PreSonus StudioLive Series III SE 32 review: the all-rounder we’ve been waiting for?

Headliner takes a look at the Presonus Studiolive Series III SE 32, the NSB3216 AVB stage box and its integration with the Studio One DAW software suite. Is this finally a serious all-rounder that doesn’t break the bank? We find out!

In the Hybrid world of consoles that are designed for both live and studio work, the genuine articles seem few and far between. While nearly all live desks offer USB multitrack interfaces to connect to a DAW — as far as I'm aware – at the professional end of the spectrum, only the Avid S6L offers full ProTools integration between surface and DAW. However, as with all things Avid, although the sound quality is unquestionable, the price tag is well beyond the means of smaller home studio setups or a complementary live mixing and recording option for PA companies.

Entering our radar is the PreSonus Studiolive range of products. These have been around since 2009 in various guises and have seen a number of improvements and new models introduced since. As far as I’m aware, the Studio Live range was launched initially as a cost-effective live console that could both mix and record via a USB interface using PreSonus’s Capture software on a laptop. This also provided close integration with PreSonus’s Studio One DAW. I also understand from Presonus’s UK distributor, Fender, that their own DAW, Fender Studio Pro, is also fully integrated with the Presonus StudioLive SE 32.

PreSonus have characterised the StudioLive as a desk sporting an analogue-style workflow, with a view to keeping it as logical and easy to use as possible. When getting to grips with a new ecosystem, simplicity is music to my ears.

What’s New

The latest model introduced in July 2025 is the Special Edition (SE) range and is available in either a 16, 24 or 32 channel format. Essentially, it’s the same mixer engine under the hood in all three. The only difference is the number of faders available on each layer and the physical inputs and outputs available on the rear panel. Regardless of fader count, the StudioLive is a 40-channel, 26-bus mixer with a myriad of I/O options. Firstly, MiLan certified AVB networking to allow connection of remote stage boxes. 64 x 64 USB interface which integrates channels for recording, playback, Virtual sound check and I/O for external plugins, etc.

I’m reliably informed it’s also possible to use two StudioLive consoles within the same setup, one at front of house, and one for monitors, linked via the PreSonus AVB Hub. Gain compensation is available to make sure that one engineer's adjustment doesn’t impact another’s when using a network stage box or sharing local inputs on, say, the monitor board. Without a second desk, I wasn’t able to see this in action, but this aside, with a price tag for the SE 32 of under £3,000 or $3,500 including Capture, Universal Control, Studio One 7 perpetual licence and the Fat Channel Plug-In Suite, represents real value for money!

The whole visual appearance of the desk misleads you into thinking it could be pricier than it actually is. Its sleek, dark appearance and colour-coded buttons help assist workflow in a positive way and are an improvement on the SE’s predecessors, even though the layout of the controls looks largely familiar.

Pub in the Park

When it came to preparing for Pub in the Park at the beginning of August, Headliner contacted our friends at Fender to see if we could borrow a desk and stage box specifically for the event. We’d seen a press release about the StudioLive SE launch, and it looked like the perfect desk for simultaneous mixing, recording, and streaming. Due to time limitations on the day before the show, streaming was handled by a separate camera and microphone on a stand. If you haven’t already, check out the Pub In The Park review here.

I was away on tour in July and a fair bit of August, and to be honest, the thought of having to get my head around a completely new system, especially one I had zero experience with, did not appeal. However, I did get an opportunity to get down to the Headliner studio the week before for an unboxing of the new desk and stage box. The Studio has a high-speed internet connection, so I could download the software and make sure everything was talking to each other correctly. If you’ve ever tried downloading a vital piece of software on a festival site, even with a 5G dongle, you understand the meaning of the expression, “Keep calm and carry on.” Everything seemed to work when using local I/O from the desk, but I was having trouble communicating with the stage box. Ollie at Fender to the rescue with a quick phone call, problem solved!

NSB 3216

This Stage Box packs a punch. 32 assignable combi XLR’s mic-pre’s with 115dB of dynamic range, gain control, phase reverse and phantom power on all channels. The combo input connection also provides up to 32 alternative line-level inputs. The lower row of output XLRs provides 16 assignable outputs for onstage monitor mixes, etc. On the rear, there are also two stereo AES3 outputs together with 2 x network ports for daisy chaining AVB devices. The MiLan certified AVB NSB 32.16 provides pristine quality audio and is indistinguishable from the desk's own onboard mic-pres. Impressive for a system limited to sample rates of 44.1kHz and 48kHz at 24-bit depth. However, the desk's internal processing does make use of 32-bit floating-point.

Interesting that AVB and MiLan are also protocols common to the Avid system, but for four times the channel count, you’re looking at 20 times the price. That aside, connecting this was the only thing I had to think about and then make a phone call, as mentioned earlier. The setup menu could see the stage box and allowed me to assign inputs to individual channels, which would seem logical. However, you have to connect it to blocks of input channels starting from input 25 or higher, together with an output stream, to enable correct clocking of the NSB. I was left a little confused, as with other systems, it’s incredibly simple to just pick up a stage rack's inputs and outputs. This might be something that needs an update that could make the system even easier to use in a future firmware revision. But that aside, this is a really sweet-sounding system, and it might well have been the very limited time available and my inability to read manuals that caused the issue.

