You can use the Behringer / Midas Stages Boxes to directly record from using the Klark Teknik DN9630 AES50 to USB 2.0 Converter (Cosrs $370 however). It connects to the AES50 A or B output of the stagebox and allows 48ch of USB interface to a computer. My band uses one and it works flawlessly. We record all live shows directly to Reaper for later usage. The DN0630 also allows you to send all channels back into an AES50 stream. Sorry if I sound like a Klark Technik commercial but this is a rare instance where a product actually works as advertised.
Yes. And the DN9630s also allow you to get 48x48 out of the x32/m32/wing into computer, without wasting the card slot. So you can keep that free for Waves / Dante etc. That $3-400 does seem to expand the usability of whatever you already own quite a bit.
I believe you can use the Presonus rack mixers as stage boxes for the 64S. These can be used as independant USB interfaces. They aren't much more expensive than the standard stage boxes so, if that's a use case for you, they would work great in that situation. I've used a Presonus 32R to record a full band and also used it, at the same time, to mix them live using an iPad. It worked and sounded great.
What are the converters like in these units? In particular, I am curious about the presonus. I like the idea of the tight integration with StudioOne however concerned about the quality of the converters compared to my current interface.
I'm using a 64s alongside a Focusrite Duo, and there is no comparable difference. To be honest, it's the D2A/A2D that costs the money, hence why their floor boxes are so expensive. I have a few minor gripes, but audio quality isn't one of them.
Besides Klark Teknik converters, you can also connect two behringer stagebox together and use them as a 'analog' snake. You can also use this method to route audio in between snakes if you daisy chain them (with the mixer) and those audio will not go through the mixer. However using this method you can't set the preamp on the stagebox. It will just use the last setting it have (so technically you can connect the stagebox to mixer, set it up and use them stand alone). However the interface for behringer stagebox is not that user friendly so you needs to know what you are doing.Oh, not to mention that you can use 2 mixer on one stage box to fulfil the mon+mix set up. However that case changing gain of each channel will affect both mixer. And some behrinher snake have ADAT so they can act as a ADAT converter somehow. Some behringer snake also can be controlled via Midi for preamp settings, etc. However I don't see anyone did that.
Thanks Ted! I know some folks will take things the wrong way, but I have nothing but respect for the folks who make the gear we use. Thanks for the message, looking forward to talking more.
The only downside with both these boxes is the multi-mode nature of them. Knowing if you are live, monitoring an auxiliary, in solo mode or on ch1 or ch17. It's easy to forget and when working live, you may hit the wrong button and can easily screw it up. Strict care and attention is required.
That's pretty much the same experience to every other digital mixer you'll see on a live gig though. Keeping track of where you are in the show and on the console is the name of the game. As more stuff is networked too & that becomes required and expected, we've got to get comfortable being in positions where a wrong mouse click or button push could tank the show. It's a part of the gig & we're the ones charging a fee to pay attention to which buttons get pushed and when. Like you say, strict care and attention is required, and that should apply to the whole job - from unloading the trucks, to flying the PA system, to navigating the console during a show.
@@DcSoundOp Yes and no. With old school desks like Midas and Soundcraft, you knew where you were. My concern is one button may have a different function depending on what mode you happen to be in. It's just not as ergonomic as saying THAT button does THAT. We should be more concerned about the balance and sound, not scared shitless we might be in the wrong mode and solo the entire PA.
I get where you're coming from & as you move up in price on the digital or analog side, you will always get more dedicated controls and buttons for each function. That being said, you could unpatch the whole show in a couple of button pushes or mouse clicks on most every system I've worked on in the past 10 years... Thinking more about it now, all of the large format analog desks I've mixed on have always had some type of plexiglass cover added over some portion of the desk that could easily tank your show if hit unknowingly. I've seen plenty of visiting engineers get totally lost in VCA, Mute Group & Scene recall automation on those old desks. A few even managed it without knowing the consoles even had those features for them to use! We've gotta stay on our toes either way! Thanks for the great points, I'm sure others feel the same too.
Great review! Thank you. Possible for you to add SQ to this list? Also maybe show the HUI function on each console? X/M32 only allows 8 faders in HUI mode. Is it the same here too? How’s the noise floor on the pre in studio mode, would love to know that too. Thank you in advance.
The Behringer S16 stage box & P16 personal monitoring works with the Behringer Wing. You have to update the stage box firmware first. You also have to update the firmware that's already installed in the Wing when u first buy it. The P16's are assigned through output channels 33 through 48. You still connect the P16's through the Ultranet port.
looking forward to Behringer making a compact version of the Wing. I absolutely love using the Wing. After getting around a few quirks it's certainly the digital mixer I personally love flying on.
Do you think they'll bring out a compact version? I have been out of the loop on the Wing rumors and speculation for a little while, has anything been leaked yet? Thanks for the message!
What I am interested in, is what mixer actually has the best sound raw when it comes to preamps etc. I wanna record with high quality but am not so keen on spending hours on tweaking every effect to its outer limits. I like the clean look of the Presonus. I also like the touch screen avalible on the Wing. It has "Pro Midas preamps". Can one tell the differens? Why is the M32 still so expensive compared to the Wing? Is it only because of the i/o avalibility? In what areas is the "96khz" a must? Can we do without it?
If you want to record in the highest quality possible with as little tweaking as possible I would skip both of these and look at dedicated preamps & converters designed for just that.
Tried to edit on my phone and deleted half of my reply above... sorry. I was saying that Pro Series Midas desks cost an order of magnitude more than these (not the entry level m series) and there is nothing about the wing that reminds me of a Midas Pro desk at all. Sonically or otherwise. These are both good consoles, but perspective is important when getting into the weeds on best raw sound and mic preamp comparisons.
@@DcSoundOp thanks. I was wondering, because in the advert (here: www.thomann.de/gb/behringer_wing.htm - it says Midas Pro. Don't get me wrong. Ofcourse there the general tweaking both befora and after recording. I just do not want the "shit in - shit out" result, but I am not a top notch audio professor either. I have good ears though. ☺️😉
I totally get where you're coming from. That advert also lists '8 analogue Midas Line Outputs' like it's something interesting 😂 What type of recording are you doing? If it's live performances, I get the attraction, but for almost anything else I do I wouldn't be looking at all in one mixer solutions if I wanted to get the best possible sound quality at this price. For the price of either of these you could put together a pretty stellar recording package for capturing a lot of different types of recordings. All depends on how many inputs you need to track at a time though.
