Getting Started Pro Tools M-Powered™ Version 7.
Legal Notices This guide is copyrighted ©2007 by Digidesign, a division of Avid Technology, Inc. (hereafter “Digidesign”), with all rights reserved. Under copyright laws, this guide may not be duplicated in whole or in part without the written consent of Digidesign.
contents Chapter 1. Installation QuickStart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Windows Installation Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Mac Installation Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Chapter 2. Welcome to Pro Tools M-Powered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 4. Installing Pro Tools on Mac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Installation Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Installing Your M-Audio Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Installing M-Audio Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Appendix C. Hard Drive Configuration and Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Avoid Recording to the System Drive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Supported Drive Formats and Drive Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Formatting an Audio Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Partitioning Drives. . . . . . . . . . .
vi Pro Tools M-Powered Getting Started
chapter 1 Installation QuickStart Windows Installation Overview Mac Installation Overview Installing Pro Tools M-Powered on a Windows computer includes the following steps: Installation of Pro Tools M-Powered on a Mac includes the following steps: 1 “Installing Your M-Audio Interface” on page 9. 2 “Installing M-Audio Drivers” on page 9. Pro Tools will not see your M-Audio interface if you do not install the M-Audio driver that is included with Pro Tools M-Powered.
2 Pro Tools M-Powered Getting Started
chapter 2 Welcome to Pro Tools M-Powered Welcome to Pro Tools M-Powered™. This guide documents how to install and configure Pro Tools M-Powered software on M-Powered systems.
Pro Tools M-Powered Capabilities How Pro Tools M-Powered Differs from Pro Tools LE Pro Tools M-Powered software provides the following capabilities: Configuration Dialogs and Procedures • Playback of up to 32 mono digital audio tracks, or a combination of playing back and recording up to 32 mono digital audio tracks, depending on your M-Audio interface and computer’s capabilities • Up to 128 audio tracks (with 32 voiceable tracks maximum), 128 Auxiliary Input tracks, 64 Master Fader tracks, 256 MIDI tra
System Requirements Pro Tools M-Powered can be used with a Digidesign-qualified M-Audio interface, running on a Digidesign-qualified Windows or Mac computer. A DVD drive is required to use the Pro Tools Installer disc. For complete system requirements, visit the Digidesign website (www.digidesign.com). This key can hold over 100 authorizations for all of your iLok-enabled software. Once an iLok is authorized for a given piece of software, you can use the iLok to authorize that software on any computer.
Hard Drive Requirements For optimal audio recording and playback, all Pro Tools systems require one or more Digidesign-qualified drives. For a list of Digidesign-qualified hard drives, visit our website (www.digidesign.com). If you are using an ATA/IDE or FireWire hard drive, initialize your drive with Windows Disk Management (Windows) or the Disk Utility application included with Apple System software (Mac). For more information, see Appendix C, “Hard Drive Configuration and Maintenance.
Conventions Used in This Guide Digidesign guides use the following conventions to indicate menu choices and key commands: : Convention Action File > Save Choose Save from the File menu Control+N Hold down the Control key and press the N key Control-click Hold down the Control key and click the mouse button Right-click Click with the right mouse button The following symbols are used to highlight important information: User Tips are helpful hints for getting the most from your Pro Tools system.
8 Pro Tools M-Powered Getting Started
chapter 3 Installing Pro Tools on Windows This chapter contains information for Windows systems only. If you are installing Pro Tools M-Powered on a Mac computer, see Chapter 4, “Installing Pro Tools on Mac.” Before installing this version of Pro Tools, refer to the Read Me information included on the Pro Tools Installer disc. Installing Your M-Audio Interface Before you install Pro Tools M-Powered, you must first install your M-Audio interface.
3 Locate and open the M-Audio Driver Installers folder, and double-click the driver for your interface type, as follows: • For M-Audio FireWire interfaces, doubleclick the file starting with “FW_WDM.” 7 Turn on your computer. 8 When your system recognizes the new hardware, run the Found New Hardware Wizard. Follow the on-screen instructions. If you are prompted to run the Found New Hardware Wizard a second time, run it again. • For M-Audio PCI interfaces, double-click the file starting with “Delta_WDM.
