Native Instruments - Knowledge Base
Knowledge Base
Optimizing the Performance of NATIVE INSTRUMENTS plug-ins in Pro Tools
1. In order to get the best performance from your NATIVE INSTRUMENTS plug-ins in Pro Tools, you should make sure that your computer system is properly optimized for running Pro Tools in the first place.
Please check this General Troubleshooting thread on the Digidesign website to check general performance information about Pro Tools -- making sure you're using a qualified drive and computer, checking that you've optimized your system for audio processing, etc. Making sure that you do all these optimizations there before getting into specific Pro Tools settings is critical to good performance.
2. After you've done this, you should check the audio engine settings in Pro Tools under Setup>Playback Engine.
Here's what you need to check:
HW Buffer Size - you will probably want to use a low value here when tracking so you don't get a long latency time, perhaps 256 samples. However, you need to set it significantly higher during mixdown for better performance, especially if you are using a lot of plug-ins.
RTAS Processors - Digidesign recommends that in most cases you should set this to 1 less than the total number available, so that there is one processor left to do all the other things in Pro Tools, plus room for the OS. If you see CPU errors, however, try leaving one or two additional cores unused.
CPU Percentage - keeping this setting at the 85% default is a good place to start. Setting it higher than this can cause problems.
DAE Playback Buffer - Level 2 is the best setting for this in most cases. There are VERY few situations where it needs to be changed.
Cache Size - should be at 'Normal', unless there are disk related errors (usually unrelated to instrument plug-ins).
Plug-In Streaming Buffer - usually level 2 is a good setting here. If you have a lot of instrument plug-ins in the session that require disk streaming and they're getting disk related errors, you could try increasing this.
3. Make sure that you are running the latest versions of all the NATIVE INSTRUMENTS and other plug-ins in your session. You can use the SERVICE CENTER to see if there are any recent updates you need to install.
4. Make sure you have enough RAM to run Pro Tools and your plug-ins together. 2 GB is usually the minimum for this application, and 3 or 4 GB is recommended for good performance.
5. If you're using plug-ins that use large sample libraries, you should put these libraries on their own hard drive. This would be a third drive completely independent of your OS and audio drives. Among NATIVE INSTRUMENTS plug-ins like this includes BATTERY 3, KONTAKT 3, and AKOUSTIK and ELEKTRIK PIANO. Please note also that plug-ins from other manufacturers may benefit from this (or even require it) as well if they use large sample libraries.
6. If you're using plug-ins from other manufacturers in your session, make sure that you've also followed their instructions for optimizing the settings in their plug-ins.
Please check this General Troubleshooting thread on the Digidesign website to check general performance information about Pro Tools -- making sure you're using a qualified drive and computer, checking that you've optimized your system for audio processing, etc. Making sure that you do all these optimizations there before getting into specific Pro Tools settings is critical to good performance.
2. After you've done this, you should check the audio engine settings in Pro Tools under Setup>Playback Engine.
Here's what you need to check:
HW Buffer Size - you will probably want to use a low value here when tracking so you don't get a long latency time, perhaps 256 samples. However, you need to set it significantly higher during mixdown for better performance, especially if you are using a lot of plug-ins.
RTAS Processors - Digidesign recommends that in most cases you should set this to 1 less than the total number available, so that there is one processor left to do all the other things in Pro Tools, plus room for the OS. If you see CPU errors, however, try leaving one or two additional cores unused.
CPU Percentage - keeping this setting at the 85% default is a good place to start. Setting it higher than this can cause problems.
DAE Playback Buffer - Level 2 is the best setting for this in most cases. There are VERY few situations where it needs to be changed.
Cache Size - should be at 'Normal', unless there are disk related errors (usually unrelated to instrument plug-ins).
Plug-In Streaming Buffer - usually level 2 is a good setting here. If you have a lot of instrument plug-ins in the session that require disk streaming and they're getting disk related errors, you could try increasing this.
3. Make sure that you are running the latest versions of all the NATIVE INSTRUMENTS and other plug-ins in your session. You can use the SERVICE CENTER to see if there are any recent updates you need to install.
4. Make sure you have enough RAM to run Pro Tools and your plug-ins together. 2 GB is usually the minimum for this application, and 3 or 4 GB is recommended for good performance.
5. If you're using plug-ins that use large sample libraries, you should put these libraries on their own hard drive. This would be a third drive completely independent of your OS and audio drives. Among NATIVE INSTRUMENTS plug-ins like this includes BATTERY 3, KONTAKT 3, and AKOUSTIK and ELEKTRIK PIANO. Please note also that plug-ins from other manufacturers may benefit from this (or even require it) as well if they use large sample libraries.
6. If you're using plug-ins from other manufacturers in your session, make sure that you've also followed their instructions for optimizing the settings in their plug-ins.
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