Presonus Studiolive, experiences?

Recording Techniques, People Skills, Gear, Recording Spaces, Computers, and DIY

Moderators: drumsound, tomb

radmike
gimme a little kick & snare
Posts: 77
Joined: Mon May 12, 2003 4:16 pm
Location: western,ma
Contact:

rEcording

Post by radmike » Tue Nov 10, 2009 7:48 am

I got one of these in august. I use it as my main recording board, coming away from a tascam 388 that I've had for ten years. I did a brief stint in the the digital realm with the digi ootwo, ended up selling it. The compressors can be thought of as transparent and natural sounding. Can't really get that super squished sound without some artifacts on certain sources. Eq has been quite usefull thus far. Bandwith adjustment is lacking a bit. A little polling going on when sweeping frequencies. One of the best things about this board is popping your daw plug INS in line along with any dsp you have on the channel. It takes the stRain off your CPU. Routing flexibility is pretty out of control. With some nice plug INS and the right outboard gear you can do quite a bit. I wish u could use an external clock and I believe the lines take precidence over the xlrs so when I hook this board up to a patch bay I'm gonna have to do some thinking. I couldn't care less about the moving faders, It feels more like mixing on an analog board and I can mouse in some automation for the time being. This board seems like it's pointing me in the right direction, the preamps are fine but down the road a bit I'm going to grab some more colorful pre's and that will be that. If you're used to working in the box you might not favor having to save your session then save the scene on the board. Apparently presonus is working on some cool stuff having to do with backing up your scenes and fat channel setting in the computer which will be nice. Sounds like there are some nice surprises along with that update so maybe we will see a rta or some sort of GUI with the fat channel or graphic eq. Overall, in my studio this board is a major win

wren
suffering 'studio suck'
Posts: 464
Joined: Tue Mar 13, 2007 6:50 pm
Location: Central VA
Contact:

Post by wren » Tue Nov 10, 2009 9:19 am

cfMC wrote:I haven't used this but just wanted to say I will never buy anything from PreSonus ever again. I had a few of their cheap tube preamps and compressors a few years ago and every single one of them eventually in turn caught on fire and died. and they were noisy before they suicided
I know of plenty of ACP88's in very busy touring/rental racks that have lasted for years and years. I've worked with a live engineer who bought one of the first 50 Studiolives ever made, and it's still going strong. He liked it so much he bought 2 more when they were next available; they're still going strong too.
"I don't need time, I need a deadline." -Duke Ellington

"I liked the holes in it as much as I liked what was in them." -Tom Waits

BlueMoonshine
gettin' sounds
Posts: 103
Joined: Thu May 31, 2007 12:28 pm
Location: Floyd, VA
Contact:

Post by BlueMoonshine » Wed Nov 11, 2009 6:10 am

Don't have the raw tracks yet, but I did just get an mp3 of the two-track live mix from our Sunday afternoon gig. For a gig we didn't intend to record, and for a tune that hasn't been "mixed" beyond the live show, I'm impressed with the quality of the StudioLive.

58s on the vocals, AKG c451 on the fiddle and Perception 150 on the mandolin, guitar and bass through D.I.s

Blue Moonshine covering Neil Young's Helpless:
http://www.bluemoonshineband.com/MP3/Bl ... lpless.mp3

daveg62
gimme a little kick & snare
Posts: 92
Joined: Fri Mar 21, 2008 2:39 pm

Post by daveg62 » Wed Nov 11, 2009 5:02 pm

yeah that def doesn't sound bad at all for a live mix. Sounds very usable when you get the raw tracks to work with... I think I'm leaning toward one of these soon.

dgrieser
steve albini likes it
Posts: 327
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 11:34 am
Location: New Mexico

Post by dgrieser » Thu Nov 12, 2009 10:54 am

Bluemoonshine, that live recording does quite good. Very nice arrangement of the Neil tune too--you guys are on to something with your band sound. Great to hear some mandolin, too. (Another mando nut here.) OK, back to the mixer.

kslight
mixes from purgatory
Posts: 2968
Joined: Tue Oct 13, 2009 7:40 pm

Post by kslight » Sat Jan 16, 2010 4:09 pm

Anyone else chime in on this? I'm really considering one around tax time as I think it suits how I intend to work (primarily live/mobile recording and personal use).

ctmsound
george martin
Posts: 1259
Joined: Thu Jun 05, 2003 10:43 pm
Location: Sacramento, CA

Post by ctmsound » Sun Jan 17, 2010 1:06 am

I love it. They just released a 24 channel version at NAMM. $3299 street price. 10 aux sends

User avatar
kingmetal
buyin' gear
Posts: 527
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 12:10 am
Location: San Francisco, CA
Contact:

Post by kingmetal » Wed Jan 20, 2010 2:10 pm

I like the look of the workflow of that thing, but you should really consider the Yamaha 01V96 (I think the new one is called the 01V96VCM but they're pretty much the same board). The workflow is more awkward on the Yamaha and you'd need an interface but I absolutely love mine. You should be able to find a used one for less than the Presonus board -- this thing is like a swiss army knife.

