StudioLive Series III in the studio

[aoVI]

Just wondering aloud--anyone using the StudioLive Series III consoles in the studio?

I've come across a couple of people doing so, but only a handful.

As my small synth stable grew, I started to outgrow the Studio 1824c and also wanted a good control surface to draw me back into engaging physically with making recordings again. About a year and a half ago I invested in a StudioLive III 32S and have been quite happy with using it.

If anyone else is using these in their studio, I'd love to hear how it's working (good or bad) for you and of anything you've discovered while using it.

 

[NoTimeForThoughts]

I know the pain of having too many synths. But I stuck with the 1824c and just picked up the 1810c and run as ADAT. So I guess I'm not much assistance. I will say though that I looked at those StudioLive things but they were a bit too much. With all the crisscrossing I do between interfaces and using the UC panel to mix up all the various physical outs and send them to the physical ins for various uses I am able to do more than I thought of originally. I would be up for a demo of what you can do crisscrossing ins to outs on that Live thing though if you have one.

 

[aoVI]

I was very happy with the 1824c (it lives on in my son's setup--replacing the old 44VSL) and was looking into expanding it via ADAT when I came across the StudioLive. I am getting older (62 next b'day) and was looking to have my setup be something I could use for the next 20 or however many years without much worry. My Mackie Universal Control was also getting a bit long in the tooth, so it also ticked that box. All the lights, screens, and increase in faders has also help my profile rise in my tiny village--they may make me Chieftain now.

It's overkill for my single lil room, but I love it and found a great deal on an almost-new second-hand one on Reverb. Still had the protective strips over the screens. The most advanced thing I've really done with routing is getting an HP-60 and having the ability to run multiple individual headphone mixes.

My setup isn't very complex, so it's potential is more than my needs. It is certainly something that would be more of an asset to live situations than the studio. I do enjoy being able to switch from playing about and having mix control (with some 'okay' DSP onboard) without the computer even being on (no, not a DAWless jam person, I love being in the box). It's nice to be able to capture any noodling onboard to work with in S1 later as well.

It interfaces great with S1 and I've also replaced my BCR2000 as I set up control of many VSTs on the board as well. I think the latency may be marginally more than the 1824c, but I haven't run into any real problems.

 

[Ken Morgan]

I’ve got an 1824C just sitting collecting dust now, since the Quantum 2626 is pretty stable, sounds better than it should, and is stupidly fast.

I know there’s a way to connect the 1824C to be used as just a bank of ADAT preamps, but I’ll be darned if I’ve been successful in making it work.

Love/hate affair with Presonus hardware…it seems to sound much better than their pricing would indicate, but they seem to drop hardware support faster than anyone else around. I don’t know of course but I get the impression it’s easier to release new gear than to support older stuff? I for one would not mind paying more if I knew hardware would last 10-15 years.

Glad to see this place, BTW

 

[SwitchBack]

For me it works a treat. The beauty of using Series III consoles in the studio is the extensive two-way integration between the mixer and (especially) Studio One. You can use the mixer to provide low-latency monitor mixes (so that the DAW doesn't have to) and at the same time use the desk to control the DAW mix during and after the recording session.

 

[TDF1981]

I use a 32SC for recording and monitoring with some EarMix units. I can absolutely recommend it.
I use it on a Mac with other interfaces that are routed into it for monitoring (using Audiomovers Omnibus) so that I can use my Apollo interface and RME side by side. That way I can connect all my synths and instruments even when the 32SC has run out of channels.
so far the console has never failed me.
Oh and I have an NSB 16.8 connected in my recording room.

 

[NoTimeForThoughts]

I was very happy with the 1824c (it lives on in my son's setup--replacing the old 44VSL) and was looking into expanding it via ADAT when I came across the StudioLive. I am getting older (62 next b'day) and was looking to have my setup be something I could use for the next 20 or however many years without much worry. My Mackie Universal Control was also getting a bit long in the tooth, so it also ticked that box. All the lights, screens, and increase in faders has also help my profile rise in my tiny village--they may make me Chieftain now.

It's good to be king. It's also good to have a little village, ah if only I'd had DAWs back in my little village days. No I am loose on the world at large.

I see you also have the Prophet 10 Rev 4. The best synth. I was using it as the MIDI controller for the Arturia Moog Modular VST yesterday and it sounded very in-stereo.

I had been using a couple of old M Audio interfaces and patching between them, unsuccessfully trying to capture all my ins in the daw when I got the 2 interfaces at the same time in late 2022.

That thing you are using would be too large for my little room, and I would most likely have to get rid of my Roland TD17s to fit it in. I also noticed the best deal I could get on it currently would be the equivalent of about 2500 USD...so that is just over the top for my setup. I had been thinking of the 32R when you said 32S which is much different thing. Seems the 32R is all in the computer wheras the 32S has everything external to move sliders and buttons. I could easily fit that 32R. Not so much the 32S. Very big difference in footprint. I used to look at the 32R a little bit before I settled on the 1824c + 1810c combo.

