Should a project file remember output assignments?

[FrankM]

I connect my Korg Liano to my MacBook Air and use its built-in speakers as my audio output (the Liano does bi-directional audio and MIDI over USB). I don’t have studio monitors and find the Liano’s speakers better than the Mac’s. I also prefer not to use headphones when just messing around at home.

In Audio MIDI Setup, I set the Liano as my main output, and in DP’s Configure Hardware Driver, I set it as the Master Device. Everything works fine—until I save and later reopen the project. Nine times out of ten, DP doesn’t remember the Liano as the output. I get no sound, check Configure Hardware Driver, and see it’s reverted to some other (inactive) output.

Worth noting: the Liano is always connected, powered on, and correctly shown in both Audio MIDI Setup and macOS Sound settings before I launch DP. And oddly, sometimes it just works as expected—but usually not.

Is this a bug, expected behavior, or am I missing a setting? It’s not a dealbreaker, just mildly annoying. I’m on DP 11.33, macOS Ventura 13.7.4.

[HCMarkus]

I have not experienced this in older or current versions of CP and macOS.

Have you tried setting your System Audio in the macOS SOUND setting to your Korg?

Or maybe try moving the DP Output assigned to the Korg to a different location in Bundles. If you want to be able to monitor edits, make it first in the Output list.

[bayswater]

You didn’t mention Bundles? Do you have them defined?

[mikehalloran]

Nine times out of ten, DP doesn’t remember the Liano as the output. I get no sound, check Configure Hardware Driver, and see it’s reverted to some other (inactive) output.

You must have the hardware on when you start up DP. Also, Follow System Audio Settings needs to be unchecked.

Screenshot 2025-05-11 at 7.28.30 PM.jpg (184.68 KiB) Viewed 451 times

If it still doesn't behave, then you will have to go back in and Configure Hardware Driver — it should work, however.

[FrankM]

Thanks for these replies. I hadn't been into the Bundles dialog. I did create a Liano bundle showing its outputs. I made sure the audio tracks' output assignments were all made to this output pair, then saved the file, quit DP and restarted. When I loaded my project the outputs were correctly set to the Liano.

"Follow System Audio Settings" is not checked - thanks for that tip, Mike.

I'm still a little unsure of how Bundles work – I see names of inputs & outputs that don't make sense. I saw a bundle called "Main Out L-R" in addition to the Liano output, and when I switched my audio tracks to play through that, the audio still came from my Liano. Not sure how or why this is. I skimmed the manual but will try to allocate time to experiment to get a better understanding of all this.

[bayswater]

The Bundles window is quite important. It's the way DP communicates with the world outside your computer. Without it, DP doesn't know much about what's going on in the world and all it knows is what macOS tells it. It should always be defined before saving a project as a template. Note that you can save Bundles configurations if you use different setups at different time. It's also useful to define Bundles for Busses that you know you will use regularly. Also, as per posts by FM, you can make up fake Bundles that serve as headers and labels to help identify groups of Bundles.

[EMRR]

When you find blown up routings, it's more expedient to fix them in bundles than it is to toggle every track assignment elsewhere. Usually one thing is misassigned, and fixing it in bundles will change it every relevant place.

Tangents - when I migrated computers I did NOT change interfaces, and DP did not remember complete routings via the same selected interfaces, connected the same way.

Saving a DP11 session as a DP 8 session for use on an old backup laptop, both connected to the same Dante network as interface via Dante Virtual Soundcard, occasionally does not remember the routing completely.

FWIW. Only times I've seen something similar.