PreSonus FaderPort 8 8-channel Mix Production Controller

I am a studio veteran and previous touring professional with primetime TV appearances. I do not leave reviews, but if I can help others with it, I will do so. I have the Studio live 32 Series III - A faderport V2 - Atom Drum Pad, and Studio One Professional 5, and have also had the Studio Live 24 Series III - and their stage boxes AVB monitoring and their discontinued digital remote CS mixer too. As you can see I have been a major supporter of Presonus even going back to their Firewire Firepod interface back in the day. Faderport 16 usage for channel button on, and left right arrow buttons does not connect with the on screen mixer in studio one and is a useless function - the assumed movement like on Faderport V2 (single channel) is the channel arrows scrolls the software mixer window on the Studio One screen fader by fader to help you keep track of your movement. On the faderport 16 the channel arrows only move into view the unseen faders on the physical mixer's tiny scribble strips and still leave the previous selected channel engaged and highlighted. Movement around on this mixer as a whole takes 3 times longer fiddling with what is what and where you are at and what track is in view. Depending on what button mode you are in, there is no consistency to what the blue scroll wheel does or left right buttons do - In a constant state of checking your mode, then asking yourself can I use this button for this, and that scroll wheel for that. Add to this the shift button mess, as buttons that you were using for this, are all the sudden doing something else because the shift button is on - even though you turned it off. So cumbersome and its a function overload with poor design for software navigation on every level. I was blown away by how much more logical, functional and fast the single channel faderport v2 is in comparison to this. The LCD scribble strip screens above the faders are near useless and as you can see on the youtube videos horribly invisible (those videos don't lie) - and of the same embarrassingly cheap quality as the studiolive series III scribble strips. The only way to effectively use this mixer is to have the studio one mixer viewable on a computer screen, and then you are battling with what your touching on the faderport16 and what mixer channel on screen is in view. Double the work and focus, its a constant back and forth. The single faderport v2 you always know what channel you are on, and can control the entire mixing workflow with one hand stationary. Mute, Solo, Arm Volume pan - right there in front of you underneath your hand - and all the functions of automation with one handed operation. The record arm buttons are hidden underneath the select layer toggle button to the left. Meaning, even on a faderport v2 single channel you can go directly to a channel with one hand using the arrows or scroll wheel and engage the record arm with one button press, literally just resting your hand in a stationary position and working the whole studio app with your fingers (not even moving your wrist). Faderport 16 however requires fishing for the channel you need which is a chore on those tiny scribble strips, using two arms, then going to the arm button on the side, then remembering which track you were going to arm (because the select buttons go blank when you push it), arm it, then click arm button again to get back to the select button option to know which track you are on in a sea of 16 faders. This is the most ridiculous implementation of track arming I have ever seen. Above the scoll wheel on the right handside there are buttons on top that could have been used for this purpose to arm an engaged track that are not even in use or functional (not even coded for features) - Choose shift Arm to arm all track, and then there is no way to Un Arm all the tracks you just did other than un-button press them all one by one, or use your mouse to shift click the tracks in studio one - no toggle for arming all/ disarming all. When scrolling around the mixer - the master fader moves - meaning the faderport 16 puts the master fader on any available mixer channel not used - as you add more faders - the master channel moves to the right - what is the purpose of that? - a master fader is always in one spot - even when using the faderport v2 the master fader is never mixed in with the scrolling through tracks - I can't tell you how many times I accidentally hit the master fader volume thinking it was another track as they are all mixed together on the faderport 16. This is a side effect of their cheap deployment not including a physical master fader (there is a button for master that turns the master fader on the blue scroll wheel which is notched in steps and not smooth). Regardless of the master button option, the master fader should never be on a fader unless you want it there, and surely should never move around. The plug edit function would be a great feature if the scribble strips weren't of such a horribly bad resolution. the tiny text contrast, and fonts shown there force you to hunch over the unit and search around for what is what for the connected parameter. To even view those scribble strips you need this mixer propped in an angle. Its beyond cumbersome, and defeats the whole purpose of having nice plug in displays on a Large HD screen. These scribble strips are TINY. And I mean TINY. This once again, slows down the entire process of searching for what fader and button does what instead of just getting the work done with a click of the mouse, or setting up a midi remote which would do the same thing. They budget deployed this unit with no pans for each channel (have to use a notched pan knob on the side that is clicked with values that skip in between integers - its the most clunky deployment you can imagine, and if only 1 knob was to be used for panning function, why make it notched and step clicked? There is a panning button option that turns the faders into pans, but at that point you lose connection to the VOLUME FADER for synchronous automation runs!!! Although Studio One Daw is extremely stable and probably the most feature rich DAW out there bar none (I have used them all - ProTools - Cubase - Nuendo - Ableton - Studio one all versions - Studio One blows them all out the water) - the faderport 16 will disconnect from the recording session when instantiating certain Plugins - meaning the physical mixer will disconnect from Studio one while say Omnisphere gets added to a track. Once back online, the mixer connects but is now bugged with Lights that are incorrect colors, buttons that should be lit, are not lit, and non responsive to fader views using the buttons to the right of the faders, you will also see the scribble strips glitch out with incorrect data. Only way to resolve this is go to external devices in studio one and force a reconnect command which fixes it. Next time you add the plugin, it will do it again. I have tested this on 4 different DAW's, and different build versions of Studio one 5 to the most current 11 19 2020,, and also re-firmwared my Faderport 16 unit multiple times. All show the same bugs on every different PC system - This behavior is also seen with Addictive Drums vst. Last thing you want during a creative session is wrestling with these technical corruption breaking your mood just so you can have a fader to touch - its SO not worth it. A true mixing environment is one that can be man handled with very little eye requirements. knowing your hand is on an eq knob, or a fader or a pan knob, you name it, using your ears. A physical hardware target that is always the same, and always works is why hardware mixing is so addictive. Faderport 16 is a constant fight for I need to do this here, and do that there, then this here, then that over there, then wait, if its shift on, that its here, then wait no, its over there, oh my its glitched, let me fix it, rinse repeat. I had very high hopes for this unit, in fact was beyond excited to integrate it, but if making music is your critical priority - this unit can derail you very quickly artistically. It can take a powerfully speedy workflow and derail it to mud. It is not the end all controller many had hoped for. I have learned it inside and out, backwards and forward, every single function shift option, hack trick, and feature (i'm a total tech nerd and always on the cutting edge of equipment) -for the price its an expensive hyped paperweight that can be spent better on plugin instruments or real musical instruments or midi tools to get the job done. I have reported these issues to Presonus, and they have provided no resolutions for it, I do hope at some point, this item gets fleshed out before they simply discontinue it like they have done with other products, and move on to the next invention. As much as I like them, Presonus does have a history of this type of product evolution. My personal professional advise, get a faderport v2 if using Studio One, its all you need if you are recording and mixing in the box and want to get REAL work done, not battle with this process just to have a cool toy in front of you (it does look sexy). I like gadgets just like the next guy - however this one is going back.

