Howto set up Presonus Audiobox 1818vsl?

[Rockin Mike]

I got the 1818vsl after reading that it works perfectly in Linux.

I have a lot to learn about Linux audio so I tried running the thing standalone at first:
Microphone -> input 7, listening on headphones. input gain, master volume, headphone volume all on 5.
Should I be able to hear the mic in the headphones running like this? I heard nothing.

I have no idea how to set this up in Linux. I can see:
cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [Intel ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel
HDA Intel at 0xf0a00000 irq 45
1 [Loopback ]: Loopback - Loopback
Loopback 1
2 [VSL ]: USB-Audio - AudioBox 1818 VSL
PreSonus AudioBox 1818 VSL at usb-0000:00:1d.7-1, high speed

and it shows up in Kmix but does not have any widgets on that tab, just gray,

and it shows up in alsamixer but some sliders are at zero and I'm not able to adjust them.

I see something called "system" in qjackctl, I'm not sure whether that's the presonus or not.

Audacity sees it on hw:2,0

I don't know how to check for it in Ardour.

I'm running:

Acer Aspire 7730
USB 2.0, 2 cpu cores at 2GHz, 4 GB RAM
KXStudio 12.04.3

and that's about the limit of my knowledge about this thing. Any help getting it up and running would be greatly appreciated.

[Pablo]

What is the terminal output of "arecord -l && aplay -l" ?

For applications that use jack as the audio engine, such as ardour, you have to explicitly tell jack to use the card you want, either in ardour audio configuration or (as most people do) via a jack front-end gui such as qjackctl or Cadence. "system" is a generic name that jack gives to the audio card, whichever is using.

Asuming there is one and only one device for capture and playback (the comand above will tell for sure) and in the case you use qjackctl, you have to type down:

hw:VSL

in the interface field (yes, it is editable). You probably already have "hw2" in the drop down menu (little arrow on the right) and that should work too but it is better that you call it by name, in case cards change their numbers.

[Rockin Mike]

arecord -l && aplay -l # outputs the following:

**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC888 Analog [ALC888 Analog]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 2: ALC888 Analog [ALC888 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Loopback [Loopback], device 0: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]
Subdevices: 8/8
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
Subdevice #7: subdevice #7
card 1: Loopback [Loopback], device 1: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]
Subdevices: 7/8
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
Subdevice #7: subdevice #7
card 2: VSL [AudioBox 1818 VSL], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC888 Analog [ALC888 Analog]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: ALC888 Digital [ALC888 Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Loopback [Loopback], device 0: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]
Subdevices: 8/8
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
Subdevice #7: subdevice #7
card 1: Loopback [Loopback], device 1: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]
Subdevices: 7/8
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
Subdevice #7: subdevice #7
card 2: VSL [AudioBox 1818 VSL], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

I also notice that when I reboot KMix comes up by itself with the "AudioBox 1818 VSL" tab selected, and no info in the tab, just gray. When I click the wrench at the bottom it pops up a new dialog box titled "Configure Channels - KMix". It says "Configuration of the channels. Drag icon to update." There are two panes, titled "Visible channels" and "Available channels". "Visible channels" is empty. "Available channels" shows the following:

(yellow icon) AudioBox 1818 VSL Clock Selector
(red icon) AudioBox 1818 VSL Clock Selector Capture Sw
(red icon) AudioBox 1818 VSL Clock Selector Capture Sw 2
(red icon) AudioBox 1818 VSL Clock Selector Capture Vo
(red icon) AudioBox 1818 VSL Clock Selector Capture Vo2
(yellow icon) AudioBox 1818 VSL Clock Selector Playback S
(yellow icon) AudioBox 1818 VSL Clock Selector Playback S 2
(yellow icon) AudioBox 1818 VSL Clock Selector Playback V
(yellow icon) AudioBox 1818 VSL Clock Selector Playback V 2

I don't know what I'm looking at there, any explanation/howto would be much appreciated.

[Shadow_7]

The device has a name of hw:2 in alsa terms. With ardour, you would launch jackd for hw:2 and connect ardour to jack. You can assign a name other than hw:2 with a ~/.asoundrc file. You can also reindex the cards so hw:2 is hw:0 which is the default, and everything will just lean to using it by default. Easier said than done, and involves some customizations in /etc/modprobe.d/, but an option.

