Hi - I’m looking for a sanity check here before I send this thing back to where it came from and buy the Focusrite 18i20!
I bought the UR824 for home recording/performance between Ableton Live and a few hardware synths, outboard FX, etc. I heard bad things about the Motu 828 reliability, the Scarlett pre-amps/software and saw great write-ups for the UR hardware quality, so off I went.
Took delivery last week and ran into first problems within 10 mins of opening the box - I had to download the latest install software from Steinberg and it put me into an eLicenser loop that kept breaking the install on my Mac (Catalina). Online search showed some Catalina compatibility issues but I stuck with it. in the ned, I had to replace the outdated version eLicenser software in the install .pkg with the later one that I found somewhere else on the Steinberg site to get DSPMixFX to install at all.
Pretty irritated that I’m having trouble with an antiquated licensing system when all I want to use is the hardware-specific control software. Not Cubase or any other ‘premium’ stuff.
Then I started trying to work out how to route my audio - after a day of head-scratching trying to understand how the “Mixes” work asnd why I can only get DAW output in Mix 1 I discover other users with same problems posting online and that what I need to do isn’t possible. No DAW output in Mixes 2, 3, and 4 even though the DAW input has a fader shown in those mixes.
As far as I can see, Mix 1 is actually a Master and the others are sub mixes? Hard to tell as I can’t find a proper manual anywhere online.
Then I find that the DSPMixFX software won’t work in Ableton. An undated post on the support site says “we’re working on it with Ableton”. This could be years old for all I know and feels more like Steinberg’s issue than Ableton’s? It’s hardly a niche DAW.
So, basically, Catalina causes problems - but mainly for the licensing controls that I don’t think I should even be needing to use - and it was officially launched last October (beta’d long befoire that), so that indicates how quickly Steinberg sort these issues out. If I want even most of the basic mixing functions I need to use Cubase, which isn’t going to happen, and even then there are functions thrat just don’t work (like routing DAW to anywhere other than main mix).
I sent a support request on the install problems into to Steinberg last Thursday and have yet to even receive an email acknowledgement of the ticket.
Have I totally got the above wrong, or should I return and never touch Steinberg again?