PreSonus has announced the FaderPort 16, the latest model in its FaderPort control surface series.
The FaderPort 16 Mix Production Controller connects via USB 2.0 and offers tactile control over your DAW’s mix and automation functions, including transport control.
The FaderPort 16 features full level, solo, and mute control over 16 channels at once, with 16 touch-sensitive, motorized, 100 mm faders, and 89 buttons covering 102 different functions.
Support for the Mackie Control and HUI protocols means you can control virtually any DAW. No driver installation is necessary; just plug the control surface into a USB port.
Pricing and Availability
The FaderPort 16 is expected to be available at PreSonus dealers in late November 2017, with a street price of about $1,000. See the PreSonus site for more info.
Very cool, price seems high for a controller, am I missing something? Maybe competition..
yeh for what a 3 hundred more you can get a behringer x32
It’s actually not too bad. the Mackie UC is 1000 and the Avid Artist series is 1200-1500. So it’s competitively priced. Behringer is low cost but so is everything they put out.
16 motorized faders aren’t cheap, hence the cost. I still don’t think 16 channels is enough to work with a modern session.
somehow missed the motorized part, that makes a lot more sense.
I do not need even one more cheap-feeling fader in my life. Mackie needs to get their sh!! together and update their controller to not be a f! giant waste of space. Their lunch is getting eaten by these cheap controllers that aren’t inexpensive.
Yeah, I had a mackie control and a C4, both were great, used them with reason and it worked perfectly. Some of the racks needed to be manually programmed hacking their remote files but I really liked the mackie’s. Just found myself sticking with the mouse in my hand. This is definitely overpriced. I saw the price and had to go back and make sure the item was an actual controller. Thats a joke.
Using ANYTHING with reason is a good thing.
This is nice! I don’t think it’s overpriced at all. If you mix five tracks a week for three years with this, it’s an extra 1,28 $ you spend per job. Taking into account the time you save and the comfort of not using your mouse for thousands of hours, that’s a fair price.
That’s a good way to look at your investmens! Just figure out the price it cost every time you use it, it’s usually not very expencive.
No one has ever made a 16-fader controller for under $1000. If that price is “too high” then there is no chance for a successful fader controller.
Behringer X-Touch plus extender.
bloody expensive for something which does not even sport new technology
This would be lovely if it had an encoder per channel, and a record-enable button per channel. But without those simple necessities, my search for a great desktop controller continues … (I presently use a Mackie Control classic with an extender and C4 – they are temperamental and take up too much space)
That’s not expensive for something with motorized faders.
there was the behringer board that was delayed forever that was similar to this. i think that one got shotty feel jog wheels and shotty faders. i wonder how the buttons and faders feel on this one
Im still happy with my OG Faderport, but I have a tendency to build groups and stems and try to narrow my mixes down to as few faders as possible. Even when mixing live sound (main gig) I group everything down to DCA/VCA’s. With all that said this looks very cool!
It’d be pretty nice to have 8 groups and still have 8 main channels in focus.
If you’re mixing as you’ve described… once you’ve done your “maintenance” automation moves on any basic tracks, this controller could take you to the finish line of a mix without having to “bank over” almost ever.
I’d probably actually set it up with 4 faders for lead instruments or vocals that need to stay in the forefront of the mix. 8 faders for instrument groups or clusters. And the last 4 faders for FX returns. Anything not on those channels would be mixed with the mouse.
Thanks Presonus. I’m looking forward to this one.
Motorized fader? Who needs that? I have a soundcraft mtk 22. Manual and awesome. Why drive automatic when shift is more fun to throttle live!
Step into the right direction and I guess solid quality, but for me: encoder for each channel, 32 faders + 1 master fader + 4 group faders …. Otherwise I would still prefer the Avid Artist Mix or the original Presonus 1 fader FaderPort …. or chose a bigger digital mixer with 32 faders and daw control from Allen & Heath or Presonus. At least compared to 4 Avid Artist Mix + 1 Avid Artist Control still the cheaper option …. FaderPort16 is great, but if I still need to change banks, then for me FaderPort8 would be enough, as my projects are always bigger than 16 channels ….