My impressions after one week using the Faderport 8 with Presonus Studio One 3.5 Professional. I've used most features, and some quite extensively. Others like Macro, and VCO outs not yet (due to current mixes under work), but I'm looking forward to a lot of multi fader productivity on the horizon. I've checked that does work, but that's it.

Pros:
The [Edit Plugins] button coupled with S1's Control link makes for very quick fader control assignment. Obviously its selected automatically for Presonus plugins, but also a very quick and painless way to setup 3rd party plugins (is it ever). Actually this feature surpassed my expectations, as when no plugin is opened in Studio One, the FP8, goes into standard mix level mode, which is perfect. Plugin to plugin, channel to channel, No need to over use mode buttons! The FP8 responds in quick, logical fashion.

The Bypass button along with the shift key removes all FX, in one shot. Very useful when stemming, and/or bouncing tracks.

Faders are industry standard Alps. They're quiet, speedy, and accurate. They can also be adjusted for speed response. I've used 100mm motorized faders since the 90's, and the FP8 performs well in every way I expected them to.

Latch feature a plus for all around use where mouse resides over almost any control point. Just like my Novation's SL MkII speed dial. Especially effective for auditioning sounds from synths. Turn the knob (or assign a button) and Bing, next sound, thank you very much, again freeing up the mouse.

The overall size (height & footprint) is pretty ideal as it is roughly the same as a 14" laptop. I could see the potential for an expander as well.


Cons:
Not many!

I believe the scribble strips could be on a single flip up panel, about 30 to 45 degrees. The resolution and detail of the information is reasonably good, once the unit is slanted forward about 8 degrees. Yeah, an oversight to be sure. The criteria was obviously to keep costs down. Too bad though. I was hoping for a flat table top controller. Not one that needs to wedged forward, due to poorly aimed indicators. Oh well, they missed the broad side of the barn there.

Update: I'm leaving my first impression on the scribble strip indicators, but I noticed the latest Studio Live 32 Series 3 has what appear to be the same indicators. No flip up panel, strips are pointed directly upwards, and that's a $3000 board. So I'll bend, in lieu of they are pretty fantastic (head on), but the designers would benefit to note the angle a user sits in front of a mixer. Perplexing since mixers are Presonus' golden goose.

I'm not going to jump on not having any encoder pots, contrary to some comments in this forum. This is an 8 way faderport with some moderate control enhancement, and true to that end (hence, the name). To make encoders truly visible, means surrounding them with LED's, and there are a number of other controllers that handle that rather well. Again, my SL MKII has 8 encoders with LED's, another 8 encoders without LED's, 8 assignable faders, and 24 assignable buttons, so admittedly, control points are covered in this camp. Maybe Presonus will offer such a diverse controller in the future, and users can expect a control station reflective of that. Until then, I say Bravo for the affordable availability of such a nice relatively small footprint, 8 fader controller.

A flat rotary dial with an indent would have been useful, but S1 does not utilize scrubbing, which would have been a major use for such a dial. Scrolling, and use of the current large dial is pretty good, and allows for a more compact unit without cramping surrounding real estate. I tried the X touch and found I needed to grapple more with where teeny buttons are, and not inadvertently hit also a neighboring button. No, I'm not heavy handed. I like PreSonus chicklet buttons, and they are found in even the best of Presonus' mixers.
With scroll selected, the dial moves the timeline cursor in first beat increments. Fine. But, why not allow the [shift] button to enhance cursor movement by smaller designated/current Snap positioning as well? What happens is currently, scroll only gets you in the ballpark. Yes, most of the time, beat #1, of the measure is where you'll want to be, but forget any micro editing, or coming into some other beat like a #2, #3, #4th beat, or tiny increments. Not a show stopper. I may have not found it either to be fair.



Ergonomics - Layout is quite functional, and intuitive. Remembering button layout is quite easy, based on good use of color, position, and Logic. I would have preferred the channel and bank buttons be next to one another. All in all, it works, they are evenly across the main control knob, so I won't pick. The black matt finish look is always a smart design move. Keys are not the clickety hard type found on the original Faderport (I have one) and not spongy soft gel types either. They do require a tad of extra pressure to activate over soft gels, but it's fine really. They all work and perform to the same degree. No sign of material corner cutting here.



Conclusions: If that word means anything, as I'm just getting started using the FP8. Presonus are obviously offering a lot of bang for the buck. I avoided the first few days g8ving any impressions enough to get past the "oooh-ahhh" period.
What the FP8 does, it does in droves. Fast workflow (Still to match my current speed of key command shortcuts, and know where to go with mouse travel, but that's changing).

My productions involve a lot of progressive, film, latin, guitar, percussive, and jazz influences. Some electronica. I've owned automated faders on digital consoles from Yamaha, including the original 02R, and Promix 01, so I've lived Alps faders,and what to expect from them. So I'm very good on the current Faderport 8 fader performance. Read and write speed of such physical faders is spot on with what I'm used to seeing. Lastly, updating.the latest firmware was a breeze.

Very nicely done, Presonus.