PreSonus Audio Electronics, Inc. (often known and styled as PreSonus) is an American manufacturer of audio and digital audio workstation (DAW) equipment and software, used to create, record, mix, and master music and other audio.
PreSonus was founded in 1995, in Baton Rouge, by Louisiana State University engineering graduates Jim Odom and Brian Smith.
The company's first product was the DCP-8, a multi-channel compressor that could be controlled by MIDI. Subsequent products include the DigiMax 8-channel microphone preamplifier with ADAT output (2000), the Central Station monitor controller with talkback (2004), and multi-channel FireWire interfaces, including the FireStation (2002), FirePod (2004), and FireStudio series (2006).
In 2006, KristalLabs Software Ltd., a start-up founded by Wolfgang Kundrus and Matthias Juwan, began working on the Studio One DAW and on the Capture live-recording software in cooperation with PreSonus. Kundrus was one of the developers of the early versions of Cubase and was the software architect of the first version of Nuendo for Steinberg. Juwan had written the basic specifications for version 3 of the Virtual Studio Technology (VST) plug-in standard, and written the freeware KRISTAL Audio Engine.
KristalLabs later became an integrated part of PreSonus. Wolfgang Kundrus was the Managing Director and Matthias Juwan chief technology officer (CTO).
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 bidirectional control software in 2010, and their QMix monitor-mix control software 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 online direct-to-fan music service, and again in 2013 when they acquired assets from Notion Music, including the Notion and Progression music-notation and composition software applications.
Wolfgang Kundrus and Eike Jonas left PreSonus in 2014. Kundrus is now Head of Software Development for EastWest Sounds.
