Studiolive 32Ai, 24Ai and 16Ai Consoles with Universal Control Ai, SL Remote Ai, and QMix Ai
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I have a StudioLive 16:4:2 AI and have recently experienced a strange issue. Playing a gig last Saturday, we were told by our audience that the FoH sound was dropping out for a couple of seconds (i.e. total loss of sound), before coming back. This seemed to occur randomly but fairly regularly, particularly when the band was playing – it didn’t seem to occur between songs when our singer was talking to the audience.

We were running 5 on-stage monitors and heard no sound interference or issues on-stage whatsoever. We changed the PA amp, speakers and cables between the mixer & amp during the interval, but the problem remained.

We were running the mixer normally (with faders just below/at unity gain) and the VU meter (set to show output) was peaking with 1 or 2 yellow LEDs at most. I recorded the first half of the show on a MacBook Pro (connected via Firewire) and there were no sounds dropouts whatsoever on the recording. I did note that the bass guitar clipped every now & again, but that was all that was out of the ordinary. The MacBook Pro (running Mavericks OS) runs Capture and Universal Control.

I did notice that the MacBook Pro locked-up/crashed during the show however so I disconnected it and also power cycled the mixer – the FoH sound issues remained…

Given the above scenario, can you suggest what may be wrong? As I mentioned above the band had a consistent and uninterrupted sound on-stage and the recording on Capture showed no sound dropouts either. I power cycled the mixer and this changed nothing. I was suspicious of the MacBook locking up (it’s never done this before) but apart from that, I can think of nothing else to try.

I’d be very grateful to hear your ideas and/or suggestions.
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by sjc193 on Tue Aug 25, 2015 9:50 am
How was the power there that day? I have had (what seemed like) the exact same problem before, but only one time in early July. I was doing a stage for three days that was way out in the woods, a very long secondary electric line fed out to the stage with all kinds of lights lighting up the trail and at the end next to the stage a cafe with plenty of items plugged in as well. On the second day, first act, the same symptoms as you appeared, mains went out, monitors continued to play, I could hear it happen each time, it would last about 30 seconds or so, then the mains would come back on with no buttons being pressed by me (RM32AI)->(Driverack260)->(QSC KW153) looking at the UC Surface app on the iPad, it appeared to have signal on the mains while they were out. After this happened 3 times within 20 minutes, I went and pulled the refridgerator plug out of my stage socket (yes they had a fridge plugged into 1 of my 2 stage electric recepticles!) It never happened again that weekend, I also never plugged the fridge back in either.

I have not had the issue again since, but I will say it was scary. I feel it may have been power related, not sure if it was the RM, Driverack, or QSC KW's that actually went out. I have seen one other poster on this forum mention this happening to him too though, I do believe I'll be finally looking into a Power Condition before next year, something that at least tells you what's coming in so I know what I'm dealing with power wise, then when someone's 1950s guitar amp doesn't work right I can say "hey it's not me, it's probably the 95 volts we're getting from this outlet!

Steve

StudioLive RM32AI
Rackmount Windows 8.1 PC Quad core 8G ram
ASUS RT-N66U Dual Band Router
IPad2, IPad Air 2, Studio One 3 Pro, 1 DBX Driverack 260
2 QSC KW 153's, 2 Turbosound TMS-1's
2 OHM MR450D Subs with Kilomax 18inch drivers
4 EV ZLX-12P's, 1 TurboSound iX15, 2 Yamaha S115V's
1 Crest Pro-Lite 7.5 (7500 watts) amp, 2 Behringer EP4000 amps
10 58/57 mics, 1 SM86, 1 sE8, 1 sE2200, 1 AT2020, 2 AT2021
1 beta52 kick mic, 2 e609, 2 Radial J48 DI's, 1 PRO48 DI
2 4Bar lights, 1 4Play, 1 6Spot, 1 fog machine
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by ianmcketty on Wed Aug 26, 2015 9:38 am
Hi Steve,

Many thanks for this. The venue was an old club and the wiring was quite messy at best. I have no clear idea as to how they'd wired things up, but I'm pretty sure the lighting and bar ran from the same circuit we were using for the stage...!

