PreSonus StudioLive digital mixers are a fixture in countless venues and houses of worship — known for their Fat Channel effects processing and ease of use. But the real power of these mixers becomes apparent when you connect them to a computer or smart device. StudioLive mixers have always had tight integration with PreSonus software, and over the years, PreSonus has continued to sharpen these tools. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at four features that make these digital mixers so powerful: PreSonus Metro for live remote mixing, Capture for easy one-click live multitrack recording, QMix-UC for wirelessly controlling monitor mixes, and DAW Mode for turning your mixer into a control surface for Studio One Pro software.
1. PreSonus Metro: Live remote mixing over the Internet
Cough, cough, hack… uh-oh. You’ve got a conference or a church service to mix, but you woke up feeling like death. Do you tough it out and head into work? Hope your A2 or intern can manage the job solo, while you try to troubleshoot over the phone? If your venue has a PreSonus StudioLive mixer, there’s another option: Grab your laptop and headphones, and use PreSonus Metro for live remote mixing over the Internet from the comfort of home.
Metro is a feature that runs within PreSonus’ free Universal Control app on Mac or Windows computers. Designed to let you invite a mixing engineer from anywhere in the world to connect to your StudioLive mixer over the Internet, PreSonus Metro gives you an audio connection that’s low-latency enough that you can listen (and actually mix!) in real time.
You can even add a talkback microphone so you, the remote engineer, can communicate directly to the talent’s on-stage monitor mix — the ultimate “god mic” from afar! (Just don’t sneeze when you’ve got the talkback open. It’s bad manners.)
Before this magic can happen, you’ll need to set up Metro. (Do this setup now, so you’ll have it in your back pocket in case of emergency!) You’ll need a PreSonus StudioLive Series III mixer with firmware 2.7 or higher, USB’d to a computer connected to the Internet and running Universal Control. On the remote end, you’ll need another computer connected to the Internet, also running Universal Control. Each of these computers needs to be logged into their own individual my.PreSonus.com account, with their own email address.
Get the details on how to set up PreSonus Metro in this 6-minute video:
2. Capture: Super-simple multitrack recording to your computer
“Hey, are you recording off the board tonight?” Connect your StudioLive to your computer with a USB cable, and the mixer becomes an audio interface you can use to multitrack the show. Of course, you could record using any DAW you happen to have on your laptop — but you’ll need to create tracks, configure the I/O on each channel, arm your tracks, and so forth. And soundcheck can be chaotic enough without taking the time to set up a new session in your DAW. Enter PreSonus Capture.
Capture is free software that simplifies the process, auto-configuring to your connected StudioLive mixer to record every input channel plus a stereo mix, with one-click recording using the Record Now button. Capture even grabs your channel and bus names! You can set it up to pre-record audio up to a minute before you press Record, so you’ll never miss the beginning of the set because you were still dialing in the reverb. Speaking of reverb, you can set each channel to record pre- or post-effects. (Or if you feel like getting fancy, make two sets of tracks and record pre-FX and post-FX simultaneously — after all, your StudioLive digital mixer has up to 64 outputs over USB. You’re limited only by your hard drive’s available space.)
As its name implies, Capture software is primarily a recording tool, but it’s got the essential editing features (copy, cut, paste, splice), and AAF import/export lets you send files to third-party software when it’s time to do more detailed editing and mixing. Bonus: Markers you set in Capture transfer to Studio One Pro. Drop a marker near the start of each song while you’re rolling, to help you get your bearings when you open up that 5-hour-long recording afterward.
Get a closer look at Capture in this 3-minute video from PreSonus:
3. QMix-UC: Wirelessly control monitor mixes from your smartphone
QMix-UC is a free app that lets iOS devices and Android smartphones wirelessly control aux/monitor mixes on any StudioLive Series III (and legacy StudioLive AI-series mixers, too.) Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, QMix-UC gives performers an easy way to adjust their own monitor mixes from their smartphones.
If you’re in the house band at a venue that uses a StudioLive mixer, you can connect your smartphone to the mixer’s WiFi network, fire up QMix-UC, select the channels you want to hear, and set levels the way you want them. (And if you’re the one running sound, you can focus on the FOH mix, not on the singer asking for “more me”!)
To get started, grab an Ethernet cable and connect one of your wireless router’s LAN ports to the StudioLive mixer’s Ethernet port labeled “Control”. As each iOS or Android device joins the network, you can set permissions so each wireless device can control one specific aux mix — or you can give a device “All Auxes” permission, if someone on stage is dialing in monitors for multiple band members.
Learn how to set up QMix-UC (and the app formerly known as UC Surface, now known as Universal Control) in this video:
4. DAW Mode: Turn your StudioLive into a control surface for Studio One Pro
When you put your StudioLive Series III mixer in DAW Mode and connect it to your computer via USB and Ethernet, your mixer can function as an audio interface and control surface for PreSonus Studio One Pro DAW software.
You may already know that these mixers make it easy to record and play back multi-track audio to and from your computer. In DAW Mode, making mix changes is easy too, thanks to motorized 100mm touch-sensitive faders. Not only do these faders fly around and look cool — they’re touch-sensitive: they know when your fingers are on them. When you enter Touch mode and put your fingers on the faders, you’re writing automation. And as soon as you let them go, you’re back to any existing automation you want to keep — you don’t have to stop the transport to stop writing automation.
In DAW Mode, you can also use the touchscreen on your StudioLive mixer to add inserts and sends to your DAW tracks. Insert a plug-in on a channel, or create a send to make a reverb bus, just as you would within your DAW — right from the mixer’s touchscreen. In DAW Mode, the transport buttons on the mixer become transport buttons for your DAW. It all adds up to less mousing around and more hands-on mixing.
Get a closer look at DAW Mode in PreSonus’ video:
What Else Is New?
PreSonus StudioLive consoles have been around since 2009, and if you’ve run sound anytime since then, chances are you’re familiar with these boards. They were some of the first affordable digital mixers that could be controlled with an iPad — a feature that’s now completely standard for any digital mixer made today.
And PreSonus is still iterating on the stalwart StudioLive platform. Released in 2025, the StudioLive Special Edition (SE) models added upgrades like a new flat screen frame for max viewability, new fader caps for max comfort, an updated screen UI, and more look-and-feel improvements.
But you don’t need an SE model to take advantage of Metro, Capture, QMix-UC, and DAW Mode — any PreSonus Series III digital console gives you access to these features. If you have a StudioLive Series III and haven’t tried these tools yet, this is your cue. After all, PreSonus Metro could save the day next time you need to call in sick!
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