Expanding your Horizon with the Presonus Digimax FS

At first glimpse, I thought of the PreSonus DigiMax FS as just a slick little 8-Channel Preamplifier. After putting it though the paces of real-world session work, I quickly found out it’s quite a bit more. This compact single rack space unit is actually a flexible hardware expansion system, with a myriad of I/O options. Lets take a closer look at it. Once I cracked the box and peeled back the plastic, I was immediately impressed with how much was neatly packed into it. The front panel features 8 Class A Mic/Line Neutrik 1/4” XLR combo connectors. The first two channels double as hi-Z instrument inputs, or line level inputs via the rear panels return 1&2. You’ve got 48v phantom power for groups 1-4 and 5-8, and each channel has a gain knob covering mic and line levels (+60db Mic/-20 to +20dB line). Theres a small clip LED next to each knob, and the only other items on the front panel are the power button and Internal Clock and External Sync buttons (44.1-96kHz).

You can plug just about anyhing into the Digimax FS's front panel combo connectors.

Treating The Room The rear panel has quite a bit more involved! There’s BNC In and Out, allowing the DigiMax to act as either a slave or a master in a system. Then there’s a 75-ohm Terminate switch for terminating the word clock signal if it’s the final unit in a chain. Aside of that sit a pair of ADAT Outputs and Inputs. This system is capable of outputting eight channels of 24-bit/96kHz audio via SMUX. When using resolutions above 48kHz, you’ll need to connect both outputs, with the first carrying channels 1-4 and the second carrying 5-8. Of course you’ll need a device capable of accepting such an output (such as digital mixing boards, etc). For sample rates of 44.1 and 48kHz, you simply use a single ADAT output. So why have ADAT inputs? Good question! The DigiMax is capable of receiving eight channels of 24-bit/96kHz audio across the two digital inputs, or 8 channels of 44.1/48kHz across one. The audio from these inputs is then sent out the DAC Outputs section. These are balanced 1/4” TRS DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) outputs - which are essentially 8 channels of the converted optical ADAT input signal. This means the unit is far more than a preamp; it can be used as an expansion system for those of you with lightpipe I/O consoles and recorders from companies like Yamaha, Alesis, Digidesign and more. There’s also a Direct Output section with 8 line level balanced analog outputs corresponding to each input channel. This belies one of the very useful cool features of this unit – it’s flexibility. If you had the FS on a remote live gig, you could send one signal through the lightpipe to the main recorder, while sending a backup analog output to another for redundancy. Multiply this times three (with BNC Sync of course), and you’ve got a full blown 24 channel live recording rig in three rack spaces with redundant outputs. No splitter needed! Sweet. Lastly, there’s the Insert Point section, providing an analog send and return for each input. Now you can hook up those external EQ’s and compressors to kick up the signal even more when need be.

Looks pretty clean, considering how much it really does.

Over the course of a few weeks using the DigiMax FS, I found it to be a reliable tool that fits many different applications. First, I bought it to a session where I needed to capture drums in a studio that had a Digidesign 002. We simply hooked up the optical output into the 002’s digital input, and ensured the Digi clock was set to ‘ADAT’ and ‘RCA = S/PDIF, Optical = ADAT’. Note that if you don’t set your DAW clock to ADAT, you’ll hear those intermittent audio ‘ticks’ – a surefire sign you need to lock up the hardware. The internal clock button on the DigiMax lit up when selecting 48kHz (the session rate) and then we plugged in a selection of good mics including Earthworks overheads (with phantom) and AKG kick mics, etc. Next we went into the Pro Tools I/O setup to enabled optical channels on Input to receive channels 9-16. Then it was just a matter of setting levels and feeding the drummer the headphone sends from Pro Tools. Wow, that was easy, and the results spoke for themselves. Immediately, the drummer said, “I gotta get one of these!” Case closed. Next I went to capture guitar tracks at another studio in NY State with a guy who’d been on countless platinum records. We hooked it up into his new 002 rack, ran the optical cable and went through the same process. Again, it was painless and the tracks rocked. At first, I wasn’t sure about having the inputs on the front, but after we captured some guitar tracks with several more good mics, we decided to plug his Les Paul in direct through a Line 6 Pod into the Hi-Z input on channel 1. After that went smoothly, we then did a 12-string overdub with the internal pickup on a Taylor 12-string. While it did have that classic bright DI sound of an internal pickup, it was perfect to layer underneath the electric parts. Having the inputs on the front actually turned into a good thing, and it prevented us from having to crawl around back. The DigiMax became a tool that was practically invisible in the audio path, which is exactly what you want when capturing spur of the moment ideas in the studio. I’ve since used it for several other quirky applications, including capturing Impulse Responses in live halls, and running signal through vintage amps to capture their reverb. The DigiMax FS is one of those studio quality tools that you run across when reviewing gear that’s not going back. Having said that, I still haven’t even used all of its functionality. Who do I send the check to?

Clock, ADAT I/O, and analog jacks a-plenty.

TALKING WITH PRESONUS Whenever I come across a new technology, I like to get the scoop directly from those who use it in their products. Having said that, I asked Rick Naqvi, VP of Sales and Marketing at PreSonus, to elaborate on the DigiMax FS’s JetPLL Jitter Reduction Technology: The synchronization of the Digimax FS is handled by patented JetPLLTM jitter reduction technology. JetPLLTM incorporates noise shaping to virtually remove all audio band jitter. It ensures the highest converter performance possible, resulting in better stereo separation and clearer more transparent audio. JetPLLTM delivers ultra-fast locking to any digital format, through a wide range of frequencies and is extremely robust, and tolerant of wide variations in clock frequencies. JetPLLTM also ensures near perfect clock performance when networking audio devices, thus creating the most stable and robust synchronization to the computer and all devices synchronized with the Digimax FS.