System

Having got the desk and stage box talking and synced up, it was time to install Capture and Universal Control on my MacBook. Capture is just that; load it, and Capture picks up every channel, including channel names and settings. All you really have to do is remember to hit the record button. From Capture, you can either export your stems ready to be dropped into another DAW, or you can import the complete project into PreSonus’s Studio One, which incidentally imports all of the desk channel settings and recreates the exact signal path, plugins and all in Studio One! This is one hell of a time-saver when it comes to mixing a show for later broadcast or streaming. Capture is also available from within the Desk and can record all 34 channels, 32 input plus master stereo bus locally onto an SD card. This multitrack recording can be exported or used for a virtual sound check. There’s also the ability to turn individual tracks back over to local inputs so musicians can play along with missing band members, making sound checks as flexible as possible. And the quality of recorded audio really is that good.

Universal Control can be loaded onto the same laptop as Capture, and while Capture records in the background, you can use Universal Control in real-time to edit FX, bring up and monitor mixes, and a whole host of other useful editing jobs without detracting from the job of mixing FOH sound. I’m not saying you couldn’t really mix a show without it, but as my laptop was already there on recording duties, and as there were bouts of bright sunlight across the desk at various points in the evening, it was just easier to refer to the larger screen and trackpad.

It’s also worth mentioning that the SE 32 also has an onboard WiFi router, should you wish to dial in with an iPad, for example, to give you a larger touchscreen for editing purposes. It’s also possible to set up and assign users access to their own mixes via an iPad, which is really useful for those on IEMs.

Additional features that are well worth mentioning that I found and used are the ability to save and recall user presets for your channel. Along with a pretty comprehensive scene-and-show file creation menu. At the time, I didn’t use this much beyond storing initial setup parameters; I didn’t have time to go through and select which type of scene information I wanted to store and recall. But the next time I get a chance, that’s the first thing I will be diving deeper into!

Routing

The SE32, as with other PreSonus StudioLive Desks, has 16 FlexMixes, 4 dedicated FX buses, 4 dedicated sub-groups and the master stereo bus. The idea behind the FlexMix is that you can assign them to a number of different duties. For example, you could use them as they stand for mono aux mixes. Group them together in pairs for stereo IEMs or change them to additional sub-groups or assign to matrix output duties. A really helpful feature is that as you change the FlexMix's duty, it will change colour, giving you a clear representation of what that particular FlexMix is set up for.

Aux mixes can pick up channels pre- or post-fader, but there are two pre options. The first, Pre1, sends audio post gain, polarity invert, high-pass, and gate. Pre2 send channels post all Fat Channel processing, but pre-fader. Select an aux send, and you immediately flip into mix on fader mode and can adjust individual levels within the selected mix or quickly build a new one! The fixed FX returns and sub-groups are present on the second layer and can also be included in the sends on fader mixes.

Fat Channel

The Fat Channel is the name PreSonus has given to the analogue-style channel processing with a number of familiar-looking plug-in style EQ and Dynamics modules which closely follow the Fat Channel in Studio One Pro. The Fat Channel is available on both input and mix busses and provides multiple sound-shaping capabilities for both input and output. Each is capable of running within the desk's own latency parameter. Some features, like EQ and compression, are also available on the FX returns.

Although this is my first experience with the PreSonus ecosystem and Fat Channel, there are some pretty impressive plugin options here. In fact, there are so many that I forgot to count them. Off the top of my head, I remember there being 11 different compressors, a gate, and nine different EQ flavours, as well as the standard EQ option.

FX

Regarding the range of FX, nine different options are available to use on the four available fixed FX buses, which is really rather good. That said, I would suggest having a play first, then writing your own presets. For example, the 335 Digital Reverb: while it doesn’t look like a Lexicon 224, some of the control parameters and options are very Lexicon-like. You really need to tweak the settings and save as you hit the sweet spots. Likewise, the PAE-16 is clearly designed to reproduce the classic sounds of the AMS RMX-16 digital reverb from the early ‘80s, and does the job exceptionally well. Even the Vintage Plate Reverb is as good as the Pure Plate Reverb from UAD.

I read somewhere recently that the StudioLive’s onboard reverbs are not very good. I strongly disagree! Maybe I’ve been spoiled with access to all the original ‘70s and ‘80s units, but even those, back in the day, could sound vastly different depending on whose hands they were in. Maybe it’s worth sharing presets on a user forum, something to bear in mind for the future. Seriously, even the Chorus and Flanger were as good, and quieter than most high-end guitar pedals I’ve used!

Metro

This was something mentioned to me by Fender, which I believe allows you to connect to a console anywhere in the world, load up show files and various presets, as well as problem-solve and potentially train users. I also heard a rumour that you could also mix remotely with a real-time audio stream to your local monitoring, latency permitting. This is another potential which would definitely benefit schools and colleges over desks like the Behringer. Especially when it comes to using FX and some of the amazing plugins available in the Fat channel.

Conclusion

All the way through my initial first few days with this fabulous mixer, I kept discovering new features and hidden gems. There’s so much available in the SudioLive, for example, a dedicated talkback so you don’t use up a valuable input channel. Routing for PFL and AFL, listening for monitor engineers, or should you be running both tasks from front-of-house. Local and remote recording, not to mention the ability to take remote control over the internet of the desk and help less experienced users if need be. Along with multiple user privileges to allow iPad mixing of one’s own monitor mix, as well as guest engineers. What a great product at an unbelievable price point. And let’s not forget a very usable touchscreen.

This new revision of the software is also available for all previous StudioLive series desks, so if you're already lucky enough to be a PreSonus user, you won’t get left behind! I’m currently familiarising myself with Studio One Pro and its tight integration with the StudioLive ecosystem, so expect more about this in the future.