A: Sometimes a bounce error message will appear if you have Automation running and you don't select the region before you bounce. This will cause Pro Tools LE to think the region is the entire song, and if there is a "Break' in the automation, Pro Tools LE thinks the song is infinitely long - so you would never have enough hard drive space. Just use the region tool and select all the Tracks from beginning to end and then select "Bounce to Disk" and the message should go away. If not, you may want to Defragment your hard drive, as there may not be a large enough "Block" (contiguous free space) available.

Q: I boot up Logic and all I see is four audio tracks and they only show an "M" next to them. The "R" is missing. What's more, there's no sound! What's wrong?

A: Your audio driver is not being recognized in Logic. You must do two things: First, check in your Audio (audio hardware and drivers) and make sure you have "PCAV" checked. If this is not checked, Logic will go into a default "no audio" mode and will just act as a MIDI sequencer.

Secondly, go out of Logic and go to the Logic Audio Device Setup and do a "full rescan" of audio devices. This is where Logic sets up all of the possible audio drivers that Logic can use. At this point, your driver should show up on the left side, which is the "virtual devices" side. If it only shows up on the right, which is the "system devices" side, this means it is only showing up in Windows and NOT in Logic and you must Rescan.

Q: Why does my MOTU Parallel Port MIDI interface not get recognized when installing into a Windows operating system?

A: There are two main issues that will cause this parallel port device to not be recognized by Windows. One is the parallel port mode setting in the BIOS operating chipset on the motherboard. To get there, you must restart your computer and depending on what type of computer you have, hit Del, F2, F3 or maybe even F10. Most of the times you will see it written on the bottom of the screen when your computer monitor first turns on. Once you have gotten into the CMOS settings (which we call the BIOS setup), you will look for Integrated Peripherals or PCI Configuration within the options menu and within that you will see a Parallel Port Mode. Make sure the mode is set to either EPP (Enhanced Parallel Port) or Bi-Directional. We recommend EPP because it is a more reliable mode for the MIDI interface. Once that is set up you will Exit with "Saving Changes."

The next step is to determine whether or not you have a general sound card such as the Sound Blaster series. Sound Blaster cards have a function that will share the Interrupt Request for the parallel port, causing the MIDI device not to be detected. To find this, you will go to the System Icon within the Windows Control Panel. Once you have opened the System Icon you will see a Device Manager tab and down below you will see a heading labeled "Sound Video and Game Controllers". Expand that header by clicking the "+" sign and you will see Sound Blaster Synth or Live or other sound card items. Within one of these items you will find a settings tab that may include a setting labeled "Allow LPT Interrupt Sharing". Make sure this is deselected and then restart your PC and do the Auto Setup that is shown in the installation setup procedure from the MOTU product. Sometimes the Sound Blaster card will not show this setting within the Sound Video and Game Controllers heading. Sometimes it will create a heading labeled "Creative Misc Drivers" and here you will again click the "+" sign and go into the properties of any sub-headings and find the "LPT Interrupt Sharing" setting.

If these two things do not work, the next thing to do is determine again if you indeed have a general sound card and to shut the MIDI features off on that card. To do this, go to the Multimedia Icon in the Control Panel. Once you have opened Multimedia, go to the Devices tab (the last tab on the right), click the "+" sign next to MIDI Devices and locate the sound card, then go into the properties of that card and you should see "Do Not Use MIDI Features on This Card". Select that and again restart your PC for these settings to take effect. Once that is done, again go to the Auto Setup documented within the MOTU installation instructions.

With these three things, you should have no problem installing the device or getting it to be recognized thru Auto Setup.