9 You can also select from a list of optional items to install along with Pro Tools. DigiTranslator DigiTranslator™ is a software option for Pro Tools that lets you convert and exchange OMF and AAF sequences and MXF files directly in the Pro Tools application. This option is purchased separately. Command|8 Controller and Driver The Command|8 Driver is required if you are using the Digidesign Command|8 control surface. MP3 Export Option The MP3 Export Option lets you export MP3 files from Pro Tools.
Launching Pro Tools M-Powered Additional Software on the Pro Tools Installer Disc To use Pro Tools M-Powered with an M-Audio interface, you must always have an iLok with a license that authorizes the version of M-Powered software that you have installed. One preauthorized iLok is included with the Pro Tools M-Powered package. The Pro Tools Installer disc provides additional software for your system, including a Pro Tools demo session.
Pro Tools Session Templates The Pro Tools M-Powered Installer disc includes factory session templates that are pre-configured to common track and mixer setups. Using these templates will save you the trouble of having to create your studio setup from scratch every time you start a new session. See the Pro Tools Reference Guide for information on using or customizing session templates. To install factory session templates: 1 Insert the Pro Tools Installer disc into your DVD drive.
14 Pro Tools M-Powered Getting Started
chapter 4 Installing Pro Tools on Mac This chapter contains information for Mac systems only. If you are installing Pro Tools M-Powered on a Windows computer, see Chapter 3, “Installing Pro Tools on Windows.” Before installing this version of Pro Tools, refer to the Read Me information included on the Pro Tools Installer disc. Installing Your M-Audio Interface Before you install Pro Tools M-Powered, you must first install your M-Audio interface.
3 Locate and open the M-Audio Driver Installers folder, and double-click the driver for your interface type, as follows: • For M-Audio FireWire interfaces, doubleclick the file starting with “FireWire_OSX.” • For M-Audio PCI interfaces, double-click the file starting with “Delta_OSX.” 6 If you are using an M-Audio FireWire inter- face, do the following: • Once your computer has shut down completely, connect your FireWire interface and power it on. 7 Turn on your computer.
8 You can also select from a list of optional items to install along with Pro Tools: DigiTranslator DigiTranslator™ is a software option for Pro Tools that lets you convert and exchange OMF and AAF sequences and MXF files directly in the Pro Tools application. This option is purchased separately. MIDI I/O Driver The MIDI I/O Driver is required if you are using the Digidesign MIDI I/O interface. MP3 Export Option The MP3 Export Option lets you export MP3 files from Pro Tools.
3 Double-click M-Powered Demo Session Setup.exe. 4 Follow the onscreen instructions. 5 When prompted, select your audio drive as Uninstalling Pro Tools If you need to uninstall Pro Tools software from your computer, use the Uninstaller application. the install location and click Next to begin the install. To uninstall Pro Tools from your computer: 6 When installation is complete, click Close. 1 Make sure you are logged in as an Administrator for the account where Pro Tools is installed.
chapter 5 Configuring Your Pro Tools System After you have connected your system and installed Pro Tools software, you are ready to start up and configure your Pro Tools system. Starting Up or Shutting Down Your System To ensure that the components of your Pro Tools system communicate properly with each other, you need to start them in a particular order.
Configuring Pro Tools M-Powered Software Pro Tools System Settings In the Playback Engine dialog, Pro Tools lets you adjust the performance of your system by changing system settings that affect its capacity for processing, playback, and recording In most cases, the default settings for your system provide optimum performance, but you may want to adjust them to accommodate large or processing-intensive Pro Tools sessions.
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 allocated for RTAS (Real-Time AudioSuite) plug-in processing. With multiprocessor computers, this setting lets you manage multi-processor support for RTAS processing.
CPU Usage Limit RTAS Engine (RTAS Error Suppression) The CPU Usage Limit controls the percentage of CPU resources allocated to Pro Tools host processing 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. The RTAS Engine options determine RTAS error reporting during playback and recording. This is especially useful when working with instrument plug-ins.
the buffer is half the H/W Buffer Size, or at least 128 samples (which ever is greater). If you are on an older, slower computer, you may not want to enable this option since doing so can adversely affect performance. The Minimize Additional I/O Latency option is only available if the Ignore Errors During Playback/Record option is enabled. DAE Playback Buffer Size The DAE Playback Buffer Size determines the amount of memory DAE allocates for disk buffers.
System Memory Allocation When you start your computer, Pro Tools automatically reserves a portion of system memory for the DAE Playback Buffer. This reserved memory is unavailable to other applications, even if Pro Tools is not running. You can set Pro Tools to reserve only the minimum amount of required memory, so that more system memory is available to other applications.
