I have been going round and round with a routing issue.  The more I read, the more confused I get.  I have two UFX's.  I need to separately mic and record 8 simultaneous acoustic instruments in a live concert.  I don't want to drag around and set up four external preamps, so I want to use the four preamps in the second UFX for the second set of four instruments.

Here is what I have tested so far.  Even though it is not recommended or supported, I connected the first UFX via Firewire to the PC and routed the first four preamps out to Pro Tools using TotalMix FX.  Then I connected the second UFX to the PC via USB and routed its four preamp outputs using a second TotalMix FX mixer window to ADAT 1 (1-4) via fiber cable back to the ADAT 1 (1-4) on the first UFX.  This gives me all eight preamps appearing in the first TotalMix FX window and allows me to route everything to Pro Tools.  However, it is very cumbersome.  The tests I conducted worked OK, but Pro Tools seemed a bit sluggish, the routing was hard to follow in a live setting and I don't have a lot of confidence in this unsupported set up with both a Firewire and USB connection for two UFX's into my laptop.  When I shut everything down and came back the next day, even though I used snaphots, some of my setting got messed up and I had a hard time getting everything to work exactly right again.  I won't have time to deal with this on the day of the performance.

What is the standard routing scheme after a full system reset for standalone mode on the UFX?  Specifically, where are the four preamps outputs routed to by default?

If I want to set the preamps up to automatically route in standalone mode to balanced outputs 1-4 (or ADAT 1; 1-4 as an alternative), do I connect the unit up to the PC and configure this routing and save it as a "snapshot"?  If so, can this be recalled from the front panel of the UFX when the unit is not connected to a PC?

Is there a list of the snapshot presets that shows the routing for each?  I can't seem to locate it.

Any ideas for a simple way to use all eight preamps on the 2 UFXs going into one laptop and into Pro Tools would be greatly appreciated.  I am looking for the easiest way to set them up and manage the input levels during a live concert while using the DUREC as a fallback in case of problems.

Thanks to all in advance for any suggestions.