Specifications
Pro Tools Reference Guide86
RAM. For example, if the selected Cache Size in
the Playback Engine is 256 MB and the amount of
audio on the Timeline is 1 GB, the
Timeline
Cached
meter reads 25%.
DSP Usage Meters
(Avid HDX and Pro Tools|HD Systems Only)
Avid HDX and Pro Tools|HD systems provide ad-
ditional meters below the Activity meter (see
page 85):
Voices Allocated
Displays the total number of
TDM voices that can be allocated and the number
of voices currently allocated. This includes all
voices whether they are allocated explicitly or dy-
namically, as well as any voices used for routing
host-based processing.
Time Slots Used
Displays the total number of
TDM Time Slots available and the number of
TDM Time Slots currently used.
DSP Usage (Avid HDX and Pro Tools|HD)
Dis-
plays (in percent) how much of each DSP chip on
each Avid HDX or Pro Tools|HD card is currently
being used for mixer configurations and DSP-
based (AAX and TDM) plug-ins.
Managing System Resources
To monitor the usage of resources during a
Pro Tools session:
Choose Window > System Usage.
To reduce processing load, do one of the
following:
Reduce the density of automation in places
where it shows the most activity. For details, see
“Thinning Automation” on page 1045.
Turn off meters in Sends view, if enabled (by
deselecting
Show Meters in Sends View in the
Display Preferences page). For details, see “In-
dividual Send Views and Meters” on page 955.
DSP Caching
(Pro Tools|HD Systems Only)
Pro Tools|HD systems maintain DSP caching
(Plug-In and Mixer caching for allocated DSP)
when closing and opening sessions. While this
caching has no effect on the time it takes to open
the first session after you launch Pro Tools, it does
result in being able to open and close all subse-
quent Pro Tools sessions much more quickly, es-
pecially when using the
Revert To Saved com-
mand or when opening similarly-configured
sessions.
However, when using DSP caching, the System
Usage window may not always accurately show
the DSP resources your session is currently
using. For an accurate display of current DSP us-
age, you can either disable DSP caching or purge
the DSP cache.
System Usage window (Pro Tools HD 2 Accel shown)
System
Activity
Voices
Allocated
Time Slots
Used
DSP
Usage