Does anyone have any experience with the Presonus 24 channel digital console? For the price range, it seems to have some nice basic features. As much as I would like to have a tour grade console, I cannot justify one. I don't expect the Presonus to be in the same class as the high end consoles, but it should fill my needs. I've reached a point where I just don't want to move an analog console and all the associated processing. I've had excellent experiences with other Presonus products such as the ACP 88 and found them to sound great and be very dependable. As an old analog guy, my major concerns are with dependability and reliability. I am unable to find a 24 channel locally to see how it sounds, but have worked the 16 channel and found it acceptable. Any thoughts on how the Presonus is holding up and other pros/cons? thanks
Mixers/Consoles Presonus 24 channel digital console
- Thread starterTallenpro
- Start date
coldnorth57
Active Member
I take it you are talking about the StudioLive 24.4.2. The StudioLives have been popular mixer for bands, small sound companies and churches, but rather poorly received for theatrical applications as the scene functionality just does not work for 'on the fly' scene recall. Reliability of the 16.4.2 seems to have been pretty good considering all you get and the price, the 24.4.2 is maybe a bit new to really have a good basis for assessing long term reliability.
A problem I have with low price digital consoles is that some people purchasing them seem to think that having extensive processing available means they need to try to use it. Just because you have a gate and compressor available on every channel does not mean you need to use the gate and compressor on every channel. I really think that many people were better off to have to learn to work with minimal processing and use it effectively.
A problem I have with low price digital consoles is that some people purchasing them seem to think that having extensive processing available means they need to try to use it. Just because you have a gate and compressor available on every channel does not mean you need to use the gate and compressor on every channel. I really think that many people were better off to have to learn to work with minimal processing and use it effectively.
waynehoskins
Active Member
Since you're coming from an analog world with outboard, I think the transition will be easy. A buddy of mine and I have one, same basic situation as you, though we're pretty small-time. It's a great rock-and-roll console, the most analog-feeling one of all the digitals I've used.
No automation, even mute automation, at this point because when you do a scene recall it drops out all audio for about a second or two. That can be an issue for theatre, but it's less likely for music. The first thing I did when we got ours late last summer was run five weeks of The Full Monty on it, running manually because there's no automation. It wasn't bad, actually kinda fun for me really.
No automation, even mute automation, at this point because when you do a scene recall it drops out all audio for about a second or two. That can be an issue for theatre, but it's less likely for music. The first thing I did when we got ours late last summer was run five weeks of The Full Monty on it, running manually because there's no automation. It wasn't bad, actually kinda fun for me really.
TimmyP1955
Well-Known Member
It's a very nice console. The main caveat for theater is that you cannot make full use of scenes, as the audio drops out for several seconds when you change scenes (and you have to make manual level changes between scenes since it doesn't have flying faders or recallable headamps).
The recall for some of the rotary faders, for example the Aux and EFX masters is also far from ideal. When you recall a scene that includes those settings the saved levels are recalled but the controls are not set to those levels. Thus the second you adjust one of the knobs the level will jump from the saved level to the current knob setting. In the User Manual Presonus actually suggests that if you include those controls in the scenes then you should chart them just as you would for an analog console.
This is not a major issue in some cases but if you have a situation such as using auxes that were not part of or set quite differently when you configured the scenes then it could be.
