Comments on: Presonus Studio Channel Review

By: Brandon Drury

Brandon Drury — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:14:48 +0000

The Studio Channel is a fun little strip. For the money, I’m not sure how you can beat it.

By: Stan Mitchell

Stan Mitchell — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:10:02 +0000

Clearly I’m late to this discussion, however…a friend recommended the PreSonus Studio Channel in my search for a series of channel strips to mic a full drum kit. What thinkest thou???
I would be putting them into my trusty Roland VS 1880 in the short term and probably moving into Pro-Tools within 3 months.
Any advice you can offer would be appreciated. Thanks

By: brandondrury

brandondrury — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 11:22:37 +0000

Generally speaking, dynamic mics are lower in output and therefore rely on the preamp for gain. The SM7b does not have much output and neither does the Sennheiser MD421 when compared to just about any condenser.

You have a few options.

1) Push the Studio Channel hard and live with it.
2) Use the Studio Channel and then use extra makeup gain via a compressor plugin in your recording software.
3) Get a preamp with more gain.

As Equilibrium8 hinted at, very few budget channel strips are going to have the necessary gain for an RE-20 to work ideally without noise.

Brandon

By: Equilibrium8

Equilibrium8 — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 10:16:38 +0000

Rex, although I like the studio channel, I think you got the wrong pre for your RE-20. The presonus gain is a touch on the weak side, while an RE-20 needs a LOT of gain to work well. I would suggest either replacing the Presonus with a Grace 101 or replacing the RE-20 with the Sennheiser MD421 or Shure SM-7, both similar to RE-20 kind of sound, but don’t need as much gain to run.

By: Rex

Rex — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 04:48:43 +0000

Hello, I ran across your review for the Presonus Studio Channel.

I recently bought it and use it as a mic processor with an Electrovoice RE-20 mic. I was curious, is the VU meter not sensitive when talking into the mic usually? I have to max out the gains just to get it to register, but when I do that I obviously get distortion…please tell me i’m doing something wrong! This thing was expensive!

Thanks!

Rex

By: Equilibrium8

Equilibrium8 — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:49:37 +0000

“So even if this is a budget design, I do think it’s safe to call it a big sounding preamp.”
Definitely. I get peeved reading every “expert” on other forums pissing on starved plate designs in general. My view is while they won’t give a true tube sound, they do have their place. They are not solid state and they are not true tube. So they have characteristics all of their own in this price range. Some in this range just plain suck due to manufacturers shoving tubes in the circuit as a marketing tool, while some are perfectly usable functional machines.
That said, I don’t think any top engineer will be going “damn, i wish I had that starved plate sound for this voice”, mainly due to snob value. I think I am starting to rant, this should be a forum topic.

By: brandondrury

brandondrury — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:07:23 +0000

All 3 bands are parametric. You can use them as shelves or peak eqs (though you can’t control the default 0.7 Q parameter on the low and high bands, you can still select the frequency and gain).

While you are correct, you can switch from shelves, with a fixed Q of 0.7 it’s still 98% a shelf. It’s not like I could boost 60Hz and notch out 120Hz on a kick drum with it.

By: brandondrury

brandondrury — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:03:14 +0000

But you need to bear in mind that it is a starved plate design, so WILL NOT give you a true tube amp sound.

While just a smidgeon loose on the low end, it’s definitely on the big preamp side of the fence. It tonality on high gain electrics it has a similar vibe as my Manley TNT Tube Channel and not near the upper mid harmonics you’d hear in a Neve family preamp. So even if this is a budget design, I do think it’s safe to call it a big sounding preamp.

Brandon

By: brandondrury

brandondrury — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:55:49 +0000

I use it entirely for vocals and nothing else

I didn’t get that vibe at all. I thought it did very well on bass and electric guitar as well.

Brandon

By: Case Mundy

Case Mundy — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:22:37 +0000

I just bought the studio channel a few weeks ago. It’s my first time to use a hardware compressor and I’m having a blast. I’m actually replying to make a note on the EQ though. I think you give the EQ a little too little credit. All 3 bands are parametric. You can use them as shelves or peak eqs (though you can’t control the default 0.7 Q parameter on the low and high bands, you can still select the frequency and gain). Although i agree that it’s not a life-changing equalizer, i just wanted to note that it is a bit more versatile than your equalizer paragraph lead on.