Hi Gang...

I just want to remind everyone to consider this recent situation before dedicating themselves to Presonus.

I continue to use both an audiobox 1818vsl as well as two studiolive boards. Well thought out and built...

I also have S1 Artist.... Not a bad program over all...

But I am still worried about the companies decisions/actions...

In the recent past, the new OSX release being finally full 64bit meant that VSL would no longer work with the Mac.... Presonus' decision? To totally discontinue VSL even for Windows where it works fine.

I don't know about anyone else, but the VSL was one of the biggest reasons I chose their' stuff to begin with...

This is forced on anyone who updates their driver... Luckily I found out before doing so as my iPad updated the remote app for it and would not connect. I then discovered that it would need the windows driver updated to work (ipad remote) and preparing to do so I came across this barely mentioned item...

Barely Mentioned!!!

So while I continue to use Sonar with their' hardware, I am extremely reluctant to trust their policies...

...just a heads up.

Announcment on Presonus Productpage:
 
Below are the minimum computer-system requirements for the AudioBox 1818VSL:

Windows

Windows® 7x 64/x86 SP1 or Windows 8/8.1 x64/x86 or Windows 10 x64/x86

Intel® Core™ 2 processor (Intel® Core™ i3 processor or better recommended)

4 GB RAM (8 GB or more recommended)

Mac

Mac® OS X 10.8 or later*

Intel Core Duo processor (Intel Core 2 Duo or Intel Core i3 or better recommended)

2 GB RAM (4 GB or more recommended)

Windows and Mac Systems

USB 2.0 Port

Internet connection (only for activation)

DVD-ROM drive

Monitor with at least 1024x768 resolution

20 GB hard-disk space

Internal or external 7200 RPM storage drive highly recommended

* Please Note: Starting with OS X 10.11, Apple has restricted kernel level mixing access for third party vendors. This means that the included VSL software will no longer function on Mac operating systems beyond version 10.10. On OS X version 10.11 or higher, AudioBox VSL devices will only operate as low-latency, class-complaint audio interfaces.

The minimum system requirements may differ for DAWs other than Studio One. Please check the requirements for your DAW of choice with its manufacturer.

Note that the speed of your processor, amount of RAM and size and speed of your hard drive will greatly affect the overall performance of your recording system. Also, a more powerful system (faster processor with more RAM) will allow for lower latency (signal delay) than you might experience while monitoring audio or MIDI signals. Monitor resolution for both PC and Macintosh should be no lower than 1024x768 pixels.

There's also this:https://support.presonus.com/hc/en-us/articles/210044533-AudioBox-VSL-Software-Discontinuation-Notice
 

By removing the VSL software, you can take full control of all of your Inputs and Outputs by managing them in your Digital Audio Workstation software. 
Due to the discontinuation of the VSL Software for the Mac OS X platform, PreSonus will no longer be continuing development of VSL Software for the AudioBox VSL Series for the PC Platform. 
In August of 2016 we released Universal Control 1.8 which supports the AudioBox VSL series interfaces. It does not contain the VSL Software. However it will allow you to uninstall the non-functioning AudioBox VSL 1.3 software, and it will allow you to update the firmware to the latest supported version.

It's just a bad mess that I don't believe they handled well...

I see this as them making the tough choice to move forward with cards dealt to them by apple. This hardly ranks up there with sinister actions. They probably figured supporting windows only functions is bad for their business model. I'm sure i would like it less if i owned affected products, but i know every business decision is not going to work my way.

It was an Apple thing not a Presonus thing. I think they did what they could. I feel your pain though.  I think maybe they should have allowed the Windows version to keep operating though. At least half of the owners out there would still have a working system.
 
But it does bring up the issue of what can happen with Apple OS changes and how it can effect hardware.  For example I have an iPad docked into a rather nice Alesis dock. (with 3 big synths on it and they sound excellent too) But I know at some point with a future update of the iOS, the dock is just going to stop working and won't go back either.  Rolling back is pretty hard work with iOS. I have looked into it.
 
So the moral of the story is keep your Apple stuff not doing automatic updates and do the research before you do. I mean they are even making their older iPhones become redundant which is very poor form. 

Yet another reason to dislike Apple.


Thank God SONAR is (was) Windows only and not Mac only. At least there's a chance it will still work next year.

I dislike Apple's practices, but i get why they feel compelled to do things a certain way. They cannot win vs windows based on numbers. Their business model depends a lot more heavily on conformity to current standard. By creating this need, they keep users needing to upgrade. It sucks, but if their hardware and software structure was as open as windows, they would have folded long ago

Thanks Gang.

I totally understand and don't like what Apple did/does but it doesn't excuse the Presonus decision for existing customers.

As if Cakewalk suddenly said the DAW will work, but you can't use any plugins... and blame it on a vst update.

I have a 44VSL which still works pretty good. I use one of the older drivers because it has lower latency.
I will research it very well before I buy a new DAW or interface.