Default Ouput I/O greyed out

[langelo68]

Any HELP greatly appreciated! out of the blue, pro tools 10.3.8 changed inputs and outputs and no sound is coming from my monitors. happened last night. I checked the Play Back engine and is fine: Pro-tools aggregate. I followed directions on other threads and went to I/O Setup to reset input and output settings. On the Output window, after deleting the "delete path" to try and simply click "default", this option appears greyed out (please see screen shot i attached). Never had this happened before! any help, greatly appreciated!

pro-tools 10.3.8 running on an iMac 27" 2011; mountain lion. dynaudio monitors hooked to a Pre Sonus Central Station.

[Darryl Ramm]

If you are using an aggregate device the next place to check is that aggregate device in Audio MIDI setup and if that looks OK.

If that looks OK try switching the playback engine directly to the output device (e.g. built in output). What happens?


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[langelo68]

Darryl, thanks SO MUCH for your response! I went ahead and checked the Audio midi setup. I have no idea if it looked OK or not (have no clue about midi), but I now changed the setup and was able to have the I/O Default working again!! . i took a pic of the setup i now have (the one that is working). If you have a minute, please let me know if this setup I just chose is the one I should have; if it's a logical one. Seems fine, as it is working.Thanks again!

[Darryl Ramm]

I can't tell if this is the best setup because I have no idea what you are trying to do. If you don't *need* the aggregate, e.g. you are just mixing then use built-in output as the playback engine.


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[langelo68]

Darryl, yes I'm only mixing with a pair of monitors. I have no idea what changed in this Midi Setup. I clicked on the built-in output you suggest and it's still working fine. I'm getting the normal signal and sound out of my monitors. Again, thanks so much! Learning curve in my 50s becomes tougher!

[Darryl Ramm]

OK then you are set, it's better to just use built-in output as the playback engine, just simpler. Aggregating devices is needed when you want to use inputs or outputs from different devices with Pro Tools (or combine the Mac's built-in separate input only and output only devices). And how well that works depends on the devices/drivers written for them . And Avid officially does not support aggregating arbitrary devices, they do support aggregating devices with Built-In Output.


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[lyllou]

Hi,
I have a similar problem as part of a bigger issue.
Setup:
Macbook Pro Big Sur
Pro Tools 2021.7.0
Screenshots attached.

I am trying to connect my Zoom H4nPro recording device as an audio interface.
My computer recognises the device. H4 is selected as an input device in the audio settings.
I have only one device connected, so 'USB PnP Audio Device' is also my H4. I don't why it shows up several times (twice as an input device and twice as an output). I tried selecting all four of them individually just to check, but still it won't be recognised as an interface by ProTools.


In ProTools, H4 is selected as the Playback engine.

The Input settings are empty and 'Default' is greyed out, I cannot reset them.

When I try to select the device as input for a specific track, there is no interface available. I also tried selecting Aux 1 and 2 as input just to check, but to no avail.

Any ideas?

At the moment I'm having to record on the H4 directly onto an SD card, then transfer the SD card onto my Macbook, copy the files and edit them in ProTools - it's extremely time-consuming, and I struggle to get the tracks properly aligned with each other.
I fear I might have to buy a new interface but I won't be able to do that soon and I'd like to make sure I have exhausted options with my Zoom H4 first. I know some people who use an earlier Zoom recording device as an interface in a recent version of ProTools and it works fine, so there must be a solution.

[Darryl Ramm]

From your profile: 2019 MacBook Pro. So Intel, not M1.

I don't understand your screenshots: You are aggregating all these (messed up) devices in the Pro Tools aggregate but are then Selecting "H4" as the playback engine.. you need to select the Pro Tools Aggregate device.

Has this ever worked for you on Catalina (which I assume your MBP came with)? What changed? Was this Mac in-situ upgraded from Catalina to Big Sur or did you do a full clean install? If you have no other options you could try a full clean test install of Catalina or Big Sur in a new APFS container or external drive. And just see if the device behaves, you could also just try connecting it to other Macs ideally with different macOS versions and see what devices show up.

Class compliant devices that are split and always require aggregation and are best avoided with Pro Tools (that's different than past bugs in macOS that would split devices that should not be, maybe this is a new macOS bug).

I don't think Zoom ever had dedicated drivers for these devices, but if you ever installed any USB audio drivers for anything I'd uninstall them. And as you are doing. just have the minimal number of USB devices connected.

I suspect you are better off following up with Zoom, and this probably is not a Pro Tools issue. Or try finding out if other Zoom H4n Pro users also see these spurious devices on macOS. Chances of many folks with a Zoom H4n Pro stumbling onto your question here is low. Google search may be the best tool.

BTW you mentioned you tried to test just the devices by themselves... that likely won't work with input only devices... might even get Pro Tools to crash... Pro Tools alway needs an output device, if the device does not have them then aggregate IO is needed.

If you can't get this sorted out. Good basic interface options start with things like the Focusrite 2i2... also class compliant, but very widely used including with Pro Tools. If say the 2i2 was widely misbehaving like this you would see many many posts here on DUC about it.

And finally this really has nothing to do with this existing thread, spamming other threads like this makes a mess of stuff here and does not help you. Please in future create a new thread for things like this. And naming that thread something about Zoom device problems might have got you many more helpful looks. But please don't do that now you have already posted here.

[lyllou]

Thank you for your answer @Darryl Ramm.

Indeed the processor is Intel i9.

I bought this Macbook Pro second-hand (in pristine condition) a few months ago with BigSur already installed, so I never used Catalina.

Indeed I don't know why all these devices show up in the ProTools aggregate, I never added them.

I tried again and this time I made sure that the Pro Tools Aggregate I/O is selected both as Playback Engine and as both input and output in the Audio Midi Setup. Pro Tools still doesn't recognise the H4 as an interface but now, in the Input Settings, the Default button is no longer greyed out so that should help.

I only know one person who uses a Zoom (an H1) with ProTools on a Macbook, I know it works but I will ask for more information, especially if they also get these additional devices showing up in the list.
After a lot of Googling and Ecosiating, I found a few people who got the H4 to work with ProTools on Windows but haven't found a solution for Mac yet.
As you're suggesting, I'll try the H4 with another computer and will try to do a test install of Catalina.

Sorry I didn't mean to spam this thread. When I looked up my issue on search engines, most of the solutions pointed to resetting the Input Settings, which I could not do since they were greyed out. That's why I posted here, and actually meant to avoid spamming the forum with an extra thread. I take note of your comment and will do it differently next time.

[Darryl Ramm]

Oh a used Mac. Refurbished from Apple? Or somebody else?

If not from Apple the very first thing I would be doing is a full clean reinstall of macOS. Who knows what other crap could be on that Mac. That would literally not get powered up on my network until a clean install was done.

Now should you install Catalina or Big Sur? No idea, but check around to see if this is a know problem with Big Sur. And being a T2 crypto based Mac means extra steps of booting off external devices if you go the macOS test install route. So pay attention if you try a test install on an external drive, lots of info online about how to handle that.