Do PreSonus StudioLive 16.4.2 16 come with a pre amp and if yes is it good

  • Thread starter Thread starter MissingDR.King
  • Start date Start date
It comes with 16 of them.

That's a pretty hefty desk aimed at live use. What are you planning?
 
+1 for Steenamaroo's question.

I had a chance to try the 16:4:2 (for live work) a while back but rejected it because it lacks the motorised faders than make digital mixers so useful in live mixing. As I recall, the pre amps were okay but nothing to write home about.

Frankly, in that price range, I'd be looking hard at the Behringer x32 (if you can get a look at all since it's flying off the shelves and heavily backordered). From what I hear, the pre amps really do show their Midas lineage and sound nice. I should say that I've never really looked into it for a studio mixer though--those I've talked to who've tried it were in the live mixing racket.
 
Hey DR.
Many people do go down that road, and that's fair enough if it's your choice, but I'd encourage you to read and look around before you make any decisions.


To justify buying that, you'd need to be recording a full band in isolation simultaneously, or mixing recorded songs through the console or something like that.

Tell us a bit about your needs, maybe we can help?

Do you want to do real 'live' analog mixing with a console, or are you just looking for a control surface for the computer? Maybe neither?

How many simultaneous mic preamps would you need?
Are you tracking several musicians at once, or mainly just dropping vocals over predominantly synthetic or sampled beats.

If you just need a great signal path for one or maybe two mics at a time, you could definitely spend your money better elsewhere.
 
I'm recording over mostly synthetic and sampled beats. Ill be recording one artist at a time, do you know any good books i can read that will give me insight on this. I would go to engineering school but i decided on medical school
 
"are you just looking for a control surface for the computer"


Yes
 
MissingDR.King said:
"are you just looking for a control surface for the computer"


Yes
Click to expand...

Ok, I have no idea what you know or don't, so forgive me if I'm patronising you,
but you know a control surface generally doesn't pass audio, right?
The simplest way of looking at it is, it's a big mouse.

There are many out there in 8 fader format. Euphonix, behringer, digidesign etc all make them.
You can get single fader and transport ones from presonus and other firms. Very handy for quick transport and single track automation.

On a bigger scale, I'm not aware of any that are just control surfaces. Any of the big digidesign ones have stacks of preamps and mionitoring options built in, so you're paying through the nose for that too.

The one you asked about doesn't have motorised faders as far as I can see, so arguably it's not even ideal as a control surface.

If you just want a nice neat convenient way to control your daw, look at behringer BCF2000, or for more $$$, the euphonix stuff is very very tidy.
More details please, DR.King.
 
Last edited:
OK my knowledge on a mixer board is that it controls your audio program ex protools and that sound passes from the mic to the mixer and the protools. I guess what your trying to tell me is that is i dont need all that power? I was looking at the bcf 2000 at one time.
 
Ok, I'm with you now DR.King.

You can get mixers/control surfaces that do both, but for simplicity, consider them to be two separate things.

A mixer usually takes several inputs and sums them to a stereo output. Many in : Two out; Usually not much use for studio recording.


You can get mixers which have direct outputs per channel. many in : many out. This is more useful in a studio, but you need to have several channels of audio converters to make use of this.


You can also get mixers which are many in : many out, but over firewire or usb2, so the converters are built in. Call it an interface/mixer.

Now, more often than not, a control surface is just a big mouse like I say. It controls faders and pots on your screen, but no audio passes through it at all.

Of course to make things nice and simple, you can pretty much buy any combination of the above.
I've no doubt there are all-in-one mixer/interface/control surfaces out there, but I'm gona go ahead and guess you're talking big money.
Also, something to look for in control surfaces is motorised faders.
I don't think I'd want a control surface that doesn't mechanically adjust to reflect my automation.

Since you're recording one artist at a time, I'd invest in a great two channel audio interface (apogee duet, presonus audio box,,,,something simple), and a great mic.
If you decide you want a control surface afterwards, then maybe take a look at some of those smaller scale ones I mentioned?


Sorry for the long reply; It's not really a clear cut topic.

Hey Jim,
N'i tag you in? ;)
 
Last edited:
Finally getting it a lil :guitar:, I'm using a protools m - audio with a blue bird mic,

getting so much clipping but that besides the point -
 
Ha, no good dude.

Maybe get the basis down then see how you go? Blue mics get great rep, and the little maudio interfaces should be sufficient at least.
You scoured youtube for basic set up / recording videos?
There are a lot of tutorials out there.

If you're mostly recording vocals to backing tracks, I'm not even sure how much use a control surface would be, but that's your call man; Everyone has their own preferences.

My personal rule of thumb to keep myself in check is this : More gear makes a problem worse. :p
 
I know i sound like those guys that just buy equipment of the whim but i really love music i want to move to a better space in February,

Smell of new equipment
 
Lol. Nah that's cool man.
I'm sure plenty of people on here will back me up when I say take baby steps.

If you're just starting out, get your technique down and assess what really needs improving.

It's soooooo easy to buy the wrong stuff. I did it several times.
 
how to know if my gain is passed 10 db on protools, some one said is suppose to show me levels of if its to low or to high
 
Your interface will have a clip LED which will blink if you're overloading it.
If that's happening, move back from the mic or turn the gain down, or both.


Protools mix window has meters beside each fader, and edit window has a little meter per track at the left side.

The mix window has two sets of numbers written along each meter. Just ignore the numbers of the left of the fader for now.
The yellow area = -13 to -3.

Aim to have your loudest audio peaks in the lower half of the yellow area.

Test this with no plugins or effects, and keep the ProTools fader at -6 while you test.(That's where it is by default).

If your peaks are too high, use the maudio input gain to adjust, not the fader.
 
BCF2000 is a straight up control surface.
The other two, I'm not 100% sure about.
Google will be though. :)
 
"You can get mixers which have direct outputs per channel. many in : many out. This is more useful in a studio, but you need to have several channels of audio converters to make use of this"

can I get examples of these kinds of mixers and what external piece of equipment will i need for the channels and conversions


plz excuse my last post lol
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top