PreSonus StudioLive

We had an entertaining visit this week from the brand new (soon-to-be released) PreSonus StudioLive16.4.2 digital console. After a quick introduction, we took it for a tour around the shop. With a couple of firewire ports on board, StudioLive was looking comfortable, lounging on the couch in our monitor listening room. Being rackmountable and weighing in at just 10 kg, we figured StudioLive would be well suited to life on the road also. Yep, we were right. Then for the bench testing...we did some side-by-side (and back panel to back panel) comparisons against other 16 channel consoles we have in stock. StudioLive16.4.2 has all the ins and outs you'd normally see: 16x XLR inputs, 16x 1/4" Line inputs, 16x channel insert points. You also get direct outputs for channels 1-16 (via 2 x DB25). Of course, the undeniable benefit of a digital mixer is the processing power on board, and StudioLive16.4.2 has got plenty for every in and out point of your mix, which leads us to... Fat Channel The control section of the mixer is very easy to get hands on. There's enough faders to do what you need quickly, and it's also super-simple to select the 'fat channel' control section for any of the inputs, aux sends, sub groups or master outputs. Fat Channel is the bright blue heart of the console., giving you instant access to all the controls you'd need. Here's what Presonus have to say about their Fat Channel: "...engaged by pressing any 'select' button, features extensive equalisation and dynamics available to every input channel, every aux output, every subgroup output, and main output. High pass filter, and four-band semi-parametric equalization algorithms are based on PreSonus’ custom-designed digital EyeQ™ equaliser, delivering extremely musical results. Also included in the Fat Channel are compressors, limiters and gates modeled after PreSonus’ award-winning ACP88 for complete dynamics control." Did we mention 2 x dedicated internal effects... Our new friend StudioLive16.4.2 even managed to time the visit to coincide with customers who ask all the right questions. Take John Hall for example... he's a regular user of Midas analogue and DiGiCo digital consoles, working as house engineer at Melbourne venues. No doubt he gets plenty of experience with other boards while touring Australia and US. For him, StudioLive was appealing as it offered a quick, portable (and well-priced) way of controlling a bunch of in-ear monitors for tours - especially doing festival shows where want to just patch in and get your ears going in next to no time. It's settled then. Looks like StudioLive16.4.2 has got it's own spot at Factory Sound. Stay tuned for further updates. If you simply can't wait, go here to download the brochure, or here to download the manual. Nice one PreSonus. www.factorysound.com