@@DcSoundOp I am a drummer, and I did som recording of my band years ago using my Roland Octa Capture. Then I needed to do a lot of post work to make it sound better. Now I am looking to do all sorts all from two mics up to a whole band playing live. This will happen at the earliest one year from now, as I am currently building a house. What about the UA. I own an Apogee Duet still. For a short while I had a X32, but it was not used as much as I hoped. Then again I was living in an apartment. I liked the clean layout on the x32 and the Presonus feels clean in that sence.
Hey just wanted to drop in and confirm that you can use the wing natively with the x32/m32. Currently have the wing as the FOH console and the x32 feeding it from stage as a monitor console.
Ryan Williams That’s awesome Ryan, I was hoping some folks would chime in here and talk about their experiences pairing them up. How has the workflow been for you with them? How are you handling gain sharing? Would love to hear your thoughts, thanks for the message!
Great question. UC Control is only the control side of things, and does not pass audio between the hardware and your computer. Assuming you also have the USB connected and the mixer selected as your audio interface, you're just looking to route the USB returns from your computer to channels on the mixer. This is just like routing any other source on the mixer side, just select USB and then the correct bank of channels you want. On the DAW side, it should be really simple too, but you'll want to look at your DAW's instructions for routing audio out to USB however you want to do it.
for Presonus stagebox if we refer to StudioLive 16R, 24R and 32R (not the NSB), they can be used as standalone mixer or interface for sure. But NSB no, because NSB is not stageboxes. NSB is digital snake through AVB.
Can you explain why you’d like the term ‘stage box’ to include being a standalone mixer & interface? I think I understand what you’re getting at, but I’m not sure. Can you help? Thanks!
@@DcSoundOp I saw you explained on your video that presonus stagebox cannot be used for standalone or interface (2:59). Well maybe I could be wrong in term of "stage box" term. But in my understanding, Presonus StudioLive ecosystem has 2 type of stage boxes. 1st is the Rack Mixer (16R, 24R and 32R). This rack mixer also called stage boxes and can be used as stageboxes, standalone mixer, and they have individual preamp including DSP. the 2nd one is the NSB which is only the digital Snake, to extend the wires through AVB connection. NSB doesn't have DSP and cannot be used as standalone nor interface. I remember Behringer also have similar things, which is Rackmixer x32 Rack (can be used as stand alone and interface I think), and the digital snake (SD series?). Both pretty similar concept with what Presonus has. So in short, you can advise audience that if they want to have stage box with standalone and interface functionality, they may look at presonus rack mixer or behringer rack mixer.. But despite of what I said above, I really really love your in depth and very detail review as I really can understand both ecosystem with objective point of view, complete with both advantages and disadvantages. Look forward for your review again between those two brands. Thank you
I’m very picky about consoles and have high expectations. The Wing is a functional marvel at its price point and I think that the internal signal path sounds surprisingly good. The Midas DL32 stage-box is a dumb box that just shows up with inputs and outputs on the Wing. The X32 rack has its own DSP to standalone as a mix platform, so it needs to be preconfigured to function as an Input/Output box over AES50. If anyone is interested, I made an X32 rack scene and posted it on Music Tribes forum that’s easy to load.
My good friend Samantha @potteraudio on insta (from the NAMM videos) just got an SQ5 today & teaches with them in her audio classes. I’m hoping she will do some videos on them in the near future.
@@DcSoundOp Isn't the SQ-6 in this price point? There are more features than the 5. One big difference is the processing speed: 96kHz for all SQ series. Features and workflow are where there will be differences and preferences, for sure.
Presonus stage boxes don't work as standalone products as said in the video. However, if you need something working as a stage box and working autonomously, you can use a rack mixer. The rack mixer can be slaved to behave as a stage box, while keeping the whole functionality of a fully fledged mixer without any external control (you then need a tablet, a PC or a phone to control it). I think it's important to mention this. Thanks for the video; it's really interesting.
@@DcSoundOp You misunderstood my meaning. You said, in the current video, that the stage box didn't work autonomously, and presented it as a negative feature. What I am saying, is that if your need is to have a stage box that can also work as an autonomous piece of equipment, there is a solution: use a rack mixer instead of the stage box. It's a pity you didn't mention this in your current video, especially if you know this well, since you have already reviewed it 100 videos ago ...
You can use the SL32R as a stagebox and also as a standalone interface to your computer. You can also use it to mix like the regular SL32 using the Universal Control App.
There was a time sound was about sound. Sound seems to be about computers now. Which might I add, I love the tech. Just a point I wanted to share. Great video BTW.
Thanks Marty! You're absolutely right, the tools and data we have now are incredible, but you certainly need to be more of a network and computer technician than ever before to stay afloat. I would almost PAY to review a simple analog mixer at this point... there is just so much to cover in these, I know I'm probably missing all sorts of stuff that is important to other folks. Thanks again!
Any word on when the new video showing how these work with DAWs will be dropped? Sorry to be a pain, but trying to decide on a new console to buy and how it works with Reaper is one of the factors to consider. Thanks.
Thank you so much for this video. I am so excited to see your DAW one. I made a little video to help my fellow Wing/Cakewalk users hopefully your efforts will add a whole lot more valuable info to help others. I can't wait! Also thanks again, really enjoy your videos!
I've heard this from a few folks. I used to have a love hate relationship with the touch sensitive caps on the DM2000's back in the day. Very useful for some things, but I'd always end up turning them off for live or broadcast work. Thanks for the message.
Funny I did contemplate swapping my huge Midas console for the Behringer Wing , but after the constant menu diving and staring at the small screen, I digressed back to my trusty analog monster. Instant access to all controls, no menus, no screens . Yes its big , very heavy and generates quite a bit of heat. On the upside its warm and has tons of headroom. I very much enjoyed your review.
i don t have a dl16 anymore, but I remember that i could use it as a preamp for any engine with adat inpits. it s not realy standalone ... but it gives the possibility to use it as external preamp . it s something ;)
FYI the reason you want good cable is because unshelled cable won't reject power serge or any power crossing over into the data lines. An ungrounded surge will blow your aes 50 port on an x32. The other issue is the ethercon shell also needs to be connected to the shield Ethernet jack because on the x32 the socket isn't connected to ground correctly. Again when the shell isn't bridging ground between the shell and the Ethernet jack and you have a surge = a dead aes50 port.
also.. you make a good point about the stagebox being standalone. Its possible to do with the studiolive in theory with a few minor additions to the firmware. Maybe I'll do that next weekend.
I’ve patched & passed avb audio from a computer to an NSB output, but that’s as far as I could get. Looking forward to seeing what they can do in the future.
@@DcSoundOp its actually relatively straightforward to modify the nsb to be standalone. I just need to expose the phantom and gain controls in the avdecc entity model, then you'll be able to adjust levels and make connections using an avdecc controller on a mac.
