User Manual

Chapter 44: Plug-In and Hardware Inserts 975
Ordering RTAS and TDM Plug-Ins
on Audio Tracks
(Pro Tools|HD Systems Only)
With Pro Tools|HD systems, when RTAS and
TDM plug-ins are combined on an audio track,
Auxiliary Input, or Master Fader, the order in
which they are inserted produces different re-
sults:
RTAS Plug-Ins Grouped Before TDM Plug-Ins No
additional voices will be used, and no process-
ing latency will occur. RTAS plug-ins will be by-
passed when Record Enable or TrackInput mon-
itoring is enabled for that track.
RTAS Plug-Ins Grouped After TDM Plug-Ins Each
initial insert of an RTAS plug-in after a TDM
plug-in on a track will cause processing latency,
and will use voices as described in “Voice Usage
and Total Latency for RTAS Plug-Ins” on
page 971. RTAS plug-ins will stay active while
Record Enable or TrackInput monitoring is en-
abled for that track.
Ordering Recommendations
When combining RTAS and TDM plug-ins on an
audio track, use one of the following two strate-
gies based on your recording needs:
• To ensure that RTAS plug-ins stay active when
you record enable a track or use TrackInput
monitoring, order all TDM plug-ins before
RTAS plug-ins.
– or –
• To conserve voices and minimize processing
latency, order all RTAS plug-ins before TDM
plug-ins.
Plug-In Menu Organization
You can customize how plug-in lists (plug-in
menus) are organized in the Insert selector and
Plug-In selector.
Use the Organize Plug-In Menus By setting in the
Display Preferences page to organize plug-in
menus in a Flat List (with plug-ins in alphabeti-
cal order), or by Category, Manufacturer, or Cate-
gory and Manufacturer.
Control Surface Support
Control surfaces with multi-color LCDs (such as
D-Control) indicate plug-ins as follows:
• Plug-In categories (such as EQ) and plug-in
manufacturers (such as Aphex) are indi-
cated in yellow (amber) text.
• Specific plug-ins located in the plug-in sub-
folders (such as EQ III in the EQ subfolder)
are indicated in green text.
Control surfaces with single-color displays (such
as Command|8) do not indicate plug-in view
choices. They display contents of a plug-in
folder as a single list of plug-ins.
“Organize Plug-In Menus By”
Setting
Flat List Organizes plug-ins in a single list, in al-
phabetical order.
Category Organizes plug-ins by process category
(such as EQ, Dynamics, and Delay), with indi-
vidual plug-ins listed in the category submenus.
Plug-Ins that do not fit into a standard category
(such as the DigiRack Signal Generator), or
third-party plug-ins that have not had a cate-
gory designated by their developers, appear in
the Other category. Plug-Ins can appear in more
than one category.
As a rule, always group plug-ins of the same
type together, especially if inserting RTAS
after TDM plug-ins. Otherwise, additional
voices may be unnecessarily used.