You've installed Pro Tools and have it up and running. Now you'd like to optimize it's performance, but where do you start?

Not surprisingly, the Pro Tools performance optimization settings are a good place to start. These can be found on the Playback Engine page. You can get there via the Setups drop down menu.

The Hardware Buffer setting offsets audio throughput latency against plug-in processing power. This is a balancing act. More power allocated to plug-in processing will potentially increase latency. Personally I hate latency, so I like to sit on the fence a little here, if anything, allocating less processing power to plug-ins. If I've finished recording a track, I may adjust the settings here to allow for greater use of plug-ins.

CPU Processing Limit lets you set the maximum amount of resources allocated to audio playback and plug-ins, so that you can hold some in reserve for things like screen redraws. Personally I like to minimise the 'pretty visuals' in favour of dedicating more resources toward recording, playback and plug-ins.

The DAE Buffer is Pro Tools' disk reading buffer. In basic terms a higher setting allows for increased track count. The downside to this is that the increased track count comes at the expense of reduced playback responsiveness. How you set this really comes down to where your priorities lie. If track count is your primary driver then set it high, if not go for the well balanced route.