I gotsta be dooinn sumtin stewped. [SOLVED]

[Shane_B.]

I know there are some Studio One guys here. Hopefully you or anyone can help with this.

I've been trying to route my external compressor through my audio interface using Studio One and the Pipeline Stereo plugin. Pipeline is a Studio One exclusive plugin used to loop hardware through your audio interface and capture it in Studio One. It has a feature to where you can compensate for latency so the timing isn't off.

 It's super simple to set up.

1. Hook your hardware up in a loop to the audio interface.

2. Open up Audio I/O Settings in the song you are working on in Studio One and select the I/O's.

3. Insert the Pipeline Stereo (or Mono) plugin on the track bus or the master bus and select the I/O's. I'm mastering a stereo wave file with stereo hardware so I used Pipeline Stereo.

4. Done. It takes like 20 seconds. Maybe 25 if you stop to check the forums for new posts. 👍

New drivers came out today but they didn't help. The track meter I have the stereo wave file on in Studio One appears normal/stereo. The I/O meters in Pipeline appear normal/stereo. The VU meters on my hardware appear normal/stereo. All the meters for the Inputs and Outputs in the virtual mixer (Universal Control) show normal/stereo. Without a doubt I have everything routed properly with a stereo signal making it's way through from beginning to end.

The only place I cannot get a normal stereo signal is when I monitor it. Right now I'm only using headphones but I would think that shouldn't matter? The audio coming through the headphones is either Mono (even though the meters throughout the signal chain show it to be Stereo) depending on if I mute certain inputs in the Universal Control virtual mixer and if I have the Pipeline plugin visible on the screen. Or, it's stereo but sounds like I've added delay even though the mix slider is set to full wet as if you were hearing the track doubled but not in sync and when this happens the hardware has no effect on the signal. It's as if the original stereo wave file is doubled and out of sync. Lastly I can get a hardware effected signal but it is accompanied by feedback as if my input signal in to the compressor is too hot and it's in mono even though all the meters are showing stereo. All these things change depending on which inputs and/or outputs I mute or solo in the UC mixer and whether or not the Pipeline plugin is visible on the screen. I've tried every possible combination and nothing works. I always end up with one of those three problems and it's maddening. 😠

The manual says the 1810c's Outputs are balanced but it just says 1/4" TRS for the Inputs. It doesn't clarify if they are balanced or if it means a single input jack can be stereo. For example if you want to use a 1/4" TRS to 1/4" TRS cable going from the headphone out on a keyboard to a single stereo input on the 1810c. It doesn't specify. I'm using my monitors balanced cables that are 1/4" TRS to XLR. Do you think the balanced cables going to the Input could be the problem causing some kind of feedback loop?

Any help would be appreciated. Here's a very short video on how to set up any interface for routing external gear using Studio One. It's super simple.

Thanks. 🥺

[Shane_B.]

I'm so jealous of everyone I see online taking less than 4 seconds to set this up and get it working. 

There's even a freakin' news feed on Studio One's startup screen that came out yesterday about it showing how awesome it is and how great it works.

I'm such a loser. LOL!

[Bruno de Souza Lino]

One thing.

Trs connectors wired for stereo are not balanced connections, since you only have signal and ground, instead of signal positive and negative and ground.

[Shane_B.]

1 hour ago, Bruno de Souza Lino said:

One thing.

Trs connectors wired for stereo are not balanced connections, since you only have signal and ground, instead of signal positive and negative and ground.

Grr. My post just got booted. I'm back. SMH. I had a reply typed and it's gone now. So here I go again . . . 

Thanks for the info!

I heard back from someone at Presonus and they confirmed all the Input's and Output's on the 1810c are Balanced. I'm only using true Balanced cables so I can rule them out.

I need to hook up my monitors. Right now I'm only using headphones and in all the setup video's I've seen nobody is using headphones. It may be some internal routing issue when they send monitor outs to the headphone jack. There's no setting in the UC that allows you to route your outputs to the headphone jack. It's all automatic.

The UC is a virtual mixer you use outside of your DAW to control all the inputs and outputs of Presonus audio interfaces. It's called Universal Control. It is also what you use to initially install all the drivers and it is updated regularly.

Thanks!

 

[Bruno de Souza Lino]

5 hours ago, Shane_B. said:

Grr. My post just got booted. I'm back. SMH. I had a reply typed and it's gone now. So here I go again . . . 

Thanks for the info!

I heard back from someone at Presonus and they confirmed all the Input's and Output's on the 1810c are Balanced. I'm only using true Balanced cables so I can rule them out.

I need to hook up my monitors. Right now I'm only using headphones and in all the setup video's I've seen nobody is using headphones. It may be some internal routing issue when they send monitor outs to the headphone jack. There's no setting in the UC that allows you to route your outputs to the headphone jack. It's all automatic.

