johnflorance wroteI The levels were good but hard to tell by the mixer. The channel gains never hit red, and gain pot is very touchy. All were up to almost full (4 oclock)

I did 2 events with the AR12 yesterday. One was a controlled recording event going to a notebook running StidioOne V5. As noted up-thread, I have found it necessary to add a boost on the S1 INPUTS. There simply isn't enough gain on these preamps, and I also think that they are losing about 6dB in the trip across the USB. I know it is all digital, but I think there is a real problem here. I have recorded across USB using Behringer X32, Mackie Onyx, and Soundcraft UI24r, going to either Presonus Capture or TracksLive and never had a problem with gain levels, but I just can't get this all-Presonus combination to work.

My main mic was to have been a very nice AKC condenser overhead on a studio boom. recording a single violin. With 6 dB boost on the S1 INPUT, and the mixer's gain basically at 4 o'clock, the sound barely registered on the S1 track. By the time I normalized it, it was impossibly noisy. I ended up using the sound recorded by the closest video camera, which was much better.

At this same event, I recorded a brass quartet with pencil mics 12" from the bells. There was enough gain for that.

Later in the day, I used the AR12 for a live show. No recording in this case, but I used AKG pencil mics as area mics for a large jazz band. Normally we would mic everybody but at this time of year, with a full set-up, we would be tearing down in the dark, so I thought I'd use the AR12 with 6 area mics for a quick setup. It worked OK, but once again, with channel and master faders at unity and the speakers also at unity, it was necessary to run the inputs at 3 o'clock or higher. This just ain't right. With any other mixer I'd be barely over the 12 o'clocksetting with plenty of gain available.

It is a shame because I like the concept of the AR12. It is simple to operate like any analog mixer, but allows tracking of all inputs to a DAW. But I am going to give up on this product because it just doesn't work well enough in practice. I have not found a similar mixer out there (simply analog interface, but full digital tracking), so I guess I'll just live with the extra complications of my Soundcraft UI24r digital mixer. It takes more setup time and has more things that can go wrong, but I never have any trouble getting enough sound out of the thing.

Very disappointing coming from Presonus. They really should have done better than this.