PreSounus AudioBox 1818VSL Working in Linux

[Trygil]

I was recently able to snag a good deal on a PreSonus AudioBox 1818VSL. I picked it up with the intent of it having a permanent home in my band's live rig so that we can record our shows.

Last night out of curiosity, I plugged it up into a machine running the AV Linux 5.0.2 Live DVD....and JACK saw all 18 ins and outs.

I was able to successfully record audio from the first channel, but it was late, and that was all I was able to test at the time. I'm hoping to test as many simultaneous inputs as I can given my current resources (6 mics...but I'm going to have to acquire some more mic cables). However, if this device is able to reliably record 16 channels simultaneously, I might be unracking my Layla. =X

[mauser]

Nice! Can you report at which latencies your card is working?

[william mox drossard]

Hi,
I bought presonus audio box 1818 vsl today !
Everything is working like a charm, meaning I can route any input to any card output (even earphones) and I can even set the clock source using the alsa mixer xfce front end.

My jack setup is :

sample rate : 48000
samples/period : 256
period/buffer : 2

Jack estimated latency is : 10,7 Ms

I'm on a Lenovo 3000 N200 dual core 2ghz 2gio ram, lubuntu 11.10+ KxStudio is my system and I hadn't experienced any performance issues by now.

I'll post my test on different setup values and post my results here. If you want me to try something or just have a question I'll be glad to help you.

[slowpick]

Thanks for posting gear that works!
Now must look for bargains

Here is Presonus features page for this device

http://www.presonus.com/products/Detail ... oductId=65

[AutoStatic]

period/buffer : 2

From man jackd:

For USB audio devices it is recommended to use -n 3. Firewire devices supported by FFADO (formerly Freebob) are configured with -n 3 by default.

So you can probably achieve an even lower latency with a periods/buffer setting of 3.
And great to know there is yet another USB2 audio device that works ootb with Linux!

Best,

Jeremy

[steevc]

Another cool addition to the wiki

http://wiki.linuxmusicians.com/doku.php ... ox_1818vsl

Good to see some USB2.0 interfaces being supported.

[quandt]

Can't seem to make it work completely myself.

I would appreciate any pointers....

Tried two systems,
AVlinux 5.0.2 (live DVD), and Debian Squeeze which I recompiled to a newer kernel (including 1.0.24 alsa).

Behavior on both are the same, namely I get output (ie 18 channels playback_*) and they all work great.

But I can't get any input (ie all 18 inputs, capture_*) don't end of "hearing" anything.

--Brian
PS have tested on a mac, ie recording/playback and seems to be fine, physically.

[quandt]

I figured it out.

Bottom line, it works under Debian squeeze on the newer built kernels (ie what debian calls testing/unstable, including the real-time kernel)

Specifically, after adding the repos....
apt-get -t unstable install linux-image-3.2.0-1-rt;-amd64 linux-sound-base

My issue was that 1818vsl resets its master capture level (controls all inputs) to 0, ie mute'd each time you repower it (or reboot). In alsamixer, go enable all the buttons in the "prefs" for the "AudioBox 1818", and then in the playback tab (eventhough its playback AND capture) set them all at 100%, in switches make sure all 4 switches are checked, ie Capture Sw Capture Sw1, Playback S and Playback S1. In options I'm set to internal clock.


I also happen to have set this to my first sound device (before my intel snd hwa on my motherboard) just in case, but probably didn't need to, just wanted my default device this one... just in case other issues....
so in alsabase.conf, I did this:

options snd-usb-audio index=0
options snd-hda-intel index=1

[AbdRahim]

What are your jack seeting to make this work? I can record in Ardour, but I hear no sound when I try to ply it back.

[bamboomusic]

Hi,
So, since Audiobox 1818VSL works, are there chances that the whole family of Audiobox usb works?
I'm interested in AudioBox USB (http://www.presonus.com/products/Detail ... oductId=53) and
AudioBox 22VSL (http://www.presonus.com/products/Detail ... oductId=63).
Has anyone tested one of them?

Thanks
--
Nicola

[phooka]

I have the AudioBox 22VSL and can confirm it is working perfectly in ubuntu studio 12.04. Both inputs work simultaneouly and audio output succesfully plays through the headphone jack on the box(haven't tried the 1 and 2 outs). 128 Frames/Period and 2 Periods/Buffer gives me estimated latency of 5.9 ms. I have had zero xruns since starting jack an hour ago.

HAVE FUN EVERYONE!!!

I posted this just for you Nicola, because you asked

[jordancolburn]

I also have the 22VSL working in Ubuntu Studio 12.04, headphones, 1,2 outs and midi all seem to work fine, but I have been experiencing some xruns every 30-40 seconds with similar settings (128/2). Could possibly be due to frequency scaling of my CPU on an older Mac Mini?

[huwshimi]

Interesting. It appears both the 1818vsl and 22vsl work fine, but the 44vsl doesn't. If anyone has any suggestions on how to get it working I would appreciate it so much!

My thread is here: http://linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7738.

[streber]

UPDATE

I installed Ubuntu Studio on another piece of hardware and all the ADAT outs on this work fine.

I'm not sure if it's the root cause, but aplay shows a dmix and dsnoop device that the non-working OS does not have.

Thanks Everyone!
/UPDATE
I asked this in another thread, but...

Has anyone tried using the ADAT outs on this device?

I can only get two channels to come out anything I connect to ADAT... I've tried both a digimax fs and a lucid 8824. On both the behavior is the same: I can get channels 7&8 to work on the device as channels 17/18 is jack/ardour... none of the others seem to work.

I DO seem to be able to get 8 INs to work... 11-18. But outs I can only get 17&18.

I'm using a thinkpad e420, I'm running fedora 17... etc.

Also, running speaker-test doesn't seem to be able to test any of the ADAT outs... I need jack running for the second device to work at all (and I haven't figured out how to run speaker-test with jackd)


Can anyone confirm they have been able to send out 8 channels via the ADAT lightpipe on the 1818vsl?

Thanks!!

[snell]

Hello,

I recently purchased an AudioBox 22VSL and I cannot get Ardour to record from the AudioBox instead of my laptop's internal microphone. Can someone that has gotten this interface to work offer any suggestions? I do see the interface in Jack but I am not sure if I have the settings correct.

I apologize if I should create a new post for this, I am not sure how...