DP 11.31/Sonoma/Softube GUI sluggishness issues and workaround!

[James Steele]

I may have been complaining about this in other topics, but there's an issue affecting some users (myself included) who are running DP 1.1.31 on Sonoma and using Softube plugs including but not limited to Console 1.

What is happening is that if you open the Console 1 On-Screen Display, as your sequence is playing, after about 9-11 seconds, the RTA on the EQ and and the level meters will start to get very sluggish and not graphically update quickly. This will also affect how quickly you see feedback from adjustments made on the hardware controller. The EQ curve you are adjusting may suddenly jump, etc.

This doesn't just affect Console 1. I have several Softube plugins and I just tested nine of them until i got bored because they ALL exhibited this issue. Some require you to open the left and right side panels to reveal the input/output level meters to see the issue.

The plugins I test before I got bored:

• Active Equalizer
• American Class A
• Atlantis Dual Chambers (open the EQ + Dynamics panel to see meters)
• British Class A
• Dirty Tape
• Empirical Labs Lil Freq
• Empirical Labs Mike-E
• FET Compressor
• FET Compressor Mark II
• and of course, Console 1.

The workaround for now is to go into DPs Settings to the Scrolling and Zooming options and turn off the wiper for the Sequence Editor. That will alleviate the issue until there's a solution. Not clear if it's an Apple, Softube, or MOTU thing as Sonoma has introduced many issues.

[CharlzS]

Something to try - there's a graphics rendering option in Softube plugs Advanced options/settings for any plug. The setting is universal. On the Mac it's 'Use Metal API' and on Windows it's 'Use OpenGL'. Maybe try changing that to see what happens.

[James Steele]

Something to try - there's a graphics rendering option in Softube plugs Advanced options/settings for any plug. The setting is universal. On the Mac it's 'Use Metal API' and on Windows it's 'Use OpenGL'. Maybe try changing that to see what happens.

Excellent suggestion. I’m pretty sure it is set to “Use Metal API” which I think is what it should normally be set to. I will give that a try later!

[James Steele]

Well I tried changing the settings in the dialog below. Tried turning them both off. Tried leaving one on and the other off and flipping that and no luck. I thought I did get it working once though a combination of changing settings and a restart of the Mac, but have not been able to reproduce it. So it seems for now, until Softube/MOTU/Apple fixes this the only workaround for me is turning off the playback wiper in the Sequence Editor. It's not so bad if I can still have the wiper in the Tracks Overview.

[James Steele]

I even made a Keyboard Maestro macro that automates opening the Settings, toggling the Wiper off in the SE, then closes and reopens the Sequence Editor.

[James Steele]

Good news! I got a response from MOTU and sounds like they found the issue and are on it. As always MOTU is pretty tight-lipped about future releases, but I suspect we will see at least one more DP11 maintenance update before DP12.