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Looking for a new 16-channel mixer

#21
Couple of notes to lurkers ----

I JUST went through this for my trio. (only needed 6 channels)...

For the recording, there are some that send multi tracks directly via the ASIO driver. Since our band only needs 8 channels, we went with a software driven rack mount. .. the learning curve is a bit more but will lock in 12 "settings"

One of the "cheat" ways we were clued in on is a rack mount studio mixer with a digital mixer/interface... this is basically a way to have the beneifts of the rackmount digital with the security of knobs and faders.

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Effects are nomrally limited.. good enough for live.. theyr'e normally applied in the DAW

Our setup was under $500 (did a ton of looking - scored an open box)

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Does the Presonus take a ton of time to learn? We did a gig that the sound guy ahd just gotten one, was horrid as did not read the book.
 
#22
LightGroove said:
Leagues ahead...no firewire?
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I ALMOST bought a firewire only interface -- REALLY glad I didn't.

Apple and Sony are divesting of it and migrating (with the rest of the world) toward USB.

Firewire does have it's advantages, the issue si finding gear that has the interface (especially if you want a laptop ---- most times the mini 4 wire doesn't work)

Firewire is one of the superior technologies that isn't being widely adopted.

I'd strongly suggest having both options.
 
#23
Does the Presonus take a ton of time to learn? We did a gig that the sound guy ahd just gotten one, was horrid as did not read the book.
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Not at all. My first gig with it I had a full band with 18 inputs and 5 monitor mixes up and running in no time. At a venue I've never mixed before. Granted, I read through the entire manual the night before.

Also, since it's digital, you can save scenes. So you can get a nice starting point, or save a scene for rooms you play often, etc.
 
#24
I found the interface to be highly intuitive. It works just the way I think it should, so it was a quick study for me. I like it more every time I use it. I like being able to set up the fat channel for one channel, then copying onto the others, say, for vocals. Then use that setting as a starting point to fine-tune each channel on the fly.

Assigning to subgroups is a dream, and setting up auxes takes no time at all.
 
#25
agreed. Of all the digital boards, it's got to be the closest to running an analog one. It's like the best of both worlds. I love having gates and comps available on every channel (without having thousands of pounds of racks to haul around), that's what I miss most when going back to analogue. One of my favorite features is the Key Listen on the Gate filter. One downside is the onboard effects aren't that great.


And honestly, I know small time bands use a powered mixer, with some cheap speakers, and don't want to spend more then $700 or whatever. But when you consider you get gates, comps, limiter, verb, delay, full parametric eq, on every channel plus 10 auxes, subgroubs, firewire interface, etc.... add up the cost if all that were separate analogue gear and that's a hell of a bargain.

/rambling
 
#29
walker rosewood said:
The 'Fat Channel' on the presonus can be applied to the Main Mix, as well as each Subgroup, and all the Aux sends. That includes the eq, gate, comp, limiter, etc.

You'd still need an external crossover for the Main Mix. Unless you dedicated one of the subgroup outs, and used the eq to make a crossover.
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I use the board with JBL PRX speakers, and the sub has a built-in crossover. Sure, you can't control the frequency or slope, but it works fine for live.
 
#30
I have been looking at the Presonus myself to replace my Yamaha MG206C.

Munji: Where did you get yours and how much was it? The best I've seen has been $2000 for new or $1650 for a "refurb".

Anyone: Can anybody comment on how the mic preamps in the Presonus compare to the ones in the Yamaha board I'm using now?
 
#31
StuartV said:
I have been looking at the Presonus myself to replace my Yamaha MG206C.

Munji: Where did you get yours and how much was it? The best I've seen has been $2000 for new or $1650 for a "refurb".

Anyone: Can anybody comment on how the mic preamps in the Presonus compare to the ones in the Yamaha board I'm using now?
Click to expand...

I sent you a PM on the price. Northern Sound and Light is the place.

I've read a bunch of comments from the guys over at ProSoundWeb. The Presonus preamps get good reviews from those in the know. They sound fine in the recordings I've done so far. They're not as good as the Midas preamps, but what is?

Their biggest beef is the non-motorized faders, without which I can live. Regardless, it is possible to recall fader positions from a stored scene; you just have to reset them manually, using guidance from the display. They also seem to concur that the on-board effects aren't first-rate, but they're fine for live situations. When I record through mine, I send everything out completely dry and flat, then add effects and EQ at mixdown, anyway.
 
#33
Munjibunga said:
Well, my trio recorded four songs (one take each) at our practice yesterday. I just finished mixing them down on Cubase Essential 5, and I have to say the mixer worked beyond my expectations. I ran everything dry and did effects and EQ post-production. It was really easy to record and download the .wav files to a thumb drive (I captured the audio on my laptop and transferred them it to my desktop for editing).

What's really cool is you can play it back immediately right through the board just by arming the channels on the mixer. Bitchen.
Click to expand...

Questions about this:

- You're saying you recorded onto your laptop, then copied the WAV files to a thumb drive, then copied those to your desktop PC with Cubase. What recording software did you use on your laptop? The Capture software that came with the board?

- Have you tried hooking the mixer to your PC that has Cubase and recording directly into Cubase?

I actually have the full Cubase on my laptop and was thinking about using that to record some demos of my band. I'm curious how well the Cubase interface to the mixer works versus the software that comes with it.

Obviously, I could use their software to record and then load the tracks into Cubase, but doing it all in one app sure sounds nicer.
 

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