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Presonus Studio Live 32SC

·5 mins

I have had a recent experience with a sound console that I have fallen in love with. It is the Presonus Studio Live 32SC, it is a 16 channel mixing console that has the ability of expanding to 32 channels. It is rugged, sound console, and I trained on the Studio Live 32S (the big sister) and have had the best amount of luck with it. It is a console that can do anything, it is built for the studio and the live setting hence the name Studio Live. The entire family of consoles are digital. They have the ability to recall everything at the press of a button, faders, pan, gain, and everything that you could expect. I love this console, it reminds me of the ETC EOS family, able to recall everything in a certain show file, whole console configurations at the press of a button.

When you use a Studio Live console it can do everything that you ask and more, it is perfect for places of worship, and learning facilities that need something simple to get the job done. Nothing to complex as it can’t support the Dante protocol (however it supports AVB). There are several console levels in the family. The 32SC, the 32S, the 32SX and the 64S. Each one of them is based off the same system, allowing them to do the same things that all the other consoles in the family can do.

These things are power houses in my opinion. Now yes there is Midas, Digico, and Yamaha that all make amazing desks. These desks are the ones that you are going to see at concerts. Paired with a grandMA lighting console.

I love this console, it has only given me some trouble. The only thing that it has given me was a mic not functioning but it turned out that the mic died, and needed some new batteries (so that is not the consoles fault). I trust this console, and can feel confident in any venue that needs it.

Presonus is one of the companies that I can confidently recommend, these guys built consoles that are made to last, everything that they do is great work. There are a few things that I am not a fan of but it’s really small things (the computer software, and the SD cards have failed me in show). However the good things out weigh the bad.

I should also mention that I picked out this console for a company I work for. We managed to score it on sale for a $500 less than it’s listed price.

What was I thinking about when I chose it? We were running a Mackie 1604 VLZ4, a small 16 channel console that can get by if you push it. A console that was 20+ years old and was failing fast.

  • I needed something under $3,000 and needed to be digital, for easy use.
  • I needed to vouch for it and say that it worked with confidence. No “I think it will work” I need to trust it as this can be a bad mistake.
  • It needs a physical surface control top, although full digitals are good and I’ve heard good things with them, I need the surface to control the console. Networking and iPads are optional but are not allowed to be required.
  • It needs to work with the current system, a USB audio interface, and the amp (however I am willing to change out cords)
  • 16 channel minimum, with expandability.

All this in mind, I recommend these two:

  1. Presonus Studio Live 32 SC (meeting all criteria)
  2. Behringer X Air XR18- It misses some of the criteria and was more of a highly recommended console that I have heard some good things about, I was willing to take a risk for it, due to all the recommendations. The thing that really stopped me in my tracks was the idea that it needs a dedicated internet connection and an iPad to work. Deal breaker? Not sure

I was thinking about these also:

  1. Midas M32R the smaller version of the M32 that I used
  2. Allen and Heath Qu-16 mixer. I can speak for Allen and Heath along with a good friend, however I can not speak for the console it self, so minor issue.

Most of these console met the criteria that I was looking at. Thankfully the sales engineer with Sweet Water agreed with my choice of Presonus. With that confidence and professional backing I had a hunch that this console was going to do great things for us.

When it came in, I put it in as soon as I could. Set up was a breeze, I am used to setting up Windows that asks a ton of questions. This was plug, patch and play. No issues, no fuss nothing to worry about. It has been an amazing console and glad that it is doing everything that I ask it to do.

I also wanted to expand the system (or have the option too), so what did I do? got the console that has the expanding option, just need an $800 box for it. That is for not right now though, it is more than big enough for current needs.

I can truly say with confidence that things thing is what I dreamed about, and love. I give it a full recommendation.