I think it's going to be essential to get a power conditioner and ensure the desk & MacBook are both running thru that. I'm also going to reset the desk back to factory & reload settings from a point before we encountered the issues - hopefully this will put things back on track.

Cheers,

Ian.
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by Nathan Looney on Wed Aug 26, 2015 7:18 pm
I have had this issues as well with the 24.2 Ai this past weekend. The board is only a few weeks old and this is an install at our club. We replaced an studio live 24 with the Ai so the power is the same.

I did a firmware restore today, hopefully this fixed the issues. I will keep you posted after this weekend.
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by ianmcketty on Thu Aug 27, 2015 2:01 am
I hope the firmware restore cures the problem, Nathan. I'm running our desk at gigs on Saturday and Sunday and will post next week to let you know how it went.

Cheers,

Ian.
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by sjc193 on Thu Aug 27, 2015 8:31 am
Weird stuff, I have not done any kind of reset or really even changed a thing beside running smaart since I noticed these symptoms in early July. I've done a lot of gigs since and not had the issue again.

I hope it doesn't happen this weekend as I have Nathan Williams and the Zydeco Cha Chas Saturday night and I'd hate for something like this to happen, these boys are the real deal.

Good luck and please let us know if you have any issues or even if it all goes well, not a lot of people have reported this that I know of so we need to work together to flush out the culprit if we can. . .

Thanks,

Steve

StudioLive RM32AI
Rackmount Windows 8.1 PC Quad core 8G ram
ASUS RT-N66U Dual Band Router
IPad2, IPad Air 2, Studio One 3 Pro, 1 DBX Driverack 260
2 QSC KW 153's, 2 Turbosound TMS-1's
2 OHM MR450D Subs with Kilomax 18inch drivers
4 EV ZLX-12P's, 1 TurboSound iX15, 2 Yamaha S115V's
1 Crest Pro-Lite 7.5 (7500 watts) amp, 2 Behringer EP4000 amps
10 58/57 mics, 1 SM86, 1 sE8, 1 sE2200, 1 AT2020, 2 AT2021
1 beta52 kick mic, 2 e609, 2 Radial J48 DI's, 1 PRO48 DI
2 4Bar lights, 1 4Play, 1 6Spot, 1 fog machine
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by stacywells1 on Fri Aug 28, 2015 10:00 am
It seems like this is happening more frequently. I was beginning to think that we were the only ones. We have been experiencing this in my church for weeks. It's random, horribly intermittent, and thus far, we have been unsuccessful in determining what the problem is. I have contacted support, and they are working with me. I don't want this to seem like an attack on support at all. It's just that the problem is still here after weeks and several terribly embarrassing audio drop outs in the middle of services.

I would assume that it must be an issue with firmware or the port on the StudioLive AI, the actual FireWire cable, the driver installed on the MacBook Pro, or the actual port on the MacBook Pro. Here are the steps we have taken to troubleshoot it:

1. Make sure all connections are secure
2. Make sure all firmware is up to date
3. Replace the FireWire cable
4. Send Presonus a system report when the issue happens

Thus far neither of these have stopped the dropouts. Here are the steps that we are in the process of taking to hopefully address the issue:

1. Record all tracks to a Glyph Studio external hard drive (via USB 3.0). This starts on Sunday.
2. Purchase UPS and power conditioner for the mixer and the MacBook Pro.

I will try and share with everyone if we happen upon one thing in particular that fixes the issue. Thanks for posting this...

Stacy Wells
Media Director
Emmanuel Baptist Church
Blackshear, GA

Presonus 64AI Mix System (sanctuary)
Presonus 32AI (youth building)

MacBook Pro 13" Mid 2012 (sanctuary)
2.9 GHz Intel Core i7
16GB 1600 MHz DDR3
250GB SSD
OS X Sierra

MacBook Pro 15", Late 2008 (youth building)
2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
8GB 1067 MHz DDR3
480GB SSD
OS X Yosemite

UC Surface 2.0.1.42326-Mac
Capture 2.3.1.42326
User avatar
by sjc193 on Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:08 am
Thanks Stacy, sorry to hear you're having the issue more frequently. . .

