Can't get protools to detect usb speakers for audio output

[jonprime]

Hi all,

I'm trying to connect my laptop to external speakers through a usb connection but pro tools doesn't detect it in the drop-down list in the playback engine menu, or anywhere else. My computer can run playback through the usb speakers just fine, but for some reason I'm not able to get them working with pro tools. I've tried just about everything I can think of and there doesn't seem to be much information about this online besides "change your playback settings." Would love some help on this!

Thanks

[Darryl Ramm]

Mmm maybe, and I am just guessing here, but the exact model of speakers and what driver they are using might be relevant? Same with exact version of Pro Tools.

For Pro Tools you should be using an ASIO audio device. You can sometimes use ASIO4ALL to wrap windows audio devices, but it is much less reliable than using proper ASIO audio interfaces. Pro Tools is also supposed to work with WASAPI audio devices, but good luck with that. Just do what everybody does and get a proper ASIO interface. Pro Tools also wants an interface that provides inputs and outputs so USB speakers, even if you had suitable drivers, are not likely to work if you want to record anything.

[jonprime]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Mmm maybe, and I am just guessing here, but the exact model of speakers and what driver they are using might be relevant? Same with exact version of Pro Tools.

For Pro Tools you should be using an ASIO audio device. You can sometimes use ASIO4ALL to wrap windows audio devices, but it is much less reliable than using proper ASIO audio interfaces. Pro Tools is also supposed to work with WASAPI audio devices, but good luck with that. Just do what everybody does and get a proper ASIO interface. Pro Tools also wants an interface that provides inputs and outputs so USB speakers, even if you had suitable drivers, are not likely to work if you want to record anything.

Thanks, I'll look into the speakers and see if I need any drivers for it, and if that doesn't work I'll give ASIO4ALL a try. I do have an interface and everything else for recording. The problem is that I'm giving a presentation in a classroom and want to connect my laptop to their speaker system, which uses USB. I don't think I could use my interface as a hub either because of that. Thanks for the suggestions.

[Darryl Ramm]

Look around, many systems like this will have an analog line level option as well and then use your interface to drive that.

The USB audio device either will be class compliant or your system is using plug and play to install a driver. ASIO4ALL is a hack, if you have to use it set the HW buffer to the largest size you can, and test it, you don't want Pro Tools errors while giving your talk.