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one of the best pres you can buy before making the jump into the $1k and above range. Overall, the mic pre on the Studio Channel it as not as thick or full as the Onyx, yet it was a touch more open. Also, as you add Tube Drive the Studio Channel takes on a much more aggressive and pleasantly forward character (which the Onyx cannot do, of course), thereby adding another useful sound to your palette. The Studio Channel’s compressor section is of the controlled-presence variety and is great for getting strong even signals into your DAW. Its broad ratio range was gentle enough for lightly strummed acoustic guitar, smooth enough for crooned vocals and stern enough for DI’d Fender Jazz bass. However, it is not really a pump-and-vibe piece like many more expensive compressors. For those spoiled by 10-band plug-in equalizers, the eq section may seem a tad rudimentary with only three bands to play with, but this makes it similar in style and layout to many vintage channel strips and eqs. While there are a few budget mixers out there with a fourth band and a tad more control, the Studio Channel’s eq is still quite useful for sculpting and massaging your tone on the way in to your DAW, especially when you consider that most DAW interfaces don’t offer any eq at all. Uses The Studio Channel works fine with a variety of microphones both dynamic and condenser, but with low-level ribbon mics (like a Royer R-121), I did have to push the ins and outs pretty hard and the end result was a touch too noisy for my taste. The Eureka, with its variable input impedance, might be a better choice for ribbons. I especially found the Studio Channel to be an excellent front end for DI’d acoustic and bass guitars. The combination of Tube Drive, compression, and eq added a presence and life that you just cannot get when running these instruments direct into a mixer, or worse yet, your average DAW interface. The Studio Channel works so well as an instrument DI, it could have made a great personal practice device. Because of this I was surprised at the omission of a simple headphone output. Manual mode Gain staging in a channel strip can be a bit tricky for a beginner. Depending on where, when, and how you boost your signal or frequency levels, things can get noisy pretty quickly. If this is your first time with such a piece, or even for a bit of a remedial brush up, I recommend reading the Studio Channel’s manual from beginning to end, as the folks at PreSonus have done an excellent job of teaching some compression and eq basics as well as offering some great “soup starters” for using the Studio Channel, which will help you get the most out of this piece and avoid some common beginner mistakes. Even if you don’t have a Studio Channel, you should consider downloading this manual from the PreSonus web site (www.PreSonus.com/products/Detail.aspx? ProductId=57). It’s a great resource! Conclusions The one piece of information that I purposely left for last is the price. In 2004 the Eureka was already a bargain at $500 street (and still is, given its added features); well, the Studio Channel is an even better deal in today’s economic crunch, at around $300 street. If you are looking for the next logical step up from your budget mixer or computer interface, this unit will give you a nice bang for the buck. Price: $299.95 MAP/street More from: PreSonus Audio Electronics, 7257 Florida Blvd., Baton Rouge, LA 70806. 225/215-7887, www.presonus.com.

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Recording - February 2010

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