I will say that the one day I had this issue, I was NOT using a computer, there was no firewire connected to anything. I had the RM with hardwired etherenet to my router, then an iPad wifi'd to the router to control the RM, that's it. And of course my story about the not-so-great power source. In fact it was my very first gig the RM32, worked fine the first day, glitched on the first act of the second day, but then it worked fine for 12 more hours and the whole next day and every gig since, weird stuff!

I hope you figure it out Stacy, I'd love to know what to do or what not to do to keep that from happening again. . .

I would suggest buying a fairly cheap (or not I don't know) voltage tester at a hardware store just to quickly see the voltage at the outlet you are using, it might tell you something. It's not a power conditioner it would just be a little meter you plug in the wall and it tells you the RMS voltage or something like that. I need to get something like that myself since I gig at a different place every weekend just about.

Steve

StudioLive RM32AI
Rackmount Windows 8.1 PC Quad core 8G ram
ASUS RT-N66U Dual Band Router
IPad2, IPad Air 2, Studio One 3 Pro, 1 DBX Driverack 260
2 QSC KW 153's, 2 Turbosound TMS-1's
2 OHM MR450D Subs with Kilomax 18inch drivers
4 EV ZLX-12P's, 1 TurboSound iX15, 2 Yamaha S115V's
1 Crest Pro-Lite 7.5 (7500 watts) amp, 2 Behringer EP4000 amps
10 58/57 mics, 1 SM86, 1 sE8, 1 sE2200, 1 AT2020, 2 AT2021
1 beta52 kick mic, 2 e609, 2 Radial J48 DI's, 1 PRO48 DI
2 4Bar lights, 1 4Play, 1 6Spot, 1 fog machine
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by sjc193 on Fri Aug 28, 2015 12:13 pm
This is probably not the case, but I figured I'd mention it just in case.

Another way that this could happen would be that the gate engaged on the main out. So, if this happens to you again, take a glance at the gate on the main and make sure it's not doing anything, it should be off.

My windows version of UC Surface has been adjusting settings on its own, I think I need to optimize my computer again since I upgraded to 8.1 from 8.0 recently, get the old lantency mon out, but I have never noticed anything like that on my iPad app, but just saying the gate is worth a look if this happens again to you. . .

Steve

StudioLive RM32AI
Rackmount Windows 8.1 PC Quad core 8G ram
ASUS RT-N66U Dual Band Router
IPad2, IPad Air 2, Studio One 3 Pro, 1 DBX Driverack 260
2 QSC KW 153's, 2 Turbosound TMS-1's
2 OHM MR450D Subs with Kilomax 18inch drivers
4 EV ZLX-12P's, 1 TurboSound iX15, 2 Yamaha S115V's
1 Crest Pro-Lite 7.5 (7500 watts) amp, 2 Behringer EP4000 amps
10 58/57 mics, 1 SM86, 1 sE8, 1 sE2200, 1 AT2020, 2 AT2021
1 beta52 kick mic, 2 e609, 2 Radial J48 DI's, 1 PRO48 DI
2 4Bar lights, 1 4Play, 1 6Spot, 1 fog machine
User avatar
by ianmcketty on Tue Sep 01, 2015 6:05 am
Just a very quick post to let you know how I got on with my desk this weekend.

I backed-up the desk, did a factory reset and installed the latest firmware (v7045). My band played 2 shows this weekend and we experienced no sound issues whatsoever - happy days.

Just a note on doing a factory reset, it's important that you have a couple of USB sticks handy before you start and that you use good quality items. I tried one USB stick and it threw an error ("IO CARD NOT FOUND - Please check your IO Card Slot") during the upgrade process. Presonus Support suggested using a different (big brand) item and this worked just fine.

In addition to the above, I also used a surge protector on the power feed to the mixer and my MacBook Pro during our shows, just in case this was a problem - I'll do this at every show from now on. it's almost impossible to get assurance that the electricity feed in clubs is 'clean' and I suspect this may have been part of my original problem.

I hope you other guys experiencing intermittent issues find a fix soon.

