INDUSTRY INTERVIEW
CHAD KELLY, FOUNDER AND CHIEF DESIGNER, UNITED STUDIO TECHNOLOGIES interview by Steve Sattler
[ Steve Sattler ] Chad, it’ s great to finally connect. You’ ve had quite the journey through the heavyweights of the audio industry— PreSonus, Warm Audio— but now you’ re doing something very different with United Studio Technologies. Looking back, was this always the plan?
[ Chad Kelly ] Honestly, no. I’ m an art major by training. I was on track to be a high school art teacher until the music bug bit me and I started recording bands in my dorm room on a four-track cassette. I’ ve never actually cracked an engineering textbook— I just learned by necessity. My first real gig was at Crusade Audio, the live sound division of Jimmy Swaggart Ministries. It was a trip; one day we’ re doing satellite stuff for the ministry, and the next we’ re running sound for rock and roll shows to make the books balance.
[ WM ] That’ s quite a legendary starting point. How did that lead to your 15-year stint at PreSonus?
[ Chad ] I started at PreSonus when they were literally in the basement of an antique store. I spent 15 years there in middle management, specifically in Quality Control( QC) and service. My desk was the“ Bad News Bears”- I only heard when things broke. But that’ s where I learned why things fail and how to build them, so they don’ t. After PreSonus and a brief time consulting for Warm Audio, I realized I had a different philosophy. I’ m not a businessman or a salesman; I don’ t go to bed worrying about dollars. I worry about resistors, wires, capacitors and building microphones that last a lifetime.
[ WM ] That philosophy really shows when you open up a United microphone. The inside of the Tube67 you sent me to review shows amazing attention to
90 June 2026 Subscribe for Free...