Interview with a pro – Jim Odom Founder of PreSonus!

May 21, 2020

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Making a Scene Presents an Interview with a Pro

Jim Odom – Founder and Chief Strategist of PreSonus!

Jim Odom attended Berklee College of Music on a scholarship from DownBeat Magazine to study jazz guitar. He also holds a B.S. in computer engineering from Louisiana State University and completed graduate studies at the Investment Banking Institute in New York and the Venture Capital Institute. As a business leader, product designer, and musician, he has received the Inc. 5000 growth award and hundreds of product awards such as the NAMM TEC and Innovation awards, and he’s the recipient of gold and platinum records for various music and film projects. Among other works, he co produced the music for the movie Dirty Dancing and composed the closing track for National Lampoon’s European Vacation. He is a member of the Grammys Producers & Engineering Wing, AES, NARAS, NAMM, and other industry associations.

Jim Odom founded PreSonus Audio Electronics in 1995 in his garage. He was dedicated to the principle of designing innovative audio products that provide professional sound quality and features without sacrificing affordability. For the last 25 years, their goal was to build innovative solutions for musicians, content creators, producers, and audio engineers. Today, PreSonus is a leading designer and manufacturer of both recording and live-sound hardware and software solutions that solve real-world problems for real working creatives. PreSonus is now a global brand and market leader with sales channels in over 60 countries.

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 using MIDI (resulting in a new patent). Subsequent products include the DigiMax multi-channel microphone preamplifier with ADAT output , the Central Station monitor controller with talkback , and multi-channel FireWire interfaces, including the FireStation , FirePod , and FireStudio series.

In 2006, KristalLabs Software Ltd., a start-up in Hamburg founded by former Steinberg (cubase) 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 and leading to the release of the Studio One DAW under 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. 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 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.

Their dedication to creating creative tools for the music community that are easy to use and still at the cutting edge of innovation has made PreSonus a global leader in digital audio for both LIVE sound and Recording Technology. Their product line include StudioLive and AR Mixers, Studio One, Notion, Live Sound speakers, Studio Monitors, headphones, Microphones, and much more.