The Studiomaster DigiLive16Studiomaster DigiLive16 is a hybrid console that marries together the advantages of hardware, touch-screen control and remote tablet operation. Studiomaster DigiLive16 is the result of many years of R&D combining Studiomaster’s experience in signal processing with the latest technologies to give you total control over your sound. All settings can be recalled including, most importantly, the faders (unique in this class of mixer). Full control is also available remotely via Wi-Fi therefore, you can monitor and mix anywhere in the venue.
Gone are the days of carrying around large and heavy analog consoles. Digital mixers have slowly cemented themselves in the live sound industry. Features like tablet control over wifi make them more attractive and user friendly. The Studiomaster DigiLive 16 fills a gap in the market and places itself in a price-friendly gap while providing most if not all the features of its competition. The mixer can be controlled by the front panel touch screen and by an iPad or Android tablet over wifi.
It measures in 35 x 38 x 15 cm or 13.7 x 14.9 x 5.9 and weighs 5kg which means it could easily be picked up with one hand.
The touch screen on the front panel allows access and adjustments over equalization, sends, returns and other parameters. These parameters can be adjusted via the same touch screen or by selecting the parameters and making changes using the big knob above the master fader. The DigiLive 16 as the name suggests comes with 16 input channels, all of the I/O are located on the back of the mixer. The mixer has 8 outputs, 6 assignable and two mains (L + R). A USB input is also present with a wifi dongle inserted out of the box. It is suggested to keep it there and avoid losing the dongle.
Front Panel
The Studiomaster DigiLive 16 mixer comes in brown color.
The front view shows us the 12 channel gain knobs at the top. Below the gain knobs, we see the 7-inch colour touch screen and below that is the hardware control section.
Here the Select, Solo and Mute buttons are placed just below the screen for every channel. The amount of level being given to the mixer can be seen next to the faders on the led meters or on the touch screen in real-time as adjustments are made to them. Adjustments to the overall output can be made by the master fader. The big turn and push knob can be used to make fine-point adjustments to the settings and parameters. There are buttons to select between the two groups of eight-channel fader layers, the bus layer, and the sends relating to the selected channel.
Apart from the second USB input and headphone input, all the connections to the mixer will be found at the back.
Back Panel
The back panel shows us all the inputs and outputs of the mixer. Along the top are the inputs. The first 4 of these inputs are combo inputs (XLR + Jack). The remaining inputs are only XLR. Below them are two pairs of stereo jack inputs.
The output section is located just below the input section. DigiLive 16 has 8 smart outputs. These can be used as effects buses to feed them back in to the main stereo mix as reverb and delays or they can be used as mono monitor sends and a stereo feed into your main stereo mix. You can also use the pair of Jack monitor outputs as well.
In addition to these outputs, you will also find digital SPDIF and AES outputs. These can be used if you want to record an event to an external device or send the stereo signal to some other location. As mentioned above, it is important to not lose the wifi dongle! Remote tablet control would be lost without it. You can use the vacant USB port on the front panel to plug in your USB for playback or recording.
The mixer is powered by a 12V power supply unit.
Functionality
The Studiomaster DigiLive16 mixer can be controlled by the touch screen or an iPad/ Android tablet. Making changes in the application will be reflected on the mixing console itself. On the bottom left corner of the app, a representation of the input layers named INPUT 1, INPUT 2, and BUS can be found. Selecting either INPUT 1 OR INPUT 2 will take you to the corresponding input layer. Moving the faders in the app will also make the faders move on the console, however, changing input layers on the app is not reflected on the mixer screen.
This could be useful since you can view both layers at the same time, one on the mixer and one on the app.
Touching any of the input layer buttons mentioned above takes you to the corresponding view. Accessing the first input layer is done by pressing INPUT 1. This shows us the first 8 input channels. Touching one of the fader areas highlights the channel and enables that channel for configuration. The tabs at the top of the highlighted channel allow to adjust virtual gain in the INPUT STAGE tab, apply EQ in the EQ tab, add compression or gate in the DYNAMICS tab and select the previous or next channels by pressing the PREV or NEXT button. As we mentioned before, the tablet and the mixer have two-way communication between them, so moving a fader on the mixer will be relented in the app and vice versa which is a neat trick to show off!
Above the input layer you will find the SETUP, METER, FX, RECORDING and SCENES buttons. Let’s take a brief look at what each of them have in store for us
SETUP:
Pressing the SETUP button takes us to the setup configuration of the console. This screen shows us information and routing of the console. You’ll find the serial number and IP Address of the mixer in the general INFORMATION section. Just below that is the GENERAL VIEW where you can set the sample rate to either 44.1 KHZ or 48 KHZ. The Delay unit can be toggled in ms (Miliseconds), ft (Feet) or m (meters). Below the general view you can punch in the crossover for low and high frequencies by pressing the IN buttons for the corresponding frequencies.
Over to the right side you find the routing section. There are four presets for routing. One of them is the default setting that you see out of the box. The remaining three named CUSTOM 1, CUSTOM 2 and CUSTOM 3 can be setup according to your own workflow.
METERS:
To view overall metering of your signals can be found in the METERS section below SETUP. All of the input signal meters and output meters can be viewed here in either pre or post fader.
FX:
Reverb, Delay, Modulation. The Diglive16 provides you with two of each.
The DigiLive16 comes with built in effects which you can tailor to your liking. Once you have the effects setup to your taste you can save them as a preset to make recalling them easier. It is recommended to use the effects as bus sends if you are going to use effects on more than two channels.
Recorder:
Looking below the FX we see the RECORDER button. Pressing this takes you to the recorder. To record, plug in a USB stick in the front panel USB port. Simply press the record button to start recording. Press the play button to playback from the USB.
once you have setup your Studiomaster DigiLive16 you can save your settings as a preset by pressing the SAVE button. You can copy this preset over to your USB as well so you can recall it later on.
Over all the Studiomaster DigiLive 16 is great mixer for its price. It serves well in auditorium and band settings with its multiple inputs, motorised faders and remote control features. Although it will take some getting used to to the interface at first, once you get the hang of it your audio workflow will be substantially streamlined.
