Thunderbolt Native Card/16 I/O not a Playback Engine Option
 

Hello all,
Working with a client- configuration:iMac 2013/Catalina/Thunderbolt Native Card to/from 16 I/O. System was "working" when client re-arranged his PT Aggregate I/O to the 16 I/O. I quoted "working" because even though the Outputs were operable, he could never get the low-latency Inputs to perform properly. He upgraded to PT 2021.12 and enlisted my services. On a remote call, I had him download and install the current HD Drivers, Restart, then reinstall PT 2021.12. Even though it shows up in the System Preferences as a Sound Option, it does not show up as a Playback Engine option in Pro Tools. I then deleted the altered PT Aggregate I/O Audio Device and then set up the HD Thunderbolt Native card. Restart/relaunch with same results. Quit/Restart computer and ran DigiTest on the card. It passed with no known issues. Please let me know if anyone has any other options. Thanks.

Re: Thunderbolt Native Card/16 I/O not a Playback Engine Option
 

Did your client realize that Pro Tools won't work with the CoreAudio HD driver directly or with an aggregate device? Not intended to. You have to use the HD device as the playback engine. Or were they trying to use a different DAW? In which case those DAWs won't know anything about the low-latency HD Native mixer (it that's what is meant by low-latency, I might be misunderstanding that).

Re: Thunderbolt Native Card/16 I/O not a Playback Engine Option
 

ok im no expert, but I thought of this and I would like to post to see if u can try some things to get this working. good luck
try allowing microphone access to your Pro Tools app in these steps

Re: Thunderbolt Native Card/16 I/O not a Playback Engine Option
 

from what I understand CoreAudio is an operating system level framework that allows macOS applications to access audio/microphone devices via macOS calls for devices in Audio/MIDI Setup. in macOS this is called, 'allow access to microphone'
what, I 'think', I am not experienced in this, is that any device assigned a device property in Audio Midi Setup in macOS can be used as a playback engine in Pro Tools, including Aggregates, once the 'allow access to microphone', as described above is enabled. I think this is because the macOS framework handles the drivers and lets Pro Tools, or in our case macOS applications/Pro Tools, use operating system calls to use audio devices via Audio MIDI Mapper. macOS handles these calls and it is the application's responsibility to use them to their own usage. this is why we get bugs and crashes.

Re: Thunderbolt Native Card/16 I/O not a Playback Engine Option
 

from what I understand so far, is you can make multiple Aggregates for different hardware, and I/Os in your case, with other devices. what this can allow you to do is save a preferences file from pro tools and keep it and load it when you use a specific aggregate. why do this? say you have a live rig, and a studio rig. you can simply switch the playback engine and load the preferences for that aggregate when you are using a different setup.

I appreciate everyone in the community who has helped me as well and I will do my best to provide knowledgeable information and help others at my best
-Raymond

Re: Thunderbolt Native Card/16 I/O not a Playback Engine Option
 

How to allow microphone access on Mac
On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Preferences.
Click Security & Privacy.
Choose the Privacy tab.
Select Microphone.
Check the box next to the app to allow it to access your microphone.

Re: Thunderbolt Native Card/16 I/O not a Playback Engine Option
 

I can see you want to help, but please stop posting multiples of the same thing, or "test". Its not helping. As someone that is new to the DUC, I suggest you do lots of reading here and refrain from posting until you get a feel for how things work here(as well as a feel for proper etiquette in this environment):o

Re: Thunderbolt Native Card/16 I/O not a Playback Engine Option
 

Hello everyone. Thanks for your possible solution suggestions. I have tried everything mentioned and still in the Pro Tools Playback Engine window, there is no HD Native Thunderbolt option. I checked the version of the HD Driver, which is current. I do not think he uninstalled the previous driver when upgrading, but the new driver usually writes over the previous version (unless specified). Anyway, the Microphone Permissions had been established when I checked. As far as I knew, the PT Aggregate I/O was only designed to work with the internal Audio card on the Mac. The Thunderbolt HD Native driver would have the sophistication to access the features on the Native card. So for the Inputs, it would have access to all 16 channels both in the Low Latency domain as well as Delay Compensation on the output side, when not recording or overdubbing. From what I recall when I was testing Pro Tools from the PT Aggregate I/O my client "altered", the Low Latency Monitoring option was not accessible. As today is Monday here, I would appreciate some additional advice and/or an AVID Moderator's input. Thanks again.

Re: Thunderbolt Native Card/16 I/O not a Playback Engine Option
 

The story here does not really make sense. Again was your client using aggregate IO with a different DAW or what exactly? What exactly are you trying to get to?

Did you try to use the built-in HD drivers? There is a lot of hassles with HD drivers on recent macOS releases. I'd look over those. If this has been going on for a while have you folks got Avid support involved?

Re: Thunderbolt Native Card/16 I/O not a Playback Engine Option
 

Darryl is trying to explain that if you have HDN, you forget Aggregate, install HD drivers, and there you go. Simple. But you do need Ultimate software (and DigiLink license) for it.