HELP PLEASE

For seeking technical help with Digital Performer and/or plug-ins on MacOS.

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This forum is for seeking solutions to technical problems involving Digital Performer and/or plug-ins on MacOS, as well as feature requests, criticisms, comparison to other DAWs.
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trumnaji
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HELP PLEASE

Post by trumnaji »

I have DP 5.13 using two Motu 8pre. This past weekend I upgraded my OS to 10.10. When I went back into DP I was unable to use the headphone jack to listen to my work as it was badly distorted. I upgraded the driver thinking that was the issue but no resolution. I was told I needed to upgrade to DP8. I downloaded the 30 trial version but the same issue was there with new ones such as my entire Waves plugins were no longer recognized. I went back into DP 5.13 and changed my outputs to Main which sounded better but still distorted. When I tried to bounce to disc all my usual options of AIFF or MP3 were not longer there. I also noticed the more I listened to the mix the distortion is getting worse and worse. I'm under a huge deadline to finish this album and honestly don't know what to do. If anyone can please help me I would be totally appreciative!!!!
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daniel.sneed
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Re: HELP PLEASE

Post by daniel.sneed »

Sorry to hear your pain.
It's been my long time rule to not upgrade, nor update anything while working on an important project. A jump from DP5.13 to DP8 may take some time to get productive and efficient again. Same apply to any OS upgrade and update.
Whatsoever, in case I did, I would try all attempts, such as Time Machine, Carbon Copy Cloner, Super Duper, to get back at the previous exact very state of my setup.
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HCMarkus
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Re: HELP PLEASE

Post by HCMarkus »

daniel.sneed wrote:Sorry to hear your pain.
It's been my long time rule to not upgrade, nor update anything while working on an important project. A jump from DP5.13 to DP8 may take some time to get productive and efficient again. Same apply to any OS upgrade and update.
Whatsoever, in case I did, I would try all attempts, such as Time Machine, Carbon Copy Cloner, Super Duper, to get back at the previous exact very state of my setup.
Yes.

For folks who may be reading this before updating, I advise to follow the "Clone Before You Moan" approach to anything but minor OS and Application upgrades. Keep your current "good" system drive intact and upgrade a clone startup drive, made with CCC or SuperDuper. And run Time Machine, too. It should provide a simple reversion option; the clone is your insurance.
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M1 Mac Studio Ultra • 64GB RAM • 828es • macOS 13.6.4 • DP 11.31
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mikehalloran
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Re: HELP PLEASE

Post by mikehalloran »

it's always a good idea to search the boards just in case you have a well known problem such as this one and there are many threads on it already. The solution is found here:

http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtop ... se#p485563

Besides the noise/distortion issue that can be fixed, there's another issue with the Firewire version of the 8pre that cannot: The 8pre-FW requires a direct FW connection to the computer. It will not work through a Thunderbolt-FW adapter. I believe this includes the FW port in the 2011 and later iMac but I am not certain (TB/FW equipped IMacs have the same 7V buss power that the adapter passes instead of the full spec). TB does not support the full FW spec that the 8pre requires. The later usb version does not have this issue.
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Shooshie
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Re: HELP PLEASE

Post by Shooshie »

Guys, "you shouldn't have done that" is not advice, and while sometimes it's true, it's rarely helpful, since the intended recipient always has a sense that maybe he/she "shouldn't have done that."

Since Yosemite came out, it seems that something has changed in the way the Mac handles audio. I immediately noticed that my audio monitors sounded like they had blown a driver. That rattly, raucous sound. When I turned down the mixing board (external hardware, not in-the-box) the noise continued, just quieter. If it were a blown driver, it should have stopped the intense rattling at a lower volume. So I explored the situation.

What I found was that by reducing the original feed, whether it is iTunes, Digital Performer, DVD Player, or any other audio producer, it stopped the noise. I noticed that files that were limited with a brick-wall limiter set to a level far below 0dB were still overloading the audio bus. I turned down the initial feed, as opposed to the Mac volume or my external mixing board, and the rattling went away. At that point, I was able to turn the Mac's audio bus back up to a higher level (normal listening level) without any sign of overloading. No noise.

My conclusion, open to amendment if someone explains why I'm wrong, is that the Mac audio bus now overloads easily, with no headroom past 0 dB, so the feed must be low enough to be clear of any internal clipping. The bus can be played loudly, but it cannot handle a loud feed.

I hope that solves your problem. Would you please let me know if that is what's happening at your end? I'd like confirmation that what worked for my Mac may be the universal fix for this. (also, confirmation that Apple introduced the problem with Yosemite)

Shooshie
|l| OS X 10.12.6 |l| DP 10.0 |l| 2.4 GHz 12-Core MacPro Mid-2012 |l| 40GB RAM |l| Mach5.3 |l| Waves 9.x |l| Altiverb |l| Ivory 2 New York Steinway |l| Wallander WIVI 2.30 Winds, Brass, Saxes |l| Garritan Aria |l| VSL 5.3.1 and VSL Pro 2.3.1 |l| Yamaha WX-5 MIDI Wind Controller |l| Roland FC-300 |l|
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MIDI Life Crisis
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Re: HELP PLEASE

