PreSonus StudioLive 32SC 32-channel Rackmountable Digital Mixer Reviews

I can't say enough good things about this mixer and the capabilities/possibilities with it. I had been using a small audio interface for years and thought that sounded good, but running the same equipment through this mixer, everything just sounds better. I also love the fact that I can control everything about the mixer from my PC with Universal Control. It isn't possible for me to have the mixer directly in front of me in my Home Studio/Office. I have it on a table to my left with a large monitor and my keyboard directly in front of me. When tracking something like an acoustic guitar, I need to be able to control both my DAW and sometimes the mixer at the same time. I can do it all with the keyboard utilizing Universal Control. Another great time saver feature for me is being able to save several different mixer Scenes (ie...Record Vocals, Record Acoustic Guitar, Record Electric Guitar, Record Acoustic & Vocals, etc...) and being able to quickly recall those saved Scenes without having to remember how I had everything setup last time. The smaller footprint of this mixer vs the 32SX was right for me while still having the option to add the stage box and add additional physical I/O later if needed. So far this is one of the best music investments I have ever made.

I bought this in early November 2023. I use this as a hobby mostly and do mostly church related events. This mixer is far more than I will ever need and even know how to use properly. I have grown up with analog boards of all kinds and my first digital mixer was the QSC TouchMix 8. That is a great starter mixer for people who can deal with just 8 channels. Then I had a Behringer x32 Producer which was a nice mixer but not very user friendly for people that do not use it often. This mixer has a very well laid out interface and it also has a very nice and easy to use IPAD app which is very important to me. I will spend most of the time using this mixer working from the IPad. Presonus has outdone itself with the thoughtful layout of the touchscreen, the Fat Channel layout and the Aux layout. With just a little use I am quickly navigating this mixer and can see myself being very comfortable using it in a live setup. I love the color options that are available for each channel and the how easy it is to label the channel digitally. I wish Presonus would have allowed the scribble area to also be color coordinated. The directions to get it set up to remotely control via the iPad are not great and I was frustrated but just one call to the tech support at Sweetwater and they got me going. Now I connect right up. You must have a router connected to control this mixer with the iPad which is different from the QSC which had a built in wireless dongle. Overall I am very happy with this new toy of mine. I just cant wait to use it again. I do plan on getting a road case for it as I can see out getting banged up easily. I found a case by Horizon that was reasonably priced.

I've my share of mixers (analog and digital) and this one is incredible. Amazing sound and versatile. I use it for live shows and with Studio One 6. It takes awhile to learn everything about this mixer. But, after watching every video I could find about it, I'm never going back to analog mixers. Get this mixer. You'll will love it.

I am very impressed with this mixer! I use my 32R as a stage box with this mixer at the back of whatever venue we are playing. One Cat5 cable. Our sound guy likes the option of real faders and iPad control. No surprises so far. A bit of a learning curve on patching, but this should be expected!

The PreSonus StudioLive 32SC Digital Mixer has a very clean and strong audio output signal for a Digital Mixing Board!! There was a small learning curve on this mixer compared to my older StudioLive 16.4.2 Digital Mixer. The first gig I used it on with my band we received a lot of compliments on how clean and good the system sounded as compared to my older StudioLive 16.4.2 Digital mixer!! I would highly recommend the PreSonus StudioLive 32SC Rackmountable Digital Mixer!!

This unit is so great. I feel like the original studio live (Which I had) was the digital mixer which all high end digital mixers since have been based off of. The learning curve is super simple as everything is set up in a very intuitive way. I've tend to use mine more in a studio application as of right now and the routing options as well as their adjustability on the fly are so useful. The new motorized faders add further workflow functions as I feel it's much easier to adjust the levels on individual output mixes without having to go though selecting each channel as on the previous model. I was cautious originally on the fact that they removed the auxiliary out faders but I actually love this new design much better, especially since it gave those last 8 channel their own faders instead of stereo'ing them together. With a toucmh of a button you can easily stereo adjacent channels if you want and the faders sync.. easy enough. The pre-amps are pretty solid, though say a Midas board has much better pre's but their layout is, eh..
Effects are ok, not the best but it's a mixer board, so.. You can upload aftermarket effect plug-in which sound much better and offer more parameter tweaks. Outside of the motorized faders my favorite feature upgrade from the 16.0.2 is the info screen above each fader, though this is a common feature on other company's high-end digital boards as well. Being able to see the names of each channel is great! The upgraded large touchscreen is also a huge step up from past models

The build quality is good though there are some other high end digital boards that have a little more solid construction I feel. One of my faders did get a little bent (My fault for transporting out of a case) and I was able to somewhat straighten it back out.

I feel like from a value standpoint, this is definitely the best digital board out there. I feel its much more intuitive that some of the others and with the new faders, screens, and layout it's a home run for live and studio application

Along with my Tascam DP-24 it does all I need

This mixer has a huge learning curve for me. once I got the basics down I have been able to do everything I need to do. I'm glad I hung in there, I have used Presonus support a lot. They are super nice and helpful. best mixer I have ever used. if I could afford their best board I would buy it.

I just pulled the trigger and update from the original Studiolive. Being able the use the board to control and write automation is a game changer for me. The sound quality is great and was an easy setup.

