I thought I wouldn’t change my mind about the StudioLive mixers. But, I agreed to demo a StudioLive Series 3 32S and 24R mixer. In my demo setup, the 24R is functioning as the digital stagebox feeding the 32S but can also work as a remote controlled mixer.
As it turned out, these mixers are nothing like the former series of the StudioLive mixers.
The Setup – Christmas Time!
I received the mixers two weeks before our big Christmas Eve service. If not for FedEx delightfully screwing up and losing the 32S for a few days I would have had three weeks before Christmas. So, to say I was in a bit of a time crunch would be an understatement.
The PreSonus mixers were replacing the Allen-Heath Qu32 mixer and AR8412 stagebox that my church had been using for the past 4 years. My plan was to demo the StudioLive mixers initially for how they sounded and then put the Qu32 back in for service for the big event.
The Details
It’s probably about 10 pounds heavier than the Qu32. Here’s a picture of the two of them side-by-side.
They’re both similar in footprint with the Qu32 being all in one plane whereas the 32S has the screen area and FAT channel being angled more than the fader area. The shelf for holding your iPad (at least that’s what I call it) is bigger than the Qu32 as well as is the screen.
Buttons have a rubberized feel to them and are translucent so the colors change depending on the function and also serve as “selected” and on/off indicators. Faders are full 100mm and feel as good as the Qu32 or SQ7.
I suppose I’m spoiled by the digital world now, but I think a live sound mixer really needs to have digital scribble strips as a requirement. The 32S has them. The controls on the 32S feel solid and quality. The faders are smooth, the buttons have a solid feel to them. The touch-screen is responsive and adjustable in brightness. There are multiple levels of user authorization along with the ability to restrict user levels to certain functions.
The Control Panel on the FAT channel layout is pretty intuitive. There are scribble strips that change according to the function selected. Effects Masters have designated mute buttons for each of the 4 effects masters.
A/B Testing of EQ
A neat feature is the ability to do an A/B comparison on EQ settings. This allows you to quickly make a change to EQ settings for a specific channel or bus and then by pressing the button make changes that you can audition without altering your original EQ settings. You can also use it if a musician changes between instruments on the same channel.
Fader Count and Setup
The board has a total of 33 faders with 24 faders on the left, split by the master fader and user buttons, then the 8 remaining faders on the right. On the left hand side are the 16 aux mix select buttons along with the 4 effects mix select buttons. In the middle is the master fader along with the 8 user-assignable buttons.
Neither the aux mix button or user-assignable buttons have digital scribble strips. The 8 user-assignable buttons do have an area next to each button that allows labeling. The aux mix buttons shows the name on the screen so it’s not a big deal for my workflow. A note: I call them aux mix buttons but in reality the board allows you to assign the buttons to auxes or to subgroups or to matrices.
Above the aux mixes is a big button to bring focus back to the main mix. Pressing the aux mix button twice also brings focus back to the main mix. I like that the main mix button is big so it’s easy to find and hit in the dark. Above that are two buttons labeled INPUT and USER. The input button puts all the input channels on the scribble strips along with the faders.
To page around all the inputs requires the press of the PREV and NEXT buttons above the other buttons. The USER button is user-assignable to be whatever you want to show on the channel strips. In my set up I have the first 24 set up for input channels, then on the other side of the main fader, my 4 effects and 4 DCAs.
The Rack-Mountable StudioLive 24R
Now about the StudioLive 24R. It’s a rackmountable 24 channel mixer that can be used as a standalone mixer, a dumb stagebox, or an intelligent stagebox with full DSP capability. Why did I go with this configuration instead of the PreSonus SB16 stageboxes? Simple. For one thing going with the 24R versus 2 SB16 stageboxes is about $800 cheaper. For another, I get a lot of flexibility. If I need to use the 24R as a standalone mixer for an outreach event I can just pull it out, use it with an iPad or my computer, then put it back into service as a stagebox.
