Trouble with Bluetooth headphones

[andytoad]

Hello all,

Any techies on here able to help with my mac?

 

I'm trying to play my bass through a mac using an interface and want to use Bluetooth headphones instead of a direct headphones out from the interface.

 

I can't seem to be able to achieve sound! The mac knows the interface is there and registers sound through the input level when I play, but it will not come though the headphones.

 

The headphones are connected and working when I play a sound source from the mac like YouTube.

 

I have no options in audio devices even though the device appears?

 

I've tried resets and changing the interface amongst other things. Any ideas?

 

Thanks,

 

Andrew

 

[MichaelDean]

You might need to create an aggregate device to make it work. That lets you combine different devices to route audio in your DAW. 

 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/102171

 

You will also probably find that the latency is too high for this to work effectively. Bluetooth is fine for listening to music, because latency doesn't matter if you're just listening, and you can offset videos to make the audio sync. But the latency for Bluetooth is between 34-200 milliseconds. You tend to notice latency starting at around 10 milliseconds. For playing live, it'll most likely be too high. 

Edited January 5 by MichaelDean

[PsyBean]

I think creating an aggregate device will work but the Bluetooth latency might indeed be a problem for playing along.

 

I found an interesting quirk with my AirPod Pros. If I set them to Transparency mode (so they pick up and add in the ambient room sound), play a track from my source, Mac or iPhone or whatever, then sit with my bass on my lap and rest my chin on the bass, the AirPods pick up the bass, presumably as vibrations through my jaw and add an amplified bass sound into the earpieces. I end up with a mix of the source audio and my bass, with no latency on the bass. Great for quickly picking up a bass and playing a long with a track. Can't do it for long though, chin starts to ache!😁

[Cliff Edge]

I use a Focusrite interface but the Mac system sound settings should be the same. The output and input devices should be the same. So unless you can somehow get a Bluetooth signal from the interface it won’t work. Wired buds or headphones into the interface headphone port are the way to go. And you don’t need a DAW or similar to just play along to Spotify etc, the interface does it all.