the best mistake i ever made....

jjochems78 · Post by **jjochems78** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 4:15 pm

So I bought a used imac sometime ago and had some really major latency issues on it. Everything worked fine when it wasnt in DP but once it was I'd get what must of been at least 200ms of latency. Never could figure out why. First thought was i should get a new sound card. So i got a Echo, and that performed better but clipped my cpu really bad and caused alot of click so that too was useless. Never could figure out what was wrong with it. Then the other day i pulled up my User folder and renamed it. Not thinking of the consequences of that. When i restarted my computer my desktop was gone and all my sampling softwares no longer knew where to find my sample library so i had to redirect it. So i opened up DP to find out if all my sessions audio files were going to vanish or not. I was definately freaked out.

But i opened up a session and not only were my audiofiles right where they should be. But my latency was gone! Well not gone but certainly leaps and bounds better. I guess what had happened was when i renamed the Administrator User folder it created a new user and the Administrator one must of got cleaned. So maybe i had some bad preferences that needed to get removed because everything runs better.

I reinstalled the Echo Audiofire and i still got cpu spikes but it wasnt clipping anymore. I get spikes on it even when im not using it in an app. But thats a whole other story. So i guess my question is.... what the hell really happened? Anyone have anything like this happen?

I got and Imac 1.2 ghtz model with 756 megs of memory. Using the internal coreaudio card at the moment with 10.3.9

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 4:46 pm

jj--

You have encountered something that I've suspected for a long time, and that is incessant file corruption in OSX. We're always dumping preferences and other data to rebuild fresh file references. This is so often the problem, that I no longer consider this an issue unique to MOTU.

If you wouldn't mind, it would be nice to have your advice on this posted in the tips and tricks thread. Many users could benefit from your experience.

Thanks!

Guitar Gaz · Post by **Guitar Gaz** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 4:57 pm

What preference files do you recommend dumping every so often?

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 5:05 pm

Guitar Gaz wrote:What preference files do you recommend dumping every so often?

DP Preferences and Audio Unit Info Cache are the top two.

Other files include certaiin '.component' and/or '.bundle' files associated with DP or some plugin To get these running again, one must do a reinstall, whereas the AU IC and DP Prefs automatically rebuild upon booting DP.

Drivers, both MIDI and Audio, get corrupted from time to time, although less frequently.

Much of this is to be expected with any OS, any computer, and any software. Nothing is pristine forever or for very long, but it's the frequency with which some of the same files repeatedly go "south" that gets my attention... and it's the consistency through which refreshing these same files works successfully as a solution that makes this much more routine maintenance than one would suspect or hope would be necessary.

Check here for a related topic:
http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16184

TnMike · Post by **TnMike** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 6:38 pm

So this means you have to reset each of your DP preferences everytime you delete the file...wow...not sure if I remember all of their settings. Time to get out the pad and pencil.
Does this also wipe out your DP template?
Thanks...

toofar · Post by **toofar** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 7:02 pm

You can make a backup copy of the file when it's working tip top, and replace a suspect one with the backup.

Bill

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 7:21 pm

TnMike wrote:So this means you have to reset each of your DP preferences everytime you delete the file...wow...not sure if I remember all of their settings. Time to get out the pad and pencil.
Does this also wipe out your DP template?
Thanks...

No, no. Little is lost by deleting the preferences file. There are some prefs that must be reset, but not "all". Some so-called prefs are stored in other files, such as key commands, etc. Templates, likewise, are stored elsewhere.

It would pay to check out what all your DP files are and where they are stored just to keep track of what's what and what's where just in case some adjustment needs to be made to file replacement.

For example, your Bundles are preferences of a sort, but they are stored in their own files apart from the official DP Preferences.

Things that are specifically located in the DP Preferences menu inside DP are those things to pay close attention to.

Shooshie · Post by **Shooshie** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 7:32 pm

Well, you probably could also make a copy of the prefs files and just option-drag them into the prefs folder now and then, rather than have to re-configure each time. In fact, if you've got QuicKeys, you could make a short cut to do that for you, and even do it automatically every day, week, or month--as desired.

Shooshie

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 7:37 pm

Shooshie wrote:Well, you probably could also make a copy of the prefs files and just option-drag them into the prefs folder now and then, rather than have to re-configure each time. In fact, if you've got QuicKeys, you could make a short cut to do that for you, and even do it automatically every day, week, or month--as desired.

Shooshie

Copying the Prefs file is a smart way to beat the system, especially since we are always tweaking our Prefs.

Clever!

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 7:34 am

Dunno if this will help DP, but I found a freeware app called Preferential Treatment, that will scan all your root and/or user prefs for corruption, and give a report, with an option to delete the suspects.

Shooshie · Post by **Shooshie** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 8:46 am

Cool! Is it at Versiontracker? (I guess a quick look would confirm that) I wonder if its test for corruption would catch whatever causes the glitch in DP's prefs? They aren't necessarily corrupted in the OS sense, but in the DP sense, if that makes any sense.

Shoosh

Klaus · Post by **Klaus** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 9:19 am

I'm not an expert

but let me guess :
DP is Ram intensive.
Caching comes to my mind.
If the OS / DP has a problem with caching,
due to timing,
replacing prefs may resolve / reset the caching,
but actally the prefs are not corrupt...
Please chime in, experts
Best

Klaus

Shooshie · Post by **Shooshie** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 9:40 am

Took a minute for that to sink in, Klaus, but I see what you're saying. If it keeps the prefs stored in cache, and if that cache became non-linearly fragmented, perhaps getting in the middle of audio reads, it could cause unanticipated delays in the stream. Resetting the cache would fix that. But wouldn't rebooting also fix it? Not sure about that either way, but I haven't heard a better explanation so far.

Shooshie

sdemott · Post by **sdemott** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 12:54 pm

Shooshie wrote:...But wouldn't rebooting also fix it? Not sure about that either way, but I haven't heard a better explanation so far.

Shooshie

No - because cache files are stored across reboots (/Library/Caches & ~/Library/Caches). While swap files are cleared across reboots.

This is an interesting thought, I know deleting old cache files can fix many odd problems with Mac OS X and certain apps. This is something we should keep our collective eyes on. I don't have any DP problems to speak of, but I also clear my caches regularly (as well as repairing disk permissions & manually running the UNIX periodic scripts when appropriate).

Hmmm....now I'm thinking....

TnMike · Post by **TnMike** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 1:19 pm

Well, I trashed my DP prefs and the Audio Unit Info cache...now my virtual instuments are sounding without triggering. I put a MIDI track in record mode and notes start to sound and not letting up. Kinda like someone fell asleep on the MIDI keyboard controller. I hit "stop sounding MIDI notes" but the next time I put the track into record same thing happens.
I guess I should have left it alone...