Optimizing your computer for Pro Tools

- The first step towards having a successful Pro Tools experience begins before you even install Pro Tools on your computer. Before installing Pro Tools, you should check to make sure your computer hardware and software meets the requirements to run Pro Tools. On Avid's support and services webpage, you can search the knowledge base for "optimize Pro Tools". You'll find results for checking compatibility and for optimizing your system to run as efficiently as possible. Use this site to check that your computer technical specs, operating system, hard drive, audio interfaces, midi interfaces, plug-ins, and third-party devices are all compatible with the version of Pro Tools that you intend to install and run.

Make sure the check that the hardware and software are compatible, especially before buying new gear. For example, with Pro Tools HD, the legacy HD systems are no longer supported due the change in plug-in architecture from TDM to AAX. The compatibility page includes all the information you'll need. Check here to make sure that you're running a compatible version of your operating system. You can click here to check for any minor version updates or CS updates. CS updates just stands for customer service updates. Before installing Pro Tools on a Mac, you wanna make sure to optimize the computer so that Pro Tools will run smoothly.

First, turn off the software updates so that the operating system won't become incompatible with your version of Pro Tools. Next, in the energy saver settings, make sure your hard drives and computer will not go to sleep. We also wanna disable or reassign conflicting OS 10 keyboard shortcuts. Check the Pro Tools installation guide for a list of these. You may also want to swap the function key behaviors so that you can use the function keys in Pro Tools. You'll also want to disable Spotlight indexing and Time Machine. Last, in the disk utility application, enable journaling on your hard drives for higher performance.

In Windows, disable the User Account Control and configure the system standby and power management settings for the high performance setting. You can also adjust your processor scheduling and disable start-up items. These can help you get even better performance out of Pro Tools. On both Mac and Windows systems, make sure to turn off any programs that are running in the background. Also, quit any application that you don't need while you're running Pro Tools. If you're not using any connected FireWire or USB devices, turn them off while you're running Pro Tools. Make sure to check avid.com regularly for the latest information.

On Avid's website, we can also find information on approved hard drives. I would also suggest that you don't record to your internal system drive. Also, you may run into performance issues if you mix FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 drives. In general, it's a good idea to avoid mixing drive types if possible. Again, it's a good idea to check the compatibility page on Avid's website for the most up-to-date information.