Just plugged my 2442 into Dante Controller and was offered the sampling rate choices of 44.1K and 48K. So that answers that question.

The next question: is there any future that shows firmware updates for the panel that will allow for higher sampling rates? Tech support says that the Dante protocol as a whole CAN support higher rates, but that it up to the equipment manufacturers to write firmware that supports it. There are Dante products (Focusrite comes to mind) that allow for high rez sampling rates so it is possible. Not being able to use my 2442 as a monitor panel on high rez recordings throws a big wrench into my plans for an all Dante rig. Sigh!

Matt?

Thanks.

Doug

I don't speak any Dante, but I see in my SL's "device settings" (UC Surface) that the sample rates can be 44.1, 48, 88.2 and 96 kHz.

Hmm. That's interesting. When I open up my SL2442AI on UC (all firmwares current) and look at device settings, I only get the options of 44.1 and 48K. This may be because I have the Dante card installed.

Doug

As well, I see that the manual for the SL2442AI shows only 44.1 and 48K as supported sample rates. May be that other Presonus devices available on UC support higher rates?

Doug

I could have sworn that all AI products would do up to 96k. Hmmm, I set up a 16.4.2 AI and I think it had 96k ability, but the may not have shipped with the ability at first and needed an update. And I certainly don't know if it works with the daunte card or not, that could be the limiting factor (waiting on another update to unlock it).

I do know that it must take up a lot of the processing in these mixers because to go to 96k on the RM you are forced to sacrifice 2 of the FX engines.

The point of my post is that I thought all AI could do 96k over FireWire.

Have you tried connecting a computer with FireWire and seeing what rates are available then?

Steve

My connection from the 2442 to UC was via FW. It is not out of the question that I have something mis-set but I am certain I have the latest firmware installed on all my Presonus gear. I will re-install the original control card and look to see if that changes my options.

Doug

So I just re-installed the control card and sure enough. . . all the high rez sampling rates came right up. So it is all on account of the Dante card. Boy would it make my life good if Presonus comes up with an update that will allow Dante at 88.2 and 96K.

Doug

Just heard back from Presonus. They have no plans to increase the sampling rate of the Dante card.

That makes me an ex-Presonus user. God, I make a lot of bad choices.

Doug

Wow! Makes you wonder what the issue is? Hardware not capable or what?

You try to move up to the big leagues of daunte and all this connectivity between multiple systems but this piece only works at 44-48, it's like moving up and moving down at the same time, seems weird to me . . .

Steve

It is my guess is that the built in processor isn't large enough to do all the the 2442 needs AND support 96K. I would take a crippling of efx at 96K for connectivity any day, but I am probably among the few. Oh well.

D.

You are guessing wrong, I would say, because the SL boards are able to handle 96K (with some reductions in functionality). So the problem obviously is the Dante integration and/or the Dante card. For the card PreSonus is asking for a price which is kind of "low end" in this field. Others are more expensive. This must have a reason. But I am no specialist in these kind of things, so I just want to say: Look around how much hardware for Dante integration costs and which kind of boards are able to work at 96K or higher and how the network integration is done.

Usually I do not read too intensive what is written/asked in the PreSonus forums about Dante themes, but I do think there are some people here who are happy with their recordings through Dante. I feel kind of sorry for your disappointment that 96K is not supported by the PreSonus Dante card, but I have read your many posts with interest and always wondered: What do you need 96K for and what are your goals? Where do you want to go with your equipment?

Getting to know this may get other people's brain start working and they may come up with some interesting solutions.

Just my two Euro cents...

I record classical music almost exclusively. My recording chain is preamps-converters-recorder. The recording signal never passes through the panel. I use a panel in the control-room for the simple task of providing a monitor mix, for mixing and sending cue feeds (rarely necessary) and for putting together a 2-track scratch-mix. That's it. But my clients almost always want to record at 88.2K. Whether or not they, or I, can hear the difference in the real world is irrelevant. They all want it. Couple that with the fact that most also want all the mics on faders and to have all those faders available "on top" (ie. not banked with working faders hidden below), I need a panel that has 24 faders (the most tracks I am currently able to record on a JoeCo BBR1.) If I am able to lose my 350' of Whirlwind 24-pair copper snake and go to a Dante feed to the control room, I need a Dante enabled panel that is capable of running at the recording chain sample rate of 88.2.

