Input and Outputs are not highlighted

[Bender]

When I select my Scarlette 212 the inputs and outputs are not available in the audio devices box

They are selected in the mixer

Also Should I have to select the Scarlett every time open a session



I swear I have more trouble with this little setup at home than I do with every other board I work on

[Darryl Ramm]

The inputs and outputs are likely there just named wrong.

What is the Audio device box? You mean the IO setup pages? The track IO selectors?

Pro Tools will use whatever IO settings are assigned it does not just change them because you use an different interface. If you don’t like those IO settings you can load others or default them on the appropriate Setup > IO pages which resets the IO names to those default ones provided by the device driver.

The Pro Tools reference guide describes how Setup > IO works, Overall some of the nicest part of Pro Tools one you learn it, but yes it often seems a total mess until you have hit your head against this stuff enough and then go carefully read the guide… and especially play around customizing the IO settings to get comfortable with this. Also look for tutorials on YouTube that talk about IO setup.

[Bender]

My I/O window has output assigned. output 1-2 stereo

The mixer has the same outputs and when the song plays I see the signal

The audio devices window shows Scarlett selected and says 4 ins and 2 outs
and shows primary, output 1 and output 2

It is like the headphones don't work accept they do.

I have been using this setup for a long time now

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Bender

My I/O window has output assigned. output 1-2 stereo

The mixer has the same outputs and when the song plays I see the signal

The audio devices window shows Scarlett selected and says 4 ins and 2 outs
and shows primary, output 1 and output 2

I'm not follow the descriptions here totally clearly but I'm guessing all this is related to problems you are having with I/O settings, especially when moving sessions from other environments to a smaller, simpler interface like the 2i2 but still having a mix/mess of I/O settings from the other environment present.

It would be easier to help you if you could use the proper names for things. In many cases the proper names for dialog windows etc. are at the top of those windows, please just use those names. For other things the Pro Tools Reference Guide describes the names of all the UI components when it is discussing that area of the UI. Or maybe post screenshots (see below).

The mixer? You mean the track output IO selector? Pro Tools is "the mixer".

Your 2i2 interface has 2 inputs and 2 outputs. It does not have 4 inputs, but your Setup>IO>Input page (which I assume you are talking about) can sure show many inputs not actually connected to anything (and if so the track I/O input selectors should show those inputs with "paths n/a"), and those may come from the environments you are working in elswhere. I really want you to thoroughly Default the I/O settings... make sure the 2i2 is selected as the playback engine then go to each of the Setup > IO > {input, output, bus} pages, select all the I/O paths there with the mouse and click the Delete button, make sure everything is deleted, then click the Default button. Do that on each of those three pages, the Bus page is especially important since it's really the bus output paths that Pro Tools uses as "outputs". After Defaulting the I/O you will need to go back to existing tracks and reassign the input and output I/O selectors for things that were deleted.

You see the signal on a meter move... do you mean the track meter(s)... or the Master Fader for the output, hopefully it is both? Can you make sure you have the Master Fader visible (Track>New and create a master fader track) and confirm you see that Master Fader meter moving.

It is like the headphones don't work accept they do.

So you are not hearing the audio though headphones? And you are saying you know those headphones work OK in other uses? Can you get them to work though the hardware monitoring in the 2i2... for example so you can hear yourself talking into a microphone connected to one of the 2i2 inputs through hardware monitoring... nothing to do with Pro Tools, in fact don't have it even running. That test helps confirms if some of the 2i2 internals are working OK, including the headphone amplifier, headphone volume control, headphone jack etc.

Do you have separate monitors connected to the 2i2 rear TRS outputs? If so do they work any better?

If you have a 4th Generation Scarlett 2i2 do you see the level meter on the 2i2 move (LED ring around the main volume knob).

I have been using this setup for a long time now

So this was working OK and now does not? Do you know what changed? Is it just happening at different times? Like when you bring in sessions you have been working on elsewhere?

