Pro Tools lets you make certain items (such as tracks and inserts) inactive, in order to free up DSP resources and mixer connections.
Items in Pro Tools that can be made inactive include the following:
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Audio, Auxiliary Input, Master Fader, VCA Master, and Instrument tracks
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In addition to manually setting Active and Inactive modes, Pro Tools automatically makes items inactive if there are insufficient or unavailable resources.
When active, items are fully engaged and operational.
When inactive, items are silent and off, although most associated controls can still be adjusted. Different inactive items affect available system resources in specific ways, as follows:
When a plug-in is inactive on a track, its DSP is made available for other plug-ins and processing. Plug-In assignments can be made inactive manually or automatically (see Automatic and Manual Inactive Mode).
When a path or path assignment is inactive, its mixer resources are made available for other signal routing purposes in the session. Paths and assignments can be made inactive manually or automatically (see Automatic and Manual Inactive Mode).
When a track is made inactive, its voices become available for another track. Inactive mono tracks free up one voice; inactive stereo and multichannel tracks free up one voice per channel. Additionally, when an audio, Auxiliary Input, Instrument, or Master Fader track is made inactive, its plug-ins, inserts, sends, and I/O assignments become inactive, and the associated DSP used is freed up for use elsewhere in the session.
When items are inactive, their names appear in italics, and their background becomes dark gray. When a track is inactive, the entire channel strip is grayed out.
Active and Inactive modes are powerful options for session transfer and system resource management. Pro Tools provides automatic and manual Inactive mode switching. You can manually make items inactive (or active) to selectively manage system resources while editing and mixing.
When opening a session, it is possible that not all signal paths, plug-ins, or audio interfaces used in the session will be available as defined on the current system. When opening a session, sufficient voices may also be unavailable if the session was created on a different Pro Tools system type (for example, opening a session created on a Pro Tools|HD system on a Pro Tools system with an Mbox Pro audio interface).
Whenever this occurs, the session will open as it was last saved. All items that are unavailable, or cannot be loaded due to insufficient resources, are made inactive.
You can manually apply Active or Inactive modes to manage system resources. By making an item inactive, its associated resources are made available elsewhere in the session.