Since I am only entertaining myself and have lost my entire village (and prior to that several of my associates to their own life ending or altering events) to divorce something like 15 years ago I will do alright with the ADAT series interfaces giving me 16 physical inputs into Studio One.

It's the 1810c as the Audio engine in Studio One, and the 1824 is gotten thru the light pipe because it has an out. That works very reliably because I have my interfaces settled in place and never move them. I have developed a very complicated setup where I wish I just had a few more outputs and inputs so that I could run a few more visual analyzers over my video streams capturing a few more VSTs. But each VA must have its own input and every VST out from Studio One its own physical patch back to an in. I have just one VA for a VST and have to make a tough decision on which VST to look at the Oscilloscope for. The other physical inputs are used for the Prophet 10, and several other Rolands (including the TD17s) and Yamaha synths and an iPhone. It's just what I do these days.

 

[aoVI]

Love/hate affair with Presonus hardware…it seems to sound much better than their pricing would indicate, but they seem to drop hardware support faster than anyone else around. I don’t know of course but I get the impression it’s easier to release new gear than to support older stuff? I for one would not mind paying more if I knew hardware would last 10-15 years.

I can empathize with that. I remember being disappointed when they moved on from the 44VSL--hey, I just bought this!

For me it works a treat. The beauty of using Series III consoles in the studio is the extensive two-way integration between the mixer and (especially) Studio One. You can use the mixer to provide low-latency monitor mixes (so that the DAW doesn't have to) and at the same time use the desk to control the DAW mix during and after the recording session.

I use a 32SC for recording and monitoring with some EarMix units. I can absolutely recommend it.
I use it on a Mac with other interfaces that are routed into it for monitoring (using Audiomovers Omnibus) so that I can use my Apollo interface and RME side by side. That way I can connect all my synths and instruments even when the 32SC has run out of channels.
so far the console has never failed me.
Oh and I have an NSB 16.8 connected in my recording room.

I'm glad to see others using and loving these too.

The tiny sample pool for me seeing if folks were using it in the studio was just those who had youtube channels or the rare studio pic on a forum.

I see you also have the Prophet 10 Rev 4. The best synth. I was using it as the MIDI controller for the Arturia Moog Modular VST yesterday and it sounded very in-stereo.

My first big synth purchase since the late 80's when I picked up the DX7. I noticed your av pic immediately.

That thing you are using would be too large for my little room, and I would most likely have to get rid of my Roland TD17s to fit it in. I also noticed the best deal I could get on it currently would be the equivalent of about 2500 USD...so that is just over the top for my setup. I had been thinking of the 32R when you said 32S which is much different thing. Seems the 32R is all in the computer wheras the 32S has everything external to move sliders and buttons. I could easily fit that 32R. Not so much the 32S. Very big difference in footprint. I used to look at the 32R a little bit before I settled on the 1824c + 1810c combo.

Since I am only entertaining myself and have lost my entire village (and prior to that several of my associates to their own life ending or altering events) to divorce something like 15 years ago I will do alright with the ADAT series interfaces giving me 16 physical inputs into Studio One.

It's the 1810c as the Audio engine in Studio One, and the 1824 is gotten thru the light pipe because it has an out. That works very reliably because I have my interfaces settled in place and never move them. I have developed a very complicated setup where I wish I just had a few more outputs and inputs so that I could run a few more visual analyzers over my video streams capturing a few more VSTs. But each VA must have its own input and every VST out from Studio One its own physical patch back to an in. I have just one VA for a VST and have to make a tough decision on which VST to look at the Oscilloscope for. The other physical inputs are used for the Prophet 10, and several other Rolands (including the TD17s) and Yamaha synths and an iPhone. It's just what I do these days.

It's a bit over-the-top for my setup as well. I missed my midlife crisis buying so maybe it's just finally caught up to me.

Like you, I'm divorced (2008) and kids are hitting 30's. I had a little studio setup in a glorified shed for many years when I was married. After the divorce, everything got packed away for a few years until my daughter wanted me to teach her how to engineer her own recordings. I had left all my hardware packed away until my son got his first synth 3 years ago, re-igniting my love for knobs and wires again.

 

[NoTimeForThoughts]

My first big synth purchase since the late 80's when I picked up the DX7. I noticed your av pic immediately.

It's a bit over-the-top for my setup as well. I missed my midlife crisis buying so maybe it's just finally caught up to me.

Like you, I'm divorced (2008) and kids are hitting 30's. I had a little studio setup in a glorified shed for many years when I was married. After the divorce, everything got packed away for a few years until my daughter wanted me to teach her how to engineer her own recordings. I had left all my hardware packed away until my son got his first synth 3 years ago, re-igniting my love for knobs and wires again.

