MOTU tech support - does this bother anyone else?

[Aramis]

jr213....
I do not see in your messages a constructive way to troubleshoot your problem ....You give us sparse information about your setup ....

I included this in the email i sent above, but didn't include it here to save space... sorry. Let me know if any other info would be helpful.

NEW setup:
DP 4.6
Dual 2.0GHz G5 w/ 2.5 GB RAM
828mkII
Plugins: Waves, Auto-Tune, Altiverb, HydraTone, ValveTone, VintageWarmer, UAD-1
VI: MachFive, MX4, iDrum

OLD setup:
DP 4.52
Dual 867MHz G4 w/ 1.25 GB RAM
828mkII
Plugins: all above plus more
VI: above (except for MX4) plus more

I don't think I'm being unreasonable.
I'm NOT the only one with this problem - others have already mentioned their issues with BP here.

Usually, you diagnose a problem before you start trying to fix it, or else how do you know what to fix.

MOTU Rob did not try to diagnose the problem. He said there is no problem. But obviously, there is (please see recap above).

And by the way , you are not unreasonable !!!! just upset ....
But again in Rob's defending , I would say when we troubleshoot remote ,
we need the best feedback we could get .....it's no magic ....
See , I troobleshoot all the time Medical imaging systems ....for GE ....
and I would say it is more complicated than a Computer music setup ....
And even when I am in front of my customers , sometime I do not find the causes ....so I do talk to GE support and the team will find a solution ......

Aramis

[Aramis]

Also ,
jr213 ,
can you give me the complet Preferences setting for your background processing in DP ?

Thanks , I am curious ...

Aramis

[Studio615]

I have to say that I am going to agree to disagree with alot of you. I think it is very arrogant, and down right ridiculous to ask for help with a problem from tech support and to be told you have no problem. I personally have had great luck with support from them in the past, but even so this just should not be happening to a paying customer. If i call Motu and tell them I have a problem, for the money I pay for this software I EXPECT to have them look into it, not dismiss it. Again, if he is trying to say that this function works fine then they need to go back to the drawing board BECAUSE IT DOES NOT. Period. I have all of the automatic processing turned off, and it will still try to analyze the beats in my projects, especially older projects. There IS a problem, and whether or not everyone does or doesn't have it is not the issue. Some people do, and they need to look at it and not dismiss it as "working as designed", because IT IS NOT. There is a bug in the program Rob. Fix it.

[zerosin]

I've come to accept that, despite hardware and software manufacturer's claims, you can't do everything at once. Though BGP worked great in DP 3.52 in OS 9. Then again, almost everything did. OS X gives you the ability to do a lot at once, but don't expect it to go smoothly in anything less than ideal conditions, ie. brand spankin, minimally installed new OS with lots of HD space, lots of RAM, no apps but DP installed and a fast CPU.

Or, just do one thing at a time like we used to do. That still works pretty good.

Techies have good days and bad days too.

[jr213]

Hurray!! I just got a reply from Rob saying he would be "most happy" to help me find out the cause (finally!).

Let it be known here that I am now satisfied.

And, yes, I will post my findings here, but probably as a new topic.

[sdfalk]

I know one thing (which has worked for me at least)
I installed an absolute minimum OSX install.
No unnecessary printer drivers, fonts, languages etc.
I saved well over 1gb of space and the performance improve,ents
in all my apps (DP included) where readily apparent.
I also use Disk Warrior to defragment the disk directory in OSX
every month, as well as optimize my audio drives.
I also keep my plugins well organized and at a minimum..
I don't need 20 different eq's/limiters/reverbs to run a session.
All of this doesn't take much effort and has gone a long way
to keeping everything running (reasonably) well.
Having said that, there are a few plugins that I've discovered
that give me CPU spikes.
Tassman is one, and everything from Quantum FX is another.
Since they both work fine in Logic Express, I see this as more of
a Digital Performer problem (unfortunatley)
I'll add again though that Background processing has given me no trouble
at all.

[zerosin]

That helped with MSI for me. Try this AU manager too:

http://www.grantedsw.com/aum/

[sdfalk]

IcedAudio's AudioFinder.
Brilliant plugin manager/sample organizer and more

www.icedaudio.com

[zerosin]

Also, Tiger and late Panther defrags in the background. If you don't have about 2-8GB free, this will slow thing up a bit. Actively defragging will help. Don't forget to backup first. Ever defrag and have the power drop out, OUCH!

[zerosin]

IcedAudio's AudioFinder.
Brilliant plugin manager/sample organizer and more

www.icedaudio.com

Looks cool, but advance features that require a donation, come on. Just call it a purchase like it really is and stop trying to dodge the IRS.

[sdfalk]

??
Who cares..
Works very well and worth every penny

[Studio615]

JR123 that is great news. Rob, if you are reading this I personally thank you also. All I really cared about was someone taking a look at the problem. I hope it turns out to be a simple fix. And, as a pc technician, I know that there good days and bad days. With the windows stuff, I actually have more bad than good, but that keeps me employed, thanks Billy Gates:)!

[James Steele]

I think Rob handled it as well as he good given the information he was given. In the meantime, I suppose you could turn off background processing or revert 4.52. Granted that's not the PERFECT solution for you, but this isn't a perfect world we live in.