The UC is a virtual mixer you use outside of your DAW to control all the inputs and outputs of Presonus audio interfaces. It's called Universal Control. It is also what you use to initially install all the drivers and it is updated regularly.

Thanks!

 

I'm gonna take a look at the 1820c manual. While I do have Studio One, it's an older version which doesn't have pipeline. (2 Artist).

Do you happen to have loopback mode enabled?

Edited February 11, 2021 by Bruno de Souza Lino

[Shane_B.]

47 minutes ago, Bruno de Souza Lino said:

I'm gonna take a look at the 1820c manual. While I do have Studio One, it's an older version which doesn't have pipeline. (2 Artist).

Do you happen to have loopback mode enabled?

No I don't have loop back enabled. If you only have Artist, for a mere $15 dollars you can try the latest version of Studio One. 😁 😜

You don't have to use Pipeline. Supposedly it makes it easier to set up, but you don't have to use it.

In Studio One you can send a track to an output on your audio interface, connect that output to your hardware's input, take your hardware's output and connect to a line in on your audio interface and assign that line in to another track in studio one and enable monitoring. It should be that simple. Pipeline allows you to compensate for latency but if you are just mastering like I am then you don't need it. I was trying to use it because all the video's made it look super easy to do.

That said, I can't get that to work or Pipeline. I'm dragging the rest of my gear out of storage now and going to try and hook up monitors rather than just use headphones. I'm hoping that's the problem. BBL to report on my success. 🤞🏻 Tx.

[Bruno de Souza Lino]

2 hours ago, Shane_B. said:

No I don't have loop back enabled. If you only have Artist, for a mere $15 dollars you can try the latest version of Studio One

I was gonna upgrade to Studio One 5 Artist, but Presonus didn't accept my debit card.

[Shane_B.]

I figured it out. What an absolute nightmare. I've been working on this for 4 days straight all the while being told it was my hardware that was bad by various people I've talked to.

The big secret that's not in any manual or official video from Presonus is *drum roll* ... You have to disable Universal Control virtual mixer. And you have to use the Line Inputs on the front of the unit that have the mechanical gain knobs which I didn't want to do.

4 flipping days guys. Scouring the net. Reading their website. Asking for help on their forum from guys who have been using Presonus software and gear since day 1. I finally found the answer by some guy on YouTube who went in to detail on how to set it up and even took the time to photoshop up a flow chart.

Oh my God I'm so happy and mad all at the same time. 

It's becoming clear to me that almost nobody uses this for external hardware or the internet would be rife with the questions I just asked. There is no way on Earth I or anyone would ever dream that the virtual mixer they force you to use for EVERYTHING has to be totally bypassed and you are limited to only being able to use the inputs that have the mic pre gain knobs. Not in the manual, their site, their forum, their youtube video's. Nowhere. Unreal. 4 days. 

Thanks for your help Bruno!

EDIT 02/19/21 : I have to correct myself here in case someone stumbles across this looking for help on setting this up. After a lot more testing I discovered you can use all the inputs even without the virtual mixer. You just have to be extremely careful because there is no way to control the volume level. This goes against what I've seen in some setup videos that said you cannot use them without the virtual mixer. 

At any rate, you have to disable the virtual mixer or you get a bad feedback loop. You can manually adjust the levels by using the inputs with built in mic pre's or you can use the extra inputs but you just get line level with no way to adjust that except with your external hardware or the level come out of your DAW.

Edited February 19, 2021 by Shane_B.
Edited for clarity.

[Bruno de Souza Lino]

2 hours ago, Shane_B. said:

I figured it out. What an absolute nightmare. I've been working on this for 4 days straight all the while being told it was my hardware that was bad by various people I've talked to.

The big secret that's not in any manual or official video from Presonus is *drum roll* ... You have to disable Universal Control virtual mixer. And you have to use the Line Inputs on the front of the unit that have the mechanical gain knobs which I didn't want to do.

4 flipping days guys. Scouring the net. Reading their website. Asking for help on their forum from guys who have been using Presonus software and gear since day 1. I finally found the answer by some guy on YouTube who went in to detail on how to set it up and even took the time to photoshop up a flow chart.

Oh my God I'm so happy and mad all at the same time. 

It's becoming clear to me that almost nobody uses this for external hardware or the internet would be rife with the questions I just asked. There is no way on Earth I or anyone would ever dream that the virtual mixer they force you to use for EVERYTHING has to be totally bypassed and you are limited to only being able to use the inputs that have the mic pre gain knobs. Not in the manual, their site, their forum, their youtube video's. Nowhere. Unreal. 4 days. 

Thanks for your help Bruno!

Just be more tolerant with Presonus. It only took them 5 versions to figure it was a better idea to have Artist have VST and MP3 instead of having them as paid add-ons or having an intermediary version which was the same as Artist but with those two add one.

They are a bit slow. You'll probably receive the property video tutorial when version 9 comes out.