User guide
Appendix a: Configuring CoreAudio (Mac OS X Only) 23
Configuring a Pro Tools|HD 
Audio Interface for Third-Party 
Applications
When using a Pro Tools|HD Native with an ap-
plication other than Pro Tools (such as Apple 
GarageBand), you can configure hardware set-
tings through the audio preference settings 
available in that application.
To configure hardware settings through a client 
application (such as Apple GarageBand):
1 Choose CoreAudio for Audio Output and Au-
dio Input. 
2 Select a buffer size for your system by selecting 
an Optimize For option (Maximum/Large buffer 
size or Minimum/Small buffer size). 
Refer to the documentation for your third-party 
application to learn more about how these op-
tions affect that application. 
Configuring the Apple Sound 
Preferences or Apple Audio 
MIDI Setup
(Required for Using Qualified Pro Tools System 
Interface with Apple iTunes or QuickTime 
Player)
To use your Pro Tools hardware with certain 
CoreAudio-compatible playback applications 
(such as Apple iTunes or QuickTime Player), you 
will need to configure either Sound Preferences 
or Audio MIDI Setup in addition to CoreAudio 
Manager. However, for most CoreAudio-com-
patible client applications (such as BIAS Peak or 
Ableton Live) this is unnecessary, because you 
can configure the CoreAudio Buffer Size setting 
and input and output channels from within the 
client application.
Apple Sound Preferences
To configure the Apple Sound Preferences:
1 Launch System Preferences (Apple menu > Sys-
tem Preferences).
2 Click Sound.
3 Click Output and select Pro Tools HD Native as 
the device for sound output.
4 Click Input and select Pro Tools HD Native as the 
device for sound input.
5 Quit System Preferences.
Sound Preferences, Output settings
Sound Preferences, Input settings










