Help! Unable to open DP

[donreynolds]

Hey guys and girls.
I have been away from the board and recording for a couple of years while I finished my university graduate degree. Just finished. Woo hoo.
I was eager to get back to my recording again...
But As I began to fire up my DP software the Woo hoo turned in to Oh no.
I am running a 2 x 2.93 quad core MacPro with Yosemite 10.10.5 OS. I have x2 Black lion 896HD interface units running in parallel using Black Lion word clock input at 48khz.
I downloaded all the most recent Motu software versions just to make sure I was current.

A little history...
My last version that I had running with no problems was 7.24. I fired it up and it did well. When DP 8 came out, I bought it but never installed it. ( I was too busy). When I did get time to install it, It had problems loading. I contacted motu and they suggested that I just get DP 9 as I was allowed the upgrade free. I did. I had problems on install. It kept hanging on start up and I would have to force quit.
I also at the same time had a weird problem with my webpage search feature on safari, Chrome, and firefox hanging up as soon as I tried to search the web. When I disconnected my external back up drives, the internet search worked fine. I figured it was a conflict with my hard drive or back ups that I had online. I ended up erasing my back up and using CCC, I cloned the original. That took care of the problem.
My DP7.24 also began working. now... I know DP9 was 64 bit compliant, and I realized that probably many of my plugs may not be 64bit compatible, so I set DP to open in 32 bit initially just to see how it would do.
I could open DP 9.1 But many of my plugs were missing, even in 32 bit mode. I looked at my system preferences folder and they were present.??? I was confused. I looked in my DP audio plugin preferences and they are not showing.

So I went back to look at DP 7.24 and all my plugs were there and working great. Hmm?
When I tried to reopen DP9.1, It started hanging up on startup and I had to force quit is. I also tried to open by just selecting my project. no go.

I went back to DP 7.24 and now it will not open. Just hangs on start up. I restarted my computer several times, Tried holding the option key down on start up but no luck. I kept trying and finally, after a long start up, DP 7.24 opened and was working. I took that opportunity to go to safe mode on my audio plugins to see if I could start DP 9.1, but right after I changed the plugin to safe, the DP 7.24 crashed.
I haven't been able to open either version now. I have restarted my computer. I have reinstalled DP 9.1. I have my external HDs disconnected as well as my firewire interface units.

I am stumped. Does anyone have any suggestions to get me back in the game here??

I would appreciate it so much. I am very frustrated about right now, lol

[donreynolds]

PS.. I just noticed I need a new picture. Got a lot more grey and a beard now ha ha. That is university grad school stress for ya.

[donreynolds]

Update.
I kept trying to load DP 7.24 and finally got it opened with my interfaces and iLok not connected. I put the plugins in safe mode in case it was a plug conflict.
I shut it down and reopened without problem.
I reconnected the Firewire interfaces and my iLok and tried to open DP and it would not open.
I disconnected my interfaces and iLok and restarted my computer. DP 7.24 opened again. I did it several times just to be sure.
I then hooked my firewire cables back up and not the iLok. I restarted my computer. Then I turned on my interfaces. DP opened ok. I closed it, and then replaced the iLok. DP opened just fine...??
WTH?? This is crazy.
Since Dp7.24 is working, I tried to open Dp 9.1. It is trying to load, but it is getting hung up on the VST plugs it seem on verification. I hit skip for now. Now it gets to the message that says..
"The audio hardware did not respond. (MotoAudioSYstem MAS MasCoreAUdioWorkThreadlcppl 138 [57:01]"
I had a box appear that allowed me to check the audio hardware and it looks ok.
My Mootu
and now it won't proceed further? Stuck
My Motu Audo Setup window is open and it is recognizing both of my interfaces., word clock, channels etc?

I am not sure what to do now?

[bayswater]

A couple of things come to mind. First, having DP 7 and 9 on the same drive is probably not entirely transparent. When DP 8 came out, a few conflicts were noticed. You might want to look at the early posts on DP 8 if you want to see what they were. Some of them probably persist when 7 and 9 are on the same drive.

Moving 7 to another partition and then reinstalling 9 and deleting or relocating all the preferences might let you start with a reasonably clean and independent setup. Or start a new partition and put only 9 on it. (It looks like V8 and V9 can work together without any conflict)

Second, the problem smells like a plugin problem. Not everything that worked with 7 is necessarily going to work on 9 and vice versa. Same with 32 versus 64 bit instances. Try moving all the plugins out of the plugin folder and start DP. If that works, put half of them back in and if it still starts, the culprit is in the other half. Load half of those and discover which half of the half has the problems. Etc. Just keep halving the number of plugins being tested, and you identify which of 256 plugins is a problem in 8 steps.

If you can't even get a new clean plugless instance of 9 going, but other things are working on your Mac, a call or tech link to MOTU is probably the only recourse.

I'm sure you will get this fixed. Experience on V9 varies with users, but my setup on the same OS versions are yours is solid and painless.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I'd try a few things...

I'd delete these plists from User/Library/Preferences):

com.MOTU.AU_Examiner.plist
com.motu.DigitalPerformer.plist
com.MOTU.VST_Examiner.plist (left over from DP 7 I believe)

In the same directory in the Digital Performer™ folder:

Preferences
Audio Unit Info Cache
MOTU Audio System Prefs
Audio Plug-In Prefs

Of course, I would also repair permissions (run the following in terminal:

sudo /usr/libexec/repair_packages --repair --standard-pkgs --volume /

That should force DP to reexamine all plugs. You might want to move all the VST plugs into a "safe" folder so DP 9.12 doesn't see them. DP 9.12 has had some pretty serious problems with VST plugs, including PSP Xenon and VE Pro.

Frankly, I'd delete the plists, move the VSTs, repair permissions, and then do a safe launch of DP (holding the option key) and select the plugs in groups until you find a crash (or not). I'd bet it's only the VST plug(s) that is/are giving you grief. That would make the process somewhat faster.

Another thing to verify is if you are in 32 or 64 bit mode. I believe DP 9.12 defaults to 64 bit, but you can get info on the app and set it to run in 32. Making the jump from 7.24 9only in 32 bit) and Dp 9 (either 32 or 64) is a bit of a jump (and a jump of the bit).

[donreynolds]

Thanks guys.. I will give it a try. I have been making some progress. At least I have been able to get both versions to open now. I need to do what you are suggesting to make sure it is stable. Yes, I did change to 32 bit. A lot of my plugs are not yet 64 compatible, so I will just stay at 32 for a while till they catch up and upgrade.

Is there a way to check what plugs are 32 and which are 64?

Thanks so much
Don

[mikehalloran]

If running DP in 64bit, incompatible plugins will not be visible. Restarting DP in 32bit will make them reappear.

If there's a better way to tell, I don't know it.

In Yosemite, run Repair Permissions in Disk Utility.

[donreynolds]

Thanks, will do Mike
I appreciate the help