by jlklein » Mon Sep 29, 2014 10:51 am
I have a Studiolive 16.4.2 classic for our vocal group, after demo'ing SAC for a year (I still use SAC at my church for fixed and portable installs). The main reason we went with the Presonus was some instability with SAC and the control surface, which I attribute to an old computer and interface (ProMix01) along with my limited experience at the time with the program, however, the group as a whole felt more comfortable with a more traditional desk. Especially since they get me up there to sing occasionally and weren't real comfortable with filling in for me and computer mixing (most of the group is in their 60's and 70's). In retrospect, I wish I'd stuck with SAC longer as I lost a lot of nice functionality even for a small group setup.
Sound-wise, the Presonus isn't bad at all, but on the same speakers and monitors that SAC was on it was definitely not as detailed and crisp, and I think less responsive to EQ adjustments than with SAC. However, still very workable. I don't particular like not having motorized faders, which if you don't ever leave the desk is no big deal, but if you use the iPad or Virtual StudioLive (VSL) for remote setup or adjustment the fader locate feature is kind of daunting to use live (is it sync'd? is it not?). I also don't like that the auxes are completely post or pre for all channels, rather than channel selectable, and you only have two effects channels to choose from (4 now with the new desks). I like to run my music tracks post fader so I can easily compensate for level changes between tracks in the mains and monitors simultaneously, and run vocals and instruments in the typical pre fader setup (we also have guitar/keys). With the StudioLive it's all or nothing, so I run pre-fader and then have to separately adjust main and monitor levels to keep backing track levels consistent.
I'm not to wild about the interface overall, as there are a fair amount of button-multi-pushes necessary to reach some of the menus, and then you have to remember which label to read on the overlays. I don't like that Solo doesn't over-ride listening to the Main mix through the headphones...you have to deselect the main mix button to hear only the Solo selection. GEQ adjustments take multiple button pushes through the main screen menu and then are spread across multiple pages as they can only adjust 16 bands at a time and must be done separately (i.e. Left/Right outputs are not linked, although you can do this via the iPad app). In my opinion it is a must to have a laptop connected to take advantage of the VSL interface, which adds a lot more flexibility (as does the iPad app). Factory and User Channel Presets are much easier to work with that way and can even be done piecemeal (EQ, dynamics, or all of the above), and scenes are much easier to save and jump around between (forget doing that easily with the onscreen display).
So, overall it can work fine for you, depending on your needs, and there's a fair bit of stuff you can do with it, but there are some gotchas that my influence your decision. I can still get good sound out of it, it just takes more work than SAC did, however no one is complaining and our audiences likes us as much as always when we play out, so that's the important thing. There are a lot more choices now than when I picked mine up, though, and I would say do your homework very diligently regarding what features you need and what each board offers. I probably would not have gone with the StudioLive had some of these choices been around, but they weren't.
Hope this helps,
Jeff