Integrating NI software-synthesizers with ProTools Free/LE/TDM/HD

This how-to guide will walk you through the steps required to set up your Direct Connect-supported Native Instruments application to communicate successfully with your ProTools sessions. Please make sure to read all the steps carefully before proceeding with the setup.

This tutorial illustrates the fundamentals of integrating of NI software with ProTools as demonstrated by REAKTOR, DYNAMO, B4, PRO-52 and BATTERY.

The Topics are:
1. Installation of the plug-in
2. Setting up the software plug-in
3. Setting up ProTools
4. Recording the plug-in to an audio track (bouncing)
5. Troubleshooting issues

Installation of the plug-in
If you would like to use an NI program as a DirectConnect plug-in with ProTools please follow the installation instructions in your NI handbook. During the installation the installer will ask if you would like to use the program with DirectConnect - say yes. This will place the appropriate DirectConnect file in your DAE -> Plug-Ins folder, which resides in your System Folder on your hard drive. To be able to pull up the plug in from within ProTools, this file must be present in the Plug-Ins folder.

Setting up the software plug-in
 
Choose which software application you want to use from our product line and launch this application first. Go to the "system" menu and choose "audio port", in this submenu, choose the "DAE/TDM DirectConnect" option. If you will always be using this application from within ProTools you will only have to do this once.Note: You may or may not receive a warning message telling you that there is no DAE application available or ProTools is not running. This is just a warning. Click OK to proceed.Go to the "system" menu again and choose "MIDI settings". Set the MIDI system to OMS and choose the "IAC bus" for the MIDI input. Please see the Troubleshooting section below if this option is not available. Choose "NONE" for MIDI output and make sure that "MIDI Thru" is off.

Now quit the application and proceed to the next section on setting up your ProTools session.

Setting up ProTools
There are 2 separate steps for setting up ProTools. The first is routing audio from the plug-in into your ProTools mixer. The second is communicating MIDI from your project to the plug-in. Below you will find these steps laid out for you.

Routing Audio into your ProTools Mixer
Start by creating a new session; add a stereo aux track and a MIDI track. Enable the "MIDI Thru" option found in the "MIDI" menu. Then choose "input devices" from the same menu. In this window, make sure that your MIDI interface and its corresponding MIDI inputs are enabled.

WARNING: DO NOT enable the "IAC bus" as an active input. This will cause a feedback loop when trying to use IAC and a virtual plug-in and will cause ProTools to crash.

Call up an instance of the Native Instruments plug-in instruments you would like to use (this is done by selecting it from the insert effects list of your aux channel). They are listed in the multi-stereo and multi-mono TDM or RTAS plug-in lists:
 Click to enlargeAfter you have called up the plug-in you would like to use go and open that Native Instruments application from the finder. (Example: if you want to use Reaktor via DirectConnect you will pull-up that plug-in from the list of plug-ins, then launch the Reaktor application.)

Digirack-DirectConnect
 
After you pull up the plug-in instance in the Aux track you should now have a Digirack-DirectConnect plug-in window open with an icon of the software plug-in. In the lower right hand corner you will see an option window labeled "no links selected". This is where you determine which audio outputs from the software synth you want to assign to your mixer aux channel.

Select the appropriate audio channels you want to stream into ProTools within this DigiRack window (usually L/R).
NOTE:The number of audio channels to choose from Digirack link list will change depending on how many channels the particular software plug-in supports through DirectConnect. (See "DirectConnect Audio Channels" in the troubleshooting section.)

Routing MIDI to the plug-in

First go to the MIDI track and choose "all" for your input. This enables any of your keyboard controllers or other MIDI devices in your studio to be used for controlling and triggering the software plug-in. You could also specifically choose any device from your OMS studio setup.

Now set the MIDI output to the corresponding MIDI channel on the IAC bus that you have selected for the software plug-in. (e.g. you have set Battery to IAC Bus on Channel 1 from within it's own MIDI settings page, so choose IAC Bus-Channel 1 for the MIDI output). This allows MIDI data to be received and generated from ProTools, then routed directly to the software plug-in.

Set the "record enable" button on the MIDI track within ProTools and trigger the software plug-in with your MIDI controller. You should see the VU of the midi track respond to the MIDI signal.NOTE: If you should experience any latency (delay in playback after hitting a key), then you will need to reduce the buffer size of your soundcard. This can be done in the "Setups" menu and choose the "hardware" option. Here you will be able to adjust the buffer size of your card. We recommend a setting of 128 samples to achieve the lowest amount of latency for real-time playing with a MIDI controller.

Recording the Plug-in to an audio track (bouncing)

In order to commit your sequence or live playing into an audio track you must use the internal busing feature of ProTools. Currently you are hearing the audio from the Native Instruments softsynth because the Aux track that this synth is assigned to is set up to go out your sound cards main outs. What we have to do now is set up this Aux track to go out to an internal bus. To do this: In the audio output of the Aux track send it out to "bus 1-bus 2".

Create a Stereo Audio track in ProTools and have this stereo audio track receive its input from the Bus 1/2. The only thing left to do is record enable the audio track. That’s it, now the audio will be played through the bus and have its outputs recorded (if you chose to)