An analog mixer is a rotary dial telephone.
A
StudioLive™ is a 3G cell phone with an easy-to-use interface and
powerful applications.
You'll never go back to an old-skool
analog mixer once you've used StudioLive™. With its incredible
signal-processing power on every channel, easy store and recall of every
setting, and the ability to record it all with just two mouse clicks,
you'll get spoiled fast!
Like the 3G cell phone in our analogy,
StudioLive is truly a third-generation digital mixer. Easier to use,
better sounding, and flawlessly integrated with state-of-the-art
software, it delivers the most creative environment possible for both
live performance and studio music production.
Here, in one
portable device, are high-headroom XMAX™ microphone preamplifiers, a
built-in FireWire recording and playback interface, more than 90 signal
processors, a big library of DSP effects, 6 (16.4.2) or 10 (24.4.2) aux
buses, 4 subgroups, extensive LED metering, mixer save and recall,
channel-strip save/recall/copy/paste, talkback, and more.
Create
live mixes that glisten with clarity and detail—then record and enhance
the performance with the power of StudioLive.
Get creative in the
studio. Build mixes, loops, sound effects, and more, then bring them out
to your show and mix them with the live performance. Process channels
using your favorite plug-ins and completely automate your entire
performance. StudioLive revolutionizes music production, opening endless
creative possibilities.
See it. Touch it. Change it: The ease of
analog meets the power of digital.
Among the employees of
PreSonus, there are more band members than you can shake a mic stand at.
All of us have lived with conventional mixers for years. And many of us
have struggled with the less-than-intuitive interfaces of earlier
digital mixers.
So when we designed StudioLive, one of our primary
goals was to provide a familiar interface that would keep all critical
controls visible and accessible—not buried inside multiple menus.
Sit
down at a StudioLive, and you see real hardware Mute and Solo buttons,
trim controls, and clearly labeled, individual knobs for 4-band EQ and
dynamics processing. The master section—complete with Talkback, Monitor,
Cue, and a choice of control room sources—looks just like the master
section on an analog board but with far more power and flexibility. Aux
sends have their own physical controls. Every channel has a big, bright
meter display.
Bottom line: if you've ever used an analog mixer,
you'll be right at home with a StudioLive 16.4.2 or StudioLive 24.4.2.
And even if you've never used any mixer before, you'll quickly be able
to create professional mixes and recordings.
A gigantic console
in a small package—thanks to the Fat Channel.
If StudioLive 16.4.2 were an analog
console, it would have 4-foot-long channel strips packed with knobs and
buttons or it would require a massive outboard rack of expensive signal
processors! That's because each channel has its own studio-grade
compressor, basic limiter, gate/expander, 4-band semi-parametric EQ, and
high-pass filter. In all, we've packed 31 compressors, 31 limiters, 31
gates, 16 high-pass filters, 2 stereo reverbs/delays, 2 master stereo
graphic EQs, and more, into one remarkable Fat Channel.
The new
StudioLive 24.4.2 ups the ante with 4-band fully parametric equalization
and a truly studio-grade gate with Key Filter and Key Listen.
Engaged
by pressing any Select button, the Fat Channel features extensive
equalization and dynamics for every input channel, every aux output,
every subgroup output, and the main outputs. The high-pass filter and
four-band semi-parametric EQ algorithms are based on PreSonus' digital
EyeQ™ equalizer, delivering extremely musical results. Also included in
the Fat Channel are limiters, plus compressors and gates modeled after
PreSonus' highly-respected ACP88, providing complete dynamics control.
To
let you get the most from all of this processing power without
descending into menu purgatory, we designed the Fat Channel with clearly
labeled physical knobs; an ingenious, multi-function, 16-ladder LED
display; an in-your-face Selected Channel display; and even a separate
horizontal pan display. It's easy to instantly access any function and
get clear, visible feedback.
Not just effects. Effects you'd
expect from a $600 stand-alone processor.
You get two
programmable, 32-bit floating point, stereo DSP effects engines, loaded
with 50 reverb, delay, and time-based effects presets that you can
really use (see sidebar on page 10). The reverbs are so rich and
detailed that you feel like you're there. Delays are precise. Slap echo
sounds like old-skool tape effects. All 50 effects have easy-to-use
parameter adjustment, tap tempo, store and recall selection for ultimate
creative flexibility.
The StudioLive 16.4.2 also sports a stereo
31-band graphic equalizer on the main outputs so you can compensate for
room acoustics and speaker response. The new 24.4.2 goes hog-wild with 4
stereo 31-band graphic equalizers, which can be applied to the main,
subgroup, and aux outputs.
Whether StudioLive's 94+ signal
processors and 50 DSP effect presets were on gigundo channel strips, in a
whopping rack of outboard gear, or neatly condensed into our Fat
Channel, they have a lot of settings to remember and reset at every
performance. That's where the power of digital comes in: StudioLive
never forgets.
What was then is now: complete store and recall.
Two
factors work against getting that Perfect Mix with an analog mixer.
First, The Perfect Mix can be hard to reproduce a week, day, or hour
after you perfect it. And second, a good mix for a complete performance
should be dynamic: levels, effects, and even EQ should be tailored to
each song or segment of the show, service, or presentation.
