No sound coming out through my headphones

[Duren]

Hello all talented people,

I am a totally new to Pro Tools (a dummie) ... have been exploring Intro version, but feel I will upgrade my account pretty soon,.... love it so far!

For better reference, my setup is:

- iMac 18,3 / (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017) / (Quad-Core Intel Core i5) / (3.4 GHz) / (8GB)

- OS Ventura 13.0.1

- Keystation 49 MK3

- Headphones SONY MDR-7506


I do not have any Audio Interface yet, just plugged into my iMac's socket.

I am trying to follow some tutorials - basics about creating virtual instruments, making my first MIDI recording, etc, but struggling with the proper setup of I/O, Playback Engine etc. No sound coming through my headphones.

I would appreciate deeply to receive some tips for good quality sources (links, references, online tutorials for dummies), for the beginners from scratch to advance, to be able to better understand this sophisticated tool and educate myself in Pro Tools.

Thank you very much, really appreciate your willingness to help and support.

Kind regards,
Lazzo

[Darryl Ramm]

What variety (Ultimate, Studio, Artist, Intro?) and what exact release date of Pro Tools are you using?

So one thing at a time. I cannot follow exactly where you are at and what is or is not working. First you need to get the basic Pro Tools Audio working. So lets start there...

With a Mac you can use the built-in output or whatever the name of the standard output is as the playback engine. With your headphones plugged in what are all the options shown under the playback engine pulldown? Tell us exactly what is there, even better attach screen shots, unless you can pick the obvious one.

Then create a new session (not a cloud project), not not use other sessions you have, start over new and do exactly what I'm saying... and then (without creating any track manually) from the Mac Finder drag and drop a known good MP3 or AIFF or similar commercial audio recording into the Pro Tools (fixed typo:) Edit window from the Mac finder, and when prompted choose to create a new track. You should see the track appear, then press the Pro Tools play button. Do you hear the audio from the track?

Id you can't hear anything... Do you see the track meter move? If you play other audio though the mac (say from Apple Music does that all work OK?). Can you play the exact same file you dropped into Pro Tools in Apple Music? Create a master fader track on that output. Do you see that meter move? Are all track and master faders up high enough so you have enough output level? Make sure the track is not muted. Still stuck attach screen shots showing details of the mix and edit Windows, especially showing the I/O selectors, mute/solo buttons etc.. ideally post large clear screenshots on a photo sharing site and link to them here.

If not go to Setup>IO>Output and Setup>IO>Bus page and click the Default button. You should only have one stereo output showing in the IO>Output page and that should be the output selector chose on the track.

Once you have that working then the audio part of Pro Tools and the output IO is all working and the next step you have to set up is the MIDI input and VI plugin, a whole separate process/different parts of Pro Tools... I expect you can find tutorials online but post back here if stuck with that. Look for something that shows you how to get started with Mini Grand, which is included with the extra plugin installers you need to install after Pro Tools.

I know 8GB is supposed to be a mimimim memory requirement but it is a little light for Pro Tools, you may not have enough memory to work with heavy VIs, and you need to be careful not to have other apps running and should not have the disk cache set to a large value. If you do go ahead and work on the iMac with VIs you should plan on upgrading memory, it's an easy upgrade you can do yourself on that model iMac and not too expensive. I'd go for a big upgrade and use that to help improve performance of everything.

[_JJ_]

Everything Darryl says is correct but I'll give you a simple starter tip:

Plug your headphones in FIRST before you launch ProTools. Then launch PT, go to the "Setup" menu, and select "Playback Engine". From the popup menu there see what the logical choice will be. It may be "External Headphones" or it may be "Built-in Output" or something along those lines.

I'm running HD on a MacBook Pro and if I mistakenly unplug my headphones before quitting PT it panics and wants to save and close. It's not able to simply switch between headphones and speakers because they're considered two different output devices - at least on the MBPro.

Give that a try, along with Darryl's more detailed suggestions and you'll soon figure it out.

[Duren]

Thank you very much @DarrylRamm and @JJ for your support. I am using Pro Tools Intro version.
I was following instructions you both shared with me,...plugged my headphones first before launching Pro Tools, checked the Playback Engine (my setup was "Pro Tools Aggregate", I switched it to "Built-in Output"),...dragged an MP3 into the Pro Tools (was not working-couldn't drag and drop with the Mix window, but when I dragged the MP3 into the Track Window it worked). And the Default button helped too. Yes, the sound was there afterwards in the Mix and Edit window. Downloaded the Mini Grand, Expand!2, Velvet.
Now exiting to figuring out setup the MIDI input. (to be able to hear the sound from my MIDI keyboard).

Darryl, what would be your upgrate suggestion regarding the iMac I currently have?
Besides that, if I go with completely new models of Macs, would you suggest one of these?:
- Mac Studio M1 MAX (10-Core CPU, 32GB, 512 SSD) for home studio
- MacBook Pro 16", M1 MAX, 10-Core, 32GB, 1TB SSD) portable

Thanks

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Duren

Darryl, what would be your upgrate suggestion regarding the iMac I currently have?
Besides that, if I go with completely new models of Macs, would you suggest one of these?:
- Mac Studio M1 MAX (10-Core CPU, 32GB, 512 SSD) for home studio
- MacBook Pro 16", M1 MAX, 10-Core, 32GB, 1TB SSD) portable

Thanks

The suggestion was to add more memory/DRAM. I would just max out what you can. Companies like OWC can help you with what exact DIMMs you need. It's easy to do because the DIMMs are accessible though a small door in the back of the iMac.

