Presonus StudioLive Series III 32R

I've choose this console over Beringer X32 family because I wanted to have portability with the maximum of outputs and not compromising the quality of the sound.
- The sound quality is way better then his direct competitors ex. Behringer.
- The handling could be better but every console has her own learning curve.
- Portability versus her processing power is the best, I mean, for 32in you get 16omni outs + LR. Not to mention that every output can be used as Aux, Sub group or Matrix. Has 4 dedicated mono subgroups. And the cherry on the cake is that in this console you can create DCA (the producer calling these "Custom groups"), more then 30 but you will never need as many as the console can handle.
-RTA can help to hunt feedback or to tune your PA. Downside is that they cut the Smaart section like they had on older PreSonus AI series.
The effects sound decent but I found the names of the effect features not as the industry standards.

UC Surface is intuitive and can be operated from 4 devices in total 4 layouts: Console, Fat Channel, Sends, and Meters!

Conclusion: Worth to invest!

Absolutely great product. It saves a ton of space and eliminates many of the headaches that come with aging analog mixers — mainly by avoiding wear-prone mechanical components like pots, faders, buttons, and built-in FX units, which are all common failure points over time.

Despite its compact size, this unit offers an impressive amount of I/O — 32 inputs and 16 aux outputs — but what really stands out is the immediate and intuitive control via a 12” touchscreen (iPad Pro in my case). Replacing this kind of routing flexibility with an analog mixer would easily take up half my studio and introduce far more potential points of failure due to all the physical controls.

One of the features I love most is the ability to save and recall mix states at any point — an absolute game-changer for hybrid setups, sound design, and live performance.

Sound quality is excellent. The built-in EQ, compressor, gate, and limiter on every channel and bus are very effective and sound great for their purpose. They help keep my workflow efficient and focused, without needing a ton of outboard gear.

Only one issue I’ve encountered: when using it as my main audio interface (USB out from my Mac Mini), it has occasionally crashed or become unresponsive. To avoid this, I now run my Mac audio output through a Native Instruments Audio 6 interface into a stereo pair of inputs on the StudioLive (e.g., inputs 31/32), just like I would with any other stereo instrument. This has completely solved the problem in my setup.

Overall, total satisfaction. Highly recommended for anyone needing a flexible digital mixer with powerful routing, great sound, and a modern workflow.

The Presonus StudioLive Series iii 32R is an excellent device, particularly for live, and other multi-track recording purposes. The analog 1/4"/XLR combo i/o makes for a very flexible unit; however, 32 analog outs would be better than 16. For studio use at this time, its feature-set seems to work best with DAWs that allow 64 analog outputs, or else some routing to your analog gear can get complicated. The sound quality is generally what you would expect out of a professional unit, especially in it's price category. Low-gain microphones such as the Shure SM7b will need the maximum input gain from this unit in order to get a decent signal in. Thankfully, the Universal Control app places just about every tool you will need to get the job done, whether mixing live or going for that near-perfect tweak in-studio on the way in. To make this unit perfect for studio-use, I would add more powerful pre-amps, more dedicated headphones outputs, and alternative monitoring options.

I am writing this just a bit more than 3 years I bought this mixer. When we bought this mixer, we mainly used for studio recording and some live performances.

From the first look this is quite bang for the buck mixer. To be honest getting such features/channels is really good. However, just after 3 years the mixer was broken. First no 48V on the input channels. Then, no other features work (usb, outputs etc). I called Thomann for it but they said it is already out of warranty (3 years warranty). They recommended me to take it to a electronics repair shop. Well, I am electronics engineer and have appropriate tools. Then, I opened up the mixer.

If you looked at the mixer under the microscope you will find lots of solder balls and lots of excessive amount of flux everywhere. Going into the problem, -15V rail was broken. This rail will feed the -2.5V that is controlling the input circuit. After changing the 12V to -15V step down regulator (LT8609 costs me ~8 euro), the mixer is functional again. However, I think the circuit for this stepdown regulator is not followed according to the vendor's recommendation according to the datasheet. For example they used 1Mohm for a pull up resistor which is imo used mistakenly on pick and place machine during the pcb manifacturing.

Anyway, this video helped me a lot if anyone (probably will to many): we will keep using the mixer but if it fails again, I will probably switch to another brand and will not use any other PreSonus product again.