User Manual

Pro Tools Reference Guide16
Voices can be allocated dynamically (with all
Pro Tools systems, any available voices are auto-
matically assigned as they are needed) or explic-
itly (with Pro Tools HD only, you can explicitly
assign audio channels to specific available
voices to ensure that audio on that channel is al-
ways voiced).
On Pro Tools|HD systems, the number of avail-
able voices is dependent on the amount of ded-
icated DSP processing in your system (see “Play-
back, Recording, and Voice Limits with
Pro Tools HD” on page 44).
On all other Pro Tools systems, the full number
of available voices for your system may be lim-
ited by the host processing power of your com-
puter (see “Pro Tools System Capabilities” on
page 53).
Media Files
Pro Tools sessions create, import, export, and
reference media files. Media files are audio,
MIDI, and video files. Audio and video media
files are stored separately from the Pro Tools ses-
sion file. MIDI data is stored in the session file.
Audio Files
When you record audio into a Pro Tools session,
audio files are created.
Audio files for each session are stored in a folder
named “Audio Files.” Audio files are listed in the
Pro Tools Region List and can appear in an au-
dio track. A section of an audio file can be de-
fined as a region. See “Region” on page 16.
MIDI Files
When you record or enter MIDI into a Pro Tools
session, all MIDI data is stored in the Pro Tools
session file. You can import and export MIDI
files to and from Pro Tools sessions, but MIDI
recorded or otherwise created in a Pro Tools
session does not automatically create new MIDI
files.
Video Files
When you record or import video into a
Pro Tools session, all video data is stored as the
corresponding video file type (such as Quick-
Time). Video files can be created in (or copied
to) the Video Files folder in the session folder.
However, in most cases, Pro Tools references
video files that have been captured by another
application, such as Avid Media Composer
®
.
Region
A region is a segment of audio, MIDI, or video
data. A region could be a drum loop, a guitar riff,
a verse of a song, a recording take, a sound ef-
fect, some dialog, or an entire sound file. Re-
gions are especially useful for arranging audio
and MIDI. A region can also have associated au-
tomation data. In Pro Tools, regions are created
For more information about voicing in
Pro Tools, see “Track Priority and Voice As-
signment” on page 231.
Audio file icons
MIDI file icon