When Pro Tools displays the “Pro Tools is unable to communicate with HUI” warning, there are a few possible reasons. This article tries to help you solve the problem when using V-Control Pro to connect a surface to Pro Tools.
V-Control Pro connects surfaces to Pro Tools by using the HUI protocol which is set up in Pro Tools’ MIDI peripherals. V-Control Pro provides virtual MIDI ports (V-Control, V-Control XT2, V-Control XT3, V-Control XT4) that send and receive HUI messages to and from Pro Tools. If Pro Tools does not receive HUI messages from a MIDI port, it will display the “Pro Tools is unable to communicate with HUI” warning.
Mac Systems
Make sure you are using a recent version of V-Control Pro. If you are certain that version 2.6 or later is installed, open the Activity Monitor utility. Look for a process named VCPMidiServer. If you do not see VCPMidiServer, then there is a problem. Make sure V-Control Pro is running () you should see it in the Menu Bar.
Windows Systems
This problem is most commonly seen on Windows systems.
For Users who are experiencing the “Pro Tools is unable to communicate with HUI” warning, follow these steps for proper setup.
Launch the V-Control Pro desktop application FIRST on the host computer. (Launch in Administrator Mode for Windows users)
To have V-Control Pro automatically launch at Start Up (Mac):
Select your User ID.
Select Login Items.
Click the lock icon and enter and admin password.
Click the + button to select V-Control Pro from your Applications folder.
To have V-Control Pro automatically launch at Start Up (Windows):
Drag a shortcut of V-Control Pro into the Windows Start Up folder.
Launch Pro Tools on the host computer. (Launch in Administrator Mode for Windows users)
MIDI Input Enable
Go into Pro Tools Peripherals and ensure that the first row is setup as a HUI device with V-Control designated as the “Receive From” and “Send to”.
