Question

Hello,

I'm writing you because I just bought a Presonus Studiolive 16r and am encountering some problems which I hadn't anticipated. My intention was to use it as a stagebox with my Motu ultralite AVB interface. I get the signals from the presonus alright but :

- I can't control the preamps gain, mute or phantom 

- I can't send signals from the computer to the presonus' mix outs. 

- and most important the presonus is locked in 48khz. 

I can live without the remote control of the preamps and maybe even without the mix outs. But I find it very problematic to have the studiolive locked in 48khz, specially when it is advertised as being suited for recording. I am aware though that the console is not designed to work with third party devices. My questions concerning these issues are the following :

- it is said in forums that 44.1 khz was announced for July 2017. Will this ever be released ? Are other sample rates going to be available somewhere down the road?

- is it possible to bypass the DSP and just use the preamps via an AVB network (i.e. directly connected to the MOTU) as in the stagebox mode available when connected to a Presonus Mixer (if I understood correctly the manual).

-  Would the NSB 8.8 work in the set-up I described ?

I'm open to any suggestion that would get me out of this.

I would appreciate a quick response since I do need a workaround for I have several projects coming up which require a similar setup.

Thank you very much and best wishes,

Answer 1

Hi Tomas,

At the moment Presonus are not offering support for third party gear and as you say Presonus are not claiming it works. I think it is a shame as Dante advances ever where all the time and the AVB guys need to get together. Anyway...

One question - when you say you can't control gains etc. - do you mean from within the MOTU App? I assume Universal Control still works? I have my 16R controlled via the standard ethernet port.

I have a 16R and a MOTU 112D - but only for the last two days!

When connected by AVB the MOTU App can see the 16R and knows what it is. I have set the MOTU up for two 8 channel streams and it sees all 16 channels from the 16R without problems. I currently have the 112D clocked from the 16R but it also works the other way round. However I cannot get the the 16R to 'see' the streams from the 112D.

For me the non receiving of AVB streams at the 16R end is worse than the 48Khz! I'm hoping to trial a switch to see if I can then record any of the AVB streams.

Ta like.

Answer 2

Please review the following article.

Link: https://support.presonus.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002507603-Series-III-and-Third-Party-AVB-support

Answer 3

Hello alistarmcghee

Universal Control does work, but it is quite impractical to have to go back to the UC to manage gain. Indeed, I don't think you're going to get the 16r to receive signal from the motu. One thing I wish to try but I haven't yet because I'm not home is to select the stagebox mode in the Presonus 16r via the UC Surface in WIFI. (I have no idea if this will work, but the manual says it is possible to set it to stagebox mode this way). Anyways if it doesn't, I'll try to get a NSB as MOTU confirmed the two can communicate. Maybe someone from Presonus can confirm this too ?

Good luck!

Answer 4

Hi Tomas

First a massive up to Jim Cooper and Brian Choi of MOTU great guys.

I now have bidirectional avb audio working between the 16R and the 112D. I described above that the audio from 16R to 112D was working but not the other way round.
Start at the MOTU end. In Pro Audio Control - when the 16R is connected over ABV it shows up in the device list on the left.

Select the 16R and then go to the Device page (top left in Pro Audio Control screen) - now in the AVB Stream Connections area you can select a return to the 16R ie AVB inputs.When you select the AVB stream the Clock Mode (of the 16R) will switch to the 112D output stream and audio will flow from 112D to 16R.

Right now I have audio routed from the 112D and into the 16R's mixer and then back up the AVB stream to the 112D, All working fine and I'm as happy as Larry. I know this doesn't answer your control issues but it is another step forward.

Al