User`s guide

Pro Tools Reference Guide54
Assigning Track Outputs
Your Pro Tools system has a certain num-
ber of hardware outputs, in the form of the
physical outputs on your Pro Tools Audio
Interface, your Digi 001, or your
Audiomedia III card. Pro Tools also pro-
vides internal mix busses that can be the
destination of track outputs.
Pro Tools has two different operating
modes, Direct Outputs mode and Stereo
Mix Outputs mode. These modes allow you
to configure Pro Tools to match your par-
ticular studio setup.
Direct Outputs mode In this mode, each
track output is routed to a single Audio In-
terface output. Track panning controls are
not available in Direct Outputs mode. With
Pro Tools 24 MIX, Pro Tools 24 and
Pro Tools III systems, if you have multiple
Audio Interfaces, their default I/O Labels
appear in order as output #1/1-8, output
#2/1-8, and so on.
Stereo Mix Outputs mode In this mode,
track outputs are routed to a pair of Audio
Interface outputs or bus pairs, such as
output #1 1-2, output #1 3-4, and so on.
Each track contains controls for panning
between the two selected output pairs.
To assign a track to an output:
1 If I/O controls are not currently visible
on your tracks, choose Display > Mix Win-
dow Shows (or Edit Windows Shows) > I/O
View.
2 Click the output selector button on the
track and choose an available output desti-
nation from the pop-up menu.
Virtual Tracks, Voices, and
Track Priority
(TDM Systems Only)
Voices and Virtual Tracks
Pro Tools 24 MIX core system hardware
provides up to 64 simultaneous voices of
audio playback. Pro Tools 24 core systems
provide up to 32 voices of audio playback.
A Pro Tools III system provides 16 voices.
While your Pro Tools hardware allows a
fixed number of voices, Pro Tools software
provides for up to 128 virtual tracks—tracks
which can be recorded upon and cued up
for playback but cannot all be played back
simultaneously.
In such an environment where there are
potentially more tracks than can play back
at one time, Pro Tools assigns priorities for
tracks that compete for the available
voices. Pro Tools provides two ways of as-
signing playback priority to audio tracks:
Output selector (Stereo Mix Outputs mode)