PreSonus Quantum HD Evaluation: A Seamless Recording Device

For the longest time, I struggled with latency when recording audio, or the time it takes for recorded sound to register on the display screen. I’d plug in my audio interface to my pc, get all my drums all mic’ed up, and have a tough time getting my stuff to sync up with no matter I used to be attempting to file over. The first technology of PreSonus’ Quantum audio interfaces solved my issues a few decade in the past. They used speedier-than-USB Thunderbolt connections to provide me near-zero delay, thanks partly to the no-bloatware connection it shares with PreSonus’s Studio One software program.

PreSonus’s newest Quantum HD interfaces have raised the ease-of-use issue even additional. You get USB-C connectivity, an excellent cleaner design, higher display screen, and front-panel instrument inputs designed in collaboration with PreSonus father or mother firm Fender. There may be even now automated achieve leveling on inputs, which implies one particular person can arrange a big studio by themselves.

Should you’re after an inexpensive audio interface that competes with heavy hitters from Common Audio, Apogee, Focusrite, Audient, or SSL, amongst others, the brand new PreSonus Quantum HD fashions are unbelievable and sound nice. Should you’re a Studio One person, they’re a no brainer.

Audio Boxers

Each the HD 2 and HD 8 fashions aren’t a lot to take a look at, designed to cover on the desktop of a critical residence studio fanatic amongst different toys. They’re each black packing containers with blue accents and coloration screens, and so they look comparatively nondescript when not in use. (That is good for costly studio tools, which may generally scream “Steal me!”) The bigger mannequin is rack-mountable, the smaller designed for desktop or cell use, although you’ll be able to simply set the bigger one on a desk like I did if you do not have a rack to mount it.

{Photograph}: Parker Corridor

The development of the unit is stable and metallic, with good huge vents on the edges to maintain it cool throughout longer monitoring classes. I like that it simply takes an ordinary three-prong energy cable, so you do not have to cope with a wall wart, and that it connects rapidly to any fashionable USB-C system.

I’ve been a longtime PreSonus person of all the pieces from its Faderport controllers (USB units that permit you to use faders to manage playback in most DAW software program) and Monitor Station (an outboard field the place you’ll be able to plug in and swap between a number of audio system with easy button presses). The gear works properly and prices lower than most opponents.

Professional-tier equivalents from manufacturers like Common Audio and Apogee can price between just a little and plenty of multiples extra, relying on the class, and it simply would not truly sound higher in my expertise. The Quantum HD interfaces simply compete with the wildly standard 8-input fashions from Common Audio when it comes to audio and construct high quality. The Common Audio fashions are the gold normal within the class proper now, and value over twice as a lot per unit.

Studio One instantly acknowledges the Quantum HD 8 and performs good, permitting you to do issues like activate 48v phantom energy for condenser mics and set ranges contained in the software program, reasonably than having to make use of some bizarre middleman software program between the interface and the DAW.

{Photograph}: Parker Corridor