Hello. The Wing and Ableton seem to work ok together. What I can not figure out is how to get WIng to do what most audio/midi interfaces will do, which is sync / start / stop Ableton with my external sequencer(Squarp). ether slave or master, do the midi ports have any purpose/support yet?
I appreciate the better click you get with TF buttons, but they are a long way from Yamaha’s typical button feel. I like the TF otherwise for their intended purpose & cheap Entry point to Dante, but the buttons are rough. Just my opinion, thanks for the message!
@@DcSoundOp THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR TUTORIALS YOU ARE A GREAT TEACHER IF YOU ARE SO KIND YOU CAN INDICATE ME ACCORDING TO YOUR KNOWLEDGE, WHAT IS THE BEST CONSOLE BETWEEN THE PRESONUS 64S, THE BEHRINGER WING OR THE YAMAHA TF5. I THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR ATTENTION AND GOOD DEAL GREETINGS FRIEND
Right now I think the best overall package, most complete and best supported is the PreSonus. Their DAW is killer too & the whole system is very flexible for this price point. Hope that helps.
@@DcSoundOp THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR QUICK REPLY . NOW WELL, I WANT TO USE THE CONSOLE FOR LIVE EVENTS, MINIMUM 24 MUSICIANS ON STAGE AND SO I WANT TO BE SURE WHAT KIND OF CONSOLE TO BUY.
Since i purchased the studiolive 32s i can never get the sd card to "test" fully and function to record live , ive visited all presonus forums and tried suggested sd cards but nothing works , has anyone been through this and any fixes?
Hey Kenny, that's not great to hear at all. Have you had a chance to talk to anyone at PreSonus directly? It might be worth opening a support ticket to see if you can get some answers. Thanks for watching!
@@DcSoundOp yes i have opened tickets and tried to help with topic as well and i believe my 3 year warranty is up soon also , to send such a big machine ti baton rouge is crazy and might get a refurbished one in return , hopefuuly i can figure it out
6:27 "Lack of touch sensitive faders on the Wing". What does that mean exactly? What can I not do if I don't have touch sensitive faders. I've never used automated gear before.
11:10 the easiest way to avoid this is to have your mixer at the beginning of your power sequence and the speakers at the end (turning on anyway) I’m sure there is a sequencer some where that can do it backwards when turning off
Id love a video just comparing how they sound. Preamps, effects, etc. How do they mix? The speed ergonomics all factor in, but that has to be put up against the actual sound.
There are a few folks doing full on live streams with these consoles right now during the break, who could give you much more of an idea on those things. It’s been a bit tricky getting gear out on gigs or having musicians over to mic up & I’m down to copyright protected multi tracks from existing projects for higher tech count testing. Hell of a time to have two 64 channel consoles on hand... not a gig in sight 😞
@@DcSoundOp Duely noted. And the feature by feature comparisons you're doing are incredibly valuable to me as well BTW. I fear that my comments came out otherwise. Years ago I decided that when I compare anything, to start with it's primary function, in this case it's sound, before considering ancillary factors. Or to deliberately weight the pros and cons. Both my Neve and my Girl are high maintenance, but what I get for putting up with their malfunctions and idiosyncrasies makes it all worth while in the end.
@@DcSoundOp tell me about it. I own a live sound company and have called myself mostly retired for a few years. It's to the point that I am actually now considering selling a bunch of gear and my utility trailer. I am doing a lot of recording engineering these days. In fact I plan to keep my X32 Rack to use as an interface for Reaper. I'm producing a series of Video Tutorials right now called "Mixing with Paulie". It basically just shows my workflow, organization, set-up, cleaning tracks, listening/evaluating, editing tracks, and everything down to creating a radio ready mix. I get the same satisfaction, and maybe even a bit more from recording, mixing and mastering. So why carry a bunch of heavy equipment into a club, have people knock it over or spill beer on it, have musicians dent the monitor covers causing extra work or do mic drops causing me to become a raging inferno... It's just better in my opinion to take that bit of the business to the back burner. I still work with friends when they need a front of house guy and have all the equipment basically set up on rare occasions. I find I enjoy it a lot more when I don't own, or carry the equipment! lol
I like the Midas M32 live more than the Presonus live and the behringer wing. Midas is direct and simple but good, without all that superfluous technology, which you hardly do anything with. for all my projects I prefer to stick with my Midas M32 Live
I've been trying to get the Midas consoles to cover for a video, but the timing just hasn't worked out yet. They are a great value though & certainly a solid choice.
Could the 64s interface with TWO 32r rack mixers, both in MONITOR MIX + PREAMP mode; the goal being a monitor tech could have independent control of 64 preamps and 32 Aux sends (from the two 32r mixers) and the FOH tech could simultaneously have independent control of 64 Preamps from the 64s? I own the 32r, and wonder if UC surface would play along and show all 64 channels and 32 aux if there were a second 32r and a 64s connected via AVB.
They've put out some pretty good videos explaining the different features along the way. If you have a console to experiment with while you watch them, it's a pretty good way to pick it all up quickly. Worth a look if you haven't checked them out already - ua-cam.com/play/PLkfJvKuL08vE1-2un35MgIZaW3Hx95GbK.html
Thank you for these. It really shows me that opinion is relatif. I compared the studiolive, m32r and wing ... and without any doubt -for me- the m32r came out as a winner for the quality of the faders, buttons, ... but again ... the studiolive was even a toy compared to the wing ( again ... for faders&buttons). it s all kind of relative I suppose. But the most important is the sound ... the full path ... from analogue in to analogue out ... and the quality of preamp&effects ... and the wing was the big winner ...
I agree, it absolutely is relative! For a lot of work I do I never touch effects & the mic pre quality is good enough on anything modern, but routing & networking, computer control & customer support is hugely important. It’s hard to know where everyone is coming from with their specific needs & I’m constantly impressed by what people are able to do and create with different gear that I wouldn’t consider for my work. Thanks for the message, stay in touch!
You failed to mention that the Presonus 64(along with the 32s, which is in the same price range) actually has 32 live mic xlr inputs. Compared to the Wing's measly 16 live inputs and only 8 xlr inputs. So straight out of the box the Presonus has double the live mic inputs.
so while reaper is great, studiolive officially only supports protools, logic, and studio one. Of course there is hui/mcu so it will work in reaper but it was not strictly designed to do so.
Thanks Mike, I’ve been getting a ton of questions specifically about the HUI/MCU side of things & how usable it is. I think folks are curious about the not officially supported stuff. I’m sure I’ll make a mess of it either way, but it should be interesting!
