Configuring Pro Tools Le - DigiDesign Mbox Getting Started Manual

Configuring Pro Tools LE
Pro Tools System Settings
Pro Tools LE allows you to adjust the perfor-
mance of your system by changing system set-
tings that affect its capacity for processing, play-
back, and recording.
In most cases, the default settings for your sys-
tem provide optimum performance, but you
may want to adjust them to accommodate large
or processing-intensive Pro Tools sessions.
Hardware Buffer Size
The Hardware Buffer Size (H/W Buffer Size) con-
trols the size of the hardware cache used to han-
dle host processing tasks such as Real-Time Au-
dioSuite (RTAS) plug-ins.
Lower Hardware Buffer Size settings improve
MIDI timing and automation accuracy, but limit
the number of RTAS plug-ins and mixer config-
urations you can run on your system
Higher Hardware Buffer Size settings allow for
more audio processing and effects, and are use-
ful when you are using larger mixer configura-
tions or more RTAS plug-ins on your system.
In addition to causing slower screen re-
sponse and monitoring latency, higher
Hardware Buffer Size settings can affect the
accuracy of plug-in automation, mute data,
and timing for MIDI tracks.
To change the Hardware Buffer Size:
Choose Setups > Playback Engine.
1
From the H/W Buffer Size pop-up menu, select
2
the audio buffer size, in samples.
22 Getting Started with Mbox
Click OK.
3
Playback Engine dialog for Mbox (Pro Tools 6.x)
Playback Engine dialog for Mbox (Pro Tools 5.2.1)
CPU Usage Limit
The CPU Usage Limit controls the percentage of
CPU resources allocated to Pro Tools host pro-
cessing tasks.
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.
Increasing the CPU Usage Limit may slow
down screen responses on slower computers.
With Pro Tools 5.2.1, the maximum CPU Us-
age Limit is 85 percent.