Yeah I got that Prophet as soon as I found out about it. Right time I was planning to get a synth that was a high end synth and looking at the Prophet 8 Rev 2 I think it was. Then I saw J3PO's video (back in the days I still had Youtube app on my phone). No brainer. Beautiful synth. Yeah it's mono but so are guitars. Never regretted getting that thing for any time at all.

If I was to use that 32S I would first off be glad to be able to use it without computers. It looks like it has studio one plugins on it. I like the Studio One plugins I could probably make due just with those. I don't know if it can load non S1 plugins but it looks like there are sufficient ins and outs to rock a lot of patchbacks and send some VSTi back to ins so I could pick them up with my Visual Analyzers (Tor Vergata VA applets that I run from seperate folders and keep their settings in .ini files in their folders, i.e. portable installations). Then I use that in my videos. I like to see the sounds I have made at the end of the day. To be able to patch back more than 1 VSTi would be more than I can do presently. In fact I just suffered a major computer crash yesterday because I powered it off using the power button. Now I can't get my stream encoding computer back and starting from scratch. I had been frustrated with its replacing my Graphics driver all the time and 2nd monitor would always show "No Signal". So I guess that's why I did what I did and killed it inadvertantly. I will probably be working on setting up the new thing all day. Hope I can get all my Advanced Scene Switcher and Bitfocus Companion stuff back.

Anyway that's what I would do with it. Provided it has a significant number of physical outputs. Though there is not much I could see in the picture I downloaded about that. I see lots of inputs but not more than the usual number of outputs. How many outputs does it have?

 

[SwitchBack]

With the PreSonus forum the old PreSonus product website also vanished. Pity because that had more downloads and details and was a lot easier to navigate than the Fender site.

Anyway, the 32S has main out and control room/solo out (both stereo), 4 dedicated subgroup outputs (mono) and 32 mix/aux outputs (mono), all outputs with their own mix buses. Pairs of mono outputs/buses can be linked into stereo outputs. Adding say an NSB stagebox to the mixer will provide more outputs but not more buses!

As for plugins note that Studio One has/can have all Series III plugins but there are more plugins in Studio One than there are in the Series III mixers. The mixers give you plenty to choose from for live use and monitor mixes but not all the 'fancy studio stuff'. You still need Studio One to provide that if needed.

Hope this helps

 

[Ken Morgan]

FWIW…

I’ve harped at some DAW manufacturers since 1996 to make something…anything…that melded not just the tactile response of a smallish console, but an actual console that did the heavy lifting in the effects department, freeing up DAW host computer resources to do things dealing with file handling. I had hoped Presonus was on board (pun definitely intended) but the integration of DAW always seemed to be either an afterthought or the console ended up being obsolete before it could be fully installed.

To some, this may seem to be a step backwards, but consider: a zero latency (or fixed latency in the single digit samples) board, expands as much as your wallet allows. Hardware inserts on every channel, plus VST (or AU, or AAX, whatever) on the console itself. Audio/Daw connection via AVB, or if you wish via highest order of ADDA conversion, or if you wish, hard disc recorders or tape with VST/AU/AAX.

I know Otari and others attempted something similar way back when, with analog control of digital effects. Sony did as well with their Oxford and R100 units, but those are long abandoned.

 

[Jimi2020]

I use a 32r for my studio. I have 12 drum mics and 4 synths hooked up all in stereo. And room left over for Guitars, Bass and Vocals. It is great. There is hardware integration with Studio One, but since it's a rack mount device, there is not much to integrate with. I have the unit setup in a go box, so I can take it on the road, record a live performance by dragging along a PC. I haven't had the opportunity to do that since moving out to the East Coast of North Carolina.

 

[TDF1981]

FWIW…

I’ve harped at some DAW manufacturers since 1996 to make something…anything…that melded not just the tactile response of a smallish console, but an actual console that did the heavy lifting in the effects department, freeing up DAW host computer resources to do things dealing with file handling. I had hoped Presonus was on board (pun definitely intended) but the integration of DAW always seemed to be either an afterthought or the console ended up being obsolete before it could be fully installed.

To some, this may seem to be a step backwards, but consider: a zero latency (or fixed latency in the single digit samples) board, expands as much as your wallet allows. Hardware inserts on every channel, plus VST (or AU, or AAX, whatever) on the console itself. Audio/Daw connection via AVB, or if you wish via highest order of ADDA conversion, or if you wish, hard disc recorders or tape with VST/AU/AAX.

I know Otari and others attempted something similar way back when, with analog control of digital effects. Sony did as well with their Oxford and R100 units, but those are long abandoned.

There are Digico consoles that can do this with waves sound grid servers. But those are very expensive all in all.