@@DcSoundOp yeah basically the main issue is that every DAW does mcu/hui in a slightly different way so to be 100% compatible, you have to account for those differences. You'd think they'd all be the same because its a protocol... but they're not!
Not sure if this a question, but there is no SoundGrid card for the Wing yet to my knowledge. Here's the official compatibility list - www.waves.com/support/soundgrid-interfaces-compatibility-chart
Another point that is wrong this kind of console is not given every one or not everyone can afford this. So using Reaper as down middle software is wrong. The down middle softwares. Are Live , Fl Studio and Logic. These are the most popular the most widely used and have lower price versions except for logic. Please do a survey of the people who follow you how many of them uses one these above softwares as supposed to reaper?
😂😅 Ridiculous the idea of will it make noise if you loose power?? Well if the console loose power I’m sure the Amps and speakers will too ? So I wonder how many people will be able hear that click? That’s an irrelevant question 😄
Guess you've never been on a gig big enough to power your FOH position and your speakers from separate circuits? Very typical for speakers to be powered from different circuits or sources than the mix position. Maybe cut back on the emojis and think through what you are saying before commenting. This is two whiffs in like 5 minutes on separate videos trying to land hot takes.
On Presonus I still find it annoying that they don't have LPF on channel and specially on buses! Also there would be so much other useful and industry standard features I'd like to have rather than tons of fat channel plugins.
You didn't compare their routing, how the busses are set up, if you can insert premium effects or not and I'd say that StudioLive is horrible console to work with in that regard. Also, the premium effects of StudioLive require you to have 24/7 internet access from the mixer or they'll just stop working. That's beyond idiotic. You can't put premium effects (or flexes as presonus calls them) as inserts to channels, you need to put them on busses, then route your channel through the buss first and then to main. You also don't have OUTPUT MATRIXES... which is beyond stupid. And it also means, that I cannot pick and choose freely how my channels and busses are routed to the outside world. There's NO CONTROL API AVAILABLE, which means, you can't do any automation or custom controls for the console at all, you either work with what Presonus gives you or don't work at all. The on board effects or presonus are very well coded and premium compressors sound very, VERY nice. You can drive some of them very hard and they still sound great. And presonus is more expensive (or at least was 2 years ago)... so I think Presonus has made a desk for live user or RECORDING STUDIO use, but it's not flexible enough to do thgings like live streaming or live video studio use and after certain size of a gig, I'd not use it as a FOH console even if it had enough channels. There are other small issues as well, but these are the biggest I had with their console. So we sold it and bought wing.
IMO, neither of these consoles are worth the money. Like trying to figure out whether to take a date to McDonald’s or Burger King. If we’re sticking to that price range, I’d pick a TF5 over either of these consoles - I would even take a Soundcraft Expression over either of these. Sure, the tactile experience isn’t great but the work flow, flexibility, and sonic quality is a step up. Plus, with both the TF5 and Expression, you’re getting an entry level console that sets you up to upgrade later on. These two consoles don’t really have upgrade options. Just my thoughts.
I’d be very interested in your sonic comparisons between the Wing & Expression if it’s as night & day as you are saying. I’ve got a few hundred gigs on Soundcraft consoles behind me, having worked for a Soundcraft shop for ~10 years & I must be missing it without having one on hand. Can you share a link? I know other folks here will be interested too. Thanks!
DcSoundOp haha let me go in detail - I haven’t used the Wing. I have had very bad experiences with PS preamps, both in their interfaces and consoles but I will admit that I haven’t used the latest 2 generations. Those early experiences really turned me off to PS. I haven’t used the Wing but I’ve used the X and M series, which I would say are on par with the competing Soundcraft stuff. I know they’re continuing to do firmware updates but for me the workflow on the Soundcraft was better and more similar to the pro level stuff I’ve worked with. The compromises made on the X32 to make room for gimmicks like LA-2A emulations were foolish on Behringer’s part, just my opinion. Plus, as I mentioned, the fact that PS doesn’t have pro level boards and Behringer discontinued the higher level boards (Midas) shows me where their priorities are. I’d rather get used to the workflow with a brand that is going to give you options to grow: A&H, Soundcraft, Yamaha (especially Yamaha) - even Digico is coming out with some more affordable options. Anyway, that’s just my opinion, there are engineers I know that are very happy with their M32 but it’s not my jam. To be able to go from the affordable TF to the top level PM and have a consistent workflow is a big deal to me. What are your thoughts?
You can use the Behringer / Midas Stages Boxes to directly record from using the Klark Teknik DN9630 AES50 to USB 2.0 Converter (Cosrs $370 however). It connects to the AES50 A or B output of the stagebox and allows 48ch of USB interface to a computer. My band uses one and it works flawlessly. We record all live shows directly to Reaper for later usage. The DN0630 also allows you to send all channels back into an AES50 stream. Sorry if I sound like a Klark Technik commercial but this is a rare instance where a product actually works as advertised.
Solid tip... I appreciate the heads up & will definitely mention this in the next video!! Thanks Shon 👊🏼
Yes. And the DN9630s also allow you to get 48x48 out of the x32/m32/wing into computer, without wasting the card slot. So you can keep that free for Waves / Dante etc. That $3-400 does seem to expand the usability of whatever you already own quite a bit.
Just to clarify... you can use a stage box with this wing console and increase you available recording channels from 8 to 32?
@@thekeepchurchonline late reply, but you can expand much more than that, you can expand to 48 channel recording, or even up to 64 I think over Dante
I believe you can use the Presonus rack mixers as stage boxes for the 64S. These can be used as independant USB interfaces. They aren't much more expensive than the standard stage boxes so, if that's a use case for you, they would work great in that situation. I've used a Presonus 32R to record a full band and also used it, at the same time, to mix them live using an iPad. It worked and sounded great.
What are the converters like in these units? In particular, I am curious about the presonus. I like the idea of the tight integration with StudioOne however concerned about the quality of the converters compared to my current interface.
I'm using a 64s alongside a Focusrite Duo, and there is no comparable difference.
To be honest, it's the D2A/A2D that costs the money, hence why their floor boxes are so expensive.
I have a few minor gripes, but audio quality isn't one of them.
Besides Klark Teknik converters, you can also connect two behringer stagebox together and use them as a
'analog' snake. You can also use this method to route audio in between snakes if you daisy chain them (with the mixer) and those audio will not go through the mixer. However using this method you can't set the preamp on the stagebox. It will just use the last setting it have (so technically you can connect the stagebox to mixer, set it up and use them stand alone). However the interface for behringer stagebox is not that user friendly so you needs to know what you are doing.Oh, not to mention that you can use 2 mixer on one stage box to fulfil the mon+mix set up. However that case changing gain of each channel will affect both mixer. And some behrinher snake have ADAT so they can act as a ADAT converter somehow. Some behringer snake also can be controlled via Midi for preamp settings, etc. However I don't see anyone did that.
