The Insert Was Made Inactive Because The Output Path Is Already In Use

[ViciousBliss]

Hi everyone,

I have a Lynx Aurora N and am using PT 12.5 HD still. Whenever I try to use hardware inserts 1-2, this is the message it gives me. 1-2 are at their default setting, reserved for monitors and whatever else. Lynx support didn't really know what to do, told me to try trashing PT prefs. When I used to use an Apollo Twin, their Console software had some workarounds. The Lynx N Control doesn't have any workarounds that I can find. So, I was just curious if anyone here had any ideas as I know PT often needs a workaround so you can use 1-2 for hardware inserts. Thanks!

[BScout]

If you want to use 1-2 for hardware inserts instead of monitoring, change where monitoring is used in Pro Tools IO setup.

You can't have the inserts overlap with the output (or input) used elsewhere. That's it. Once you dedicate inputs/outputs to a hardware insert, remove the same channels from being used on the input or output tabs (you can just uncheck them if you want.)

[ViciousBliss]

Originally Posted by BScout

If you want to use 1-2 for hardware inserts instead of monitoring, change where monitoring is used in Pro Tools IO setup.

You can't have the inserts overlap with the output (or input) used elsewhere. That's it. Once you dedicate inputs/outputs to a hardware insert, remove the same channels from being used on the input or output tabs (you can just uncheck them if you want.)

I switched the monitoring and everything else using 1-2 to 9-10 before and then 1-2 would activate but I'd get no sound out of the hardware. Sound wouldn't even hit it. That was puzzling. Last time I think it also caused sound from the other inserts not to work as well. I've searched this forum, reddit, youtube, and I haven't come up with anything that worked. Might have something to do with the Lynx software.

[Darryl Ramm]

Is this connected to HD Native? HDX? USB/ASIO? ... Presumably it is Thunderbolt or USB if you have NControl working.

What exactly does not work? Playback of existing audio in a session or software monitoring of inputs, or both? or hardware monitoring of inputs?

If monitoring: Are you trying to software or hardware monitor? Is Low latency monitoring enabled?

(With Pro Tools 12 HD and HD Native you have to use Output 1-2 if using LLM).

Make sure you have a master fader meter visible for that output. Does the output master fader meter move?

Does NControl actually have the new DAW 9-10 output routed to a physical output? Do the meters there mirror what the master fader track meter is doing?

You should have enough information from the combination of Pro Tools meters and NControl meters to sort out what is going on.

You are asking for a "work around" that is not the correct terminology and maybe the idea you need a work around is not going to help you... you don't need a "work around" you need to just set this up correctly for what you are doing.

Why not just leave Output 1-2 as the monitor outputs and use other IO pairs as hardware inserts? That is what I and most other users would likely do, there is a common expectation that IO 1-2 are the main monitor outputs.

---

Over the years there have been an unusual number of people on DUC seeming to have problems with ADC correction of hardware insert latency on Lynx interfaces, including I believe the Lynx(N). You can find past posts on DUC about this. If you experience problems it would be great to know what the reported ADC latency is on the track with an insert (and no software plugins) and what the carefully measured timing error is (in samples) with ADC enabled. This interface/ADC issue, if it even exists, will have nothing to do with your current lack of output.

[ViciousBliss]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Is this connected to HD Native? HDX? USB/ASIO? ... Presumably it is Thunderbolt or USB if you have NControl working.

What exactly does not work? Playback of existing audio in a session or software monitoring of inputs, or both? or hardware monitoring of inputs?

If monitoring: Are you trying to software or hardware monitor? Is Low latency monitoring enabled?

(With Pro Tools 12 HD and HD Native you have to use Output 1-2 if using LLM).

Make sure you have a master fader meter visible for that output. Does the output master fader meter move?

Does NControl actually have the new DAW 9-10 output routed to a physical output? Do the meters there mirror what the master fader track meter is doing?

You should have enough information from the combination of Pro Tools meters and NControl meters to sort out what is going on.

You are asking for a "work around" that is not the correct terminology and maybe the idea you need a work around is not going to help you... you don't need a "work around" you need to just set this up correctly for what you are doing.

Why not just leave Output 1-2 as the monitor outputs and use other IO pairs as hardware inserts? That is what I and most other users would likely do, there is a common expectation that IO 1-2 are the main monitor outputs.

---

Over the years there have been an unusual number of people on DUC seeming to have problems with ADC correction of hardware insert latency on Lynx interfaces, including I believe the Lynx(N). You can find past posts on DUC about this. If you experience problems it would be great to know what the reported ADC latency is on the track with an insert (and no software plugins) and what the carefully measured timing error is (in samples) with ADC enabled. This interface/ADC issue, if it even exists, will have nothing to do with your current lack of output.

