Adventures with the PreSonus StudioLive 24.4.2 -Part 2

A little over a month ago I used the PreSonus StudioLive 24.4.2 to track a live audio and video recording of The David James Band at Lannie’s Clock-tower Cabaret in downtown Denver, CO.  I took a little time talking about my experience using the Studiolive to multi-track that show in a previous post.  More recently I spent some time mixing down a recording from the show on the StudioLive and I thought I’d provide an update on my experience using it…

Makeshift Setup im my tracking room

Check out the final video of the show, All audio for the show was recorded and mixed down using the StudioLive!

I generally mix in the box using Cubase & and RME interface, but since we used the StudioLive console and PreSonus Capture to record the show, I thought I would be fun to mix using the console in conjunction with Studio One (the PreSonus DAW recording software), thus using their product line from start to finish on the project.

Setting up the board and computer for mixdown:

The Software:

Prepping my computer to mix with the Studio One software and StudioLive mixer was by far the least enjoyable part of my experience with this project.  PreSonus requires a multi-step and multi-authorization key process to enable the Studio One software that really slowed me down.  Granted most of the extra steps were due to the fact that I keep all of my recording computers from accessing the internet (in order to keep the recordings safe and maintain a fast OS).  While PreSonus does allow an off-line registration process it requires a couple of extra steps that proved to be painful.

The first problem was just registering a user account on their website so that I could download the software. It took me multiple registration attempts across a few days to finally be granted an account.  User accounts on their site cannot be activated until you have gone through email verification, where they send an email to the address you provided, you click on the link, and it activates your account.  This is a quick & easy if you receive the email, but in my multiple registration attempts, it took 3 days before I finally received a verification link to activate my account.

Once registered, I was able to download the software and install it on the computer using my product key.  The first time you open the software it requires you to authenticate that key. This looked like it might be a simple process if you’re connected to the internet, but as I mentioned, I keep my recording comps from accessing any network and had to use their off-line authentication method.  In this scenario it provides you another key you then have to copy, move to a web connected computer, log into your Presonus account, and associate that auth key with your Studio One product key.  With those two keys you can now generate a license file under your account, copy that file over to your recording computer, and associate the license file with the installed Studio One software. Once this has all be finished, you have a working copy of Studio One.  While this process is somewhat standard for off-line activation of many audio related applications, I found it difficult and time consuming to navigate through PreSonus’s user account in order to complete the steps outlined above. I suppose the point here is, don’t think you can buy Studio One, install it, register it, and complete a mixing session all in one night.  Its likely going to take you at least one evening to get it all installed, registered, licensed, and yourself familiarized with the software.

Associating the StudioLive with the Studio One software was also somewhat time consuming. I kept reinstalling the StudioLive drivers waiting for it to come up in Studio One as a recognized audio interface connected to the computer. After multiple attempts I finally realized that the StudioLive had been available from the first attempt, but was labeled as “FireStudio” under the list of available ASIO interfaces. I later found out that all products that use the PreSonus “Universal Control” driver are labeled as “FireStudio” in the ASIO interfaces list… sometimes you just have to read the manual

The Hardware:

Once I was past all of the software issues, configuring the StudioLive was super simple.  Plug in the firewire cable between the console and the computer, hook up a pair of monitors to the control rool outputs on the mixer and press the  firewire button at the top of each input channel and you’re now receiving audio from the firewire feed rather than the analog inputs.  If you’ve selected the StudioLive session template in Studio One, all inputs and outputs are properly mapped for a nice one to one relationship between the software tracks and the hardware inputs.

I didn’t want to have to take apart my control room and reconfigure it to mix using the StudioLive, so instead I set up a makeshift mixing station in the tracking room using the same computer we used to track the session at the venue (in the rack case that the mixer is sitting on) and a pair of old monitors. Mixing in a different room did end up hindering the final product some, Because I wasn’t used to some of the qualities in the room, I think I compensated for them in the mix a bit (particularly in the low end) and the final mix doesn’t translate quite as well as I would have liked.

