony, to allow greater integration between audio plug-ins and DAW software. PreSonus expanded in 2012 by acquiring the

Nimbit Nimbit, Inc. was an American company offering sales & marketing services for independent musicians, independent label, independent record labels and other organizations. It offered a World Wide Web, web-based, direct-to-fan system, including a vir ...

online direct-to-fan music service, again in 2013 when they acquired assets from Notion Music (including the Notion and Progression music-notation and composition software applications), and again in 2014 by acquiring the live sound hardware manufacturer WorxAudio (PreSonus continue to sell specific hardware, including loudspeakers, under this brand). Wolfgang Kundrus and Eike Jonas left PreSonus in 2014. Kundrus is now Software Architect and Senior Developer for EastWest Sounds. In November, 2018, PreSonus released their 16-pad ATOM portable

MIDI Controller A MIDI controller is any hardware or software that generates and transmits Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) data to MIDI-enabled devices, typically to trigger sounds and control parameters of an electronic music performance. They mos ...

, which included extended integration features with their Studio One software. In November, 2021, Fender announced it they had signed a definitive agreement of merger with PreSonus.

Core products

Hardware

Presonus HP4 4-Channel Headphone Amplifier

Hardware manufactured by PreSonus includes the following: * Digital mixers, allowing multiple audio channels to be fed into a computer system via a single

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard, developed by USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), for digital data transmission and power delivery between many types of electronics. It specifies the architecture, in particular the physical ...

Firewire IEEE 1394 is an interface standard for a serial bus for high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data transfer. It was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s by Apple in cooperation with a number of companies, primarily Sony a ...

connection, including the StudioLive brand. * Control surfaces, including the StudioLive and FaderPort brands. *

MIDI controllers A MIDI controller is any hardware or software that generates and transmits Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) data to MIDI-enabled devices, typically to trigger sounds and control parameters of an electronic music performance. They mos ...

, such as the ATOM brand. *

, Thunderbolt and

audio Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to: Sound *Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound *Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum *Digital audio, representation of sound ...

and

recording interfaces, including the AudioBox, Studio, Quantum, and (now discontinued) FireStudio brands. *

Studio monitor Studio monitors are loudspeakers in speaker enclosures specifically designed for professional audio production applications, such as recording studios, filmmaking, television studios, radio studios and project or home studios, where accurate ...

s, including the Eris, Ceres and Sceptre brands. *

Loudspeaker A loudspeaker (commonly referred to as a speaker or, more fully, a speaker system) is a combination of one or more speaker drivers, an enclosure, and electrical connections (possibly including a crossover network). The speaker driver is an ...

s, including the WorxAudio brand. * Headphone amplifiers.

Software

PreSonus produce multiple software products related to music and other audio, including: * Studio One: A

(DAW). * Notion: Music composition and performance software. * Progression: Composition software for guitar, bass, keyboards, drums and vocals. * Capture: Live-recording software, designed for PreSonus' StudioLive brand digital mixers.

References

External links