PreSonus StudioLive 16.0.2 USB, Digital Mixer for Performance and Recording

As a professional record producer I needed a simple system that I can chuck in the car if I ever get asked to record someone (it happens quite often) - I have other desks for home use, all of which are usually over the top for simple recordings (SSL Big Six, KorgML-1608, Soundcraft fx16ii) but for simple see if connecting to a laptop and hitting record this is fantastic. Admittedly it’s not for complete amateurs because gating and compression is an art, but this does the trick well. EQ also simple but you will have to familiarise yourself with the way it works.Even in 2024, 5 star product, under a grand, does what it’s needed to do. If you’re not looking at buying a new laptop from Apple every year, save money and just build your system so it doesn’t need upgrading and chuck it in the corner ready to rock. Love it.

It’s a bit daunting at first and you have to download the manual as only very very basic get started booklet supplied but once you get main manual it really is an amazing mixer. So many possibilities already and I might return with an update once I’ve learned more

This mixer does a lot and I keep finding new things still. The price for that though, is that some things can be a little tricky to find sometimes - or not work in quite the way you might expect (or maybe that's just me). The fact that each channel can be sent to your DAW over USB so that you can use computer-based VSTs or whatever as insert effects is just amazing and it's a feature I never feel that I use enough. Consequently, there are times when I get no audio on a channel and it can take me a moment to find that I just haven't routed that channel to USB, or maybe haven't enabled it in my DAW, or maybe not sent the USB tracks to be monitored... As I said, maybe it's just me. You can even set this mixer up to be remote controlled from your iPad (mixer connected over USB to computer and computer sharing a wi-fi link to iPad route rather than directly mixer-to-iPad but still...)From a technical standpoint though, from a build quality standpoint, audio quality, features, the well written and light-hearted manual, even the support I've had from PreSonus when I needed it - all really very good. So if I could give it 4.5 stars I would but I can't so I'm rounding it down to a 4. If it had motorised faders I would even forgive those problems and give it a 5. It's not perfect but it is very good.

Its a absolutely stunning mixer, it needs deepdiving how it work but once you got it absolutley amazing. The best of all what you get for this price.

Concerns on the build quality as my unit has been kept extremely well covered with low usage and its already failed after just two years which is very poor for an item of this value .I have a Mackie mixer that's 20 years old still running