Dual-Use Buttons
Several of the functions are allocated to dual-use buttons. For example pressing the Talkback button quickly puts it into lock-on mode. Holding it down while you’re talking and then releases it makes it function as a toggle. The Select buttons also have similar multi-functionality as well as the DCAs.
You have the ability to alter the behavior of the mute switches so that when you mute the channels it also mutes the auxes or it can stay with just FOH muted with the aux mutes independent of the FOH mutes.
Audio Quality
The audio quality is very nice. I think it has more depth and clarity than the X32 or Qu32. The board output is definitely more substantial than either of them. And there’s a handy knob in the back to adjust the output level to your requirements. Effects are decent and you have the ability to download effects direct from PreSonus with some vintage sounds. I wish there were more options for effects but, for most of what I do, the included effects work fine.
My Thoughts
Some quibbles for me and my live sound perspective. A tone generator should be on a live board. Similarly having the scene name on the bottom of the screen at all times would be helpful. A major request would be the ability to edit your scenes and projects offline. That is just such a tremendous time-saver. It would be great to also have access to a meters view and a multi-band compressor. I know that you can see all the meters on the tablet or computer app but having it available on the board is a big help.
I’ve barely scratched the surface in terms of capabilities of this configuration. I love that you can do multi-track recording direct to a SD card on the console or through a USB interface to Capture on your computer. What’s really cool is to do a virtual soundcheck with the SD card is crazy simple. Two button presses and you’re in virtual soundcheck mode. Interestingly what gets recorded to the SD file as well are the board settings so when you play the file back it also recalls the channels as when the file was recorded.
Personal Monitor Mixing
Monitoring mixes is easy. I think one area that PreSonus excels in is the quality of their computer apps. The Universal Control app for the computer and tablet is first-rate. The QMix-UC is an easy-to-use personal monitor app. A unique feature is that for anyone to use a remote device permission must be granted from the board and it can be assigned per device. The board also has multiple user-access levels to give everyone their own login.
All in all, I’m impressed with the PreSonus StudioLive 32s and 24r combo. I love the sound quality and depth that I can achieve easily. The board feels as solid as any other in this price range. The apps help extend the mixers qualities. It’s easy to setup and use with a custom user layer.
The Big Reveal
As a matter of fact, I was so impressed with the sounds coming out of this combination I went ahead and purchased it for my church as a permanent replacement to the Qu32/AR2412 combo that we had. These are nothing like the former series of the StudioLive mixers. PreSonus went back to the drawing boards and brought out a serious contender in the price bracket. You owe it to yourself to look at one, demo it, and compare it to the other mixers in the price range before you make a decision.
Thank you for your review,I also own a Studiolive lll 24 and a 24R rack.
I have an Ethercon cable. I seem to be having 24 inputs via the rack however can’t use the rack unit outputs. Just reaching out.
Thanks in advance.
Andy
Hi Andy,
If the inputs are working via the rack then it’s probably just a configuration issue. Ensure that you have the rack outputs selected in your mixer settings instead of the mixer.
Hi Brian
Really interesting article as I had identified the AH Qu 32 and Studiolive 32S as the 2 main contenders to replace our Soundcraft GB24-4.
A few likes on the 32S :
FAT channel with easy access to detailed parameters without resorting to touchscreen
scribble strip on user custom fader layer (missing on Qu32)
Flexmixes for groups/aux/matrix busses
virtual sound check ( as does Qu32 but without capturing settings)
A/B eq comparison
phono and 1/8 jack and bluetooth inputs
fader layer split into 24/8 banks
no pink noise generator a downside
The two things holding me back from opting for the 32S is reassurance on sound quality and reliability.
I’d appreciate your more detailed view on these 2 aspects, my local supplier is adamant the AH Qu has better sound quality! The fact you swopped out to the 32S is of interest.
Updates via the comments on how you get on with the 32S in coming weeks would be appreciated.
Hi John!
I agree on the good points!
