A track’s voice assignment can be turned off or set to be dynamically allocated, and with Pro Tools|HD systems, can also be explicitly assigned to a specific voice number.
On all Pro Tools systems, you can use Dynamically Allocated Voicing to automatically take care of voice management in the background, assigning voices not in use by other tracks.
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With Pro Tools|HD systems, tracks assigned to a specific voice number take priority over dynamically allocated tracks and support voice borrowing (see Voice Borrowing). To ensure that a track is heard, or that it is available for QuickPunch, TrackPunch, or DestructivePunch recording, assign an explicit voice to that track.
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For stereo and multichannel tracks, voices appear in pairs and multichannel groups. Voices already explicitly assigned to another track appear in bold in the Voice selector’s pop-up menu.
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Click the Voice selector and set the track to Dyn, Off, or select a voice number (Pro Tools|HD systems only).
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Voice Assignment with Complete Production Toolkit
Complete Production Toolkit lets you play or record up to 256 voices simultaneously at 44.1 or 48 kHz and up to 128 voices at 88.2 or 96 kHz. Each channel of an audio track uses a single voice. For example, you can have up to 256 mono audio tracks or up to 128 stereo audio tracks at 44.1 or 48 kHz.
Maximum track counts are only supported with multiple hard drives and faster Avid-qualified systems.
The lowest-numbered (highest priority) audio tracks that are active and have their voice assignment set to DYN (Dynamically Allocated Voicing) are the tracks that play back. (The total number of tracks that play back depends on the maximum number of voiced audio tracks allowed by your system.)
Tracks that are higher-numbered (lower priority) than these tracks do not play back and you cannot record to them. Their Dynamically Allocated Voicing button are blue to indicate they are unavailable for playback or recording.
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When working with more than the maximum number of voiced audio tracks allowed by your system, you can only play back audio from higher-numbered (lower priority) tracks by changing the track priority by doing any of the following:
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Set the voice assignment in a lower-numbered track to Off (click the Voice selector and select Off).
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Drag the Track Name button of the higher-numbered track to the left (Mix window) or upwards (in the Edit window or Track List) until it is in the range of the maximum number of voiced audio tracks allowed by your system. The previously last voiced audio track is moved out of range and its voice assignment is changed to Off.
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When the priority of the higher-numbered track is changed, its voice assignment is automatically changed from Off to DYN.
(Pro Tools|HD Systems Only)
You can automatically assign all tracks or all selected tracks to successive voices. For example, you may want to select eight audio tracks and reassign them to voices 9–16.
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While pressing Command+Option (Mac) or Control+Alt (Windows), select the starting voice number from the Voice selector for the track at the far left of the Mix window, or at the top of the Edit window.
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The voice is assigned to the first track, with successive voices assigned to tracks (with the same format) of lower priority.
1 Select the audio tracks by Command-clicking (Mac) or Control-clicking (Windows) their names.
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2 While pressing Command+Option+Shift (Mac) or Control+Alt+Shift (Windows), select the starting voice number from the Voice selector for the left (Mix window) or top (Edit window) selected track.
The voice is assigned to the starting track, with successive voices assigned to currently selected tracks (with the same format) of lower priority.
(Pro Tools|HD Systems Only)
Pro Tools|HD systems feature voice borrowing, which lets you assign more than one track to the same voice. The track with the highest priority takes over that voice, but when a hole opens up in the higher-priority track, its shared voice is temporarily available, and the track with the next highest priority “sounds through” and begins to play. When the original track returns, the track that had sounded through relinquishes the shared voice to the higher priority track.
The following example demonstrates the concept of voice borrowing:
In the figure above, the two visible tracks are assigned to the same voice. There is an open area in the top track where no clip appears. At this point, the voice is free since it is not being used, and the next highest priority track assigned to that voice (the bottom track) sounds through the open area and plays.
By experimenting with track priority, voice assignment, and arranging clips so that they are positioned to sound through holes in higher priority tracks, you can find many useful ways to maximize voiceable tracks with Pro Tools|HD.