A MacBook Pro vs. Studio decision comes down to primarily do you want a laptop or a desktop computer. For any new M1/M2 based mac memory is not upgradeable and I would be looking at systems with as much memory as I think I might need in the next say four years (which *for me* would be 64GB) And the SSD in the MacBook Pro is not upgradeable so you want to go with the biggest you can afford/justify, the SSD in the Studio is currently not upgradable, but might be in future, but still go with the biggest you can afford/justify now.

Given the transition to Apple Silicon still has a little way to go and that the current Mac model lineup show signs that Apple has challenges with silicon yield/transitions I'd not rush to buy a new Mac now unless you need/really want one.

And my "mix window" was a typo I meant edit window, I corrected it in the previous post.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Duren

Now exiting to figuring out setup the MIDI input. (to be able to hear the sound from my MIDI keyboard).

Follow a tutorial for getting started with Mini Grand. But things to watch out for are:

Start stupidly simple. Like find a tutorial that gets you started with a session with only on instrument track and one VI in it.

You do not need to install MIDI drivers to get the keyboard to work. If there is any crapware with the keyboard just don't install it. M-Audio software is all pretty bad on the best day.

You might find a MIDI utility like Snoize MIDI Monitor is handy for confirming your Mac is getting MIDI events from the keyboard.

Make sure you are inserting the Mini Grand VI (plugin) on an instrument track (not an audio track, not a MIDI track). In an insert slot like any other plugin, but has to be on an instrument track (for beginners).

In the track edit and/or mix window choose to display "instrument". This shows you the MIDI signal coming into your VI plugin. Make sure in that "instrument" section the input pulldown shows "all" and the output pulldown is the Mini Grand plugin.

Make sure Options>MIDI Through is selected. Super common mistake.

If you can't get the M-AUDIO MIDI events to produce audio from the VI then test the VI using Pro Tool Window>MIDI Keyboard.

And then once it's working read the Pro Tools Reference Guide to work out what all the stuff you did and the terminology really means.

Edit: (for got this one). You must have the instrument track record armed to "hear" your keyboard.

[Duren]

Hi @Darryl Ramm,

Yes, I understand how important the RAM and SSD capacity is to run Pro Tools smoothly. Everything works fine now for me. Exercising on Instrument Tracks, plug-ins.
Btw, should any Instrument Track be mono or stereo?
I have my Mini Grand active in my iLock account but cannot locate it inside the Pro Tools. So far I got also Expand!2, Velvet, Reason, MPC Beats.

[Darryl Ramm]

Mini Grand will work on mono or stereo instrument tracks.

Oh you are using Intro, that does not include Mini Grand. Did you purchase Midi Grand (direct from Air?), or Complete Plugin Bundle? (For ~$50/year I'd just get the Avid Complete Plugin Bundle (ACPB) subscription if you think you are going to stick with Pro Tools). Mini Grand is a great VI, a default super simple piano that everybody uses for testing, so I think work persisting with.

You need to license for the individual plugin or the ACPB licenses. But these licenses don't just need to be in your iLok account they need to be activated (i.e. moved) to your iLok cloud or to a physical iLok dongle. The plugins need to use this cloud or physical iLok dongle licensing, they are not licensed to a machine/computer the same way as Pro Tools Intro is but there are reasons for this. And if you are going to stick with this long term I'd get a physical iLok license dongle but for now activate any license for Avid plugins to the iLok cloud. Your computer does need to be online to the Internet to use those licenses.

You need to install Mini Grand plugin. If you have subscribed to the ACPB installers should show up in your Avid Account "My Products" section look for "AIR Instruments Bundle 19.12 Installer Mac (DMG) 1.05 GB" which installs Boom, DB-33, Mini Gand and Vacuum plugins.

I would be looking in the Avid account on Avid.com and downloading installers and not using Avid Link to manage/mismanage any installs. I and many others just always Uninstall Avid Link, it's had too many problems to be worth dealing with.

If you think you've installed the plugin then the plugin file "MiniGrand.aaxplugin" will be in the Pro Tools plugin folder "/Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-Ins". And you if it is licensed correctly you will see it load in the startup splash screen when you start Pro Tools. If the plugin file is present but not properly licensed you should see a license activation pop-up window as the plugin tries to load.

And have you found a Mini Grand beginner Tutorial? This one is one of many good ones. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apcs3lDU878

[Duren]

Hi @Darryl Ramm

This I found on OWC website, if I understand your earlier message regarding upgrading my iMac I should probably go with 64GB.
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memo...c-2017-27-inch

Thanks

[Duren]

Hi @Darryl Ramm

Could you please recommend some good studio monitors? I don’t need super high end ones.
Thank you very much.