New Gear Review: PreSonus FaderPort 16

With the FaderPort 16, PreSonus offers their most robust solution for tactile control over your DAW.

Mixing methodology is sacred amongst engineers.

Ask any 10 of them how they set up their workflow, and you’ll get 10 different answers—all of which are valid.

Even as plugins and summing algorithms have improved, I still know a great many engineers who prefer working on consoles.

If great mixes can be achieved in the box (and evidence everywhere suggests they can), are there other benefits to working outside the box? And can we emulate them well enough to get the best of both worlds?

To try to address this question for myself, I evaluated the FaderPort 16 by PreSonus—a control surface, or as it is referred to in the manual, a “multi-channel production controller”.

As there is often confusion about this, especially among newer engineers, I’d like to clarify: no audio passes through this device, nor does it directly affect your sound in any way, shape, or form. This is not a console; it’s actually closer to a multifaceted mouse—although I hate using that term here, as it damns with faint praise. A good control surface can do so much more than a mouse ever could. Let’s have a closer look at this one.

Features

The primary layout of the FaderPort 16 revolves around the 16 motorized faders, which give the control surface a console-like feel. All the faders are 100mm long-throw and touch-sensitive, like those on many of the top large format consoles. These faders can be used in the typical sense of controlling the amplitude of your signal, acting as real-world corollaries to the faders within your DAW. However, they can also be used to control any number of plugin, pan, send, or any other control information written/read by your DAW.

Above each fader are individual Solo and Mute buttons for each channel. Again, this functionality clearly emulates the layout and usage of most consoles. Above the Solo/Mute functions is each channel’s “Select” button. Here is where we start to differentiate from the console layout. Since this isn’t a console, and each fader or knob can control multiple parameters, the Select button chooses a channel so that users may drill down to find/interact with other controls for that channel (more on that later).

Above the Select button is the LCD scribble strip. This can display multiple pieces of pertinent information depending on how it is set up by the user. The display can show the name of the track, its pan position, whether or not a plugin/parameter is active, and a bar meter that reads the DAW’s channel meter.

At the far left of the unit is the Pan/Parameter control. Its primary function is as a channel pan pot (with a nicely-added feature of pressing in to reset, or if using a stereo track, to toggle between left and right channels). However, it can do many more things, depending on the DAW you are working in. For example, in Studio One, when combined with the Link button further down the left side of the unit, the Pan/Parameter pot can control any parameter your mouse is hovering over. Shift+Link permanently connects the pot to that parameter.

Further down the left side is the Arm button, which arms the selected tracks (with Shift+Arm arming all tracks). Beneath that are Solo and Mute Clear buttons—very useful for ensuring nothing is solo’d or muted. Then there is the Bypass button, for bypassing the currently-selected plugin. Again, Shift+Bypass bypasses all plugins on the selected channel. The Macro button beneath that compares plugin changes. However, in Studio One, this function opens the Channel Editor for the selected channel. And underneath those are the Link and Shift buttons mentioned above.

Down the right side of the unit are blue buttons labeled Track, Edit Plugins, Sends, and Pan, which allow access to those parameters on the motorized faders. Beneath there are the Session Management buttons (labeled Audio, VI, Bus VCA, and All). In Studio One, these give quick and easy access to just those types of tracks. However, their function and viability changes with other DAWs.

On the top right of the unit are automation modes, which allow selected channels to drop into Touch, Latch, Write, Trim, Read, and Off modes. Combining those with the Shift button gives more possibilities, such as Save, Undo, Redo, and three user-defined functions.

Further down the right side, we find a rotary encoder and two arrows that act as navigation buttons. These, in conjunction with several buttons below (Channel, Zoom, Scroll, Bank, and Marker) allow you to quickly move around within a session. The Shift key here allows these buttons to function as F1-F8, which have common uses in most DAWs. Lastly, we come to a transport control with all the standard parameters: Play/Pause, Stop, Rewind, FF, Loop, and Record.

A look at the sleek, simple back panel of the FaderPort16.

The Presonus FaderPort 16 works with many DAWs. However, the level at which it partners with those programs changes from one to the other. The most complete connection is logically with Presonus’ own DAW, Studio One. However, the FaderPort 16 can also be used to control Pro Tools (using the HUI protocol), as well as Logic, Cubase, and Sonar (each with their own template, using the MCU protocol). A customized Ableton template is not currently available, but the manual states the Logic MCU protocol will work best with it. FaderPort 16 also pairs with Harrison’s Mixbus, as Harrison has adopted PreSonus’ proprietary protocol here. I don’t own all of these, so for the purposes of this review, I’ll be focusing on my two primary DAWs, Pro Tools & Mixbus, and a little bit on Studio One as well.

In Use

Getting started with the FaderPort 16 couldn’t be much easier. The manual clearly outlines how to set up the control surface for whatever DAW you are working in. Additionally, for those who work with multiple DAWs, switching between them is fast and easy.

In the same section as DAW choice are the settings for the FaderPort. Choices here for fader speed and touch sensitivity make it easy to get the fader behavior you desire. You can easily set the brightness and contrast of the scribble strips as well. There are also additional tests for fader movements and LEDs to ensure proper operation, including “Mardi Gras” mode, similar to “Vegas” mode on any Avid control surface (a surefire way to impress any punter).

The FaderPort 16 also comes with the Universal Control Application. This program seamlessly helps update software and firmware associated with the FaderPort, as well as ensures that the faders are automatically calibrated after updating the firmware, which is very nice. The buttons on the unit feel solid, and light with various colors to indicate certain functions. The display is bright and easy to read in any light. Overall, the unit feels solid and is well-constructed.

The faders themselves on the unit are very nice. The touch sensitivity and motorized action was smooth and responsive. They move quickly and relatively quietly in regard to following automation changes. I enjoyed having all the touch controls for adjusting plugin parameters, send levels, and panning as well. Writing musical automation with the FaderPort 16 is a much more elegant affair than using a mouse. Navigating through the sessions using the scroll wheel and transport made it easier again to focus on sounds rather than sights. While the FaderPort has not eliminated the need for a mouse and keyboard, I found the combination of the three gave me everything I could ask for while mixing.

To Be Critical

The mileage you get from the FaderPort 16 will definitely vary depending on the DAW you work with. With Harrison Mixbus, which uses the Studio One protocol, I found almost all the features to work easily and naturally, albeit with a few minor glitches. For example, the scroll wheel, no matter which direction I turned it, only navigated through the tracks in one direction. Faders, pan, plugin controls, and sends were all a dream to work with here. The rotary encoder works well but is stepped, which is fine for scrolling through menus, but a little off-putting when panning. Also, it is a bit of a limitation to only have one rotary encoder. That being said, additional encoders would undoubtedly raise the cost of the unit, and its current price point is one of its most attractive features.

The FaderPort 16 comes with and is designed for Studio One Artist, so the interaction there is perfect. However, I found the usage in Pro Tools to be somewhat spotty and inconsistent. The faders and panning worked fine, but the plugins would only display and use 4 parameters on any given instance, with no real control over which parameters were assigned. You only have access to the first five sends (A-E), and while controlling sends worked fine, it’s impossible to tell which channels you are adjusting the sends for. Additionally, many of the various other buttons on the FaderPort 16 have no function, or seemingly random functions compared to their labels.

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