Protools Ultimate - can use virtual outputs like - Rogue Amoeba

[Eric Lambert]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

You cannot CoreAudio aggregate with any DigiLink interfaces you are using from Pro Tools. These are exclusive uses, if they are the playback engine they sure won't appear in the aggregate IO list. And you presumably want the HDX as playback engine. And aggregate IO is not great even if possible with most interfaces.

I'm surprised to read that. I've not had any issues with the Aggregate. True, it excludes Digilink interfaces when it's the playback engine, but if you know that going in, and have a reason to use it, Aggregate is solid. At least it has been for me. Setup can be cumbersome, however, and not intuitive.

[Eric Lambert]

Originally Posted by Justanaudioguy

Ok so I must be missing something. MAC OS Sierrra 12.10.6 Running PT Ultimate 2018.10.0 with a single HDX Card, HD i/o, HD MADI.

Analog 1/2 feeds Main out to speakers and 6 feeds phone patch.
Digital is setup for 9 -10. Toslink cables going to CPU for i/o to internal card.

I get sound off internet and can record anything - ok part of the battle.
If I loop back test with ipdtl I get the loop - loop - loop - so I'm guessing that's just figuring out the mix minus issue there. BUT

The company has a ipdtl 4 x licence. The goal here is; using ipdtl record two voiceover talents and use ipdtl to also call the conference number so creative can direct talent and send a link to a TBD video conference all at the same time. So I need 8 streams of audio.

We have the Nexus software. I see it has 24 I/O sub channels. ipdtl only sees "A" n "B" not the individual channels. Loopback sees the sub channels though.
Do I need an other third party I/O card to get more channels? Is the internal mac optical only stereo?

I looked at setting up and PT aggregate but the HDX card is NOT in the list of devices. So this brings me back to- DO i need a third party I/O?

OR are we stuck and have to set up the ipdtl x 4 via MADI on another computer? : (

Let me check in with my post guys. They use Nexus and ipDTL and hardware similar to yours, every day, and it's super-slick and without issues.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Eric Lambert

I'm surprised to read that. I've not had any issues with the Aggregate. True, it excludes Digilink interfaces when it's the playback engine, but if you know that going in, and have a reason to use it, Aggregate is solid. At least it has been for me. Setup can be cumbersome, however, and not intuitive.

It depends greatly on what you are aggregating... how good the drivers are... some vendors (e.g. Motu) seem to spend time worrying about that, most don’t. Also having interfaces externally clocked/locked together sure helps (drift correction can not be so great). My starting position would be try to avoid it unless really needed.

[Justanaudioguy]

Thanks everyone for the input/advice. I going to keep banging my head on the brick wall, something usually falls out. So keep the info coming.

[Jimmix]

For multi channel full duplex audio between ProTools and many different core audio apps (Skype, Chrome, Voip, SC etc) that are too simple (consumerish) to address any channels of a multi channel driver other than CH1-2 use both Source-Nexus Pro and Source-Nexus Control. With that combo you can create an input and output driver for every application / endpoint you need to bring in and out of ProTools discreetly. Then each Nexus plugin can be assigned to the individual application's discrete core audio I/O driver. Thus in ProTools you can have an Aux channel for every external app. Each aux channel will handle the particular app's input and output. If your using HDX or HD Native hardware then aggregating core audio devices with sound flower or other virtual drivers won't work.

[latinbaum]

Maybe someone can help with a kinda related question...

I'm using Loopback (also from Rogue) on MAC with PT Ultimate and Universal Audio 8p Interface.

I want to be able to send audio from PT so my client can hear the mix in progress and simultaneously participate in the process discussing adjustments to the mix.

Current configuration
The PT playback engine and the mic (Logitech C920 Webcam) are both assigned to Loopback. They are then routed to the output channels in Loopback and SKYPE audio input is set to receive the Loopback audio channels.

This works to get the audio to the client and hear him talk back, but I can't hear my PT mix because the playback engine is assigned to Loopback.

But wait... Loopback has a monitor feature that takes the signal from the output channels and sends it to the monitor of your choice. But the problem is, that signal contains the microphone signal as well, so when I set my monitoring level to work on the mix I get the obvious feedback. So I tried headphones and it helps a bit but the audio from the mic is absurdly loud and it's picking up all the ambience sound as well.

How can I send the audio from the mic without having to monitor it?

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance to any and all who might help.

Israel

[citysoundman]

Hi Israel,

I can't help with Loopback - never tried it. But...Assuming you're not on HD (so you can use Aggregate as playback engine) - Soundflower works great for me. I'm running the latest version of Ultimate on OSX 10.14, with UA Apollo Twin on my MacPro. Soundflower also works fine on my MacBook Pro sans any interface.

The Soundflower setup is tricky, it took a bit of messing around, some trial and error. But once I got it going I didn't have any issues.

A couple of Soundflower notes I'm happy to share:
You have to use separate busses for audio in and audio out of PT. Soundflower installs a 2 channel bus and a 64 channel bus. So use the 2 channel bus for Mac out to PT, and the 64 channel bus for PT out to Mac. Or use the UA virtual channel as one of the busses.

in Aggregate settings, You need to go to Configure Speakers, and select Soundflower as the Mac L & R channels.

Then in PT I/O use the Ins and Outs that match the aggregate input and output channel numbers.

Hope this helps!