That’s pretty interesting, thanks for the breakdown!
I am so grateful that I bought the PreSonus 32r that thing is wonderful
Just hit Subscribe. Really nice review of both of these. I am a Presonus rep and I felt you did a really good non-biased review. Nice Job!
Thanks Ted! I know some folks will take things the wrong way, but I have nothing but respect for the folks who make the gear we use. Thanks for the message, looking forward to talking more.
hey ted!!
The only downside with both these boxes is the multi-mode nature of them.
Knowing if you are live, monitoring an auxiliary, in solo mode or on ch1 or ch17.
It's easy to forget and when working live, you may hit the wrong button and can easily screw it up.
Strict care and attention is required.
That's pretty much the same experience to every other digital mixer you'll see on a live gig though. Keeping track of where you are in the show and on the console is the name of the game. As more stuff is networked too & that becomes required and expected, we've got to get comfortable being in positions where a wrong mouse click or button push could tank the show.
It's a part of the gig & we're the ones charging a fee to pay attention to which buttons get pushed and when. Like you say, strict care and attention is required, and that should apply to the whole job - from unloading the trucks, to flying the PA system, to navigating the console during a show.
@@DcSoundOp Yes and no. With old school desks like Midas and Soundcraft, you knew where you were. My concern is one button may have a different function depending on what mode you happen to be in. It's just not as ergonomic as saying THAT button does THAT. We should be more concerned about the balance and sound, not scared shitless we might be in the wrong mode and solo the entire PA.
I get where you're coming from & as you move up in price on the digital or analog side, you will always get more dedicated controls and buttons for each function. That being said, you could unpatch the whole show in a couple of button pushes or mouse clicks on most every system I've worked on in the past 10 years...
Thinking more about it now, all of the large format analog desks I've mixed on have always had some type of plexiglass cover added over some portion of the desk that could easily tank your show if hit unknowingly. I've seen plenty of visiting engineers get totally lost in VCA, Mute Group & Scene recall automation on those old desks. A few even managed it without knowing the consoles even had those features for them to use!
We've gotta stay on our toes either way! Thanks for the great points, I'm sure others feel the same too.
Great review! Thank you. Possible for you to add SQ to this list? Also maybe show the HUI function on each console? X/M32 only allows 8 faders in HUI mode. Is it the same here too? How’s the noise floor on the pre in studio mode, would love to know that too. Thank you in advance.
I want to see how would you work with either one of the these systems in a recording studio setting.
The Behringer S16 stage box & P16 personal monitoring works with the Behringer Wing. You have to update the stage box firmware first. You also have to update the firmware that's already installed in the Wing when u first buy it. The P16's are assigned through output channels 33 through 48. You still connect the P16's through the Ultranet port.
Thanks for adding this, good info 👍🏼
looking forward to Behringer making a compact version of the Wing. I absolutely love using the Wing. After getting around a few quirks it's certainly the digital mixer I personally love flying on.
Do you think they'll bring out a compact version? I have been out of the loop on the Wing rumors and speculation for a little while, has anything been leaked yet? Thanks for the message!
What I am interested in, is what mixer actually has the best sound raw when it comes to preamps etc.
I wanna record with high quality but am not so keen on spending hours on tweaking every effect to its outer limits.
I like the clean look of the Presonus. I also like the touch screen avalible on the Wing. It has "Pro Midas preamps". Can one tell the differens?
Why is the M32 still so expensive compared to the Wing? Is it only because of the i/o avalibility?
In what areas is the "96khz" a must? Can we do without it?
If you want to record in the highest quality possible with as little tweaking as possible I would skip both of these and look at dedicated preamps & converters designed for just that.
Tried to edit on my phone and deleted half of my reply above... sorry.
I was saying that Pro Series Midas desks cost an order of magnitude more than these (not the entry level m series) and there is nothing about the wing that reminds me of a Midas Pro desk at all. Sonically or otherwise. These are both good consoles, but perspective is important when getting into the weeds on best raw sound and mic preamp comparisons.
@@DcSoundOp thanks. I was wondering, because in the advert (here: www.thomann.de/gb/behringer_wing.htm - it says Midas Pro. Don't get me wrong. Ofcourse there the general tweaking both befora and after recording. I just do not want the "shit in - shit out" result, but I am not a top notch audio professor either. I have good ears though. ☺️😉
I totally get where you're coming from. That advert also lists '8 analogue Midas Line Outputs' like it's something interesting 😂 What type of recording are you doing? If it's live performances, I get the attraction, but for almost anything else I do I wouldn't be looking at all in one mixer solutions if I wanted to get the best possible sound quality at this price. For the price of either of these you could put together a pretty stellar recording package for capturing a lot of different types of recordings. All depends on how many inputs you need to track at a time though.
@@DcSoundOp I am a drummer, and I did som recording of my band years ago using my Roland Octa Capture. Then I needed to do a lot of post work to make it sound better. Now I am looking to do all sorts all from two mics up to a whole band playing live. This will happen at the earliest one year from now, as I am currently building a house.
What about the UA. I own an Apogee Duet still. For a short while I had a X32, but it was not used as much as I hoped. Then again I was living in an apartment. I liked the clean layout on the x32 and the Presonus feels clean in that sence.
Hey just wanted to drop in and confirm that you can use the wing natively with the x32/m32. Currently have the wing as the FOH console and the x32 feeding it from stage as a monitor console.
Ryan Williams That’s awesome Ryan, I was hoping some folks would chime in here and talk about their experiences pairing them up. How has the workflow been for you with them? How are you handling gain sharing? Would love to hear your thoughts, thanks for the message!
Great review! From a studio guy that doesn't do FOH anymore... I liked your style!
Cheers
I would be curious to see these two consoles compared to other lower tier consoles such as the AH SQ or TF 5
Yes I would love to see how to route the audio from UC control and make whatever I recorded loop back into my 32R and to play out into my PA system
Great question. UC Control is only the control side of things, and does not pass audio between the hardware and your computer. Assuming you also have the USB connected and the mixer selected as your audio interface, you're just looking to route the USB returns from your computer to channels on the mixer. This is just like routing any other source on the mixer side, just select USB and then the correct bank of channels you want. On the DAW side, it should be really simple too, but you'll want to look at your DAW's instructions for routing audio out to USB however you want to do it.
