Specifications
Pro Tools Reference Guide608
Mixer Usage Guidelines
The following conditions apply to mixing with
Pro Tools TDM systems.
◆ One DSP chip is automatically dedicated to
mixing in the TDM environment.
◆ As you reach the basic mixer limits for a single
DSP chip, the system will automatically begin
allocating DSP resources from another chip (if
available), making it unavailable for plug-ins.
◆ Each bus or send connection requires DSP to
mix signals. This means that each send or Aux-
iliary Input that you create will require DSP
power to mix the results.
◆ On Pro Tools|24 systems, the 16-bit Opti-
mized Mixer can power more channels per DSP
chip than the 24-bit Optimized Mixer plug-in.
There may be cases where using the 16-bit Opti-
mized mixer will help conserve enough DSP
power to allow for additional plug-ins.
On Pro Tools|24 MIX systems, there is no ad-
vantage to using the 16-bit Optimized mixer, so
you should always use either the Surround
mixer, or the 24-bit Optimized mixer.
DSP Usage with TDM Plug-Ins
Some basic guidelines for DSP usage on
Pro Tools systems follow:
◆ TDM-equipped systems running Pro Tools 4.3
or higher software use Digidesign’s MultiShell
technology, that lets any MultiShell compatible
plug-in share DSP chips on both HD Core and
Process cards (in a Pro Tools HD-series system),
or both MIX cards and DSP Farm cards (in a
MIX-series system). Up to five types of Multi-
Shell compatible plug-ins can share a single DSP
chip.
◆ Stereo DSP plug-ins generally use up twice as
much DSP as mono plug-ins.
◆ Master Faders don’t require additional DSP.
Use them freely to control submix levels,
send/bus output levels, and the master output
level of your session.
The session templates provided with your sys-
tem include several useful preconfigured session
setups that make efficient use of DSP resources.
If your computer has unused slots, you can al-
ways increase your available DSP resources by
adding additional HD Accel or HD Process cards
(to a Pro Tools HD-series system), or MIX Farm
or DSP Farm cards (to a Pro Tools MIX-series sys-
tem or Pro Tools|24 system).
Refer to the DigiRack Plug-Ins Guide for de-
tails on MultiShell plug-ins.