Or down-vert the Dante to analog and feed the panel that way. Or, or, or. No possibility is easy or inexpensive; each RedNet converter costs between $1600 to $3600 and the two at the studio end are a big investment without the need to buy two more for the control room end that would function merely as a band-aid instead of an elegant solution. A Dante card in the panel would make the rig elegant and simple. That is my frustration.

So now, I am considering losing the Presonus panel and adding a dedicated MacBook Pro with Pro Tools 10 and a legacy Pro Control 24 as a controller, also not a particularly elegant solution (the Pro Control is not remembered fondly, but it would probably handle the simple tasks assigned pretty well.)

That's the long story. Still looking for a solution that isn't huge, super expensive, or crippled. Maybe there is none, but it's too bad that the Dante card for the 2442 won't do 96K. It sure would make this easy.

Doug

Thanks for giving us a picture of what you are doing and what your needs are. What you do sounds interesting! As I am not working in this special field, my knowledge is limited. I just checked how things look from the AVB side of view. Also there 88.2 and 96 kHz cause network problems which I would interpret as "not working" or simply "forget it"...

So I would say 88.2 and 96 kHz are available by firewire only, but for that your SL2442AI is quite a perfect tool. I do my mixdowns (from Capture) on SL and record the mix with Capture (tracks 25+26). Capture is limited to 48 kHz and anyway not network ready, so use Studio One instead. During recordings the main mix and 10 auxes can be used for monitoring (Control Room, Recording Room, InEar...) and of course talkback. And in 96 kHz you can still use two of SL's FX to make things sound nice for the musicians (InEar etc.).

When SL is working in 96 kHz mode, there seems to be no networking possible. So for you there is no way around the good old copper snake, but the SL would give you a lot of flexibility and allow recordings at 88.2 or 96 kHz. It's some kind of workaround, but it works. I suppose you have a computer at hand for studio purposes (recording, editing, mixing).

One more option could be to use the three db25-connectors on the back of your SL. They represent the given 24 inputs, while on RM they represent the 16 auxes. You could "split" your inputs, send them to RM and do the recording there.

This thread is in StudioLive AI Consoles, so the studio guys are not looking here. Maybe there should be new thread opened in a more appropriate part of the forum.

Thanks so much for your detailed replies.

I must say that my rig, as it is currently configured, does an excellent job on even my largest location recordings.

I do, in fact, use Capture as a backup to my JoeCo and it works well via FW. I use the analog out from my converters (Lynx Aurora 16s) to feed the line inputs on the SL for control room monitoring. Works perfectly as expected.

All in all, an elegant and working set up.

So I have officially abandoned the Dante project, at least for now. $10-15,000 is a lot of money to spend to replace a perfectly good Whirlwind splitter snake with 500' of Cat6. Too much for now.

I believe that Dante will remain a player in the networked audio game, and as time goes on, more and more manufacturers will come to the game with new and better solutions. Maybe some day, I'll return to the project.

D.

To give a bit of perspective as regards expectations and equipment capabilities...

I've just spent a week with a Yamaha PM5D, (google it), using it as a monitor desk. It has 3 expansion slots.
The Yamaha Dante card (MY16) is 16 x 16 only (Presonus one is 64 x 64) and costs more than the Presonus card and you need 3 of them for the full 48 x 48 of the desk.

The MY16 runs at 48k. It WILL run at 96k but... You loose half the channels, so your 48 channel desk now can only route 24 channels with Dante... Using 3 MY16 cards....

Yep. Just sold a DM1000 with Dante cards because it only had 16 faders up. I want at least 24 and I love the compact size of the SL2442AI. We are all VERY particular about our rigs aren't we? :)

I am now looking at AVB which, I believe will work at 96K on Presonus mixers?? I am not 100% positive about any of the AVB stuff; just starting to explore.

D.