StudioLive
solves this problem by letting you save all of your digital settings
for quick setup and recall. Save Scenes that include every setting on
the mixer. Save just the Fat Channel settings. Copy-and-paste settings
across multiple channels. Save individual DSP effects for ultimate ease,
speed, and control.
This means that for fixed applications like
clubs, churches, and auditoriums, you can always count on the same
sound. It means that you can fine-tune Scenes for different songs and
call them up instantly. And it lets rank amateur volunteers run the
StudioLive and achieve pro-quality sound.
We've included a whole
library of individual channel settings as starting points for optimizing
the sound of instruments, vocals, and spoken word. And an Automatic
AutoStore feature regularly saves your current settings, just in case
the power fails.
Recording made easy.
If you have a laptop, you have
a 32-track digital recorder instantly ready to capture your gig, church
service, or presentation. Just two mouse clicks engages Capture 1.1
recording software. Then your Studio One Artist digital audio
workstation lets you edit and enhance to your heart's content (see page
00 for a complete description).
StudioLive features a tightly
integrated FireWire interface with advanced JetPLL™ synchronization,
delivering 32 channels or more of recording and up to 26 channels of
simultaneous playback. Each FireWire recording channel can be set to
record either pre- or post-Fat Channel signal processing, delivering
total flexibility and power.
Because StudioLive can so easily
return FireWire playback channels from your computer, you can pull off
nifty tricks. You can soundcheck your band and fine-tune the P.A. in a
new venue, even when the band's not there yet. (The drummer got stuck in
traffic again.) Or create backing tracks at your studio and seamlessly
blend them with live performance.
Inside, it's pure PreSonus.
Ease
of use and powerful features only count if the sound quality is equally
impressive. After all, it really comes down to how good those
microphone preamps are, how clean the signal path is, and how well the
digital mixing algorithms perform.
That's why you should choose a
digital mixer made by PreSonus, a company already famous for its analog
mic preamps, pristine digital interfaces, and well-regarded signal
processors.
The
XMAX™ Class A preamplifiers. StudioLive 24.4.2 and 16.4.2 preamplifiers
have three key advantages:
- 1. High
Voltage. The XMAX preamplifier runs on power rails of 30V. Most
off-the-shelf, op-amp-based designs run on power rails of 10V to 18V.
Higher-voltage power rails deliver more headroom, deeper lows, smoother
highs, and a richer overall sound.
- 2. Discrete components—not
op-amps. We only use genuine transistors, resistors, and capacitors for
ultra-low noise and transparency. Op-amps add noise, coloration, and
harshness to a signal.
- 3. Class A circuitry. Class A circuits
have no crossover distortion and deliver purer, clearer, and more
musical results than the Class AB designs that are found in many
preamps.
The net result of the XMAX preamp design is high
headroom, low noise, wide dynamic range, extended frequency response,
and—most important—musicality and transparency, with smooth highs;
solid, deep lows; and everything in between.
Ultra-high headroom,
32-bit floating-point processing is used for all digital mixing. All
analog inputs and outputs use the highest quality digital converters
available, with +118 dB dynamic range, for spectacular sonic results and
unmatched musicality.
JetPLL Sync. Synchronization to your computer is
stable and robust, thanks to JetPLL™ synchronization technology. JetPLL
incorporates noise shaping to virtually remove all audio-band jitter,
ensuring near-perfect clock performance and optimal converter
performance when networking two or more digital-audio devices. JetPLL
quickly locks to any digital format through a wide range of frequencies
and is extremely robust and tolerant of wide variations in clock
frequencies. As a result, you'll experience better stereo separation and
clearer, more transparent audio.
StudioLive expands with your
input needs.
Need more than 16 or 24 channels? Daisy-chain up to
four StudioLive 16.4.2s via their FireWire ports to get up to 64 input
channels and 16 submix buses.
Combining two or more consoles only
takes a few minutes. You just remove the side rails, add one or more
optional Transition Brackets, and connect FireWire cables between the
units.
Studio One Artist—Plus Gigabytes
of Creative Resources
Now that you have captured your
tracks, you probably want to bring them back to your studio for editing
and sweetening before doing your final mix. No worries! StudioLive
16.4.2 also comes bundled with Studio One Artist, the amazing new DAW
software for Mac OS X and Windows XP and Vista that makes producing
high-quality projects easier than ever before. As part of the Studio
One Artist package, you get 20 new PreSonus Native Effects plug-ins and
virtual instruments and a generous bundle of third-party loops,
software, and instrument sounds.
Compare Studio One Artist and
bundled extras to what comes with competing mobile interfaces:
- All-meat, no-bloat, music-creation software with
an intuitive, practical, single-window interface
- Unlimited
tracks, insert effects, sends, virtual instruments, buses, and effects
channels
- Powerful drag-and-drop functionality
- Content
browser with convenient sort options and preview player
- Full-featured,
flexible automation
- Powerful real-time auto/manual
time-stretching and resampling engine
- Control Link™ (advanced
MIDI mapping made easy)
- Twenty 32-bit Native Sound™
plug-ins, including reverbs, amp modeling, and EQ
- Four new
virtual instruments, including a sampler and an analog-type subtractive
synth
- Gigabytes of third-party resources, including Native
Instruments™ Kore™ Player with custom SoundPack (150 instruments),
Native Instruments™ Guitar Rig LE, Toontrack™ EZDrummer Lite, and over
1.4 GB of loops!
