Pro Tools LE question

[jrm]

Hello friends:

Our band is recording some basic pre-pro to send to our producer. We are using Pro-Tools LE (6.9.2) on a Mac G4 through the original mBox. We've laid down the skeletons of the songs and currently the drummer is laying down his tracks. We'll then go in and re-record the other parts. This is helping us deal with some latency issues. Whole other thread.....

Anyways, I have a few questions and am hoping you can help:
1. Using the playback buffer when recording, which setting is best for controlling latency and processing speed? Higher or lower? 1000+ or 256?

2.Also, if a track is muted, is it the same as being bypassed? We've been bussing all of our tracks (minus the click) down to one reference track and just having our drummer play along to that while the original tracks are muted. Are we foolishly thinking that we are saving processing power because tracks are muted? Or does the computer still process those tracks because they are active regions?

Sorry for the noob questions, just need a little guidance!

-jon

[elambo]

1 - the lower the buffer (smaller sample size), the lower the latency. But keep in mind that a lower buffer will also reduce the available power of your CPU. So if you start seeing messages that warn you of a slow CPU, you'll have to raise the buffer or adjust some other way, like losing plugins for example.

2 - a muted track is NOT the same as an inactive track. When muted it will still use any processing (plugins) that is on that track and burn resources from the CPU. If you truly don't need it and want to conserve, make them inactive.

Those are very good questions, btw.

[jrm]

Thank you Elambo! I really apprecaite it. Looks like smaller buffer size, and deactivating tracks is the way to go.

That's gonna help us a ton in the next few weeks. We don't use lots of plugins, and if we can keep the active tracks at a minimimum, I think we'll be in good shape!

[MichaelK]

1 - the lower the buffer (smaller sample size), the lower the latency. But keep in mind that a lower buffer will also reduce the available power of your CPU. So if you start seeing messages that warn you of a slow CPU, you'll have to raise the buffer or adjust some other way, like losing plugins for example.

2 - a muted track is NOT the same as an inactive track. When muted it will still use any processing (plugins) that is on that track and burn resources from the CPU. If you truly don't need it and want to conserve, make them inactive.

Just to add a couple of comments on conserving processing...

I have LE also. I use the smallest possible buffer while tracking and the largest possible buffer when editing/mixing. I also disable sends, inputs and all plugs on any tracks that I don't need. Actually I keep inputs disabled on any tracks that no longer need them. I don't think that saves a whole lot of processing power, but what the hell.

I use D-verb when tracking vocalists, because even though it's not a great reverb it's relatively easy on the processor, and I've found most singers prefer that to hearing themselves dry. Whenever possible I use the Digi 1-band or 4-band EQ for simple tasks because it's also easy on the processor.

Another way to save processing power is to remove unused regions. PT creates new regions all the time while you edit. I select "unused regions except whole files" from the regions list and remove them a few times every hour while editing; they accumulate pretty fast. After I've finished editing a track, I save that session for archival, then delete unused playlists and remove (NOT delete) unused audio files from the regions list. Trimming back that stuff really does make a difference.