I am new to the home studio world. This is something I didn't plan on purchasing, but due to my ever growing love of music, I decided to give this a shot. I had a Mackie Pro and it was just ok. This thing does everything. I will say this, if you are new to this mixing board world, it can be intimidating. However, since you have made this investment it will take time to learn. I have had it for about 5 months and I would get frustrated. I found this company and they have an entire course on this particular series mixer. Proaudioexp.com - No I am not getting paid to mention them. The $ course will save you so much headache and you will be able to maximize this console so much faster than searching for YouTube help. He explains EVERYTHING and every button.

If it was not for that, I would give this mixer a lower rating, because I do not know how to use it properly. Anyone with a rating lower than 4 doesn't know what they are doing. IMO

I upgraded from the older 16.4.2 console and I have no complaints here other than the touchscreen being a bit not sensitive enough. You really have to touch the screen like you mean it. Compared to the older one, I get way more control with my group busses.

For my small home studio this mixer acts as the ideal solution for what had previously been several pieces of gear. I've set mine up for three main functions: recording and production interface with Studio One, live stream & meetings audio, and as a live mixer for in studio performances. The mixer sounds fantastic, offers a ridiculous 64 channels of audio recording input patched however you want, easily tuned my PA for the room with the GEQ, acts a control surface for Studio One (or most any DAW) and gives me almost any option I want for routing audio out to my amps/pedals/speakers as well as sound reinforcement. Loading projects and scenes makes it unbelievably easy to jump between workflows with custom mixes for multiple monitor groups/USB audio mixes/aux outs and digital patching to set things up however you need.

As one reviewer noted there is a lack of overdub recording directly on the mixer, and while that's a feature it would benefit from, it's far from a deal breaker if you have a decent laptop. It's incredibly easy to setup latency free monitoring with on board compression, reverb, and delay to get a good performance for overdubs with or without those effects printed to the track.

If you are looking at audio interfaces for a studio and are satisfied with 48k recording this is an ideal solution. Love it!

With a boatload of aux busses and great user interface, there aren't many products that stack up. Excellent.

The reason why I have decided to give this mixer 4 stars is because of its touch screen. I don't quite understand why the drag mode is not included and it is not as sensitive as other screens such as the one on the Yamaha TF series that cost $1400 less. Other than that, the USB and Ethernet connectors are too high up on the rear of the mixer and the cables are visible BUT, I know it's just a cosmetic issue. I recommend including a USB and Ethernet Elbow adapter for a better appearance. The Fat Channel is a bit confusing, but I'm enjoying the rest.

WORD TO THE WISE,

-DO NOT purchase an SD card greater than 32GB. It will not work with this mixer. The format utility from sdcommunity.org will force format to XFAT32 instead of FAT32 when greater than 32GB.

The first thing I tried to update the firmware, tried so many ways, it just doesn't do the job. One of my mics did not work with phantom power on one of the channels. Looks like they need to redo the software as there are bugs in them. Trying to get support for each and every malfunction is not worth my time if the software engineers don't conduct a full quality control test.
Just not worth the price I paid for.

So first off, this is probably one of the best consoles ever made. Outstanding preamps, great user friendly layout. Easy to learn and billed as a complete solution. and its close!

however: I wish someone(including presonus) would have mentioned that you cannot overdub on the console as a stand alone. My workflow was to track everything on the console then link to studioOne or transfer to computer. Which they lead you to believe in the item description. However they are only referring to a one take live recording. The vague description leads you to assume its a multitrack or maybe that is what I wanted to believe. Not just me though, even my (smarter than me) studio friend thought so as well. so much so that I cannot even convince my sweetwater Rep that you cannot overdub on the stand alone console. He says "it does do what you are wanting. It has playback and can dub over tracks you want to dub over. I think you need more time with it because it is a great mixer and does the function you desire once you get past the learning curve". Which to me reads that I don't know what I am doing. Now I'm having a hard time getting a return authorization. My first not so great experience with sweetwater. Hopefully its not the new normal. If presonus would just give the option to overdub on the console, this would be the beat all end all device.

The StudioLive 32SC has a lot of promise, but that's about it. I've have used, trained and installed a lot of mixers over the years and this one has to be one of the most problematic ecosystems I have ever used.

I have the StudioLive 32SC, NSB 8.8, Central Station, and use Studio One+. I have contacted PreSonus 11 times between the NSB and the 32SC in a little over a year.Factory Reset are the norm on the 32SC, around 6 times due to disconnecting from the computer, both at start up and during operation. I've had to switch 4 USB cables and I don't know how may Cat5 and Cat6 cables now.

Working with Presonus products in the past I've had few problems, so you would expect this to work flawlessly. I have had systems revert to old Firmware, resets that did nothing and about 10 to 20 hours of trouble shooting.

Now I will say, the customer service team has been very patient and helpful, but the volume of problems, time spent trouble shooting and lost jobs now because of shutdowns doesn't justify this board.

I can't say it isn't user error, but I can say that in the 13 years I've worked as an AVL consultant and the hundreds of systems I've run over that time, this PreSonus 32SC and it's ecosystem FAIL TO DELIVER DAY IN AND DAY OUT.

There are just too many unfortunate limitations hiding in the 32-series mixers. No built in Dante. No MIDI to quickly execute program changes. Powered faders fight against tactile movement. Compressor is useless. Eq too limited to a handful of channels. Not enough usable outputs built in.
Scribble strip labels too small and too difficult to see. No dedicated gain knobs for inputs proved to be more of a problem than expected. AVB turned out to be a dud on MacOS and nonexistent on iPadPros, so Dante is far easier to set up, with gear that more natively supports it.