Output Menu Inconsistent with Outputs Available
 

I've finally managed to get an aggregate setup in place using a UAD x8P and a PreSonus 32R rack mixer. Between these two, I have a total of 64 inputs (32 stereo), having spent quite a bit of effort renaming these outputs to what I needed them to be in the I/O Setup. On any given track, though, when I go into the Output selector, I'm shown a crazy, convoluted list of 215 output options, very few of which even remotely resemble what's showing in my I/O output setup. Almost all are repeated several times in different formats, with at least seven different instances of my master output, which should only happen as a single stereo option.

The attached image shows my I/O Output setup on the left panel, with the 4 panels on the right showing the 215 options I get in my output sector. Where are all these coming from, and how do I get the track output selector to show whats in my I/O setup?

Thanks.

Re: Output Menu Inconsistent with Outputs Available
 

Not in front of my DAW right now, but I think if you go to your I/O setup to the Bus tab and hit Default, it will name the outputs and busses correctly. You might even need to delete all the current busses and then hit default and see if that works. I'd save the current I/O setup first.

Re: Output Menu Inconsistent with Outputs Available
 

Thanks for getting back to me, Chris. I've done that a few times, and what Pro Tools imports as defaults is unusable. Have a look at this image of the list resulting from that action. The second item down should be inputs 1&2 of the x8P, but it's "MON/LINE." Even if that happens to be somehow ok, the next item down should be an odd/even stereo configuration, as should be the ones that follow. Then look down at the virtual inputs, where the list shows VIRTUAL 3-4, then goes to VIRTUAL 2-3, giving me two instances of VIRTUAL 3, causing am error message when I try and save, that Virtual 3 is overlapping. This is why I had to rename all the outputs. Pro Tools seems to not be reading the outputs of the x8P correctly.

My basic question, though, is this: shouldn't the output selector on a given track be showing only what's listed in the output tab of the I/O?

Re: Output Menu Inconsistent with Outputs Available
 

This is really a waste of everybody's time with you posting bits of IO setups screens. This is all very likely something you are doing wrong. Like maybe you are unintendedly bringing in PIO files with sessions. We cannot tell with screen fragments.

Find a file sharing service, like Google Drive, and share on that high resolution screenshots showing the full dialog panel for setup>IO>{input, output, bus}, the Playback Dialog panel and the Audio/MIDI Audio setup panel showing the aggregate. Drag that Aggregate I/O window as wide as possible so that we can clearly read all the CoreAudio default I/O naming.

And to start with you don't' just hit the default button to fully default I/O fully. You also need to select all the current I/O paths and delete them, then default the I/O.

So ignoring all the I/O names which only matter to wetware, not Pro Tools or the Interface. If you output say to output 1/2 does it work as expected? (i.g. to output 1/2 of the first device in the aggregate?)

Other questions, that might help: do you have the PreSonus in Interface mode or not? (I'm not asking if it's connected as a USB interface, I'm asking if you are turning on Interface mode-you might well not want to, we have no idea what you are doing).

Is your UAD Console IO Matrix set to default?

You should likely be creating custom I/O settings with no session open and saving them to a PIO file. Work simply/keep stuff as simple as possible.

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Before worrying about renaming IO did you confirm the aggregate IO works stably enough for you, while tracking (not playing back) at the IO buffer size you want to work at. Aggregate IO can be pretty flaky, it's not supported by Avid for more than adding Built-In Output to a device, and I'm not sure if Presonus or UAD put much effort into their drivers in getting this to work stably, vendors that seems to try are Motu and maybe RME. Hopefully you have both devices clocked off the same source. Personally I'd just not trust aggregate I/O and would be buying hardware with compatible expansion, like ADAT/SMUX, Madi, or network I/O.

Re: Output Menu Inconsistent with Outputs Available
 

Indeed, the way photos get shrunken on the DUC makes many simply unreadable. Some IO issue causes:
1-opening any old session(from before your current IO setup)
2-opening a session imported from another system(happens to me all the time as I mostly mix other people's recordings)
3-open the Bus tab and take note of paths in italics(can usually be deleted) and duplicate path names(while duplicates can also be deleted, sometimes its a crapshoot as to which duplicate is actually used in any given session)

My solution is to go straight to the IO setup as soon as I start working on any session with this issue and do "clean up". While it is a PITA, its still faster than threading and spooling up tapes:D BTW, if you use session templates or Track Presets, those might need to be cleaned up or updated as well. If you use Session templates, but not lots of them, it can help if you also save those as regular sessions as those can be opened, modified, re-saved as session template and over-write the previous version:o

Re: Output Menu Inconsistent with Outputs Available
 

I believe that I am having the same issue. I have a set up that has both the Presonus Quantum and Quantum 2 as the aggregate I/O. In the I/O set up page the number of inputs are correct, however as you look at the I/O I have 9 analog inputs, then the SPDIF (2), then the ADAT (16), then what would be the Quantum 2 but with 5 analog inputs, etc. And the outputs follow the same problem, with an odd number of analog outputs. That throws all of the inputs and outputs past the first 8 off in choosing stereo pairs, and there is no way to change or move the choices in any menu that I have found.
I have trashed prefs, upgraded firmware, software, even OS. I am hoping that someone will be able to help.

Re: Output Menu Inconsistent with Outputs Available
 

It's hard to follow what is happening without clear screenshots. How to share those is discussed above. Post the I/O setup pages and your Audio/MIDI setup aggregate device.

Your profile says 2021.7 so you have a 64x64 CoreAudio IO capability and that won't limit a Quantum aggregated with a Quantum 2.

Besides all this as I explain already in this thread the names you see in I/O setup and the I/O selectors don't actually mean anything. You can change them to whatever you want in I/O setup. If this is not working it's likely that the driver is providing wrong names. Just check what I/O is actually what with test signals and edit them in I/O setup and save the names. Things may or may not change properly as sample rates change and the number of ADAT I/O available changes, so do all this at the sample rate you want to work at.

Re: Output Menu Inconsistent with Outputs Available
 

I guess I wasn't as clear as I had hoped. Here is a link to the screen snapshots: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5ssdt678d...1I5ntywka?dl=0

Re: Output Menu Inconsistent with Outputs Available
 

This is bug I have found with regards to Pro Tools reporting incorrect Analog/Digital input/output mapping on Aggregate devices.

Don’t worry about it. Just relabel and remap the inputs and outputs in Pro Tools IO according to the Audio/Midi setup order. All will be fine.

Not true, simply delete all the output paths and re-add them back in or just rename them and make sure the numbers correlate to the same Aggregate device numbers. The “Analog” and “Digital” header descriptors have no correlation to actual assigned mapping.

Re: Output Menu Inconsistent with Outputs Available
 

Thanks for the screenshots. OK it's toast, so as has been pointed out three times now you _can_ clean this up yourself (and save the .pio file when done). And personally I'd have just done that from the get go as I'd want custom I/O port labeling to make clear what is what/on what box etc.

The problem description is more like the I/O ports names get screwed up on the very second "stereo pair" "Mic/Line/Inst In / Mic/Line In", as a stereo pair it should be I/O 3 & 4 and that forces all the names of the following pairs to be are wrong, next one can't be 4-5 etc.

Maybe its2loud has seen this behavior? This is not like any problem I've seen before, where that has been more ADAT channel numbers changing as clock rate changes and that confusing things.

First thing you can try is Default the I/O input to Mono and see if the I/O path naming is then less confused. Manually delete (click on the path and hit delete) any paths in use before defaulting the I/O.