Simultaneous recording inputs on Pro Tools Artist

[mthibeaux94]

Could you please tell me what would happen to the PreSonus Quantum 26x32 Thunderbolt 2 audio interface if it exceeds the limit of simultaneous recording inputs while recording on Pro Tools Artist?

[Darryl Ramm]

Hi, welcome to DUC

Tracks past that recoding limit just don't record anything. The UI/UX around this is not very well done, e.g. you can still record arm these tracks and, and when you record them you record silence which may overwrite, or more it may appear to overwrite past takes for new users who don't understand Playlists. But this is still not a great way of doing this.

The input count limits the physical I/O input numbering, so it can record on physical inputs 1 to 16 for Pro Tools Artist. You can't change anything in Setup>I/O to get around this, you can't for example make paths inactive or delete or rename paths to change any of this. However if your interface has a hardware mixer/routing features that let you may be able to map/redirect inputs you need to use. If I needed to I could remap inputs on my setup using MADI routing.

What I'd suggest you do is download the free version of Pro Tools Intro and play with that, you will see the four input limit it has and how it behaves. It's the same installer/binary as Pro Tools Artist, so you just buy a subscription license later and install it if you want to go ahead and use it.