Presonus StudioLive 16.0.2 16-Channel Audio Mixer

I really do love this board! Here are some of my favorite Highlights.. The Preamps have a ton of Headroom and sound great! The Fat Channel options are absolutely amazing. It really is like having two whole racks of effects. I even use the presets and they sound great! not every board has the option to invert the polarity of your signal. 3 Bands of EQ are plenty especially when you can set the frequency that you want to adjust.. A versatile compressor with a useable Gate!! Nice!! Adjustable low pass frequency on every channel! The Ability to save channel presets! The 31 band EQ on the Main outputs is a very nice feature. The internal effects are very good. 4 Auxiliary channels withe possibility of remote control with Ipads and Ipods is a fantastic option! It is like having 4 personal monitor mixers. The Control Software has the Spectrum Analyzer and is extremely handy when trying to pinpoint problem frequencies while performing. It has flexible setup options,, Channels 9 - 16 can either be configured as 4 stereo channels or 4 Mono Mic channels ( effectively making it a 12 channel Mic Mixer). Is Very compact! Here are some things that you may consider negatives. Only 24bit 48Khz A/D conversion (though fine for me.. It is lower than most of today's standards). Though I still feel that this board is a good price at it's 1299 price, I feel that the 16.4.2 is an even better buy at $1999. It has way more options (including 31 band eq's on all outputs). No Sub mixes No physical insert on each channel.. (This was my biggest concern but have to admit, really don't have a problem because the Fat Channel gives me all that I need anyway). Takes a little getting used to for a person who runs an Analog board. It can be a little confusing starting out.. If you learn to appreciate the compactness and options that it offers, you will learn to accept "Scrolling through menus" and "Selecting Channels" to have your options. For those who are concerned with controls, setting up with laptop really opens doors and unlocks the potential of this unit.. I have been looking at these boards for months but just couldn't justify the cost of the 16.4.2. I have a friend who has one and it is fantastic.. However, the 16.4.2 is much bigger.. The 16.0.2 has everything I need for my purposes.. My initial concerns were the 24/48 A/D conversion not being good enough for recording and the fact that they board does not have inserts on each channel. I can safely say though that 24bit 48 Khz is proving to be absolutely adequate for my recording needs and I am actually rather pleased that the Fat Channel features allow me to operate without needing to have inserts on each channel. Quite honestly, I end up being pleased that I don't have to bring a rack of effects to get the sound that I want.. I also managed to pick this up on Black Friday.. They sold them at around $1000 for a week and this certainly inspired me to buy.. I haven't regretted it since! Now that I own it, I would gladly pay 1299 for it..

If you want to start in music industry, you must buy this digital mixer. Affordable price, live recordings, friendly interface.

I've been using this for about 7 months in my home studio recording drums w/ 11 mics, guitars, bass, vocals and this thing is amazing! One of the easiest to learn, multi functioning DIGITAL AND ANALOG, STUDIO AND LIVE mixers probably on the market. I would suggest getting the step up from this if you have more than 4 instruments you want to play live/ record live as this one only has 12 mic inputs. BUT amazing for the price!

It's a solid product for high quality recording. 16 channels seems a lot but turns out barely enough when I started mastering the techniques, such as mid side recording and FireWire inputs. One vocal will take two channels in mid side arrangement, and so does one guitar. Linking the pair in the Capture 2 software and the recorded "stereo" track can be directly processed with Adobe Audition's channel mixer mid/side to stereo feature. Sweet!! My musician friends love the result. The Universal control software provides augmented view and convenience that cannot be placed on the device. The only thing I am struggling a bit is that the cable connectors on the back are not aligned with the fat channel knobs, making it slightly difficult to associate cables with channel controllers visually.

I could write a huge review, but I will simply say that if you are doing both mixing and recording, this is the mixer that will do everything. It's a bit overwelming at first, but stick with it and it will prove itself to be the best studio or live mixer you have ever owned. Period.