How to use different audio hardware with the same project

[midden]

I want to record a Pro Tools project with my Behringer XR18 that has 18 input and output busses and then mix it and bounce it while connected to my Focusrite Scarlett2i2 USB audio interface (which is connected to my studio monitors in a different room) that only has 2 input and output busses. I'd like to go back and record additional takes using my XR18 but switching back and forth between different audio hardware setups has been a problem. For instance, recently when I tried to reconnect a project to my XR18 after doing some mixing and bouncing with my Scarlett2i2 interface, it would only show me two inputs available even though I confirmed with MIDI Audio Setup that the XR18 was connected and available. Eventually I did something that enabled the inputs on the XR18 but don't know exactly what that was.

Can someone explain the correct way to change the audio hardware setup for a project in a situation like this when two different audio interfaces will be used?

Bob Midden

[Top Jimmy]

Read the manual on the I/O setup window. When you change the interface selected in the playback engine settings, you should always follow up with fixing the I/O settings as needed.

[Darryl Ramm]

Hopefully you want to record a Pro Tools session, because if you keep trying to use a cloud project you might as well just give up now.

You switch the audio hardware by changing the playback engine… always start by making sure the playback engine is what you think it is. The IO definitions for what Pro Tools thinks an interface can do is kind of (initially confusingly) orthogonal to the interface/playback engine setting and is controlled by Setup>IO. Which gives great flexibility in customizing layouts, naming IO ports and busses etc. to suit what you are doing. Akin to tape labels stuck on a console.

At a simple level all that is happening here will be your session is still using the IO setup embedded in it from the smaller simpler interface when you try to use the larger interface. That might be what you want to do… Pro Tools cannot guess. You can always use the default buttons, maybe after deleting paths, to restore the default IO setups for an interface (what is selected in the playback engine).

But you really should work out how to use all this. IO setups are one of the nicest things about Pro Tools, you should just play around with Setup>IO, find some tutorials covering that and read the reference guide. The first realization should be that all the IO port (and bus names) mean nothing to the interface, only the numbers matter, all the names used are just abstractions for the wetware user., and you can (should?) rename those to be helpful for you. And work out how to save these setups to a separate file.

[Darryl Ramm]

“I/O setups are one of the nicest things about Pro Tools”…”akin to tape labels on a console”. Guess who here was trying to deal with a _slightly_ complicated IO setup with #%^*+ Logic Pro recently?

[albee1952]

Darryl beat me to it, but let me simplify, in case its still confusing(but you still should make sure which "audio engine" is in play);
If you name the main outputs the same with all your possible interfaces, then playback should always work. Example:
My former partner and I had a multi-room studio. He ran an Mbox 2 Pro in his midi suite while I ran HDN with 64 IO in the big room. We each named our main outputs "Main Out L/R". Sessions could go back and forth every day without any playback issues. He also named his 2 mic inputs to match a pair of my Preamps. All my other IO was simply made inactive on his rig

[scremedy]

Picking this up 6 mos later. That's helpful, thanks. I have a 32 i/o hybrid setup with an API1608 in one space, and a carbon in another. What i'm gathering from you folks is - you just need to put the time in at the beginning of each location change reassigning your I/O based upon your interface.

Didn't know if there was a template answer that made this faster. At any rate - it would only be good per project...so really it's 10 minutes or less and your set.