For those of you who have heard, Presonus is officially in the digital console market. Not just Live, not just Recording, but both!
They’ve shaken up things a bit with their first offering, the 16.4.2, and now they will once again with the 24.4.2.
Lets take a look at the Presonus 24.4.2.
As with the Presonus 16.4.2, the Presonus 24.4.2 is not only a digital console for Live use, but also Recording. The 24.4.2 has 32 simultaneous channels out via FireWire as well as 26 Outputs. Track Live, Mix Live, Track in the Studio, Mix in the Studio…
The Console
- 24 Mic/Line Inputs and Pre Amps
- 24 Channel Strips
- TRS Inserts on Each Channel
- L/R/C Main Outputs
- Class A Presonus XMAX Pre Amps
- 10 Aux Sends
- 2 Internal FX Sends
- 4 Subgroups
- 100mm Faders
- Each Channel and Group/LRC has access to Fat Channels.
- 32 Bit Floating Point Mix and FX Processing
- 24 dSub Balanced Outputs
Fat Channel – Your Channel Strip
New on the 24.4.2 Is full rotary control of all parameters of your Fat Channel. Threshold, Ratio, Key, Q, Band, Freq, Ect Ect. No more setting dynamics on a Tiny LCD Screen.
- On Each Channel, As well As Groups, L/R/C.
- Pan
- Stereo Link On/Off
- Phase Reverse
- High Pass Filter
- 4 Band Fully Parametric EQ
- Gate/Expander with Key Input
- Compressor
- Limiter
- Output Routing
- Presets, User and Factory
- Copy/Paste
The Audio Interface
- 36 In, 24 Out
- Arm the Send via Buttons on Channels/Groups
- 24 Bit 44.1/48 kHz
- Compatible with Core Audio or ASIO
What it comes down to, is the console seems to have the same features and software as the 16.4.2 (read our write up on the 16.4.2 here) with an expanded Control Surface and 8 more channels.
I’d say it’s worth to go with 24 channels for (duh) the channels and the full physical control of comp/gates (the 16.4.2 doesn’t have full physical control, it’s via menus ect).
I still haven’t heard if you can link two of the Presonus 24.4.2 like you can with the 16.4.2, but I presume so… But only time will tell.
