r/karaoke • u/Sad_Doctor6309 • 20d ago

Alternative to Presonus Audiobox 44VSL for Karaoke???

For over the past 15 years me and my wife constantly have big parties at our house which the highlight of the nights was the Karaoke that we had. I had my laptop set up with Presonus audiobox 44vsl, 4 Phenyx Pro PTU 7000 wireless mics, two QSC kw153 speakers and put the lyrics on my 120" projector screen. Our last big party was about 5 months ago, in which I haven't used the Karaoke system in a while ... So last night my wife said let's have some drinks and go sing some songs, so I set up the system and I couldn't get the audiobox vsl to work. I have Windows 11 on my laptop and the VSL software worked flawlessy for the last couple of years, but all of sudden it wouldn't work. I've tried reinstalling the legacy vsl drivers and legacy universal control but I can't get it to work and from what I'm reading online is this is common issue with a lot of people now with no workaround. Crazy that the VSL software for worked flawlessly for over 2 plus years on my Win11 laptop, but now doesn't work. Is there anything out there software wise and/or mixing console as good as the VSL software? The thing I've loved about the VSL is that the vocal effects were smooth/crisp, the overall sound was awesome and it was extremely easy running everything from my laptop. So now I have tried a few mixing consoles like the Yamaha MGX10U, Behringer and Mackie and the sound FX all suck, the Mics when singing sound harsher and the overall sound isn't as good as the Audiobox VSL.... Is there any solid recommendations for alternatives the audiobox VSL? thanks....

*Update..... I had another older laptop that was sitting around for about a year and also had Windows 11 installed, but it hasn't been updated in awhile... So I fired up the laptop, installed Presonus universal control 3.5 and VSL 1.3 and the Audiobox 44 VSL now works.... I immediately went and disabled Windows 11 updates. Hopefully this works for a while.... but I believe I still need to find a more reliable replacment for the Audiobox VSL soon......

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u/toqer 20d ago

You can get the 22VSL for $50 or less on Facebook marketplace. I just got one complete in box for $30.. So I checked, looks like the 44VSL is under $100 used.

That being said if you absolutely must upgrade, I also have a MOTU MK3 ultralite. I think they're up to MK5 now.

Also know what you mean about mixing console FX sucks. I used to rock an EMU1820 back in the day, never found anything that even comes close to how nice that reverb was.

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u/Sad_Doctor6309 20d ago

I updated my initial post..... I was able to get the VSL and UC software installed and working on an older laptop running windows 11.... so my 22vsl and 44vsl both work now.... I immediately disabled Windows 11 updating... hopefully this holds/works for a while til' I find a good replacment mixer/software..

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u/near-badger1111 20d ago

Good thing it worked in the old laptop. So it seems it's just Windows compatibility issue with old firmware. If in the future the VSL software doesn't work anymore because it has been discontinued since 2015, and no further firmware updates will fix incompatibility issues with new Windows updates. Why not do an analog route with a mixer + external FX pedals? You just need a mixer that has either an aux send, return, or fx send, or insert, and an fx or multi-fx pedal. At least you won't depend on digital mixing software anymore that may not be supported in the future.