Question

Feature request to add the channels 33-64 in Live mode for firewire inputs without cascading two RM32's

Answer 1

Thank you for the feature request. 

If anyone else agrees or disagrees, then please vote it up, or down. 

To vote:

In agreement click on the little blue triangle pointing up.

In disagreement click on the little blue triangle pointing down.

The developers pay close attention to those that are voted on the most. 

You are allowed one vote. 

Just viewing and agreeing but not clicking on the vote does not help the issue. 

Please click on one or the other. 

Answer 2

What exactly do you mean? How would you do that?

Answer 3

You would have the ability to use 33-64 FireWire inputs if using StudioOne or WAVES multitack to run plugins live. In other words, you would be able to double up channels. I.e. Analog Kick channel 1 duplicated and routed to FireWire input 33 on CS18 thru StudioOne or WAVES multirack. Just for more mixing flexibility using plugins live.

Answer 4

Yes! Good idea. This would probably mean opening up 64 channels of recording too.

Answer 5

I agree with your thinking. I don't need more pre-amps, I just need more channels. However, I can't imagine the CPU in the RM32 would support more channels. The RM16 has extra digital channels because it has the same processor as the RM32.

However I think you are on to something and I think there is a real opportunity here for PreSonus to grow with their customers needs while keeping them within the StudioLive ecosystem.

One option would be to shift most of the DSP onto a computer. This could be done with an option to disable the onboard FAT channel DSP and onboard FX to free up the processing power for the extra channels. This should provide the processing power needed for the extra channels, however it would require some improvements to the signal path like digital inserts on the mix buses main mix and internal FX channels to replace the onboard FAT channel DSP. Adding digital inserts on the internal FX channels would allow those faders and mute buttons to be used on the CS18 and UC Surface, keeping the existing workflow. This solution would also provide software product opportunities for something like a StudioLive version of Waves MultiRack that might be controllable from the FAT channel buttons and faders in UC Surface and on the CS18. This would be a great bridge between the StudioOne and StudioLive technology, providing a great synergy between the US and European businesses and provide a great opportunity to break into the plugins product category. Using StudioOne technology to control plugins from a console at this price point would be a category killer. Once you've connected a computer to your mixer you'll never go back, PreSonus need to make sure they are capturing value from this technology and not giving it away to competitors like Waves.

A second option to add more digital channels would be to add a low-cost cascading RM mixer without preamps, similar to the ********* X32 core. This would provide the necessary processing power for the extra channels, and provide an option for people looking for a hardware solution so they can keep the internal DSP while providing more channels to easily mix multi-tracks or summing busses etc from a digital source. An RM mixer without preamps would be an interesting product that could also add some much needed physical access to things like headphone monitoring from a FOH position. The product might also sit in an Amp rack and provide some speaker management capabilities from the AI loudspeaker products. This would provide a great synergy with the Worx Audio team and provide an upgrade path for people to bring their existing loudspeaker systems into the AI loudspeaker ecosystem.

These options would provide a great upgrade path for StudioLive owners, allowing them to stay within the PreSonus AI ecosystem as their needs develop.

Cascading mixers with more preamps does nothing for me, I genuinely hope these product ideas are in the pipeline.

Answer 6

I want to give this thousands of votes up!

Answer 7

Im at the exact same point right now. I have a Band filling the 32 physical channels, and have to somehow play back sample tracks.

I might get around with 1 or 2 stem mixes out of the DAW, but havin the firewire inputs on 33-64 would make total sense, since i'm controlling the RM with the CS18.

Answer 8

Try this guys, I just started doing this.

Answer 9

As far as I know FireWire is "hard wired" to channels 1 to 32 on the connected RM mixer, but with two mixers cascaded in an AVB network this looks a little different. If you use one RM at FOH as "Master", channels 1 to 32 (fader banks A+B on CS18AI) can serve as FireWire inputs, while channels 33 to 64 (from the "Slave" on stage, fader banks C+D on CS18AI) are used as normal. You can also individually use any channel of the "Master" as analog input or network input, which mirrors channels 33 to 64 to channels 1 to 32. Two cascaded RM mixers become one "big" mixer with 64 channels, which can get recorded through FireWire plus two stero signals, giving you a total of 68 tracks... The funny thing is that in a combination of RM16AI as Master and RM32AI as Slave, FireWire should only be able to "see" channels 1 to 32. Channels 33 to 64 come through the AVB network, but the connection between computer at FOH and RM32AI on stage needs to be wireless. They can not communicate through AVB or FireWire... I believe that there is still a lot of potential in the RM mixers and the CS controller, but the engineering capacities of PreSonus are occupied by many other projects. At least there are some updates announced for end of April, which mainly have to do with CS18AI and UC Surface 2.0.