PRO TOOLS OPTIMIZING PERFORMANCE

pRO tOOLS fOR pOST-pRODUCTION:

• PRO TOOLS OMPTIMIZATION
• MAC OS OPTIMIZATION
• PC OS OPTIMIZATION

PRO TOOLS OMPTIMIZATION

CPU Usage Limit

If you are only using Pro Tools when working on your computer, you can increase the CPU usage limit value to its maximum. If you are running other applications simultaneously, like a synthesizer, you may need to fool with this setting to get the best setting.

• Setups > Playback Engine
• CPU Usage Limit:
• Choose appropriate % of CPU dedicated to PT

Hardware Buffer Size:

Determines the size of audio data blocks that are sampled and processed at one time by the CPU.
Larger buffer sizes let you use more plug-ins while increasing latency.
Smaller buffer sizes decrease latency, but decrease the number of plug-ins that you can use.
During tracking, use a smaller buffer size (128 to 256 samples) to keep latency down.

DAE Playback Buffer Size:

Option controls the amount of RAM that's allocated as a holding area for data coming into your hard drive.
Determines the length of time that occurs between when the computer receives a signal and the HD records it.
Higher buffer sizes mean longer timespan.
Smaller buffer sizes can increase system responsiveness, but may make recording and playback on slower HDs less reliable.
Larger buffer sizes can make HD performance more reliable, but may cause time lags to occur before recording or playback begins.

Undo Levels:
Pro Tools 6 allows you to designate upto 32 levels of undo. These undos are stored temporarily in RAM, so reducing levels of undo will free up RAM.

Consolidate Regions:
You can combine multiple audio regions into one, so to free up the number of edits within Pro Tools.

Smoothing and Thinning Automation:
A feature of Pro Tools that will reduce the number of breakpoint within automation. Removing uneeded brakpoint will allow for automation playback less CPU intensive.

Inactive Tracks:
You can make tracks inactive from withing Pro TOols. This reduces the amount of processing power needed for a session. Tracks you may use as temp edit tracks can be made inactive when not using them or done.

• File > Make Selected Track Inactive, or
• Command+Control+click on the track type indicatora

Disable page scroll during playback:

Disabling this feature will reduce the amount of CPU processing spent on redrawing the screen when the playback scrolls.

• Operations > Scroll Options > No Auto-Scrolling

Disabling moving faders:

Disabling moving faders like disabling page scroll during playback will give you better performance. This feature also waistes CPU cycles redrawing the updated position of faders in your mix window.

• Setups > Preferences
• Click Automation tab
• Uncheck the Faders Move During Playback option

Disable Sends View Meters:

Again the same situation as disabling the other two features.

• Setups > Preferences
• Display tab
• Uncheck Show Meters in Sends View, or
• Display > Sends View Shows > Assignments

RTAS vs. Audio-Suite:

If possible choose to process audio with an AS plugin instead of RTAS. THis will free up processor tasks.

Choosing the right plugin:

Plugins from certain manufacturers are more CPU intensive than others. This is something you will have to fool aroung with, since it is on a per plugin bases. Trying swapping one reverb plugin for another and examine your CPU meter while doing this. Choose the plugin which uses less CPU cycles if possible.

Unused Regions/Deleting:

This is more for organization and disk space saving. When you are sure you no longer need a file or are done with your editing, you can delete unused regions.

• Audio Regions List
• Select > Unused Regions
• Clear Selected
• Remove, or
• Delete

Compacting Audio Files:

This is an efficient way to reduce disk space usage. This process will allow you to delete unused portions of an audio file that aren't referenced by a region in the session. If an audio file is referenced in the session, compacting erases the entire audio file except the referenced portion.

• Select regions to cmpact in Audio Regions list
• Compact Selected
• Enter amount of padding
• Click compact

Creating Submixes:

This process simply refers to bouncing submixed tracks to disc. This will create a single file from multiple regions therefore reducing the number of edit points in your project.

Bit Depth/Sample Rate:

This is an obvious soltuion. Decreasing either one of these features will not only reduce disk usage but increase Pro Tools performance and responsiveness.

Amount of Memory for Automation Recording:

This setting will let you specify the amount of memory allocatied to recording automation. You must restart Pro Tools for this settings change to take effect.

• Setups > Preferences
• Automation tab
• 200k is default value

MAC OS OPTIMIZATION

PC OS OPTIMIZATION

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