Presonus 1818VSL stupid question
- Thread starter WykedPT
- Start date
TalismanRich
Well-known member
It appears to have 8 line outputs on the back, not just stereo. Are you talking about effects I/O loops or just sending the outputs to another device? Your question is somewhat vague as to your purpose.
WykedPT
Member
Hello......Was wanting to go from the audiobox back into my mixer to tweek the tracks a little more as I do the mix and then back into the DAW in stereo from the mixer. Signal from the mixer works fine going in but if I come out of the audiobox into the returns (tape returns) from the 8 outs on the back it only goes to 2 tracks and seems to sum the 8 tracks into 2 tracks. My mixer is a 48 channel recording mixer. I have the 8 tracks coming back in on channels 17-24 but only 2 channels (17 & 18) have playback. Any ideas would be great....Trying to get started in computer recording .Been doing analog and digital (ADAT and HD24) for awhile so it's a learning curve...Thanks
Joseph Hanna
Active member
If I understand you (it's still a bit murky), you wish to run 8 analog outputs (TRS), from your DAW, out of the back of the Presonus, and onward to 8 analog inputs on your mixer. Mix or re-mix on the board and then return that mix, 2 track/stereo to your DAW.
So the problem you're encountering is the outputs of the DAW/Presonus interface, despite running 8 TRS cables outs, are summing to stereo at the console?
If that's the case I suspect your DAW is summing everything out of the 1/2 TRS balanced outputs on the Presonus. Conversely, 3/4, 5/6, and 7/8 are not routing signals, even though the cables are plugged in. Clarify if it's not, but if so, you need to set up the DAW so every individual channel/track in the software has the ability to route signals to any of the 8 analog outs on the back of the Presonus. Each DAW does things slightly differently but all are very easy to accomplish.
I could have misunderstood your post completely, especially since you introduced the idea of "tape returns" but perhaps clarify if so and we could go from there
WykedPT
Member
Right..That's what I'm trying to do..I'm using Studio One Artist. Here's what the manual says which is rather confusing........".Line Outputs. The AudioBox 1818VSL has eight line outputs to route to external devices, such as headphone amps and DJ mixers. Outputs 1 and 2 share their playback streams with the Main Outs. Outputs 7 and 8 share their playback streams with the headphone output. Outputs 3 through 6 have independent playback streams." By this I guess it means the out aren't independent channel sends and everything is summed..
Joseph Hanna
Active member
No that's not exactly what it means. Outputs 1 and 2 do share the stream with the Main Out 1 and 2. That won't cause a problem with accomplishing what you're trying to do. Don't physically route anything out of the Presonus Main Outs. No TRS cables on the Main Outs. Similarly, 7 and 8 shares an output. One output is to the headphone send and the other is to the TRS out 7 and 8. As long as you don't route both the headphone jack AND the 7 and 8 TRS to the board they will remain independent.
What you need to do is go to Studio One's I/O page and set that up properly. Nothing else that you're attempting to do will work until that's done. Your Presonus interface provides for 8 individual TRS outs. Studio One will talk to that. You need to tell/configure Studio One (DAW) I/O page to route audio out 8 separate channels independently, not the default summing of 1 and 2 to the Main Outs as is currently the scenario. This is easily done and tons of tutorials about Studio One I/O page setups are out there to be had.
Once that's done a configuration scenario example would be: The first track of audio in the DAW is a guitar. Once the I/O page is set up properly you can direct that guitar output (via the Studio One mixer channel 1) to route out channel 1 going to the Presonus interface, then on to your mixer. Channel 2 in your DAW is a bass guitar. You'd select the output in Studio One (DAW) channel 2 to route that output to the Presonus interface channel 2 and onward. The software and the interface doesn't care if you double up on output routings. For example, if you have 5 guitar tracks in Studio One they can all be routed out a singular output. Say for example channel one on the interface. Of course, then all guitars will show up on one channel in your mixer, but that leaves room for sub-grouping instruments. ie: guitars/keyboards/vocals etc. Or in the alternative you can just route 8 mono channels to your board
You can configure Studio One's I/O page to be 8 mono channels out, or 4 stereo channels outs, or 8 mono outs and 4 stereo outs. It all becomes easily selectable in Studio One
Joseph Hanna
Active member
Another component you'll have to address. Since apparently 7 and 8 are the default outs for the headphone mix you'll have to adjust. Since setting up Studio One to feed independent outs (channels and tracks 1 through 8) to your mixer, as it stands there would logically be channels that would no longer be fed to the headphone outs.
You can do a number of things if you want to monitor your headphone mix. A simple fundamental change is you simply monitor from the headphone outs of your board. Conversely, you could set up a cue mix in Studio One and bus every track to 7 and 8. Finally, know that Studio One's I/O section can be saved, exported, and imported. Takes a 1/4 of a second to reconfigure. This allows one to have multiple I/O pages to address all sorts of scenarios. You could easily have an I/O template when you're working with the external mixer and switch to a master Studio One-only I/O configure when mixing in the box.
WykedPT
Member
I tried every combination I could on the 1818VSL (watched all the tutorials) and have come to the conclusion (after what should have been my first test) that the unit is defective. I have no signal from outs 3-8. I have signal from 1&2 and main out. Back to the drawing board and the 96 for now.. Thanks for the help.... 
Papanate
Well-known member
It's doubtful that your unit is defective - it's in the routing page for your Presonus - look where you can assign the 8 outputs - keep in mind that 1/2 outputs are the same as the Left And Right - and 7/8 are the same as the Headphone - those 4 outputs are stereo and the same thing as your Main L/R - Headphone outputs - Channels 3 to 6 are independent - so I would see if you can route stuff to the left and right and not the 4 Independent outputs - then you would have 6 outputs - 1 to 2 panned to Left and Right on the channels you want - and 3 to 6 as channels you wantI tried every combination I could on the 1818VSL (watched all the tutorials) and have come to the conclusion (after what should have been my first test) that the unit is defective. I have no signal from outs 3-8. I have signal from 1&2 and main out. Back to the drawing board and the 96 for now.. Thanks for the help....
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Joseph Hanna
Active member
I'm with papanate in that I doubt the unit is defective and, like him, I suspect something is amiss in Studio One's I/O page and not the box itself. Anything is possible though. The 1818 was a pretty good interface and played nicely with Studio One's low latency "z" mode. So ya might wanna give the Presonus one more chanceI tried every combination I could on the 1818VSL (watched all the tutorials) and have come to the conclusion (after what should have been my first test) that the unit is defective. I have no signal from outs 3-8. I have signal from 1&2 and main out. Back to the drawing board and the 96 for now.. Thanks for the help....
If you posted a screenshot of the I/O section in Studio One we could at least eliminate that as a possible source of the problem.