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This thing is awesome! Presonus' StudioLive digital mixer is an incredible board that provides a simple digital mixing interface for live and the studio, as well as acts as a firewire multi-track recording interface that connects to your computer (Mac or PC). They have a 16 channel version ($1999) and a new 24 channel version ($3299). It has all the typical things you'd expect with a digital mixer: on-board effects, recallable scenes, dynamics for each channel, etc... There is one set of "channel strip" knobs called the Fat Channel (reminescent of the old Mackie D8B digital board). Once you "select" a channel, the channel strip is now affecting that channel. It includes high-pass filter, gate, compressor, EQ, Pan, and Aux assignments. The 24 channel has some extended compressor, more Auxes, EQ, gate, and limiter knobs to easier fine-tuning. The input/output section is quite vast as well.
Possibly the coolest thing about this product is the recording interface capabilities. It includes 2 firewire ports. You can use the firewire port to connect to your recording computer DAW, as well as expand your system by adding another StudioLive board and double your channels. You can expand your system by linking up to 4 StudioLive boards, but you can only record up to 32 tracks. 32 tracks is nothing to shake your head at. That's a lot of tracks! It comes with a simple recording capture software aptly named "Capture" to ease the pain of recording live. The simplicity is beautiful; all you do is connect the mixer to your computer via firewire, open capture, arm all tracks and press record. Capture is made specifically for the StudioLive, so it just works with no setup. After your tracking is done, you can export the tracks to your favorite recording software (Logic, Cubase, Sonar, etc...). It also features a very cool and unique function that would allow you to take your previously recorded tracks, and pump them back through your channels on the StudioLive for sound check. For example, lets say your took your StudioLive 16 channel board to run live sound for a local band you're working with called "God's Dorks". You have run sound for God's Dorks before, and better yet, you recorded their show. You get to the venue before God's Dorks and setup all your stuff. God's Dorks is running late and there will be little time for soundcheck. You cue up Capture and load the performance you recorded previously. You select the option to playback all those tracks through your StudioLive board. All of the audio tracks are routed to the board as if they are plugged in from the stage, and all the channels now operate as if you're mixing the band. You can then get a soundcheck and make your adjustments with the band that isn't even there! Pretty slick.
I would personally like to upgrade my setup to one of these StudioLive boards for studio use and live recording that will be done in the future. Check out the links!
http://www.presonus.com/products/Detail.aspx?ProductId=52
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/StudioLive24/
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/StudioLive16/
