Optimizing the Performance of Native Instruments Plug-ins in Pro Tools 9 and 10

In order to get the best performance from your Native Instruments plug-ins in Pro Tools, make sure that your computer system meets the system requirements as specified both by Pro Tools and by the Native Instruments SPECIFICATIONS area in the product page of your corresponding Native Instruments product.

Pro Tools Settings

Check the audio engine settings in Pro Tools under Setup > Playback Engine:

• HW Buffer Size: Enter a low value when tracking to avoid a long latency time. 256 samples is a good starting point.  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 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: Setting this to 85% (default) is a good place to start. Setting it higher may cause problems.
• DAE Playback Buffer: Level 2 is the best setting for this in most cases. There are few situations where it needs to be changed.
• Cache Size: Set it to Normal unless there are disk-related errors.
• Plug-In Streaming Buffer: Level 2 is a good setting. If youuse many instrument plug-ins in the session that require disk streaming and are receiving disk-related errors, increase this value.

Update your NI Products

Make sure that you are running the latest versions of all the Native Instruments and other plug-ins in your session. You will find the latest product updates in Native Access or in our UPDATES page.

Managing your System Resources

• 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.
• If you are operating plug-ins that use large sample libraries, you might want to put these libraries on their own hard drive. This can be a third drive completely independent of your OS and audio drives. Native Instruments plug-ins which include larger libraries are MASCHINE, BATTERY and KONTAKT. 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.

Related Articles

• How to Insert Native Instruments Plug-ins In Pro Tools 10 (or earlier versions)
• How to Insert Native Instruments Plug-ins in Pro Tools 11 or higher