M-Audio Pro Tools M-Powered 7 Quick Start Manual page 19

With computers that have multiple processors,
or that feature multi-core processing or hyper-
threading, this setting lets you enable multi-pro-
cessor support for RTAS processes. Used in com-
bination with the CPU Usage Limit setting, the
RTAS Processors setting lets you control the way
RTAS processing and other Pro Tools tasks are
carried out by the system.
A higher number of processors reserves more
CPU processing capacity for RTAS plug-in pro-
cessing. This is useful for sessions with large
number of RTAS plug-ins.
A lower number of processors leaves more
CPU processing capacity for automation, screen
redraws, and video playback in Pro Tools, or for
other application running at the same time as
Pro Tools.
To set the number of RTAS Processors:
Choose Setup > Playback Engine.
1
From the RTAS Processors pop-up menu, select
2
the number of processors you want to allocate
for RTAS plug-in processing.
Click OK.
3
CPU Usage Limit
The CPU Usage Limit controls the percentage of
CPU resources allocated to Pro Tools host pro-
cessing tasks. Used in combination with the
RTAS Processors setting, the CPU Usage Limit
setting lets you control the way Pro Tools tasks
are carried out by the system.
Lower CPU Usage Limit settings limit the ef-
fect of Pro Tools processing on other CPU-inten-
sive tasks, such as screen redraws, and are useful
when you are experiencing slow system re-
sponse, or when running other applications at
the same time as Pro Tools.
Higher CPU Usage Limit settings allocate
more processing power to Pro Tools, and are
useful for playing back large sessions or using
more real-time plug-ins.
The maximum available CPU Usage Limit de-
pends on the number of processors in your com-
puter and on the number of processors you
specify with the RTAS Processor setting. This
value can range from 85 percent for single-pro-
cessor computers to 99 percent for multi-proces-
sor computers.
Increasing the CPU Usage Limit may slow
down screen response on slower computers.
To change the CPU Usage Limit:
Choose Setup > Playback Engine.
1
From the CPU Usage Limit pop-up menu, se-
2
lect the percentage of CPU processing you want
to allocate to Pro Tools.
Click OK.
3
DAE Playback Buffer Size
The DAE Playback Buffer Size determines the
amount of memory DAE allocates for disk buff-
ers. The optimum DAE Playback Buffer Size for
most disk operations is Level 2.
DAE Playback Buffer Size settings lower than
Level 2 may improve playback and recording
initiation speed, but may make it difficult to
play or record tracks reliably with sessions con-
taining a large number of tracks or a high den-
sity of edits, or with systems that have slower or
heavily fragmented hard drives.
Chapter 2: Windows Configuration 15