After running both the Qu32 and the 32S side-by-side I feel that the 32S has better audio quality. It’s tough to be able to objectively quantify the sonic difference but to me, the 32S had more depth in the sound. It feels like it has more bandwidth to allow the music peaks to come through sonically, compared to the Qu32. I know it’s got a more powerful output signal path compared to the Qu32. I had to crank my amps all the way open with the Qu32. With the 32S, not only do I have the option to adjust it from the knob on the back of the board, but I was also able to turn down the amp gain by 3 notches.
I feel that the lows are able to drive deeper without sounding compressed at higher volume levels. We typically run at 95-98 dbA slow. The Qu32 would start to sound a little choked at the higher output levels, not distorted or anything obvious, unless you were listening to a different mixer.
I’m loving the 32S more and more as I get used to it, and experiment with the features-set. There are some things that I wish it had, like a multiband-compressor, noise generator, ability to see what scene you’re on from the main screen, and more effects, but overall I haven’t looked back and wished that I had the Qu32 back. The other thing I think that helps with the sonic quality is that the Qu32 is a 24k sample rate system with the 32S being either 44.1 or 48k. While there is a lot of debate on the difference in sonic quality between 48 and 96k, there is definitely a difference between 24k and 48k, and it’s audible.
I also think the Presonus interface for the computer/ipad/phone is much better than the Qu-Mix apps.
If you get a chance to demo both of them I’d advise you to listen to both of them.
Hi Brian
further to comments above, I thought I’d let you know that an opportunity to buy a year old A&H SQ6 came up from a local Christian PA company at less than the cost of a new Studiolive, so I compromised on not having 32 fader layers of the Qu or Studiolive for the SQ6 functionality and sound quality.
So far so good, but with lock-down in place we have only had a chance to use the SQ6 for a few services.
Sound quality is good, and have needed less amp gain compared to the GB24-4 it has replaced.
The v1.5 firmware upgrade has improved the RTA functionality, both for room set up and channel EQ detail.
I joined in the recent Sennheiser web discussion, thank you for your role in that, but didn’t get a solid answer to my query on tips for room eq’ing an empty sanctuary as the responses veered towards streaming issues!
Any tips appreciated!
thanks, John
Hi John!
The SQ is a great board so congratulations! I like the SQ a lot. It’s almost a little brother to the dLive.
For eq’ing an empty sanctuary you have to determine how much reverberation and liveliness your environment is. If it sounds pretty echoey and has a lot of hard surfaces then you’ll find that you need to back down your mid-highs and highs to compensate for the bouncing around of the sound. You’ll also need less effects like reverbs or delays as the room will provide that. The downside is that you can’t tame the reverb or delay so close mic’ing is a necessity. If you have the luxury of having multiple mics to choose from, I’d stay away from condenser mics for vocals and use dynamics. You’ll also find out that you won’t need as much volume overall. Electric guitars and cymbals will definitely need to be tamed. Electric guitars in the high-mids and cymbals need to be hit lighter.
Brian
John,
I’d look at the frequencies you mentioned as well as 800. I would do it at a per channel adjustment, like you thought. For the mics that are prone to feedback I’d put in an overall 6 microsecond delay into those mics and see if that helps reduce the feedback too.
One clarification with the 24R. It has 24 LOCAL inputs but if you’re routing it through AVB you have access to 32 channels.
We are looking at a similar setup, and would be upgrading from the original Presonus 24 channel “digital” mixer. I’m curious why you didn’t go with the 32R as a digital stagebox, but instead decided on the 24R?
Any other specific troubleshooting or setup thoughts you have will be invaluable to us!
Thanks!
Hi Josh!
Only reason I didn’t is that we didn’t need a 32R at this point, otherwise I would have gone with it. It’s a bit more expensive than the 24R and I was also trying to keep a tight budget since I honestly hadn’t planned on replacing my mixer yet. We only use 18 inputs so that left me with some room for growth. If you can go with a 32R I’d say go for it.