Mixing on the StudioLive 24.4.2:

Honestly, going into this project, I didn’t think I was going to be able to get great results mixing on the StudioLive. I really like some of the processors and plug-ins in my main setup and felt like the PreSonus just wasn’t going to hold up against them. Despite the bias, I really ended up quite pleased with tones the console could produce. I particularly liked the EQs in the board. You could push them hard without getting an unnatural sound and they have a real nice musical quality to them, something I find rare in digital boards, ESPECIALLY in this price range. The EQ section is also flexible and robust enough that you can make more surgical changes if necessary. I didn’t feel at any point that they were limiting what I wanted to do. Each channel has a 4 band fully parametric equalizer, the top and bottom bands have the ability to switch into shelf mode, and there is also a variable  HPF (high pass filter) that goes all the way from 24Hz up to 1kHz, so you never have to waste your low band parametric on building a HPF.

The Gate/compressor section was also a surprise. I found setting the gates for the kick, snare, and tom drums quick and easy. The gate controls were responsive and sounded nice. I’ve found many gates cause a clicking noise or unnatural attack when opening, but the studiolive gates handled the task just fine. The compressors worked well too. they seem to have a fairly transparent & natural sound to them. This was great for most of the tracks, although I did miss having a compressor I could use to get that thick tone & heavy pumping sound when setting up a parallel compression drum bus. The “auto” feature on the compressor section seemed to work well too. There were a couple of tracks that I was having difficulty dialing in the right amount of attack and release on the compressor, by hitting the auto button, the board was able to dynamically manages attack & release times, and did so with an appropriate & musical sound.

While I was quite happy with the EQ and dynamics processing on the StudioLive, I was not quite as impressed with the digital effects processor. I found it hard to dial in a reverb that was an appropriate emulation of the venue the band played at, or a plate that fit well behind the lead vocal. The interface was a little hard to navigate, and most of the presets seemed less natural & smooth in comparison to the Waves IR1 Convolution reverb I typically use. At the bottom of this post I have two videos, one that I mixed down on my setup (using the IR1 reverb) and one using  the StudioLive. I think you’ll agree that the non-studiolive mix has a more realistic venue ambiance sound to it. The “Napoleon” song was the one done on the StudioLive. All of that said, at the end of the day, the FX processor was able to get the job done.  And you could always just use a plug-in reverb in tandem with the StudioLive while mixing down since all of the tracks are being played from the Studio One DAW anyway.

Setting up levels and panning was a breeze. Its always nice to have real faders and a tactile surface while mixing. Its just never the same on a mouse! Once I had general levels on the StudioLive, I used the Studio One software to automate track volume during the song where needed. While this worked fine, it sure would be nice if PreSonus could add flying faders to the StudioLive and give it a control surface mode. This would really enhance the mixdown experience and make level automation a faster, more musical process. With automation finished, and couple last tweaks to the mix, I was ready for a final mixdown.

To setup the mixdown, I created another stereo track in Studio One, set its input to come off of the StudioLive’s master firewire output, and started recording from the beginning of the song. This process plays back all of the tracks into the StudioLive’s firewire inputs, where they’re mixed with the settings I’ve created, sent out the master output firewire buss, and recorded right back into Studio One as a master stereo track. I then exported that master track as a 44.1/16bit file and sent it off to the video team to be mixed in with the footage!

Master track mixdown

 Final Thoughts:

Its become quite clear to me that the PreSonus StudioLive 24.4.2 is an awesome bank for your buck, do it all, audio tool. It holds up well to its dual use name (albeit, a cheesy one…). Its ability to track 32 simultaneous inputs using 24 good sounding mic pres onto the included quick to setup and reliable Capture software, then mixdown those tracks in conjunction with the included Studio One DAW software via a fully pro feature set and level of audio quality is really hard to match in its price range. And that’s before you consider its ability to function as a professional live mixing console (which we I didn’t cover in this post, but have used it live FOH capacities before with great results). I’d really highly recommend looking into this board. It functions well as a studio center piece, live multi-track recording device, and live sound mixing board, all without sacrificing audio quality in order to achieve all of its feature set. If you’d like to hear an example of how it sounds, take a listen to the songs recorded and mixed on it below….

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