Pro Tools Hardware Settings and M-Audio Control Panel The Hardware Setup dialog in Pro Tools (Setup > Hardware) displays the name of your M-Audio peripheral, and tells you that various hardware functions can be changed in the M-Audio Control Panel. Using the M-Audio Control Panel, you can change settings in the following areas: Sync Source (Pro Tools Clock Source) If your M-Audio interface has a digital I/O (such as a S/PDIF I/O), use the M-Audio Control Panel to select the Sync Source for the system.
Low Latency Monitoring Direct or low-latency monitoring is not available from within Pro Tools M-Powered. However, with M-Audio devices that have Control Panel mixers with a direct monitoring feature, it is possible to use this feature as a low-latency monitoring path while recording in Pro Tools. To use the M-Audio mixer direct monitoring feature while recording: 4 Adjust the output level and balance with the Control Panel mixer volume and pan controls. 5 In Pro Tools, begin recording.
To rename I/O paths in I/O Setup: Configuring MIDI Setup 1 Choose Setup > I/O. If you plan to use any MIDI devices with Pro Tools, do one of the following: On Windows, configure your MIDI setup with MIDI Studio Setup. See Appendix A, “Configuring MIDI Studio Setup (Windows Only)” for details. – or – On Mac, configure your MIDI setup with Audio MIDI Setup. See Appendix B, “Configuring AMS (Mac OS X Only)” for details.
Optimizing a Windows System for Pro Tools (Windows XP Only) For Mac System Optimization, see “Optimizing a Mac System for Pro Tools” on page 30. Before configuring your computer, make sure you are logged in as an Administrator for the account where you want to install Pro Tools. For details on Administrator privileges, see your Windows documentation. Required Optimizations To ensure optimum performance with Pro Tools, configure the following settings before using Pro Tools hardware and software.
Disabling ClearType Font Smoothing Optional Optimizations When using Pro Tools, the Effects “Clear Type” setting must be disabled. The following system optimizations may help Pro Tools perform better on some systems. It is recommended that you only try these optimizations if necessary, as they may disable or adversely affect the functionality of other programs on your system. To disable ClearType font smoothing (Windows XP): 1 Choose Start > Control Panel. 2 Double-click Display.
7 Under the Memory Usage section, select the 6 After restarting, the computer displays a Sys- System cache option. tem Configuration message. Check to see if Pro Tools performance has increased before you deselect the “Don't show this message again” option. If performance has not changed, run “msconfig” and return your computer Startup Selection back to Normal Startup - load all device drives and services. Alternatively, try disabling Startup items and non-essential processes individually.
Turning Off Software Update To disable Spotlight indexing: To turn off the Software Update feature: 1 Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu and click Spotlight. 1 Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu and click Software Update. 2 In the Spotlight window, click the Privacy tab. 2 Click the Software Update tab. 3 To prevent indexing of a drive, drag its icon from the desktop into the list. 3 Deselect Check for Updates.
Enabling Journaling for Audio Drives To yield higher performance from audio drives, enable journaling. To enable journaling: 1 Launch the Disk Utility application, located in Applications/Utilities. 2 Select the volume in the left column of the Disk Utility window. 3 Click Enable Journaling in the toolbar.
chapter 6 Common Tasks with Pro Tools M-Powered This chapter is designed to give new users specific methods for accomplishing common tasks with Pro Tools. 4 In the New Session dialog, set the session pa- rameters as needed, or leave them at their default settings. (For details on New Session settings, see the Pro Tools Reference Guide.) For the most complete information on using Pro Tools, see the Pro Tools Reference Guide.
To prepare an audio track for recording: 1 Choose Track > New. 2 Specify 1 Mono Audio Track in Samples, if 6 From the pop-up menu, select the interface input you want to record. For example, select Mic/Line 1 if your audio source is plugged into the first input of your M-Audio interface. your source is mono, or 1 Stereo Audio Track in Samples, if your source is stereo. Creating a new Stereo audio track Routing an input to a mono track 3 Click Create.
3 Choose Window > Transport to display the Transport window. Click Return to Zero to go to the beginning of the session. Importing Audio from a CD To import audio from a compact disc: Return to Zero Rewind Online Fast Forward Play Stop Go to End Record Enable 1 Put the source CD into your computer’s CD/DVD drive. 2 In Pro Tools, open the Workspace browser by choosing Window > Workspace. The Workspace browser is a window where you can find, audition, and manage your audio files.
