The driver for the 1818 works fine here with no glitches... The Virtual Studiolive software which is part of the driver is elegant, efficient and well thought out...

I don't know what the surface is... I'm guessing it is a Microsoft tablet? If you can run Sonar on it, the VSL console will give you full control of the 1818... It's almost the same as the Studiolive software....

Yes, they also include Capture and StudioOne Artist... A good entry level version. It works well and has many good ideas, but I prefer Sonar by far (version2version comparison)...

Capture is another story... Just for recording, not editing... Turn it on and all inputs of the available device are mapped 1-1... Click arm and press record and your multitracking... Afterwards simply insert start and end markers for each song and use their command to chop all tracks and export the separated songs for import to your DAW of choice... This is great for live gigs so you can press record for each set and capture as many sets/bands as you need very easily...

The wifi stuff is easy if you have a router... Then you have walk around control via iPad...

USB does just fine for the interface. I have not tried using theme USB line for external drive recording though. I did that while FireWire connected the Studiolive... You might want to use a separate USB line... Most pc's have a number of connectors sharing two actual ports... I don't know how you deal with drives/storage on the Surface...

The Focusrite are fine and I've installed a few of them too... I didn't like their console view as much and all but one are FireWire...

I find the Presonus more of a transparent preamp and the Focusrite a bit colored...nicely colored though much like their analog gear of old. The Presonus FatChannel is excellent though the 1818 compressor doesn't do soft knee...

I forgot to mention... Be certain you have USB 2 for the 1818. It does not do USB3 at all... And I did gave one machine that had a lot of trouble with the 1818 and sounds like what P-Theory mentions... But that was only one of the 5 machines I installed it on... The Studiolive worked well on every machine as long as the FireWire chipset was right...

Keni
I don't know what the surface is... I'm guessing it is a Microsoft tablet? If you can run Sonar on it, the VSL console will give you full control of the 1818...

Yes, the Surface 3 Pro and the Surface 3 (the "3" is newer tech than the "3 Pro", go figure) is Microsoft's leap in tablet tech.  Until now, all the pads from Apple and Microsoft used a stripped down OS and could only run "pad apps".  The Surface 3 and 3 Pro has the full Windows OS and can run basically any Windows app, in addition to the "pad apps".  It should run Sonar and any of the Windows apps supplied by Presonus (and any other standard Windows apps). 
 
It is pretty nice.  With the detachable cover/keyboard, you can use it like a notebook,  Pull that cover off and it is used like a pad. and you can go back and forth as needed.  No hard drive, but there is a slot for a removable microSD, which is the D drive.  There is a single USB2 port -- no Ethernet or Firewire.  Wifi is built in of course.

Keni
Yes, they also include Capture and StudioOne Artist...
Capture is another story... Just for recording, not editing... Turn it on and all inputs of the available device are mapped 1-1... Click arm and press record and your multitracking... Afterwards simply insert start and end markers for each song and use their command to chop all tracks and export the separated songs for import to your DAW of choice... This is great for live gigs so you can press record for each set and capture as many sets/bands as you need very easily...

That's all I would want to do in the field, so it looks like I wouldn't need to install StudioOne at all.  I assume Capture is a lot smaller.  There is no hard drive on the Surface, so you have to be careful about how many apps you install.  You can buy it with different sized internal SSDs as the C drive.  Mine is 128 GB.  There is a Pro model that has 256 GB.

Keni
USB does just fine for the interface. I have not tried using theme USB line for external drive recording though. I did that while FireWire connected the Studiolive... You might want to use a separate USB line... Most pc's have a number of connectors sharing two actual ports... I don't know how you deal with drives/storage on the Surface...

