Allocating Hard Drive Space For Recording - DigiDesign Pro Tools Reference Manual

Workspace Volume Designation
The Workspace volume designation can alter
disk availability, thus affecting Disk Allocation.
From the Workspace browser, you can designate
volumes as Record, Playback, or Transfer. If you
change a drive's designation, making it read-
only (Play Only or Transfer), you also need to
check the Disk Allocation for any tracks for-
merly allocated to that drive. For more informa-
tion, see the DigiBase Guide.
Recording to the System Volume
Though Pro Tools will let you record to your sys-
tem volume, this is generally not recom-
mended. Performance for audio recording and
playback on system drives is worse than on non-
system hard drives.
You should record to system drives only when
absolutely necessary—if your computer system
has just the one hard drive, or if your other hard
drives are completely out of space.
By default, the system volume is not included in
Round Robin Allocation (regardless of volume
designation in the Workspace browser). To in-
clude the System Volume in Round Robin Allo-
cations, see "To allocate the audio drives in your
system:" on page 187.
Allocating Hard Drive Space
for Recording
The Operation preference for Open Ended
Record Allocation determines how much of
your available hard drive space is allocated
whenever you record into one or more tracks in
Pro Tools.
When this allocation preference is set to Use All
Available Space, the drive's entire available
space is allocated. This setting lets you record
lengthy takes, or longer sessions.
However, when allocating all available space,
Pro Tools may take a little longer to begin re-
cording. You can reduce this delay by allocating
a specific amount of time for recording.
You can also avoid recording delays by put-
ting Pro Tools in Record Pause mode before
beginning to record. See"Record Pause
Mode" on page 201.
In general, the Use All Available Space prefer-
ence makes hard drives work harder. In addition
to record and punch lag times, many system see
better overall recording performance when the
Open Ended Record Allocation is limited.
To allocate a specific amount of time to recording:
Choose Setup > Preferences and click the
1
Operation tab.
Under the Open Ended Record Allocation op-
2
tion, select Limit To and enter the number of
minutes to be allocated.
Open Ended Record Allocation, Operation preference
The number of minutes specified is allocated for
each record-enabled track.
When you are finished, click OK.
3
Chapter 11: Record Setup 189