5 Drag the audio file from the Workspace browser to the Track List in the Edit window to import the file to a new audio track. If you are bouncing to 16-bit (CD resolution), you should use a dither plug-in on the main output. (For details, see the Pro Tools Reference Guide.
5 Choose Stereo Interleaved for the Format. 10 Click Save. 6 Choose 16 for the Resolution and 44100 for Pro Tools begins bouncing to disk. Pro Tools bounces are done in real time, so you hear audio playback of your mix during the bounce process (though you cannot adjust it). the Sample Rate. 7 If you are changing the sample rate of the bounced file, choose a Conversion Quality setting. (For details, see the Pro Tools Reference Guide.) 8 Choose “Convert after Bounce,” and click Bounce.
Recording MIDI in a Pro Tools Session What is MIDI? MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) data is not audio, and has no sound. MIDI is a way for musical devices to communicate. MIDI is data that can trigger a MIDI device (such as a keyboard or software synthesizer). In order to create or play a MIDI recording, you must have a MIDI controller or sound module (real or virtual) connected to the computer through a MIDI interface.
4 At the top of the Instrument track in the Mix window, click the track’s MIDI Input selector and assign the device and channel to be recorded, or leave it set to All. MIDI Input selector MIDI Output selector in an Instrument track MIDI Input selector in an Instrument track 5 Do one of the following, depending on the type of instrument you are using: • If you are using an instrument plug-in, click an Insert selector and insert the plugin on the Instrument track.
7 In the Mix Window, click the Track Record Enable button to enable the Instrument track for MIDI recording. 3 Click Record Enable in the Transport window. Return to Zero Online Fast Forward Play Rewind Stop Go to End Record Enable Track Record Enable button Enabling an Instrument track for MIDI recording 8 Make sure Options > MIDI Thru is selected. 9 Play some notes on your MIDI controller and look for the track’s MIDI Velocity meter to move.
appendix a Configuring MIDI Studio Setup (Windows Only) MIDI Studio Setup MIDI Studio Setup (MSS) lets you configure the MIDI controllers and sound modules that are connected to your system, and control the routing of MIDI data between your MIDI equipment and Pro Tools. MSS automatically finds MIDI interfaces, and lets you specify a custom name for each of the MIDI ports within the MIDI Studio Setup document. MIDI Studio Setup Window The MIDI Studio Setup window is organized into three sections.
Show Duplicate Emulated Ports If you are using a MIDI interface that supports timestamping (such as MIDI I/O), when the Show Duplicate Emulated Outputs option is selected, the MIDI Studio Setup window shows both the DirectMusic time-stamped output ports, and nonstamped duplicate emulated output ports. Some MIDI Interfaces will not properly load or unload their drivers unless you quit and re-launch Pro Tools. Check the documentation that came with your MIDI interface for more information.
Model The Model pop-up menu provides a list of MIDI devices, filtered by the manufacturer name. This list is derived from the XML-based MIDI device files provided with your Pro Tools installation. For more information, see “MIDI Patch Name Support” on page 43. Input Port The Input Port pop-up menu displays a list of available MIDI interface input ports.
4 In the Patch Select dialog, click the Change button. To clear patch names: In the Patch Select dialog, click the Clear button, and click Done. MIDI patch name files (.midnam) can be edited in any text editor, or you can use third-party patch librarian and editor software to create your own custom patch names.
appendix b Configuring AMS (Mac OS X Only) Audio MIDI Setup Pro Tools recognizes the ports on your MIDI interface as generic ports. With Mac OS X, you use Apple’s Audio MIDI Setup (AMS) utility to identify external MIDI devices connected to your MIDI interface and configure your MIDI studio for use with Pro Tools. 2 Click the MIDI Devices tab. AMS scans your system for connected MIDI interfaces. If your MIDI interface is properly connected, it appears in the window with each of its ports numbered.
5 Connect the MIDI device to the MIDI inter- face by clicking the arrow for the appropriate output port of the device and dragging a connection or “cable” to the input arrow of the corresponding port of the MIDI interface. To configure an external MIDI device: 1 Select the external device icon and click Show Info (or double-click the new device icon). External Device Icon Making MIDI input and output connections 2 Select a manufacturer and model for the new device from the corresponding pop-up menus.