Sometimes when I'm mixing, using a mouse can get frustrating at times when you're really trying to accurately adjust volume levels. This resolves that issue. The motorized fader and overall construction of the unit are solid. Initial setup can be a little finicky if you're using reaper but the secret is to download the Klinke version of Mackie Control and set the faderport for Logic. Transport controls are phenomenal and my overall workflow has improved quite a bit since introducing this to my setup. I was initially looking at the Faderport 8 because I wanted the flexibility of being able to adjust more than one track simultaneously however the one slider is easy to get used to especially if you don't want to clutter up your desk. The faderport comes with the Artist version of Studio One which I had never used, but after playing around with it, I may upgrade to the pro version. The artist version gives you limited capabilities with VST plugins. Overall, I'd say this is a win and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for more of an analog feel while using a DAW.

I was looking for a MIDI mixer with automated faders and a jog wheel for maximum control with my DAW. I had looked at the X-Touch, which has a larger jog wheel and looks nice, but I wasn't sure that Behringer was doing a good job of support and responding to customers. The X-Touch Compact doesn't have a jog wheel, which I want. I considered some other options but decided to take a chance on this. I'm using it with Logic Pro X. The setup didn't bring up the protocol selection automatically when I first turned it on - I had to power off and press and hold the first two Select buttons to initiate the mode to select MCU for Logic. Then in Logic it generated MIDI notes instead of controlling the DAW - I found out that the manual forgets to tell you to set input and output in the Control Surfaces setup to Faderport. After that it worked fine. Good thing there are so many helpful forums around :) So far so good - faders automate, navigation controls zoom and scroll, transport controls work as expected. I've seen a couple of complaints on the forums about the scribble strips being hard to read because they're not angled up but I'm OK with it, so far. (Some other user props it up on a rubber-coated dumbell.) This unit uses a power brick, but no biggie. It's sleek and it works as advertised, and here's hoping it will make mixing that much easier. Now all I need is talent!

I never write reviews but just had to warn anyone planning on getting this: If you plan to try and use this with Pro Tools or Ableton like me - AVOID. It's worthless for that. PROS: - It has pretty lights and seems to be well made - it feels solid. CONS: - Calibration is out in Ableton by about 5db. Support just gives generic responses and promises future fixes which haven't come after a year and a half. - Can't get it to work at all in Pro Tools (yes, it's in Pro Tools mode, etc.). You can control it from Pro Tools but it doesn't control anything. Support can't figure it out. - You can only update the firmware over USB 1. Yes, you read that correctly, USB ONE. Pull out that dusty Pentium 3 and hope it still fires up and connects over dial up.. or rent a time machine to go back to 1999. - Apart from these non-starters, even if it works perfectly as they claim, the integration is almost non existent. You can't even use it to control sends in Pro Tools in order to write automation. It's a volume control at best, but getting to the fader you want to control is so much of a hassle it's not even worth using. If you plan to use it with Studio One you'll probably really enjoy it, seems to work well for the little time I tried it (support made me test it in there). They really shouldn't claim that this is designed to work with other DAW's because that hasn't been my experience at all.