Having an unfun time

Really want to get Ardour working on my Mac Pro 10.6.8, and am baffled by the audio device model.

I’ve got Jack 0.88 running, and the Send ports are system/capture_1 and 2; the Receive ports are system/playback_1 and 2.

Ardour registers with Jack when Ardour is launched.

Ardour Master/Out 1 automatically maps to system/playback 1 and Master/Out 2 maps to system/playback 2. Yay.

What’s even better, is when I import tracks off my MTR, the Ardour track (Mono-001) also registers and appears in Jack. And, this ‘device’ is mapped to master out in Ardour. Having no clue what I’m doing, this seems like what should happen.

Yet, the POS speaker in the multi-thousand dollar Mac Pro is where Master/Out1,2->System/playback gets dumped. If I have to hear this speaker play my music again, I will probably kill the nearest living thing.

So then you are clearly thinking, “aha, this guy fell into the Apple-ships-no-aggregate device in OS-X trap.” Well, I wish.

Enter, “Audio MIDI Setup” yet another completely brain dead OS utility with Apple, “If it isn’t working, you are doing it wrong” design mentality.

So I created the Aggregate Audio Device, which I take to be a virtual device. Mainly because it appears to allow the selection of subordinate audio devices, like “Built-In Line Output” The audio device, “Built-In Line Output” has been added to the aggregate audio device I created. And, “Built-In Line Output” sure works on the amplifier connected to it - the ‘configure speaker’ white noise is quite audible. However, no audio routes from Ardour to Built-In Line Output.

Jack clearly shows: Receive Port, System, playback 1 connects to ardour: master.out 1.

I have tried just about all the combinatorics on the aggregate device, and jack connections. The thing that really drives me insane is that Ardour playback was previously working fine on my first install of it and test. However, it does not currently work w/ Jack & 10.6.8 given the configurations at my disposal.

Any theory, or “you are a dumb user” advice would be appreciated. I sure would enjoy spending my audio software dollars here.

9/25/11 10:42:33 PM Audio MIDI Setup[296] -[AggregateSubDeviceWrapper inputDevice]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x11392df70
9/25/11 10:43:19 PM Audio MIDI Setup[296] -[AggregateSubDeviceWrapper outputDevice]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x100532d30
9/25/11 10:43:19 PM Audio MIDI Setup[296] -[AggregateSubDeviceWrapper outputDevice]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x100532d30
9/25/11 10:43:19 PM Audio MIDI Setup[296] -[AggregateSubDeviceWrapper outputDevice]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x100532d30
9/25/11 10:43:19 PM Audio MIDI Setup[296] -[AggregateSubDeviceWrapper outputDevice]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x100532d30
9/25/11 10:43:19 PM Audio MIDI Setup[296] -[AggregateSubDeviceWrapper outputDevice]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x100532d30
9/25/11 10:43:19 PM Audio MIDI Setup[296] -[AggregateSubDeviceWrapper outputDevice]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x100532d30

From the WTF dept.: Jack has a preferences section where the aggregate audio device must be specified. Not sure why Jack preferences were unset from the aggregate device set up during Jack install, but there you have it. Suggest the summary of Jack is, “You need this for Ardour, and you need to make sure that the OS-X aggregate device is set in preferences. Jack can’t route to hardware unless you specify it to do so.”