Question

Hello

I have a StudioLive 32R and Ableton Live 10, and I would like to record each channel individually, like Presonus Capture is capable of doing. However, I haven't been able to set this up on my own since there are no videos or guides explaining how to do it. Is USB multitrack recording a feature restricted to Capture/StudioOne, or am I doing something wrong? I have also tried to use REAPER64 with the same results. Ableton can see the mixer as an I/O interface, however it only sees it in two channel configurations from 1-8. Is there some driver that I'm missing that would allow 32 channels to be unlocked or something along those lines?

I would be fine with using Capture and transferring the audio files into Ableton, however Capture has an issue where the audio becomes distorted and awful after a few seconds if the recording time is longer than about 30 minutes. Apparently this is not an issue when recording with StudioOne, but the capture corruption is a whole different problem.

Any useful input is greatly appreciated! :)

Answer 1

UPDATE: I've figured out how to do it, ignore the initial post. 

If you're like me and aren't used to working with Presonus Mixers and DAWs yet, here's how to multitrack record on Windows using Ableton Live 10 (or other similar DAWs):

1. In Ableton, go to Preferences > Audio. Choose ASIO as the Driver Type. Choose StudioLive Series III ASIO as the Audio Device

2. Select Input Setup, then activate 1-32 mono inputs, or however many your console has. (select through 16 if you have the 16 ch console variant.)

3. Exit preferences, then create 32 audio tracks (the fast way is to CTRL+T until you have 32 tracks.)

4. Route every channel to its corresponding input, however you would like. To keep it simple, I just route them in numerical order, matching the track numbers.

5. Open Universal Control, then select the first channel fader. Open the channel preferences with the gear on the LEFT.

6. Go to the routing tab, select "O" if you haven't already, then select USB. Select whatever track you want to route to Ableton. To keep it simple, I just route them in numerical order like in step 4. *Keep in mind if you stereo link channels on the console, you MUST select and patch the left channel first, then select the right one and patch it separately. Use the "LR" button next to the gear wheel to switch the channels.  I'm sure there's a better way to do this with stereo track routing from Ableton's preferences, but I go ahead and leave everything as a mono recording on the DAW side.

7. Go into Ableton's Preferences > Record. Turn OFF "Arm" under "exclusive". This will allow you to arm multiple tracks at once, which is the whole point of multitrack recording. 

8. Check for audio levels, arm all tracks, and run a recording/playback test. If you've done everything correctly according to your mixer, everything should be working. The last thing to do would be to rename all of the tracks in Ableton to match your console and you're done.

This should be a relatively similar setup process for other DAWs out there, but it all depends on the DAW you're using and how many channels you are able to record. I guess if you want to avoid the setup, use Presonus Capture or StudioOne.