If you are still stuck please post screen shots of the playback engine dialog, the Setup>IO>{input, output, bus} pages and of your mix window showing all tracks, including the master fader, with the I/O selectors, inserts and sends visible. Post these screenshots on a photo of file sharing web site and post links to them here. Don't attach the images to DUC, they will get down sampled so much they will be unreadable.

What generation of Scarlett 2i2 is this?

[Bender]

Hardware Setup
https://ibb.co/7YMwFMY

Playback Engine
https://ibb.co/W0VCQm2

Audio Devices dialog box. (input)That is what I thought it was called
https://ibb.co/bLrxRQb
It says 4 inputs and 2 outputs

Audio Devices dialog box
https://ibb.co/PC3z7gP
(output) 2 outputs

Screen shot of Mix view. (I called the mixer)
The signal is showing in the track and the Master
https://ibb.co/DVMySBQ

What does not look right is the I/O
https://ibb.co/pfn2vGn

The headphones work with Logic and every other music app I have.

I only use this computer at home

4th Generation

And I have used the Scarlett for over a year but Either I'm doing something wrong or I just don't understand it. When I use Pro Tools at the studio I work at sometime it remembers my settings but I have set it up from scratch every time

Thanks for all your help. You have helped me so many times.

[Darryl Ramm]

Thanks for all the screen shots, OK few things and I'll comment in line to try to explain stuff, mostly to just help reduce the amount of things you are looking at/worrying about.

First it looks like you have a Scarlett Solo 4th Gen not a 2i2 (so no pretty output level LED ring to look at).

Originally Posted by Bender

Hardware Setup
https://ibb.co/7YMwFMY

Hardware Setup is really irrelevant here. What matters is the "Playback Engine" dialog, that's what tells Pro Tools to use the Solo or some other interface.

Since the Solo is USB Audio class compliant there are no drivers to install and no chances of errors etc. there causing problems.

Playback Engine
https://ibb.co/W0VCQm2

Great, the correct device is selected. But I would uncheck "Aux I/O". No reason to believe that is causing a problem but it's another layer of complexity you don't need.

Audio Devices dialog box. (input)That is what I thought it was called
https://ibb.co/bLrxRQb
It says 4 inputs and 2 outputs

You are looking at the macOS system provided "Audio MIDI Setup Audio page", or many of us would just call this "Audio MIDI setup" since it's rarely the MIDI page that anybody cares about. Some folks will just call this "AMS" in a pinch, but that gets confusing.

Anything here is really irrelevant to Pro Tools. Meaning Pro Tools will just pick up anything it needs to know from the system about the interface, and there is nothing you need to configure here for Pro Tools to work with the Solo.

And those extra two inputs are loopbacks to get the audio output of other apps or macOS itself into the interface so Pro Tools can record them. They don't really exist as physical I/O on the interface. Many vendors are doing this nowadays, I was not ever aware these were there now added to Scarlett interfaces. Been there as well in the 3rd gen, sheesh what do I know. Here you go if you want to know more, but no need to bother with this now: https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-...using-Loopback

Audio Devices dialog box
https://ibb.co/PC3z7gP
(output) 2 outputs

Ditto, nothing really matters or is configurable for Pro Tools here. But this is where you might look for other apps to see how many I/O the interface has, what the I/O are named etc. Inside Pro Tools we do all that in the Setup > IO > {input, output, bus} pages.

Screen shot of Mix view. (I called the mixer)
The signal is showing in the track and the Master
https://ibb.co/DVMySBQ

Yes great, that's the Mix Window in strict Pro Tools talk (the other main UI window in Pro Tools is the Edit Window, if they are not visible on screen you get to them through the Window>Mix or Windows>Edit menu items so we call them windows. I can see you have a super simple session. And the Master fader is showing audio output. Fantastic.

What does not look right is the I/O
https://ibb.co/pfn2vGn

Mmm that output I/O page does look OK to me. The "ASS4G" and "CoreAd" labels in the top of the I/O paths matrix are a little cryptic but they will be coming from the macOS provided USB audio class compliant driver, I suspect the ASS4G may be code for the chipset in the interface the driver is talking to, my Grace m920 headphone DAC/amp for example shows up with "A92020" instead of "ASS4G".