The documentation for Capture talks only about FireWire.  Ans the release notes list the supported products, which does not include the VSL boxes:
http://www.presonus.com/downloads/products/release_notes/Capture2.1.1ReleaseNotes.pdf
 
The product page for the 1818VSL refers only to StudioOne Artist, and does not mention Capture
http://www.presonus.com/products/AudioBox-1818VSL
 
Capture would be perfect, but it is looking like I would have to use StudioOne Artist.   That may be too big for the Surface, as it comes with a bunch of regular DAW stuff.
 

cparmerlee

Keni
USB does just fine for the interface. I have not tried using theme USB line for external drive recording though. I did that while FireWire connected the Studiolive... You might want to use a separate USB line... Most pc's have a number of connectors sharing two actual ports... I don't know how you deal with drives/storage on the Surface...

The documentation for Capture talks only about FireWire.  Ans the release notes list the supported products, which does not include the VSL boxes:
http://www.presonus.com/downloads/products/release_notes/Capture2.1.1ReleaseNotes.pdf
 
The product page for the 1818VSL refers only to StudioOne Artist, and does not mention Capture
http://www.presonus.com/products/AudioBox-1818VSL
 
Capture would be perfect, but it is looking like I would have to use StudioOne Artist.   That may be too big for the Surface, as it comes with a bunch of regular DAW stuff.
 

That's too bad... I haven't done any live gigs with the 1818. I guess I just wanted to believe I could use capture with it...

Why not install a stripped down version of Sonar? Do a manual install and don't include synths, extra plugins (PC should be plenty for quick mixes) or Melodyne... You should have plenty of room for that with 256GB...

The software shouldn't care if you're using FireWire or USB so it must have been referencing the hardware... I'm gonna snoop around a bit and make sure... I would think that once the inputs are reported to windows, any app should be able to see it...

I just thought.... I still have capture on my DAW which is now running the 1818. I'll be powering up in an hour or two and I will try it... Maybe they just don't bundle it for free with it? I seem to remember it being free to begin with thought they now offer both a free and paid version of Capture for iOS...

I'll post later after I've tried...

Keni
Why not install a stripped down version of Sonar? Do a manual install and don't include synths, extra plugins (PC should be plenty for quick mixes) or Melodyne... You should have plenty of room for that with 256GB...

I could probably do that, but then I'll have to figure out the license implications, as I have Platinum.
 
I might be able to just capture with Audacity, as all the tracks should be exposed through the ASIO driver.  I have only 128MB for the OS and all apps, and that has to include all the temp files that can't be assigned to the MicroSD chip (D drive).  And I'd want to keep the MicroSD chip as free as possible to store the recorded tracks.

No license problems. Cakewalk is fine about a DAW + laptop install so I'm sure it will be the same for the surface...

I'm running SPlat on my DAW and laptop... Even AD2 is fine about a second install. I'm told Melodyne is as well but I had problems getting that working. Luckily I don't use it as the entry level is too limited for my needs so I still use the Roland plugin of old...

I just tried Capture and it does not work with the 1818... Sad...

Stripped down SPlat still seems your best option...

Keni
No license problems. Cakewalk is fine about a DAW + laptop install so I'm sure it will be the same for the surface...

I'm running SPlat on my DAW and laptop... Even AD2 is fine about a second install. I'm told Melodyne is as well but I had problems getting that working. Luckily I don't use it as the entry level is too limited for my needs so I still use the Roland plugin of old...

I just tried Capture and it does not work with the 1818... Sad...

Stripped down SPlat still seems your best option...

Thank you for all the ideas and checking.  I think I will try to get some kind of a statement from Presonus about the future of Capture because really, that should be a perfect fit with the VSL product.  Maybe the Sweetwater guys can get a statement of direction.  It does seem like the Presonus people have a lot of irons in the fire now, so this probably isn't going to get a lot of attention.
 
And now that the Platinum installer is better about controlling the libraries, I should be able to get most of the SPlat software to go on the MicroSD card (D: drive) and I could have an SD card dedicated to recording so that I don't use up all of my C drive.  I think the surface supports the 256GB MicroSD cards that are arriving now.

Good plan!

Keep us abreast of your progress... I'll bet this could become very popular! ;-)