3 Click the More Properties arrow to expand the dialog, then enable the appropriate MIDI channels (1–16) for the Transmits and Receives options. (These determine which channels the device will use to send and receive MIDI.) 4 Click the device image. The window expands to show images for various MIDI devices (such as keyboards, modules, interfaces, and mixers). Select an icon for your device.
MIDI Patch Name Support 4 In the Patch Select dialog, click the Change button. Pro Tools supports XML (Extensible Markup Language) for storing and importing patch names for you external MIDI devices. Pro Tools installs MIDI patch name files (.midnam) for the factory default patch names of many common MIDI devices. These files reside in directories, sorted by manufacturer, in /Library/Audio/MIDI Patch Names/Digidesign.
appendix c Hard Drive Configuration and Maintenance It is recommended that you start with a newly formatted external or secondary internal audio drive. You should also periodically defragment your audio drive to ensure continued system performance. Always back up any important data on your drive before formatting it, as it will erase all data on the drive. Avoid Recording to the System Drive Recording to your system drive is not recommended.
SCSI Hard Drives Digidesign recommends qualified SCSI hard drives and a qualified SCSI host bus adapter (HBA) card or (on Windows systems) a qualified built-in SCSI HBA connector on the motherboard. For complete information on track count and the supported number and configuration of SCSI drives, visit the Digidesign website (www.digidesign.com). FireWire Hard Drives Formatting an Audio Drive Formatting Windows Audio Drives (Windows Only) For optimal performance, audio drives should be formatted as NTFS.
3 If the volume is “Healthy,” do the following: Healthy volumes are volumes that have previously been partitioned and formatted. • In the Disk Management window, rightclick the hard drive you will use for audio and choose Format. 4 If the volume is “Unallocated,” do the following: • In the Disk Management window, rightclick the hard drive you will use for audio and choose New Partition. • In the New Partition Wizard window, click Next. • In the Format window, name the volume.
Formatting Mac Audio Drives (Mac Only) For optimum performance, audio drives should be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). To format an audio drive: 1 Launch the Disk Utility application, located in Applications/Utilities. Partitioning Drives Partitioning creates a logical volume or volumes on a physical drive, almost as if you were creating virtual hard drives. Partitions can then be formatted with the appropriate file system (NTFS for Windows, HFS+ for Mac).
Defragmenting an Audio Drive Mac Systems When working with larger files (such as video), you can limit fragmentation by backing up your important files to another disk, erasing the files from the original hard disk, then copying the files back, instead of doing a defragmentation. Window Systems Periodically defragment audio drives to maintain system performance.
Hard Disk Storage Space Mono audio tracks recorded with 16-bit resolution at 44.1 kHz (CD quality) require approximately 5 MB of hard disk space per minute. The same tracks recorded with 24-bit resolution require about 7.5 MB per minute. Stereo audio tracks recorded with 16-bit resolution at 44.1 kHz (CD quality) require approximately 10 MB of hard disk space per minute. The same tracks recorded with 24-bit resolution require about 15 MB per minute.
index A H Audio MIDI Setup (AMS) (Macintosh) 45 authorizing Pro Tools Mac 17 Windows 12 hard drives drive formats 49 FireWire requirements 50 formatting 51, 52 formatting (Mac) 52 IDE/ATA requirements 50 maintenance 49, 53 optimizing 53 partitioning 52 requirements 6 SCSI requirements 50 space requirements 54 Hardware Buffer Size 20 Hardware Setup dialog 25 C Cache Size 23 ClearType font smoothing (Windows), disabling 29 Clock Source 25 CPU Usage Limit 22 D DAE Playback Buffer Size 23 Dashboard shortc
M R M-Audio Control Panel 25 MIDI requirements 5 setup (Macintosh) 45 setup (Windows) 41 MIDI Input Selector 39 MIDI Studio Setup (MSS) (Windows) 41 multi-processor 22 registration information 6 removing Pro Tools Windows 13, 18 RTAS Processors setting 21 N network cards (Windows), disabling 29 O optimizing hard drives 53 P partitioning hard drives 52 Playback Engine RTAS Processors setting 21 Plug-in Streaming Buffer 24 Plug-in Streaming Buffer Size 24 plug-ins RTAS Processors setting 21 power manage
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