PreSonus

This was my first keyboard that I got in a PreSonus Recording Bundle package. The keyboard is not great, but playable, and It has just enough controls to get you through most things. It also integrates seamlessly with PreSonus' Studio One DAW, so it has become a good utility keyboard for the studio. The truth is that this product is actually a "re-branded" Acorn Instruments Masterkey 49 keyboard controller that is colored blue and has the PreSonus name stamped on it.

I bought the PreSonus AR12 from Sweetwater. I had it for slightly over 2 weeks before noticing a cracking/popping sound. Sounded like a short in a cable. After replacing cables and checking the AR12 on both a Bose Compact L1 and Sterling Studio Monitors I realized there was a problem with the sliders cracking/popping whenever they were moved up or down.
The volumes on main, control, and headphone outputs are very low with the crackling/popping especially noticeable on the Main, Control and Headphone outputs. It wasn’t as noticeable on Mon 1 & Mon 2 outputs.

The dials/control knobs for effects, trim and volume have a noticeable difference from the 10 to 3 o'clock positions. Before that and you don’t hear any difference and after 4 o’clock that the sound becomes distorted.

The sound from the PreSonus AR12 is pristine, clear, clean even though the volume is low. The effects have a very warm, clean sound as long as you aren't adjusting the sliders which cause a cracking/popping sounds.

The SD recording, on the first unit, was nice with a clean, precise sound. PreSonus claims this is a stereo file but, only one file shows up in DAW showing a stereo link with no way to separate the R/L. The only way I found to get R/L was to record with hard R/L pan onto the AR12 SD card. I then imported the file twice, into Logic Pro X, panning one file hard right, the other hard Left. I had no options to pan. It was all or nothing. Guitar was on RT, vocal was on Left and there was no way to pan without getting both signals.

Other users have complained about low volume and wobbly sliders and I agree with that. Volume was very low and difficult to get into my DAW. The sound I did get was a clean, clear, precise sound with barely enough volume.
I’ve posted a youtube video showing these problems and explaining what I experienced with two of these units.


I’ve also posted a few demo’s of the AR12 which can be viewed on
www.youtube.com/c/deberney go to the Presonus AR12 playlist

In my opinion, I had two units that had similar defects and I’ve read others that are experiencing similar problems. This appears to be a problem that they are not ready to admit or fix and unfortunately, buyers are going to be stuck with a defective product until PreSonus decides to address it.