Discuss the new PreSonus CS18Ai
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I know it's very late in the game, but if Presonus ever does issue a final bugfix for the CS18Ai, please consider the following UI issues.

Aux buses and submixes are fundamental tools and it's vital the console's UI properly indicates their state whenever one of these mixes is selected. The primary way to do this is by selecting one from the row of Mix buttons above the scribble strips. When you do so, however, many of the status indicators are not updated to reflect the state of the selected mix:

1. The name of the previously selected channel or bus remains visible in the upper left corner of the LCD screen.

2. The Fat Channel indicators are not updated to show the settings of the selected Mix bus.

3. The Assign butttons are not updated to show the output routing of the selected Mix bus.

4. If a channel was previously selected, it will remain selected after selecting a Mix bus, even when that channel is not included in the selected mix.

5. If you change settings on the Fat Channel, it will NOT update to display and control the selected Mix bus. It will update the (hidden) previously selected channel instead.

6. If the currently selected Mix bus is also highlighted by pressing the Select button over the Flex Master fader, it will remain selected even after pressing and turning off its Mix button. (The Flex Master Select button will turn off, however.) If you then change settings on the Fat Channel, it will update the Mix bus you just unselected.

All these UI status and selection issues would be consistently resolved with one simple fix:

When one of the Mix buses is selected, the console should automatically select and highlight the Flex Master Select button. When that Mix bus is unselected, the console should automatically select the Main bus.
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by matthewgorman on Wed Oct 31, 2018 7:26 pm
Its been a while since I used it, but that may not be a bug believe it or not. Going from memory, so my apologies if I get something incorrect.

The fat channel and screen will remain in focus for the currently selected channel. When you select the mix, you are only selecting that for the faders. You then need to hit the select button above the flex fader, to put that mix in fat channel focus.

Matt

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by lishlash on Thu Nov 01, 2018 1:52 pm
matthewgorman wroteIts been a while since I used it, but that may not be a bug believe it or not.

Consider what happens in scenarios 5. and 6. above and tell me those aren't bugs. In both cases, a channel or mix that's no longer visibly selected is being altered in the background. When is that ever intended by the operator?

When I press a Mix button, I'm selecting an aux bus or submix as my in-focus context. That should automatically override any previously selected channel or bus and light up the Select button over the Flex Master. If it was a channel that was previously selected and I selected a submix, that channel is likely not even included in that submix. What sense does it make to leave that now irrelevant channel invisibly selected in the background?

The operation of the aux buses and submixes in the StudioLive AI console mixers was totally consistent and unambiguous. When you selected an aux or sub, the faders remained dedicated to their individual channels, but everything else updated to show the state of the selected bus. The CS18Ai added fader layers to the interface, but it's still a StudioLive AI series II mixer and should function in a consistent manner. This clunky hidden selection behaviour is what I'd expect from an iTunes app.
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by wahlerstudios on Thu Nov 01, 2018 2:17 pm
It's not a bug of the CS18AI, if you want so it's a "bug" of the RM mixers. The CS follows exactly the way you are using UC Surface. You really have to distinguish between things related to channels and things related to buses. Once you have understood this approach, you get along with it.

I do remember that this was handled totally different on the SLAI consoles and that I had problems to get used to a "physical UC Surface" on CS18. The now working Sync Select in combination with the Channel Display Mode of UC Surface is quite helpful to not get lost in layers and modes...
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by lishlash on Thu Nov 01, 2018 3:32 pm
wahlerstudios wroteIt's not a bug of the CS18AI, if you want so it's a "bug" of the RM mixers. The CS follows exactly the way you are using UC Surface. You really have to distinguish between things related to channels and things related to buses.

What's the point of providing a hierarchical submix infrastructure and then undermining it with a channel-sticky mishmash of inconsistent visual feedback? This is one of those things that infuriates me about computer interfaces. Programmers who don't bother to follow through with their hierarchical designs and leave the thing cluttered with clunky shortcuts, overrides, and workarounds.

I don't see how this is a bug in the RM mixers, they don't even have a user interface. The functionality already exists - just make pressing the CS18Ai Mix button trigger the Flex Master Select button function as well. It's firmware code inside the CS that acts on your button presses, the RM mixers just follow suit.
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by wahlerstudios on Thu Nov 01, 2018 4:14 pm
I understand you and agree. There would be room for improvements... But as we all know the development of the AI family ceased by April (release of beta firmware, released unchanged as "new" and successfully beta-tested firmware in September) :mrgreen:, so do not await anything anymore.

It has helped me to work with my CS18AI without any audio connection - as a pure controller. This is the case when the CS18AI is connected via WiFi dongle or integrated to a Dante network. Now the CS18AI does exactly what an iPad does. Nothing more, nothing less. The CS18AI is a big iPad, being the "surface" of a RM rack mixer.

Or see it this way: If you "think" from a console, UC Surface can be quite circuitous. It always depends... ;-)

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