Upgrading to DP 3

[markdod]

I got the Digital Performer 3 upgrade (it was a free upgrade, since I purchased it in mid-summer) and have been putting off installing it.

I have been monitoring the www.unicornation.com bulletin board, and it looks like a lot of people are having trouble with DP 3. Am I asking for trouble here? I really want to take advantage of my Mac's dual processors, but I don't need to throw my studio into chaos while I fight with an upgrade. The MOTU tech supprt site is suspiciously silent on this issue.

FYI, I have a Mac G4 dual-processor 533 with 512K RAM and an external Glyph Xproject firewire drive for my project files.

Thanks,
=Mark

[HenryRobinett]

Personally I've had virtually zero problems. The Multi-processor capabilities of DP3 are awesome. I have a G4 MP 450. I've had no need to bounce to disk in order to make more room for plugs. There's DP3.01 update at the MOTU site plus a MAS 2.33 update. Some people have had difficulties when bouncing to disk some beat based files. I have had no problems with BTD. The only other slight pain is that the graphic window disappears or freezes. It doesn't effect anything, meaning the project doesn't freeze. You just have to close the window and open it again. This may have been fixed in the latest updates. I think this is a small price to pay; a temorary inconvenience, for a great program and upgrade. Be careful when listening to whinners and complainers. There's a certain percentage of people who will whine and complain no matter what. Realize that what you've probably read amounts to maybe 2 or 3 people out of 2 or more thousand folks on that list. The other folks, in their confusion, stir the pot, not knowing what's going on.

[Todd_the_Tech]

The vast majority of DP3 user's are working without flaw. Be sure to download DP 3.01 and MAS 2.33 updates if you don't already have them.

Check http://www.motu.com/english/download/index.html periodically for new updates.

[markdod]

I went for the upgrade (all three of them), and all in all, seems fine.

But I hate that:

1.) I lost all my custom effect preset names. The effects appear with the correct settings, but the custom names I had given them are gone, requiring me to re-save them in each existing project. Any settings I may have created and didn't actually use in any existing project are gone. However, when I go to save the settings again, the name I previously gave them appears in the Save Settings dialog box (or whatever it's called). Strange that the names are somehow preserved here, but they couldn't replicate them in the preset lists as well.

2.) The names I gave to the inputs from my 2408s were all lost as well, which required that I go back and reidentify and rename them. And maybe I don't understand well enough, but these names, now called "Audio Bundles," have to be applied or loaded separately for each existing project for me to be able to see the names I gave them. Before, I named the inputs once, and they appearaed in every project. So this seems to have become a lot more hassle in 3.0.

I suppose it could have been worse. At least I haven't yet run out of CPU power for plug-ins (but I haven't really tested the limits yet). It's great to have the extra processing headroom.

Thanks,
=Mark