Glad there are more boards to compete with it now though. Sticking with a board instead of just tracking/mixing ITB has been an excellent experience for me.

User avatar
b3groover
deaf.
Posts: 1977
Joined: Mon Dec 22, 2003 4:07 pm
Location: michigan
Contact:

Post by b3groover » Thu Jan 21, 2010 8:31 am

Looks like the computer control software is out;

http://www.presonus.com/news/press/Deta ... NewsID=121
www.organissimo.org
organissimo - Dedicated (new CD)
"This shitty room is making your next hit record, bitch!"

kslight
mixes from purgatory
Posts: 2968
Joined: Tue Oct 13, 2009 7:40 pm

Post by kslight » Thu Jan 21, 2010 9:52 am

kingmetal wrote:I like the look of the workflow of that thing, but you should really consider the Yamaha 01V96 (I think the new one is called the 01V96VCM but they're pretty much the same board). The workflow is more awkward on the Yamaha and you'd need an interface but I absolutely love mine. You should be able to find a used one for less than the Presonus board -- this thing is like a swiss army knife.

Glad there are more boards to compete with it now though. Sticking with a board instead of just tracking/mixing ITB has been an excellent experience for me.
To me the consolidated workflow and the compact size of the Studiolive is what appeals to me. I've been considering a lot of options and I appreciate your input, will definitely weigh all my options for a few before making a purchase.

ctmsound
george martin
Posts: 1259
Joined: Thu Jun 05, 2003 10:43 pm
Location: Sacramento, CA

Post by ctmsound » Thu Jan 21, 2010 10:50 am

The 01V96 is so limiting compared to the capabilities of the studiolive. They don't even compare, honestly. You could get a used 01V for $1500, studio live for $2K. It's worth the $500.

User avatar
kingmetal
buyin' gear
Posts: 527
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 12:10 am
Location: San Francisco, CA
Contact:

Post by kingmetal » Thu Jan 21, 2010 2:52 pm

ctmsound wrote:The 01V96 is so limiting compared to the capabilities of the studiolive. They don't even compare, honestly. You could get a used 01V for $1500, studio live for $2K. It's worth the $500.
I guess I need an explanation, since I feel like it's the other way around. The 01V96 seems more flexible to me, albeit it's not a complete solution since you still need an interface.

I'm not sure exactly how big the Studiolive is, but the 01V is pretty tiny and I can't see how it would be larger than the Studiolive. It does have layers and less knobs so I can't argue that the workflow on the Studiolive is better, but I'm basically never planning on upgrading my console because of how flexible my 01V is. The 4 effects engines alone make it worth it, as a good stereo reverb processor costs as much or more than my whole console did.

You seem like you've done your research though and I bet you'll be really happy with your Studiolive! Let us know how it goes, it seems like a really nice console and like I said I'm stoked that manufacturers are finally starting to break into the sub-$2000 digital console realm in a big way. Choices are good, and hard choices are even better!

EDIT: Woah that computer control thing they just released looks really great! I like the idea of being able to share channel settings via the internet! Seems much more robust than Yamaha's Studiomanager (which works EXTREMELY WELL I should point out, but is a bit on the clunky side and is SLOW to sync initially).

I wonder if that computer control suite syncs DAW sessions with the console. What I really like about Studiomanager is that the console's settings are synced to the Studiomanager session in my Cubase session file. I load up my default recording template, the board normalizes automatically, and when I save my session all my board changes are saved as well. Totally transparent and backup session files include board changes as well. If the Presonus software has that feature it will blow Studiomanager out of the water I'll bet!

I like that they claim that being able to remote into a PC through VNC or RDP is a 'feature' of the Presonus software. OH REALLY? Maybe you all should take that bullet point off.

EDIT 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxfHvJ5i ... r_embedded

Software looks nice! Workflow seems really nice. Not enough to make my 01V96 jealous, but Presonus seems like they have a really nice product.

Also, size wise that thing looks like it's almost the exact same size as my 01V96, everything is just much smaller on it.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 52 guests