Strong input signal but no sound monitoring or playback

[cdragon1]

I just got Pro Tools and I can't get any sound to come through from my interface or my MIDI controller even though I can see my levels going up on the mix window. I've checked my hardware, playback engine, I/O, pro tools preferences, my system preferences, and I have low latency monitoring off. I've looked all over the internet for a fix but nothing has helped. I hope this is good enough of a description cuz I suck at explaining things.

I'm using a Dell Inspiron 7791 2n1, i7 processor, 16GB RAM with Windows 10
Steinberg UR22 mkII
Akai MPK mini MIDI controller

[JFreak]

Hi, welcome to the community.

First import some audio to your PT session and try to playback. Until you can get something pre-recorded to playback you have no idea what is going on.

[Darryl Ramm]

^^^ and once you have that working. Then you need to explain what you are trying to record. You mention MIDI and interface... What exactly are you doing? Get audio recordings to work first.

Common mistakes are to try to record audio to an instrument track when you need to use an audio track, or MIDI to a MIDI track When you should use an instrument track with a VI plugin inserted on it.

If you are totally new try to find a beginner tutorials to follow to do stuff similar to what you are interested in with similar versions of Pro Tools and follow those step by step.

[cdragon1]

Originally Posted by JFreak

Hi, welcome to the community.

First import some audio to your PT session and try to playback. Until you can get something pre-recorded to playback you have no idea what is going on.

Still getting no sound from the imported audio.

[cdragon1]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

^^^ and once you have that working. Then you need to explain what you are trying to record. You mention MIDI and interface... What exactly are you doing? Get audio recordings to work first.

Common mistakes are to try to record audio to an instrument track when you need to use an audio track, or MIDI to a MIDI track When you should use an instrument track with a VI plugin inserted on it.

If you are totally new try to find a beginner tutorials to follow to do stuff similar to what you are interested in with similar versions of Pro Tools and follow those step by step.

I'm recording MIDI on an instrument track with Xpand2 and audio on the audio track. I've watched a few tutorials and am able to get everything set up properly (to my knowledge anyway), just no sound.

[Bob L]

Have you gone to I/O Setup and defaulted the Input and Output tabs?

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by Bob L

Have you gone to I/O Setup and defaulted the Input and Output tabs?

That^^^, and also open Setup>Hardware and make sure that the Steinberg is the selected "Audio engine". Are you working with speakers or headphones? Check all connections(even me, with 35 years under my belt, has been known to mis-patch something). And, since you are on Windows, open Settings>Sound and make sure that the Steinberg interface is NOT being used as the Windows default playback device

Youtube is a decent source of free tutorials to get started. Groove3 is a paid deal but everyone I know that has signed up has been very happy with the results

[cdragon1]

Originally Posted by albee1952

That^^^, and also open Setup>Hardware and make sure that the Steinberg is the selected "Audio engine". Are you working with speakers or headphones? Check all connections(even me, with 35 years under my belt, has been known to mis-patch something). And, since you are on Windows, open Settings>Sound and make sure that the Steinberg interface is NOT being used as the Windows default playback device

Youtube is a decent source of free tutorials to get started. Groove3 is a paid deal but everyone I know that has signed up has been very happy with the results

Well I just found the problem. I wasn't getting sound from my headphones plugged into the laptop but I used the 1/4 inch cable I got from the headphones and plugged them into the interface and I have sound now. I feel stupid but I'm glad I figured it out haha

I went to the setup app in the hardware tab and got this error. Maybe this has something to do with why I'm not getting sound from the laptop. I'm just gonna plug the headphones into the interface from now on but does anyone have an idea of what this could be? "Audio interruption due to USB error is detected. Refer to the troubleshooting in the operation manual."

[K Roche]

Originally Posted by cdragon1

Well I just found the problem. I wasn't getting sound from my headphones plugged into the laptop but I used the 1/4 inch cable I got from the headphones and plugged them into the interface and I have sound now. I feel stupid but I'm glad I figured it out haha

I went to the setup app in the hardware tab and got this error. Maybe this has something to do with why I'm not getting sound from the laptop. I'm just gonna plug the headphones into the interface from now on but does anyone have an idea of what this could be? "Audio interruption due to USB error is detected. Refer to the troubleshooting in the operation manual."

PT can only output through the chosen audio device So if you are using your interface as your audio device, it won't output through the computer sound card .
I don't use it but MacOS has an aggregate I/O where you might be able to this but I do not know about Windows

[Darryl Ramm]

You can do some aggregation on Windows via ASIO4ALL... and that's a much much worse idea than aggregating CoreAudio devices on macOS. And that's already pretty bad idea. Pro Tools is what it is and wants to work with a single audio interface