DigiDesign Pro Tools, Reference Manual, Page: 150 / 886

Pro Tools Reference Guide 136
Track Priority and Voice
Assignment
Pro Tools LE systems provide up to 32 voices of
simultaneous audio playback and recording, de-
pending on the system. For details on LE system
capabilities, see Table 7 on page 26.
Pro Tools|HD systems provide a certain number
of voices (simultaneous channels of audio play-
back and recording), depending on the system.
For example, a Pro Tools|HD 1 system can pro-
vide up to 96 voices of audio playback and re-
cording, at 44.1 or 48 kHz. For details on
Pro Tools system capabilities, see Table 5 on
page 23.
Pro Tools LE systems with the DV Toolkit 2 op-
tion or the Music Production Toolkit option let
you play or record up to 48 simultaneous stereo
or mono tracks. For details on system capabili-
ties with these options, see “DV Toolkit 2 and
Music Production Toolkit” on page 27.
Track Priority
While your Pro Tools hardware allows a fixed
number of voices, Pro Tools software allows for
additional audio tracks beyond that fixed num-
ber of voices. While all of these tracks can be re-
corded to or imported, arranged, and cued for
playback, not all of them can be played back si-
multaneously.
When the number of tracks exceeds the number
of available voices, tracks with lower priority
may not be heard. For these situations,
Pro Tools assigns priorities to tracks that com-
pete for the available voices. Because there can
be more tracks than available voices, Pro Tools
provides multiple ways of adjusting the play-
back priority of audio tracks. See “Changing a
Track’s Playback Priority” on page 136 and
“Freeing up Voices on a Track” on page 137.
With Pro Tools|HD systems, you can assign spe-
cific voices to multiple tracks such that those
voices are shared by more than one track. This
feature is called
voice borrowing . The combina-
tion of playback/record tracks and shared voiced
tracks comprises the total number of
voiceable
tracks on a Pro Tools|HD system.
To set multiple tracks to the same voice, see
“Setting Voice Assignment” on page 137. For
additional information on voice borrowing,
see“Voice Borrowing” on page 139).
Changing a Track’s Playback Priority
Tracks with higher positions (leftmost in the
Mix window or topmost in the Edit window)
have priority over tracks in lower positions in a
session.
To increase a track’s priority, do any of the
following:
■
In the Mix window, drag the Track Name but-
ton to the left of other tracks in the session.
Tracks at the left of the Mix window have higher
priority than those on the right.
■
In the Edit window, drag the Track Name but-
ton above other tracks in the session. Tracks at
the top of the Edit window have higher priority
than those below.
■
In the Track List, drag the Track Name button
to a higher position in the list. Tracks at the top
of this list have higher priority than those be-
low.