Feature Request Direct monitoring multiple MR816's

Steinberg Hardware
#1

I have noticed a major flaw in the monitoring of multiple MR816’s

I have two hooked up and simply wanted to hear the inputs of the second unit through the outputs of the first unit… Simple you would think… NO!!!

You cannot monitor the inputs of the second rack through the first racks outputs directly…

The only solution I have found is to hook an adat cable from unit to adat out to unit ones adat in… Then you can send the inputs of rack 2 out the adat sends into the adat inputs of unit one and directly monitor it…

Come on Steiny this cant be too hard…

In my old system I ran a Yamaha O1x with 2 i88x’s hooked up and I could monitor all inputs through a single stereo output in realtime direct monitoring… It cant be too hard to created a virtual link between the units…

This is actually a major let down for me!

Bring it on I say!!!

Greg

#2

+1

A major disappointment in the MR816s is that, despite being initially advertised as having the capability, they cannot direct monitor in daisy-chained configurations. The work-around Steinberg came up with using the ADAT routing is unacceptable. This should have been sorted a year go, but, unfortunatly, has not been and probably will not be. :imp:

#3

+23452354 for this …

Come on steinberg …

I moved from MOTU to sty this highly touted interfaces …

MOTU and direct monitor on multiple units over their Audiowire and Firewire units … (Haven’t used their USB units).

#4

It is absolute BS! imho!

It really cant be that hard!

Greg

#5

Yes, this is something that really does need sorting out.


MC

#6

There’s a twofold problem here. The first is getting Steinberg’s attention. Once they get it, however, it would seem they have to go begging at Yamaha. One could get the impression that Steinberg is not very high on Yamaha’s priority list. I guess they make a lot more selling keyboards, mixers, motorcycles, etc.

#7

All we can do is all of us keep this post alive and up the top… That way it is in the face of steinberg and it HAS to get attention!

This is a major flaw in the design of the unit and has been a right royal pain in my ass!!!

Come on steiny

It cant be that hard!

#8

I’m not saying it’s not possible. However, this feature would demand increasing the internal routing matrix from 16x16 to 48x48. Therefore, MR Editor, for instance, would have to be completely redesigned to manage these huge routing possibilities.

Miloslav

#9

The Y/S driver is a peer to peer type only driver and therefore each hardware device even if chained together, the communication is still being treated separately by the computer to each device. If the Y/S driver became networkable - e.g. work under the same concept as mLAN does, then any devices chained together would be visable inside a mLAN network and no longer be working as peer to peer with the computer. This means that routing can then be shared across each device held within the mLAN network.

mLAN development has now unfortunetly ceased, so unless this concept is ressurected cannot ever see the monitoring issue on the MR units being resolved? It will probably be also expensive to back track the software to make it work using mLAN drivers.

I never understood Yamaha’s decision to move off from mLAN especially when all of the initial mLAN driver problems finally got resolved on both Mac and PC /win XP.

If we did have current mLAN drivers on W7 x64 and Mac SL then confident the N12 and MR’s could potentially work that way. (Remember that the N12 originally worked under a mLAN driver anyway and then you had to flash it to the Y/S driver with no going back to mLAN - so this proves it can theoretically be done.) There are no mlan drivers for W7 or Mac OSx SL which is why N12 users have to ditch mLAN and move to the Y/S drivers as peer to peer.

#10

Can someone at Steinberg please give us some info on weather or not anything is happening about this major let down!!!

#11

Whats happening Steiny?

#12

Still waiting for someone at steiny to answer this question…

Seems they really dont care…

Was in a situation yet again yesterday where I needed this feature.,.

I am getting the shits and getting ready to invest in better interfaces!!!

Hurry up!

#13

Yeah, this is pretty crumby. Fortunately I still have several mixers handy and just use analog outputs 3-8 on unit 1 and 1-8 on unit two as 7 stereo studio sends. I also have a bunch of splitters and often split the mics in the live room and let the musicians create their own monitor mixes on the spare mixers (also supplied with outs from 2 MR units). Sort of my DIY cue mix system. So there are some relatively easy workarounds, but it would be nice to have this capability with multiple units without any convoluted work around. It doesn’t matter if this was an oversight (a major one), or intentionally designed this way, but it should be addressed in a future update.

#14

There is a work around by using the adat out and ins on the units but I find that the control room features in cubase cause problems with “Auditioning” audio through the main outputs… ie you cant audition through the same bus as the master outputs…

Its CRAP!!!

#15

Just discovered this flaw. Had one 816 for a while, very happy with it, especially the routing possibilities. Then bought a second unit, connected it and had problems getting sound. Now it turns out that Direct Monitoring can’t be routed between units. I can’t believe it. I feel mislead. Where does it say this in the manual for instance? It did my research, but nowhere did I read about this in their specs. Steinberg, fix this. Please.

#16

Exactly!!!

Sort this out or tell us you are working on it and give us an eta for a fix to this… It is UNACCEPTABLE !!!


Greg

#17

Good luck… I doubt this is even possible.

#18

I bought my (2x) 816s the first day they were available and I’m STILL WAITING for them to perform as advertised… :cry:

#19

I don’t think it would be that hard to make this happen…

With yamahas mlan system you could route any input to any output… it would be a simple process of creating a digital path from the second mr816 to the first one…

Currently you can achieve a link by hooking up an adat cable between the output of unit 2 to the in of unit 1… It is just cumbersome and not very practical…

STEINBERG ARE REALLY GETTING ON MY NERVES IN THE LAST YEAR!!!

Might be time to buy a mac and move to logic or maybe just go to protools with some other interfaces…

In other words I have lost so much Time and Money and have been through too much stress thanks to Steinbergs LAZINESS on even responding to a request like this and the major dramas created by the REWIRE issue that they denied even existed for ages until finally I hassled them enough that they though well ok lets fix it…

SOMEONE AT STEINBERG RESPOND TO THIS THREAD ASAP!!!

Greg

#20

Guys, it’s always nice to have something to rant about. :laughing:
I’ve got 2 units (had 3 before) and really don’t see the issue?
how often will you have more than 8 singers recording in parallel, each needing to hear themselves through thier own headphone rather than a shared headphone or tap off the control room?

on my current 2 units i’ve got every i/o patched with synths and external FX, working on 256kb buffers virtually no latency.

Zero latency monitoring only becomes an issue if u need more than 8 sources to be recorded at once in parallel. with a need for realtime monitoring while playing.
Don’t get me wrong, i would like it to work as well, but for me it’s not a dealbreaker. MR is still unique as stacking multiple units work FLAWLESS as one big virtual unit in the HOST. with superb pre-amps and converters at an unbeatable pricepoint. I also can’t recall zero latency being advertized as accros stacked units, I do recall the ADAT zero latency setup instruction being posted with the launch of these units.