Post by MIDI Life Crisis »

Agreed. "DON'T DO THAT" is the correct adomnition.
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OSX 10.14.6; DP 10; Track 16; Finale 26, iPad Pro, et al

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HCMarkus
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Re: HELP PLEASE

Post by HCMarkus »

Shooshie wrote:Guys, "you shouldn't have done that" is not advice, and while sometimes it's true, it's rarely helpful, since the intended recipient always has a sense that maybe he/she "shouldn't have done that." Shooshie
Hence the language in which I couched my thoughts... other may travel this road, and I always hate to hear about it after the fact. My condolences to the OP. And I mean that sincerely.
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cuttime
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Re: HELP PLEASE

Post by cuttime »

OP: Have you tried 10.10.1 yet? I guess either march forward or backwards, since the status quo is undesirable.

P.S. To whom it may concern: A suggestion to all who are having problems with Yosemite. Try trashing (after SAVING) the Mac HD>Library>Preferences>Audio plists. Possibly even the Mac HD>Library>System Configuration plists. If that doesn't work, I'd move on to the Audio MIDI Setup plists and start by rebuilding all audio configurations. If everything is backed up, what have you got to lose?
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Shooshie
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Re: HELP PLEASE

Post by Shooshie »

cuttime wrote:OP: Have you tried 10.10.1 yet? I guess either march forward or backwards, since the status quo is undesirable.

P.S. To whom it may concern: A suggestion to all who are having problems with Yosemite. Try trashing (after SAVING) the Mac HD>Library>Preferences>Audio plists. Possibly even the Mac HD>Library>System Configuration plists. If that doesn't work, I'd move on to the Audio MIDI Setup plists and start by rebuilding all audio configurations. If everything is backed up, what have you got to lose?
This may be good advice.

I've had a world of problems with Yosemite, and I've written about a lot of them here. Some of them (the Magic Trackpad issue) started in Mavericks. But of the ones that started in Yosemite (not those from Mavericks), after a couple months of use and troubleshooting, in the past week some of those have begun to right themselves. It's like there is a file (or perhaps multiple files) buried deep in the Library which need to be rewritten, and perhaps it took a month or two for me to hit upon the actions that rewrote those files. Gradually, some of the problems have finally started going away.

I wish I could be more specific; I'd have to go back and read all my old posts. The only one that pops into my head at the moment is the one about using custom icons in Folder Aliases on the Desktop. File aliases and drive aliases worked fine with custom icons on the desktop, but folder aliases would only show a blank, generic folder. That's a problem, as I keep a number of them on the desktop, and reading the names each time I need one takes a lot of time. On the other hand, I can see a custom icon instantly. So, I really, really wanted that problem to go away. I worked at it for a month, spending a little time on it every day. Nothing worked.

Finally, last week, I created a new alias of a folder that had a custom icon, and I moved it to the desktop. I wasn't trying to fix anything; I just needed that folder out on the desktop. Lo and behold! Its custom icon stayed put! It worked! So, I went around replacing every folder alias, and now my custom icons are back! Whatever was preventing them from working has gone away. I have NO IDEA what it was.

Since then, a few other problem have taken care of themselves. One of them involved iTunes, but I won't go into it. The point is that when we install a new OS, it always seems to take time for it to "settle in." Many of us have commented on that since 2002, when OS X came out. It seems to learn over time, and little obstacles in the road finally get swept in the trash bin. My only guess is that there are system files or prefs that need to be rewritten, and it takes time for that to happen. We may hasten that time by deleting certain files.

Cuttime's advice may be exactly what we need to do when that happens. As he said, what do we have to lose?

Shooshie
|l| OS X 10.12.6 |l| DP 10.0 |l| 2.4 GHz 12-Core MacPro Mid-2012 |l| 40GB RAM |l| Mach5.3 |l| Waves 9.x |l| Altiverb |l| Ivory 2 New York Steinway |l| Wallander WIVI 2.30 Winds, Brass, Saxes |l| Garritan Aria |l| VSL 5.3.1 and VSL Pro 2.3.1 |l| Yamaha WX-5 MIDI Wind Controller |l| Roland FC-300 |l|
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Shooshie
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Re: HELP PLEASE

Post by Shooshie »

MIDI Life Crisis wrote:Agreed. "DON'T DO THAT" is the correct adomnition.
Hey! Don't do that!
|l| OS X 10.12.6 |l| DP 10.0 |l| 2.4 GHz 12-Core MacPro Mid-2012 |l| 40GB RAM |l| Mach5.3 |l| Waves 9.x |l| Altiverb |l| Ivory 2 New York Steinway |l| Wallander WIVI 2.30 Winds, Brass, Saxes |l| Garritan Aria |l| VSL 5.3.1 and VSL Pro 2.3.1 |l| Yamaha WX-5 MIDI Wind Controller |l| Roland FC-300 |l|
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MIDI Life Crisis
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Re: HELP PLEASE

Post by MIDI Life Crisis »

Shooshie wrote:
MIDI Life Crisis wrote:Agreed. "DON'T DO THAT" is the correct adomnition.
Hey! Don't do that!
Ooops. I forgot the anacrusis... HEY, DON'T DO THAT!
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