Anybody familiar with Presonus StudioLive III 32S Desk

Nuendo
1

Since it’s clear that Avid/Steinberg are NOT going to do anything about the EUCON issues that keep us from using the Avid controllers, I’m moving on.

I just got a StudioLive 32S Console/Controller. So far, I’m loving it. :smiley: I’ve got Nuendo playing through it and now I’m trying to figure out how to set it up as a HUI controller. While Cubase/Nuendo is on the list DAWs it will control, ALL OF THE TUTORIALS ONLY SHOW IT CONTROLLING STUDIO 1 (here we go again). :unamused:

I’ve posted this same question on the Presonus site. But, as I expect that they’ll send me over here, I figured I might as well post the question here. I’m hoping that some of you might be using Faderports or the SL desks and already know how to walk me through this. The manuals are less than intuitive and informative, hence the “shotgun approach” to, hopefully, speed things along.

Thanks!:+1:

2

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3

Well, I figured out how to get the desk and the PC on the same network. Nuendo sees the desk, as it’s been added to the drop down menu in the Studio Setup Page. I’ve got 32 inputs in Nuendo activated from the desk and 12 Outputs activated from Nuendo to the desk. Now when I touch the DAW button, the desk goes into that mode, which is something. Before, I couldn’t even get that button to work! But that’s as far as I’ve gotten.

I still can’t get the transport to connect. The only controller software options that come up in the software menu on the desk is Mackie for Logic and HUI for Pro Tools. :cry: Both of which are available in the Nuendo drop down menu. But, neither of which seems to have ANY connection to the desk. ONLY THE STUDIO LIVE option in the Nuendo drop down menu seems to have any direct connection, which is great IF I can carry all of the necessary connections needed to get a working system.

I would really appreciate some Cubase/Nuendo SPECIFIC instruction here, if anyone can help me.

Thanks.

4

For the Faderport there was a .DLL I think and that was all it took. I suspect based on what I remember and just briefly checked that you may have to go through a dedicated software and do it over ethernet. And you may have to follow the guide for setting MCU up for Logic.

Haven’t used these big mixers so… that’s all I got… :wink:

5

Thanks anyway. I put in a ticket with Presonus to see if I can get this resolved. I got absolutely nothing from their Forum. I can’t figure out what’s missing. They can both see each other and I can pass audio in both directions. I can even get DAW mode to launch. But then it’s just a blank screen on the desk.

You’d have thought they could have made at least ONE video showing how to use it with a different DAW, since they’re advertising this as a feature. But hey, Avid says their hardware works with Nuendo too. :laughing: So, I guess all bets are officially off with those old “Truth in Advertising Laws!”

I really hope that I can get this resolved. With this one exception, I love this desk! But this one exception is an absolute deal breaker!! So, if we can’t get this to work with Nuendo, it’s going back to the store.

6

Struck out with Product Support. They confirmed that there was nothing wrong with the desk. But have no clue how to make HUI/MCU work in Nuendo. They suggest that I talk to Steinberg. :angry: I can NOT catch a break!

ANYbody here know how to set up HUI/MCU in Nuendo to make it actually work?

7

Hey, I got MCU to work! :smiley: That’s the good news. The bad news is that it only works for 8 channels. :frowning: In the Logic Tutorial I saw that helped me figure out how to set it up, they had MCU Extenders, so that you could run up to 32 faders.

Anybody know where/IF I can get that .dll to include the extender?

8

Hello Kp,

The HUI and Mackie Control protocols were only 8 channel protocols. I don’t use the desk but from long-ago vague memories of using HUI and Mackie Control protocols there was something about setting up multiple HUI instances for controllers with greater than 8 channels. That’s a vague memory but maybe you can find information online about it.
H

9

I remember the same. I think if you maybe look for people setting up actual Mackie extender units you might get hints on how to get it done.

Btw: How are the faders on that thing?

10

The desk offers the opportunity to use the Extenders. It’s the lack of the HUI/EXT option on the Nuendo side that keeps me from using it. Same with MCU. There’s a MCU/EXT option as well that the desk needs to access to get tracks 9-16/17-24/25-32. It’s frustrating not being able to access it.


Gorgeous! It’s the difference between chicken salad and chicken sh#t (on the Artist Mix)!! But be warned, it is NOT an intuitive desk!! The learning curve on this thing is ridiculous!

