PRESONUS AUDIOBOX 22VSL

PreSonus have been known for offer­ing not only excel­lent qual­ity recod­ing inter­faces, but ones that give the user plenty of flex­i­bil­ity for the right price. This has never been truer with the release of the newest update to their AudioBox range in the AudioBox 22VSL. It will look some­what famil­iar at first glance to any­one who knows their com­pact inter­faces, but on closer inspec­tion, the 22VSL offers a num­ber of dif­fer­ences to pre­vi­ous models.

INS AND OUTS
The front panel gives you two inputs on com­bi­na­tion XLR/TRS con­nec­tors, allow­ing you to con­nect micro­phone, instru­ment or line level inputs. You also have con­trols for gain lev­els for both inputs, a mas­ter vol­ume, head­phone vol­ume and mix con­trol. All this, rounded off with a switch for engag­ing phan­tom power is all that fits onto the front face of this com­pact blue box. Around the back you find two mono out­puts on TRS con­nec­tors as well as a stereo out­put for head­phones. You also get MIDI in and out on 5 pin DIN con­nec­tors and a USB 2 con­nec­tion for inter­fac­ing with your com­puter. That is all fairly stan­dard and just about the same as the pre­vi­ous AudioBox.

QUALITY SOUND
The AudioBox 22VSL gives you two PreSonus Class A XMAX micro­phone pre­amps for use in your record­ing appli­ca­tions. These qual­ity micro­phone pre­amps offer an excep­tional qual­ity and low noise to ensure that the tone you cap­ture is not lost in the pre­amp stage. With 24-bit/96kHz dig­i­tal con­ver­sion, you can also be assured that you will not lose any­thing in the trans­fer from ana­logue sig­nal in the XMAX pre­amps to the dig­i­tal form in your DAW. This raises the inter­est­ing point of what DAW to use. If you are start­ing out and don’t already have soft­ware to work with, the AudioBox 22VSL comes with PreSonus’ Stu­dio One Artist soft­ware which they have devel­oped over the past few years to meet the needs of their users who were fed up with other DAWs.

VSL EFFECTS
What really sets the AudioBox 22VSL apart from pre­vi­ous mod­els is the Vir­tual Stu­di­o­Live fat chan­nel that allows you to har­ness in built effects when your record or per­form live. The VSL fat chan­nel gives you a qual­ity reverb, delay, gate, EQ and com­pres­sor on both input chan­nels and a vir­tual mixer for rout­ing the sig­nal either through your com­puter for live use or into your DAW for record­ing. Take an already rock solid inter­face that will stand the test of time and never break down on you, and add in some seri­ous inline insert effects to fur­ther enhance your sound and you have a really tidy lit­tle pack­age. Best of all, it’s all pow­ered off the USB port from your com­puter, so there is no need for addi­tional power sup­plies caus­ing unwanted sig­nal noise. The AudioBox 22VSL offers you a com­plete record­ing solu­tion when space and money are restrict­ing factors.

Price: RRP $249
Dis­trib­u­tor: National Audio Sys­tems
Phone: (03) 9761 5577
Web­site: www.nationalaudio.com.au