Courtesy of the Sweetwater Technical Support Staff here’s a current list of troubleshooting tips to try if your Digital Performer is not working properly.
These are listed roughly in order of magnitude. It is recommend that you try one step at a time, and see if your problem gets better.
1. Make sure you’re running the latest version of all MOTU software: Performer, Digital Performer, MOTU Audio System (MAS), FreeMIDI, and other software you’re using with it. Check for newer audio and midi hardware drivers too. www.motu.com will always have the latest software and drivers.
2. Check Performer/Digital Performer’s memory allocation. (Go to the Finder, and get info on the actual P/DP application.) If it hasn’t already been raised a fair amount (120,000 is usually plenty), try raising the Preferred size about 10,000 or 20,000. See if that helps.
3. Try trashing preferences. QUIT all applications, open the Macintosh HD, then find and open the System folder. Inside the System folder, find and open “Preferences”. Drag any of the following items into the trash:
– Digital Performer Preferences
– FreeMIDI Preferences
– FreeMIDI Setup Prefs
– FreeMIDI Softsynth Prefs
– MOTU Audio System Prefs
– MOTU 324 Prefs or MOTU Firewire Prefs
4. In DP’s Basics menu, choose Configure Audio System > Configure Hardware Driver. Make sure your Clock Source is correct. Then try raising or lowering the Samples Per Buffer setting. Generally, a higher buffer size lightens the load on your CPU.
5. In DP’s Basics menu, choose Configure Audio System > Configure Studio Size. In this window, be sure that the amount of mono and stereo voices isn’t excessively high. As a rule of thumb, set this to the maximum amount of voices you’ll use. (eg – if the biggest song you recorded was 16 mono tracks, then set the Studio Size to 16 mono voices). In the lower half of this window, make sure Disk Read/Write size is 150, and the Buffers per Voice is 350(000). There’s never any reason to change those two settings.
6. Rebuild the Desktop. This can cure some file-related issues. (Restart your Mac, and hold down option and command until you get the dialog box that asks if you want to rebuild the Desktop. Click yes.)
7. Try zapping the PRAM of the Mac. Go to the Finder, restart, and hold down command-option-P-R simultaneously. Hold it down until the Mac has sounded its startup chime three times. Then release and allow the Mac to boot normally.
8. Check your hard drive with a disk utility like Disk Norton Utilities, or Disk Warrior. It’s always safe to follow their recommendations to repair stuff that they find wrong on your hard drive.
9. Defragment your hard drives, using a utility like Norton Utilities or Techtool Pro. Be aware that Techtool has a tendency to mess with some invisible authorization files, and you may need to reauthorize some of your software. A heavily fragmented hard drive can potentially cause clicks and pops in your audio.
10. Try creating a new DP project on a different hard drive from the one you normally use. See if DP works better recording/playing on a different drive.