OK so far so good, but you did not include the Setup>IO>Bus page screen shot and that one is the one that really controls what can be output. Can you post that as well as the Setup>IO>Input page screenshot.

The headphones work with Logic and every other music app I have.

And I have used the Scarlett for over a year but Either I'm doing something wrong or I just don't understand it. When I use Pro Tools at the studio I work at sometime it remembers my settings but I have set it up from scratch every time

Thanks for all your help. You have helped me so many times.

Got you, so no need to test the headphones at all. Lets see the setup>IO>Bus and Setup>IO>Input pages. It might be as simple as a problem there.

[Bender]

https://ibb.co/RCfPs8Z

When I said the in/out did not look right it is because I was thinking of the bus page.



It may be an issue with the Scarlett. I hooked up some monitors (which I rarely use at home) and the audio plays fine
When I used the headphones with Logic and Garagband I had them plugged into the mac

What do you think

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Bender

https://ibb.co/RCfPs8Z

When I said the in/out did not look right it is because I was thinking of the bus page.

It may be an issue with the Scarlett. I hooked up some monitors (which I rarely use at home) and the audio plays fine
When I used the headphones with Logic and Garagband I had them plugged into the mac

What do you think

Ugghh.. you should have mentioned you are using the mac headphones. That's an entirely different audio device. Pro Tools kinda uses one interface/audio device at a time (OK it added Aux I/O but that's a kinda hack). Other DAWs work differently. If you want to use your Mac's headphones with your Solo the traditional way of doing that is to create an aggregate audio device consisting of the Mac headphone output and the Solo. You create that (or modify the default created Pro Tools Aggregate I/O device) in Audio MIDI Setup then you select that aggregate device (not the Solo) as the Playback Engine in Pro Tools. And then once you do that if you go though and Default the I/O with that aggregate device selected as the playback engine it will create all the outputs and busses correctly to account for the extra headphone output. Maybe you have created that aggregate device in the past or been using Aux I/O to do the equivalent.

You can also do this with Aux I/O. But ultimately you should not do any of this, it will just likely cause problems. I would just use the headphone outputs on the Solo. Things will be much saner.

So for now I would plug headphones into the Solo and then default the I/O on that Bus page:


Select all the I/O paths, You can click on them all or just type Command-A, then click the [Delete] Button (or backspace on the keyboard) all those paths should be gone, then click select "All Busses" and click the [Default] button. Pro Tools now goes to the driver to get info about the interface to help fill out that bus page... and things there should be very simple and make more sense now, with an output bus mapped to the two outputs (headphones do not show up as separate outputs they share the main outputs) and some other internal busses.

[Bender]

I confused you I do use the Solo with Headphones

I only said that because I stated the Headphones worked with Other apps so I knew they were good.
When I take my laptop to the coffee shop shop I plug headphones into the Mac but never use Pro Tools there


Now for the Strangest thing. Everything is working. I did nothing between 3 in the AM and ten minutes ago.
Wow what a trip. I still may look at other options as I want to do some bigger stuff at home

The only good that has come of all this is I learned a ton
I’m going to read the reference guide a little each day
I used to be pretty good at this but my Cancer really mess’s with my memory

When I started on PT in 2003 my main job at the Studio was looking for information on the DUC because we were all new and came from Logic which is nothing like it today

Between my Mentor Vinny owner of Axisrecording.com I was the oldest intern in the world coming from a hobbyist to a real engineer
I got to work in some incredible studios and met so talented people thru Vinny


Thanks again as You are an incredible wealth of knowledge and have helped so many people

[Emcha_audio]

Not a mac guy but it seems that your mac book air speakers is what is selected as computer output sources (it has the small speakers beside it). If I'm not mistaking, the little black speakers should be beside the scarlette at the bottom.