7.3

Chapter 4: Mac Configuration 23
Configuring Pro Tools LE
Pro Tools System Settings
Pro Tools LE lets you adjust the performance of
your system by changing system settings that af-
fect its capacity for processing, playback, and re-
cording.
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 buffer used to handle host
processing tasks such as Real-Time AudioSuite
(RTAS) plug-ins. The H/W Buffer setting can also
be used to manage monitoring latency.
◆ Lower Hardware Buffer Size settings reduce
monitoring latency, and are useful when you are
recording live input.
◆ Higher Hardware Buffer Size settings allow for
more audio processing and effects, and are use-
ful when you are mixing and using more RTAS
plug-ins.
To change the Hardware Buffer Size:
1 Choose Setup > Playback Engine.
2 From the H/W Buffer Size pop-up menu, select
the audio buffer size, in samples.
3 Click OK.
RTAS Processors
The RTAS Processors setting determines the
number of processors in your computer allo-
cated for RTAS plug-in processing.
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.
In addition to causing slower screen re-
sponse and monitoring latency, higher
Hardware Buffer Size settings can increase
the latency caused by RTAS plug-ins, and
affect the accuracy of plug-in automation,
mute data, and MIDI track timing.
Playback Engine dialog for Mbox 2 Mini