"Using Digital Performer I sometimes get Error Type 2 messages and the program generally seems sluggish. Should I increase the RAM allocation? How do I do it?"
Digital Performer doesn't usually need much extra RAM. The main reason you'd need to assign more RAM to Digital Performer would be if you are using lots of 3rd Party plug-ins or software synthesizers.
The main reason Digital Performer doesn't need much more RAM, is that MAS is responsible for doing the "heavy lifting" for DP. MAS runs in the background and uses Dynamic Ram Allocation. This means it takes what it needs from the "Finder". So you won't have to allocate more RAM to the MOTU Audio system ... it allocates RAM on its own.
After all of your programs are launched and running, go to the finder and under the Apple Menu, you will see "About this Computer." Look at the "Largest Unused Block." This is how much RAM MAS has to work with. The more RAM available here, the better performance you will get with Digital Performer. If you are having problems you may need to add more memory to your machine, or quit other, non-essential applications to free up the memory you do have. You can also free up some memory by disabling non-essential system extensions.
If you do run a lot of plug-ins you may benefit from increasing the RAM allocation in Digital Performer. In fact, most Mac applications will benefit from increased RAM allocation. The procedure below details how to do it in DP, but this can be applied to most programs on the Mac. (Note: this applies to OS9 and below. OSX has a different system for RAM allocation.)
Here's how to change DP3's RAM allocation.
1. Quit ALL Programs that are running (including Digital Performer).
2. On the Mac HD, find the Digital Performer folder and open it.
3. Click ONE time on the Digital Performer application icon, which will highlight it.
4. With the Digital Performer icon highlighted, go under the "File" menu near the top left corner and choose "Get Info."
5. Depending upon you OS you may be presented with choices of what to view. Select "Memory."
6. Here you will see "Minimum" and a "Preferred Size" fields. Never alter the Minimum size field.
7. You can add 20-50 Megabytes (Depending on the amount of 3rd party plug-ins you are using) to the current total in the Preferred Size field. We've found that DP3.01 works pretty well with about 80 megs allocated to its Preferred size.
Example: If your current Preferred size field says "59724K", change it to "79724K". (1 megabyte = 1000 Kilobytes)
8. Now just close the Memory Info box by clicking in the top Left corner.
9. The next time you launch Digital Performer it will have more RAM to use.