@@DcSoundOp I figured it out... Kind Of LOL When I get back in the studio soon I will reiterate 😁
for Presonus stagebox if we refer to StudioLive 16R, 24R and 32R (not the NSB), they can be used as standalone mixer or interface for sure. But NSB no, because NSB is not stageboxes. NSB is digital snake through AVB.
Can you explain why you’d like the term ‘stage box’ to include being a standalone mixer & interface? I think I understand what you’re getting at, but I’m not sure. Can you help? Thanks!
@@DcSoundOp I saw you explained on your video that presonus stagebox cannot be used for standalone or interface (2:59). Well maybe I could be wrong in term of "stage box" term.
But in my understanding, Presonus StudioLive ecosystem has 2 type of stage boxes.
1st is the Rack Mixer (16R, 24R and 32R). This rack mixer also called stage boxes and can be used as stageboxes, standalone mixer, and they have individual preamp including DSP.
the 2nd one is the NSB which is only the digital Snake, to extend the wires through AVB connection. NSB doesn't have DSP and cannot be used as standalone nor interface.
I remember Behringer also have similar things, which is Rackmixer x32 Rack (can be used as stand alone and interface I think), and the digital snake (SD series?). Both pretty similar concept with what Presonus has.
So in short, you can advise audience that if they want to have stage box with standalone and interface functionality, they may look at presonus rack mixer or behringer rack mixer..
But despite of what I said above, I really really love your in depth and very detail review as I really can understand both ecosystem with objective point of view, complete with both advantages and disadvantages. Look forward for your review again between those two brands. Thank you
I would have loved for you to AB their preamps too.
I am using 2 Midlas DL32 and One Behringer X32 Rack on Wing with no issues.
That’s awesome! How are you using it all together? Would love to hear more about your experience and setup with the Wing. It’s a cool console.
I’m very picky about consoles and have high expectations. The Wing is a functional marvel at its price point and I think that the internal signal path sounds surprisingly good. The Midas DL32 stage-box is a dumb box that just shows up with inputs and outputs on the Wing. The X32 rack has its own DSP to standalone as a mix platform, so it needs to be preconfigured to function as an Input/Output box over AES50. If anyone is interested, I made an X32 rack scene and posted it on Music Tribes forum that’s easy to load.
I am using Presonus 32R with 32SX, no complaints.
In this price range I would love to see the Allen & Heath SQ5 on the bench.
My good friend Samantha @potteraudio on insta (from the NAMM videos) just got an SQ5 today & teaches with them in her audio classes. I’m hoping she will do some videos on them in the near future.
@@DcSoundOp Isn't the SQ-6 in this price point? There are more features than the 5. One big difference is the processing speed: 96kHz for all SQ series. Features and workflow are where there will be differences and preferences, for sure.
@@henryvanweeren7233 yes its supposed to be the sq 6
The S64 would be more compatible to the Avantis, although it's more expensive.
@@Timovd Lol not sound wise not even close.. And overall the workflow of a avantis is better in my opinion...
Presonus stage boxes don't work as standalone products as said in the video. However, if you need something working as a stage box and working autonomously, you can use a rack mixer. The rack mixer can be slaved to behave as a stage box, while keeping the whole functionality of a fully fledged mixer without any external control (you then need a tablet, a PC or a phone to control it). I think it's important to mention this. Thanks for the video; it's really interesting.
Check out my videos #78 & 83 for the 16R and what it can do, hard to believe that was 100 videos ago! Thanks for watching!
@@DcSoundOp You misunderstood my meaning. You said, in the current video, that the stage box didn't work autonomously, and presented it as a negative feature. What I am saying, is that if your need is to have a stage box that can also work as an autonomous piece of equipment, there is a solution: use a rack mixer instead of the stage box. It's a pity you didn't mention this in your current video, especially if you know this well, since you have already reviewed it 100 videos ago ...
hahaha I'm Happy with the Studio Live 32R Bye Bye Behringer.
Thanks for the message Salvador, great to hear your 32R is doing the job!
You can use the SL32R as a stagebox and also as a standalone interface to your computer. You can also use it to mix like the regular SL32 using the Universal Control App.
Koo Imma I covered the 16R in videos #78 & 83 a few years ago. Super cool products 👍🏼
Would've love to seen you do a quick mix on both boards to see how they compare soundwise. Nothing too scientific, more for fun than anything else.
There was a time sound was about sound. Sound seems to be about computers now. Which might I add, I love the tech. Just a point I wanted to share. Great video BTW.
Thanks Marty! You're absolutely right, the tools and data we have now are incredible, but you certainly need to be more of a network and computer technician than ever before to stay afloat. I would almost PAY to review a simple analog mixer at this point... there is just so much to cover in these, I know I'm probably missing all sorts of stuff that is important to other folks. Thanks again!
Any word on when the new video showing how these work with DAWs will be dropped? Sorry to be a pain, but trying to decide on a new console to buy and how it works with Reaper is one of the factors to consider. Thanks.
Thank you so much for this video. I am so excited to see your DAW one. I made a little video to help my fellow Wing/Cakewalk users hopefully your efforts will add a whole lot more valuable info to help others. I can't wait! Also thanks again, really enjoy your videos!
What’s the link to your video? Some folks here might find it helpful if you want to link it.
@@DcSoundOp Here is the link, hope it helps. ua-cam.com/video/2MaDLcA26es/v-deo.html
and
ua-cam.com/video/WUry2sIJxkY/v-deo.html
I was ready to buy a Behringer Wing. So many great features. Then discovered the faders were not touch sensitive. Forget it.
I've heard this from a few folks. I used to have a love hate relationship with the touch sensitive caps on the DM2000's back in the day. Very useful for some things, but I'd always end up turning them off for live or broadcast work. Thanks for the message.
Funny I did contemplate swapping my huge Midas console for the Behringer Wing , but after the constant menu diving and staring at the small screen, I digressed back to my trusty analog monster. Instant access to all controls, no menus, no screens .
Yes its big , very heavy and generates quite a bit of heat. On the upside its warm and has tons of headroom.
I very much enjoyed your review.
i don t have a dl16 anymore, but I remember that i could use it as a preamp for any engine with adat inpits. it s not realy standalone ... but it gives the possibility to use it as external preamp . it s something ;)
FYI the reason you want good cable is because unshelled cable won't reject power serge or any power crossing over into the data lines. An ungrounded surge will blow your aes 50 port on an x32. The other issue is the ethercon shell also needs to be connected to the shield Ethernet jack because on the x32 the socket isn't connected to ground correctly. Again when the shell isn't bridging ground between the shell and the Ethernet jack and you have a surge = a dead aes50 port.
also.. you make a good point about the stagebox being standalone. Its possible to do with the studiolive in theory with a few minor additions to the firmware. Maybe I'll do that next weekend.
