Review: Presonus AR12 USB

I’ve always thought Presonus’ StudioLive brand seems to have its priorities arse-about. I get that LiveStudio doesn’t have the same ring to it, but the consoles also seemed to skew towards a Live-centric mode, with Studio applications coming in a close second. By explicitly specifying that its new StudioLive AR series are hybrid mixers — equally weighted to performance and recording — Presonus is doubling down on the concept.

I’ve been testing the StudioLive AR12 USB, the middle sibling wedged between the AR8 and AR16. On the Studio side of the coin, the AR12 is essentially a 14-in/four-out USB audio interface. It also has eight analogue outs. A pair each for main monitor outputs, control room outputs, a stereo headphone jack and two mono aux outputs. That’s a pretty handy audio interface, especially considering it operates at 24-bit/192k with eight mic preamps.

You can also hot swap each channel to a line input by plugging a jack into the 1/4-inch socket, with the last four channels operating in stereo. On the last stereo channel you can also switch it over to become the 3/4 USB return from your DAW. Handily, while it does bypass the analogue input insofar as controlling it via the mixer is concerned, it still passes the input’s audio onto your DAW for processing. There’s also DI inputs on the first two channels, which you switch over from line by hitting the guitar switch, and inserts too.

It’s a lot of I/O, and I haven’t even started on the ‘Super Channel’, which basically sums up the device’s flexibility. This single stereo channel can accept analogue inputs via RCA and mini-jack, it can also function as your USB or SD card return, or receive a Bluetooth stream — that’s five inputs in one! It’s also probably the best implementation of a USB return I’ve seen in a compact mixer. Sure, digital desks can flip channels to DAW returns and spit each track back down a fader, but with no fader automation that would be daft. A stereo return is good enough, but having the option for two on the AR12 means you can create alternative monitor mixes. Beautiful.

Let’s jump over to the live space for a minute. The AR12 gives you nine channel faders to play with (including the Super Channel), with PFL and mute switching on every channel. You also get pan, two pre-fade aux sends, and a post-fade FX send. The aux sends each have a group fader, mute and an AFL button for monitoring the mix via cans. In the spirit of making this one flexible little beast, even though the FX send is routed to the internal effects engine by default, it also has a 1/4-inch output. By plugging a jack in, you bypass the internal engine and are free to either plumb in an external rack unit or use it as a basic post-fade aux. You can also feed the FX send into the other two auxes to wet your monitors if required.

FOUR A SIDE

The preamps and EQ are split into two camps, depending on whether they’re servicing a mono or stereo channel. The first four channels have 50dB gain (0 to +50dB for mic and instrument, and -20 to +30dB line), whereas the stereo channels have 40dB of gain (+5 to +45dB for mic, and -15 to +25dB line). It’s not a huge difference, but I did find myself at the limit of the gain pots more often than I thought I would. Thankfully, I’ve always found Presonus’ preamps — even on their lower end units — to have a usable gain range that extends to the pot’s maximum, where other units get eclipsed by unusable noise.

The mono channels exceed the abilities of the stereo channels in the EQ department too. While both channels have a fixed 12kHz high shelf and 80Hz low shelf, only the mono channels have a variable mid-band (140Hz–3.5kHz). The stereo channel mid band is set to 2.5kHz. The EQ was handy for broadly shaping sounds, with a smooth quality up top and healthy low-end bump, which is all you want for a desk this size.

My one bugbear with the EQ — and a little hit to the dual purpose mantra — is that the EQ is bypassed by default when recording. I get that you don’t want to bake in the EQ you’re using at FOH when recording a multi-track live gig. However, if you’re using this mixer in the studio, it’d be a useful feature. It would have been nice to be able to switch it in or out of the recording chain. Of course, you can always track the fully EQ’d stereo main mix as well, and the HPF on each channel does get printed.

EFFECTIVE AUXES

As I’ve already covered, the aux system is well-featured on this desk. I would typically expect a mixer this size to only have pots for the main aux level controls; faders are a nice touch. The only small issue is that despite having five stereo inputs — including two stereo USB returns — there’s only one stereo headphone output, and a control room pair. A typical interface would have multiple stereo-assignable outputs, usually eight, for individual monitor mixes.

The manual says aux mixes can output in mono or stereo. Not so, the 1/4-inch outputs are balanced mono, not stereo. All stereo inputs are summed to those outputs, which limits the ability to directly monitor channels in stereo. That said, there have been plenty of times when I’ve made do with mono headphone sends and it’s never been a deal breaker.