Interfacing Linux: PreSonus ioStation 24C

PreSonus fused their FaderPort and 24c into an audio interface/production controller. Let’s find out if it knows how to Linux.

Big thanks to Kyjorei for picking this up from our wishlist. Check out his channel for additional Linux content.

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Drivers

The PreSonus ioStation 24C is class compliant so no additional drivers are needed.

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Pulseaudio

The PreSonus ioStation 24C will function like any other sound device in pavucontrol.

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Jack

Select the ALSA driver to connect your PreSonus ioStation 24C to the Jack server. 

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Round-trip Latency

While many kinds of audio latency metrics exist, one useful and well-understood metric is round-trip latency; the time it takes for an audio signal to enter the input of a device, get processed, and exit the output.

Measurements were taken with jack_iodelay.

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This puts the PreSonus ioStation 24C just below the TASCAM 16X08.

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Testbench

CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 5600G
RAM	Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB
Motherboard	MSI B550-A PRO
GPU	NA
SSD	Silicon Power 256GB NVMe
PSU:	EVGA 600 B1
Firewire:	Syba SY-PEX30016
Network:	Intel i350-T4
OS:	Debian Bookworm
Kernel:	6.1 RT
Desktop:	XFCE 4

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Ardour

Edit > Preferences > Control Surfaces > Presonus FaderPort 2

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Reaper

Options > Preferences > Control/OSC/web > Add > PreSonus FaderPort v2 (2018)

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Verdict

What we have here is two of PreSonus’s budget options fused into one. The 24C is a serviceable audio interface and the FaderPort is a (mostly) functional control surface.

Unfortunately the PreSonus ioStation 24C does not function correctly in Reaper without Reasonus. A windows only extension.

However, give it a look if you use Ardour / Mixbus on Linux and need a basic control surface + serviceable audio interface.

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PCB Shots

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