I’ve patched & passed avb audio from a computer to an NSB output, but that’s as far as I could get. Looking forward to seeing what they can do in the future.
@@DcSoundOp its actually relatively straightforward to modify the nsb to be standalone. I just need to expose the phantom and gain controls in the avdecc entity model, then you'll be able to adjust levels and make connections using an avdecc controller on a mac.
Hello. The Wing and Ableton seem to work ok together. What I can not figure out is how to get WIng to do what most audio/midi interfaces will do, which is sync / start / stop Ableton with my external sequencer(Squarp). ether slave or master, do the midi ports have any purpose/support yet?
Have you tried adjusting fader speed on the wing?
Arts Hawaii Yes, there are three settings in the most recent firmware... and they are all pretty slow.
Great VIdeo! Love how solid it is
I was wondering if the Yamaha TF buttons and knobs meet your standards or if they are cheap like the Wing?
I appreciate the better click you get with TF buttons, but they are a long way from Yamaha’s typical button feel. I like the TF otherwise for their intended purpose & cheap Entry point to Dante, but the buttons are rough. Just my opinion, thanks for the message!
@@DcSoundOp THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR TUTORIALS
YOU ARE A GREAT TEACHER
IF YOU ARE SO KIND YOU CAN INDICATE ME ACCORDING TO YOUR KNOWLEDGE, WHAT IS THE BEST CONSOLE BETWEEN THE PRESONUS 64S, THE BEHRINGER WING OR THE YAMAHA TF5.
I THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR ATTENTION AND GOOD DEAL
GREETINGS FRIEND
Right now I think the best overall package, most complete and best supported is the PreSonus. Their DAW is killer too & the whole system is very flexible for this price point. Hope that helps.
@@DcSoundOp THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR QUICK REPLY
.
NOW WELL, I WANT TO USE THE CONSOLE FOR LIVE EVENTS, MINIMUM 24 MUSICIANS ON STAGE
AND SO I WANT TO BE SURE WHAT KIND OF CONSOLE TO BUY.
24 Musicians on Stage Minimum? Now that’s a show! Sounds like an Earth, Wind & Fire tour 🔥
Since i purchased the studiolive 32s i can never get the sd card to "test" fully and function to record live , ive visited all presonus forums and tried suggested sd cards but nothing works , has anyone been through this and any fixes?
Hey Kenny, that's not great to hear at all. Have you had a chance to talk to anyone at PreSonus directly? It might be worth opening a support ticket to see if you can get some answers. Thanks for watching!
@@DcSoundOp yes i have opened tickets and tried to help with topic as well and i believe my 3 year warranty is up soon also , to send such a big machine ti baton rouge is crazy and might get a refurbished one in return , hopefuuly i can figure it out
6:27 "Lack of touch sensitive faders on the Wing". What does that mean exactly? What can I not do if I don't have touch sensitive faders. I've never used automated gear before.
11:10 the easiest way to avoid this is to have your mixer at the beginning of your power sequence and the speakers at the end (turning on anyway) I’m sure there is a sequencer some where that can do it backwards when turning off
Even our Yamaha M7CL does that (mind you it’s 20 y/o
Id love a video just comparing how they sound. Preamps, effects, etc. How do they mix? The speed ergonomics all factor in, but that has to be put up against the actual sound.
There are a few folks doing full on live streams with these consoles right now during the break, who could give you much more of an idea on those things.
It’s been a bit tricky getting gear out on gigs or having musicians over to mic up & I’m down to copyright protected multi tracks from existing projects for higher tech count testing.
Hell of a time to have two 64 channel consoles on hand... not a gig in sight 😞
@@DcSoundOp Duely noted. And the feature by feature comparisons you're doing are incredibly valuable to me as well BTW. I fear that my comments came out otherwise. Years ago I decided that when I compare anything, to start with it's primary function, in this case it's sound, before considering ancillary factors. Or to deliberately weight the pros and cons. Both my Neve and my Girl are high maintenance, but what I get for putting up with their malfunctions and idiosyncrasies makes it all worth while in the end.
I totally appreciate your perspective. I’ll have more videos in the series soon. Thanks for the message, always appreciate the thoughts!
@@DcSoundOp tell me about it. I own a live sound company and have called myself mostly retired for a few years. It's to the point that I am actually now considering selling a bunch of gear and my utility trailer.
I am doing a lot of recording engineering these days. In fact I plan to keep my X32 Rack to use as an interface for Reaper.
I'm producing a series of Video Tutorials right now called "Mixing with Paulie". It basically just shows my workflow, organization, set-up, cleaning tracks, listening/evaluating, editing tracks, and everything down to creating a radio ready mix.
I get the same satisfaction, and maybe even a bit more from recording, mixing and mastering. So why carry a bunch of heavy equipment into a club, have people knock it over or spill beer on it, have musicians dent the monitor covers causing extra work or do mic drops causing me to become a raging inferno... It's just better in my opinion to take that bit of the business to the back burner.
I still work with friends when they need a front of house guy and have all the equipment basically set up on rare occasions. I find I enjoy it a lot more when I don't own, or carry the equipment! lol
I love the layout of the Wing.
what do you mean Layout! are you ok ? its not even user friendly.. Wang console is a Trash!!
I like the Midas M32 live more than the Presonus live and the behringer wing.
Midas is direct and simple but good, without all that superfluous technology, which you hardly do anything with.
for all my projects I prefer to stick with my Midas M32 Live
I've been trying to get the Midas consoles to cover for a video, but the timing just hasn't worked out yet. They are a great value though & certainly a solid choice.
Could the 64s interface with TWO 32r rack mixers, both in MONITOR MIX + PREAMP mode; the goal being a monitor tech could have independent control of 64 preamps and 32 Aux sends (from the two 32r mixers) and the FOH tech could simultaneously have independent control of 64 Preamps from the 64s? I own the 32r, and wonder if UC surface would play along and show all 64 channels and 32 aux if there were a second 32r and a 64s connected via AVB.
One would need to take a full course on how to use this console
They've put out some pretty good videos explaining the different features along the way. If you have a console to experiment with while you watch them, it's a pretty good way to pick it all up quickly. Worth a look if you haven't checked them out already - ua-cam.com/play/PLkfJvKuL08vE1-2un35MgIZaW3Hx95GbK.html
Great review.
Thanks!
Awesome review. Keep up the great work.
You are amazing guys, thanks so much for this information!!!!
Great comparison.
Thanks for the message!