It's PT 12 HD native. USB. No monitors are hooked up, just headphones. No LLM on. N Control doesn't let me reassign anything. It's a DB25 cable and the two cables marked 1 and 2 are what I'm trying to use. N Control doesn't have any options to reassign them to insert 9-10 or anything else. Occasionally I get problems with latency if using more than one hardware insert on an aux track. Like I was saying, I asked Paul at Lynx and all the advice he could offer was to trash PT pref. I'll have to look into what you're saying about the master fader. It would just be great if I could somehow tell PT to route the physical 1 and 2 cables to some other output.

[Darryl Ramm]

Reassign? Not reassign, I never said reassign. You are almost certainly lost in N Control and need to spend time learning it. I don't think there is written doc, but there is this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U5NU1okZl8

You need to route aka set up a hardware mix for the DAW return signal to the physical outputs. This is a huge part of what N Control does.

Say you are putting out a mix from DAW coming into the interface on as "Play 9-10", you have to get N Control to send that to the physical outputs say "Line 9-10". It may well have default mixes (I don't know) you can invoke that will do that, but there does needs to be the proper mix/routing set up.

And again as you do this/look at N Control the meters there will help you debug if there is a signal getting to it from the DAW.

With N Control Pro Tools does not and cannot talk directly to any physical I/O. And the naming of IO ports in Pro Tools has no meaning at all, they are just conveniences to you, so say you have 8 output pairs in Pro Tools, going to say a Lynx Aurora N 16... think of them named Play 1-2, Play 3-4, .. Play 15-16 etc. in Pro Tools (or actually change those names in Setup>IO if you want to play around) and that going to your interface and then the N Control routing those "Play" DAW returns to physical outputs. N Control can send them *anywhere*.

I can't recall if it's easy/possible to just entirely disable N Control or not. If so then maybe disable it.

And for headphone outputs.... Do you have the headphones sources set correctly? Do you see the output level on the Pro Tools master fader? Which DAW return "Play" track is that appearing on... have you got that routed to he headphone outputs? Is the headphone volume knob turned up? The meters in N Control *will* tell you what is going on.. what are they doing?

A good exercise when learning to use any interface hardware mixer can be to play with it stand-alone without a DAW and play with just setting up hardware monitoring from a couple of mic or line input to the headphone output. Just a nice way to remove the hardware mixer behavior from the DAW, get things simple to learn how to do stuff (even if here it's the DAW returns that may have you confused).

OK got you want to use DB-25 cables with the inserts, you may need a patch bay once you get stuff running. Sounds like you probably are already but for initial tests just route the DB-25 outs to DB-25 ins. But again if N Control is in the picture you need to make sure that each DAW Output is routed to the correct physical output. I kinda suspect there might be timing/latency problems in N Control given other users strange latency problems. I would encourage you to test for latency problems by recording a click signal to one audio track, then placing a h/w insert on that track and it playing into another audio track and recording it there. As long as ADC is enabled this system should align the click waveforms exactly on both tracks. If it's out try to measure the time difference in samples (should be possible to measure to +/- one sample). You can then add/subtract that value in the track ADC +/- adjustment field, but this should *not* be needed if Pro Tools and the interface is working correctly... but there seems to be some issues here for some folks.

[JFreak]

HDN is a Thunderbolt box. Do you have HDN card in some external box that connects via USB?

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by JFreak

HDN is a Thunderbolt box. Do you have HDN card in some external box that connects via USB?

OK this could be clearer, but he is using USB to the Aurora N. If it was DigiLink to a HD Native card/box, N Control would not run.

[ViciousBliss]

I've watched the N Control videos multiple times. Read the manual. Posting here is kinda a last resort. I can get signal in N Control from 1-2, but no signal is going to my Stamchild, which has cables 1-2 plugged into it. In the Bus menu under I/O it's not letting me switch the default output bus. It's stuck on HD audio output 1-2. I switched every other 1-2 thing to 11-12 under every I/O section. My other inserts produce no sound inside PT until I activate insert 1-2. In N Control I don't see anything to adjust the routing like in UAD Console. With the Apollo Twin, I had to move all the inserts over so 1-2 became 3-4 and 3-4 became 5-6, etc. There was some virtual channels I had to setup. UAD said PT reserves 1-2 for something and that we had to use the Console software to get around that fact. Documentation on how to use hardware with Apollo Twin is tough to come by. The other audio interface I tried was the ID14 and their instructions were not relevant with their current software and I could never get Fusion to work with it.

Sometimes my Fusion would just not work at all through the Apollo Twin. It was kinda random if the routing would work. So, I guess the big question is what PT does with HD Audio Output 1-2.

[JFreak]

It may be because the real HDN product (the thunderbolt box) has special headphone output in channels 1-2 and this cannot be moved elsewhere. Maybe the PCIe card inherits this behaviour.