$ jackd -p256 -d alsa -d hw:2 -p2048 -D -n2 -r48000 -m -s -S

Or whatever works best for you. Qjackctl aka jack-control as named in debians menu gives you a gui to set those parameters and lauch jackd if you're more comfortable going that route. Pulseaudio can help you redirect most applications to use the non-zero device. But not all applications speak the modern lingo, and pulseaudio isn't always desireable. And a lot of the mentioned applications may not be installed by default on your system.

[Pablo]

See this thread:

http://linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7543

Above all, the part when they talk about alsa mixer. Indeed, I suggest you use pure alsamixer (i.e., type "alsamixer -c2" in a terminal window) instead of kmix, alsamixer is lower level so not so user friendly but more reliable. It is keyboard driven, don't try with the mouse. Look for directions on how to use it. There is also "amixer -c2" which is info in plain text about your card's settings.

[Pablo]

BTW, you can see the alsamixer instructions by typing:

man alsamixer

I hope this helps, Pablo

[Broomy]

I recently bought a 1818vsl, but I'm getting Xruns with several different settings (512/ 96000 / 3 seems now the "best" option with only a xrun every 20 sec).
I've kxstudio installed on my laptop and have switched off networking, using it standalone. When swapping back to my Alesis IO4 I can get 0 Xruns with 64(!) / 44.1K / 3.

I don't know how to move on from here. Can someone give me some advice?

@Rockin Mike: Did you get your card working?

[Rockin Mike]

We've been gigging a lot and I haven't put time into it since my last post. Pablo and Shadow_7 have given some good leads I need to explore. No gigs this weekend so maybe I'll be able to dig into it some more.

[Broomy]

I've got my card working (96k, 256, 3). I'm using a different usb socket, turned my powermanagement off and set my cpu power policy on performance. This did the trick.
I only get some Xruns when I change sessions in non session manager.
I've did some quick recordings using Ardour and nsm, non-mixer with some plugins, without any problems.

Btw. The mic preamps are a blast! Great.

[tatch]

I'm having issues with my 1818vsl too on ubuntu 13.10 w/ kxstudio repos. I initially installed 12.04.4 on here with kxstudio but I was having other hardware issues including 1818vsl issues. The inputs work for me but I can't get the outputs to work at all and I get massive xruns too. When I connect 1818vsl in and internal soundcard out I don't have as many problems. http://linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=12073 though when I run it at around 128 buffer size or lower it's fine but every few minutes i'll get like 600 xruns which amounts to like a 3 second pause without any sound.

[basstrombone]

I'm having issues with my 1818vsl too on ubuntu 13.10 w/ kxstudio repos. I initially installed 12.04.4 on here with kxstudio but I was having other hardware issues including 1818vsl issues. The inputs work for me but I can't get the outputs to work at all and I get massive xruns too. When I connect 1818vsl in and internal soundcard out I don't have as many problems. http://linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=12073 though when I run it at around 128 buffer size or lower it's fine but every few minutes i'll get like 600 xruns which amounts to like a 3 second pause without any sound.

Hello all!!


Since everybody provided so much help since I've got here, I'll put some of my own experience running the AudioBox VSL 1818 here:


1. The Headphones OutPuts are set to work on the "7/8" Outputs. That means if you are running Ardour or MixBus your Master should be assigned to output 7/8 otherwise no sound will come out.

2. On Mint, the interface will display 8 outputs. Your Headphones will sound (while using sound setting choose the VSL1818) Then, under the test sound for "playback", 8 outputs will appear. Click on the ones that are aligned with the "Subwoofer" . The sound will come out.

3. If you turn Jack on, no sound will come out form any application..... Open Ardour or MixBus or whatever and choose output 7/8 for headphones (only)
Another option would simply be, send the "1/2" outputs to a headphone amplifier or a small mixer then send the out signal do a pair of monitors while you hear the main on the headphone. It works just fine. Did both.

My mint has been optimized for audio following the instructions provided by members of this forum. So its working just fine.

I've been recording with my UMC 404HD and now with this one. Next Week I'll try to buy a FireWire PCie card so I can try the Saffire Pro40 we have at the School of music I work. That sounds amazing.

I own a TASCAM US 2000. That doesn't work at all under linux. Sounds amazing but only under Mac Os and Windows. Don't run Windows.