I bought it specifically for the 33 faders (I would’ve purchased 2 Avid S3’s, if they could’ve been locked together. But Avid won’t allow that!), the CONNECTIVITY (32 analog inputs: 16 XLR and 16 TRS) and 16 direct outs for monitors, which will allow me to set up my 2 stereo and 5.1 surround monitors without “Y jacks” or patching!!! It sounds great. It feels great! It’s got a relatively small footprint. It’s got remote features that I can load into my tablets (originally purchased to try to make the Avid gear work). It’s packed with great features and, if I wanted to switch to Studio One (NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN), I could have a Nuage/Nuendo or S6/Pro Tools Ecosystem experience. But figuring out routing on this thing is severe!

I set up the 5.1 monitors yesterday and I have yet to get any sound out of them! Everything works; nothing wrong with the desk, cables or monitors. I can see the signal passing to the surround channels I assigned. But no sound comes out unless I run the master out through those ports, which is NOT how that’s supposed to work. Since it’s the weekend, I have to wait til tomorrow for someone to explain how to get the discrete outs to work. :cry:

Sadly, as with most products these days, the manual is all but useless and the tutorial videos are positively insidious!

You follow the instructions and by step 2 you’re already in trouble! They would neglect to tell you how they got to certain pages. Other times you couldn’t follow a step because your drop down menu didn’t match theirs. Even when you were on the same page, you weren’t sure because your page didn’t look like their page. After a while, I realized that they were using PROTOTYPES to demonstrate and that’s why my hardware wasn’t matching that in the video. It has been quite the journey.

In spite of all that, I am fighting tooth and nail to find a way to keep the desk. I can read all of the channels from a distance so, less eye strain and fatigue. I don’t have to consider latency issues at all because I can monitor right from the desk. I can actually track a 32 + 2 (stereo print) session directly inside of the desk on a SD Card!! That takes me back to the days of blissfully working on my Roland VS hard disk gear. :smiley: It’s got tons of User Programmable features. So, between them and my X-Keys (for all of the Key Commands), I’m expecting to only keep my Artist Transport and put the other controllers on ebay.

This tribalism crap between companies has won me to shreds. I just want to be able to work the way I want to work without having the gear get in the way! I don’t want to be forced to use Pro Tools to have my controllers work. Nor do I want to be forced to use Studio One or any other DAW in order to get all the features I need to have a good work flow. That’s why I have always liked hardware better. It does what it does and that’s all that it does and, once you learn it well, you can fly on it! Once that happens productivity should follow without issue. So, I’m optimistic that this combination of gear should get me to a Nuage like experience on a budget that makes sense for the kind of billing I’m doing at present. When the budgets go up, I’ll have the perfect audio interface I need and I’ll go to a 32 fader Nuage System. :wink:

11

Have you tried installing 3 more mcus in Device Manager? That’s how you get multiple mcus to work…

12

You mean in the actual PC?

13

I think he means that in the setup window you select the “+” sign and choose Mackie Control again and it should appear as “Mackie Control 2” or something like that. Since your mixer is one physical unit I’m guessing you only have the one connection meaning you’d have to use Presonus drivers/software to get Cubase to see the separate buckets of 8 faders as different control units to be added.

14

Yes, in Cubase Device Manager, add 3 more mackie controls (as well as the one you already have).

15

I don’t see any folders in NUENDO that say device manager. I saw Device Maps in Nuendo 4. But, so far, that’s it. Where should I be looking?

16

I think that’s the place, and I think you basically have to add as many of those as you have sets of 8 faders. So for a surface that has a total of for example 32 faders you’d have to click the plus sign 4 times and select Mackie Control 4 times. Then each instance would need to get their MIDI inputs mapped and that’s where that software from Presonus comes into play as far as I understand it.

17

Yeah, that’s what I thought. I tried that the first time. It scrambled the tracks. It started at 9 - 16, then 1 - 8, then MIDI 9 - 16 and finally 25 - 32. I tried scrambling the sequence the way you would in Eucon to get the Mix & MC Control in the right sequence. But that didn’t do anything but make it semi-crash. DAW MODE OUTSIDE OF STUDIO ONE IS NOT USEABLE.

18

Sorry, I meant Device “setup” not “manager”
When you enabled the xtra 3 mc controls, did you get 32 faders on your mixer?

19

How did you go about “scrambling the sequence”? I would expect you to select the order by choosing the appropriate order/midi channel in Nuendo by selecting the device (device “instance”) and then choosing i/o accordingly in that same dialog box.

20

I remember trying to do this years ago with a tascam controller and, as I recall, the first mc control you add becomes the last bank of 8 when you add consecutive mc controls.