Cheers,

Ian.
User avatar
by sjc193 on Tue Sep 01, 2015 9:58 am
My gig with Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas went fine, this was on a Steamboat with power coming from the generator, electricity created by steam! LOL But I've done sound on there 3 times this summer and several times before that and no one has ever had a power issue there that I remember.

Steve

StudioLive RM32AI
Rackmount Windows 8.1 PC Quad core 8G ram
ASUS RT-N66U Dual Band Router
IPad2, IPad Air 2, Studio One 3 Pro, 1 DBX Driverack 260
2 QSC KW 153's, 2 Turbosound TMS-1's
2 OHM MR450D Subs with Kilomax 18inch drivers
4 EV ZLX-12P's, 1 TurboSound iX15, 2 Yamaha S115V's
1 Crest Pro-Lite 7.5 (7500 watts) amp, 2 Behringer EP4000 amps
10 58/57 mics, 1 SM86, 1 sE8, 1 sE2200, 1 AT2020, 2 AT2021
1 beta52 kick mic, 2 e609, 2 Radial J48 DI's, 1 PRO48 DI
2 4Bar lights, 1 4Play, 1 6Spot, 1 fog machine
User avatar
by jimsequin on Wed Sep 02, 2015 11:01 am
I have a company where I do Point Of Sales Systems for clubs... Most power at most clubs is horrible.. They will have on AC lines all over the place... On top of that they have those mixers and blenders at the bar and they don't care about what type of electricity is on the stage.. Not that saying this was causing your issue. But get a real good Battery Back/power conditioning to plug your system into... I always plug my presonus system into one and don't seem to have problems...
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by Soundz AVL on Thu Sep 17, 2015 5:07 pm
I have a StudioLive 16:4:2 mixer and have experienced 'power outages' on 2 occasions. The first time it happened I was sure that one of the video camera operators plugged into the same circuit and caused interference which created a huge 'click' and the mixer froze. I turned off the amps, turned off the mixer and turned it back on and everything worked fine the rest of the night. I was using a surge suppressor and all my equipment worked fine except the Presonus. Well, it happened again TODAY right in the middle of a corporate gig. I am not an electronic tech but its like I have a leaky capacitor (always blame it on a capacitor) and it discharges into the mains. My house voltage was hovering around 120 and 121 on my Furman surge suppressor. Would a UPS unit prevent that or is there something wrong with the mixer? Let me know if you have had a similar problem and what you didi to resolve it. Thanks in advance...
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by sjc193 on Fri Sep 18, 2015 8:49 am
Soundz AVL wroteI have a StudioLive 16:4:2 mixer and have experienced 'power outages' on 2 occasions. The first time it happened I was sure that one of the video camera operators plugged into the same circuit and caused interference which created a huge 'click' and the mixer froze.


Is that a 16.4.2 classic (non-AI) mixer? If so then you may be experiencing a different issue than we having been talking about on this thread. I have a 16.4.2 classic mixer too and have had the DSP board freeze on it twice in 3 years, just got it back from the second repair last week. If you are hearing a pop then freeze with the gain reduction meter pegged, then you may be having a hardware failure. If you have it connected to a computer with firewire, it is possible that is causing it, if not then I warn you that the problem will probably not just go away, contact tech support, it can be fixed under warrenty or for a reasonable price if not ($175 if in the US). There are several things to try first though before ruling it a hardware failure, good luck!

Steve

StudioLive RM32AI
Rackmount Windows 8.1 PC Quad core 8G ram
ASUS RT-N66U Dual Band Router
IPad2, IPad Air 2, Studio One 3 Pro, 1 DBX Driverack 260
2 QSC KW 153's, 2 Turbosound TMS-1's
2 OHM MR450D Subs with Kilomax 18inch drivers
4 EV ZLX-12P's, 1 TurboSound iX15, 2 Yamaha S115V's
1 Crest Pro-Lite 7.5 (7500 watts) amp, 2 Behringer EP4000 amps
10 58/57 mics, 1 SM86, 1 sE8, 1 sE2200, 1 AT2020, 2 AT2021
1 beta52 kick mic, 2 e609, 2 Radial J48 DI's, 1 PRO48 DI
2 4Bar lights, 1 4Play, 1 6Spot, 1 fog machine
User avatar
by stacywells1 on Thu Sep 24, 2015 6:52 am
We have been using the external drive for recording for several weeks now. We started doing this at the recommendation of Presonus Tech Support in order to hopefully fix the audio drop out issue. So far, we have had no issues whatsoever. I am hoping this was our issue, but I am keeping a watchful eye on it. I'll let you good folks know how it goes from this point on.