Thank you for these. It really shows me that opinion is relatif. I compared the studiolive, m32r and wing ... and without any doubt -for me- the m32r came out as a winner for the quality of the faders, buttons, ... but again ... the studiolive was even a toy compared to the wing ( again ... for faders&buttons). it s all kind of relative I suppose. But the most important is the sound ... the full path ... from analogue in to analogue out ... and the quality of preamp&effects ... and the wing was the big winner ...
I agree, it absolutely is relative! For a lot of work I do I never touch effects & the mic pre quality is good enough on anything modern, but routing & networking, computer control & customer support is hugely important.
It’s hard to know where everyone is coming from with their specific needs & I’m constantly impressed by what people are able to do and create with different gear that I wouldn’t consider for my work.
Thanks for the message, stay in touch!
You failed to mention that the Presonus 64(along with the 32s, which is in the same price range) actually has 32 live mic xlr inputs. Compared to the Wing's measly 16 live inputs and only 8 xlr inputs. So straight out of the box the Presonus has double the live mic inputs.
You might want to watch the other videos I made about these consoles...
Hm, why is the Presonus flickering led screen and all illumination when recorded with camera and Wing does not?
Scan rate of the processor vs shutter speed. Nothing to worry about.
Set your shutter speed accordingly.
so while reaper is great, studiolive officially only supports protools, logic, and studio one. Of course there is hui/mcu so it will work in reaper but it was not strictly designed to do so.
Thanks Mike, I’ve been getting a ton of questions specifically about the HUI/MCU side of things & how usable it is. I think folks are curious about the not officially supported stuff. I’m sure I’ll make a mess of it either way, but it should be interesting!
@@DcSoundOp yeah basically the main issue is that every DAW does mcu/hui in a slightly different way so to be 100% compatible, you have to account for those differences. You'd think they'd all be the same because its a protocol... but they're not!
Great Reviews...Presonus 32S groovy machine
Wings audionetwork is soundgrip compatible
Not sure if this a question, but there is no SoundGrid card for the Wing yet to my knowledge. Here's the official compatibility list - www.waves.com/support/soundgrid-interfaces-compatibility-chart
@@DcSoundOp on this video they claim that console speaks with waves ua-cam.com/video/phxSXgY8Hyw/v-deo.html
Which is best for studio mixing console cum daw controller?
Merci pour nous apprendre de la musique
I think you broke your 64 mine does not take that long to load app:8 sec 😐
I would be very interested to see a video of your 64s booting in eight seconds. Do you have a link you can share?
@@DcSoundOp Ill make one soon 😀😏
Another point that is wrong this kind of console is not given every one or not everyone can afford this. So using Reaper as down middle software is wrong. The down middle softwares. Are Live , Fl Studio and Logic. These are the most popular the most widely used and have lower price versions except for logic. Please do a survey of the people who follow you how many of them uses one these above softwares as supposed to reaper?
😂😅 Ridiculous the idea of will it make noise if you loose power?? Well if the console loose power I’m sure the Amps and speakers will too ? So I wonder how many people will be able hear that click? That’s an irrelevant question 😄
Guess you've never been on a gig big enough to power your FOH position and your speakers from separate circuits? Very typical for speakers to be powered from different circuits or sources than the mix position. Maybe cut back on the emojis and think through what you are saying before commenting. This is two whiffs in like 5 minutes on separate videos trying to land hot takes.
On Presonus I still find it annoying that they don't have LPF on channel and specially on buses! Also there would be so much other useful and industry standard features I'd like to have rather than tons of fat channel plugins.
Hey Will, What other features do you have in mind? Thanks for the message, I appreciate your input!
You didn't compare their routing, how the busses are set up, if you can insert premium effects or not and I'd say that StudioLive is horrible console to work with in that regard.
Also, the premium effects of StudioLive require you to have 24/7 internet access from the mixer or they'll just stop working. That's beyond idiotic.
You can't put premium effects (or flexes as presonus calls them) as inserts to channels, you need to put them on busses, then route your channel through the buss first and then to main.
You also don't have OUTPUT MATRIXES... which is beyond stupid. And it also means, that I cannot pick and choose freely how my channels and busses are routed to the outside world. There's NO CONTROL API AVAILABLE, which means, you can't do any automation or custom controls for the console at all, you either work with what Presonus gives you or don't work at all.
The on board effects or presonus are very well coded and premium compressors sound very, VERY nice. You can drive some of them very hard and they still sound great.
And presonus is more expensive (or at least was 2 years ago)... so I think Presonus has made a desk for live user or RECORDING STUDIO use, but it's not flexible enough to do thgings like live streaming or live video studio use and after certain size of a gig, I'd not use it as a FOH console even if it had enough channels.
There are other small issues as well, but these are the biggest I had with their console. So we sold it and bought wing.
Been using PreSonus since 2014 and I would not buy anything else now
IMO, neither of these consoles are worth the money. Like trying to figure out whether to take a date to McDonald’s or Burger King. If we’re sticking to that price range, I’d pick a TF5 over either of these consoles - I would even take a Soundcraft Expression over either of these. Sure, the tactile experience isn’t great but the work flow, flexibility, and sonic quality is a step up. Plus, with both the TF5 and Expression, you’re getting an entry level console that sets you up to upgrade later on. These two consoles don’t really have upgrade options. Just my thoughts.
I’d be very interested in your sonic comparisons between the Wing & Expression if it’s as night & day as you are saying. I’ve got a few hundred gigs on Soundcraft consoles behind me, having worked for a Soundcraft shop for ~10 years & I must be missing it without having one on hand. Can you share a link? I know other folks here will be interested too. Thanks!
DcSoundOp haha let me go in detail - I haven’t used the Wing. I have had very bad experiences with PS preamps, both in their interfaces and consoles but I will admit that I haven’t used the latest 2 generations. Those early experiences really turned me off to PS. I haven’t used the Wing but I’ve used the X and M series, which I would say are on par with the competing Soundcraft stuff. I know they’re continuing to do firmware updates but for me the workflow on the Soundcraft was better and more similar to the pro level stuff I’ve worked with. The compromises made on the X32 to make room for gimmicks like LA-2A emulations were foolish on Behringer’s part, just my opinion. Plus, as I mentioned, the fact that PS doesn’t have pro level boards and Behringer discontinued the higher level boards (Midas) shows me where their priorities are. I’d rather get used to the workflow with a brand that is going to give you options to grow: A&H, Soundcraft, Yamaha (especially Yamaha) - even Digico is coming out with some more affordable options. Anyway, that’s just my opinion, there are engineers I know that are very happy with their M32 but it’s not my jam. To be able to go from the affordable TF to the top level PM and have a consistent workflow is a big deal to me. What are your thoughts?