Stacy Wells
Media Director
Emmanuel Baptist Church
Blackshear, GA

Presonus 64AI Mix System (sanctuary)
Presonus 32AI (youth building)

MacBook Pro 13" Mid 2012 (sanctuary)
2.9 GHz Intel Core i7
16GB 1600 MHz DDR3
250GB SSD
OS X Sierra

MacBook Pro 15", Late 2008 (youth building)
2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
8GB 1067 MHz DDR3
480GB SSD
OS X Yosemite

UC Surface 2.0.1.42326-Mac
Capture 2.3.1.42326
User avatar
by luisolvera on Fri Feb 26, 2016 12:19 pm
there we go again had this problem with audio drops 1 month ago and it comes back up again....
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by ianmcketty on Fri Feb 26, 2016 1:55 pm
I've been offline for a couple of months and haven't kept up to date with this thread, so apologies if I'm covering old ground - are you using a good quality power conditioner? I think this may be important as my desk is definitely sensitive to spikes & fluctuations in the power feed and works reliably now we're using a power surge unit.

At the very least, you can eliminate poor electricity provision from your investigations.

I'd also suggest you feed any external/outboard gear from the same power conditioner (e.g. MacBook, HD recorder etc.).

Hope this helps & good luck.

Ian.
User avatar
by johnminnella on Thu Apr 07, 2016 11:23 am
I also have been having some front of house drop outs. Last time it happened I only had my wireless router connected and my iPad running uc surface. Please keep me in the loop if anyone figures this out... I am going to look at UC surface and see if anything like the gate is active. One would think it would show up on the board. We have also had some random spikes on the auxiliaries we run as monitors....all of a sudden feedback ....aux 1 thru 4.
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by stacywells1 on Mon Apr 25, 2016 3:13 pm
We have been recording to the Glyph Studio HDD now for several months, and we have had zero issues with audio dropping out. I am pretty confident that was the issue for us at least.

We are putting together a system this week consisting of multiple UPS systems to protect our equipment from surges. We have had 5-10 power surges over the last several months. A couple wiped out my settings!

Stacy Wells
Media Director
Emmanuel Baptist Church
Blackshear, GA

Presonus 64AI Mix System (sanctuary)
Presonus 32AI (youth building)

MacBook Pro 13" Mid 2012 (sanctuary)
2.9 GHz Intel Core i7
16GB 1600 MHz DDR3
250GB SSD
OS X Sierra

MacBook Pro 15", Late 2008 (youth building)
2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
8GB 1067 MHz DDR3
480GB SSD
OS X Yosemite

UC Surface 2.0.1.42326-Mac
Capture 2.3.1.42326
User avatar
by highsierrabassplayer on Sun Jul 24, 2016 3:20 pm
Hi, I began having the same issue on my 24.4.2ai. The sound began cutting out at a blues gig and I tried isolating exactly what was the cause. I actually took the board right to the powered speakers eliminating snake and everything in between. Swapped all common denominators (cords, IPods, EVERY variable!). After all this I had it narrowed to the 24.4.2ai. Went home and did the Presonus step-by-step firmware restore and after getting the latest version installed, no more poor "dropout"audio. (Incidently the output sound was hosed not just on the mains but in the headphone output, all monitor outputs, ALL outputs). After the restore everything was fine and I had another event the next night. Made it thru the first sound check and it happened again!!! Luckily I had a "legacy" 16.4.2 to finish the gig. Brought the board home and I found the problem. I believe Steve on the forum was the first to mention this but somehow the GATE knob was turned on. I do not know how the gate got turned on but it did. And, of course, if you shut it off with the gate on it comes on when you turn the board on. Yikes. I thought this was going to be a nightmare. A happy ending thus far.

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