Levon River

Slowing Down Access...

Buh-bye.

I'll write up a retrospective, a rememberance, a eulogy in a few months and post it in free forums.

Levon.

Dp4 And Usb Audio Failures

I'm starting this new topic to collect and summarize data from a thread in another forum, and to alert people to serious issues concerning Digital Performer 4.0 and USB audio.

It has been ascertained beyond any doubt that DP4 does not work with a number of USB audio interfaces for recording audio, and--in the case of one interface--even for playing back audio. Anyone who has any factual information at all on this issue is urged to post it here.

The USB audio problems have surfaced with Event Technology's EZBus (in OS 10.2.5), and with Griffin Technology's iMic (in OS 10.2.3, 10.2.4, and 10.2.5).

The only USB audio interface known to have been successfully tested with DP4 for audio recording and playback so far is the Tascam US-224, under OS 10.2. (This might be the case with the Tascam US-428 as well, but that is extrapolated assumption, as no one here has yet reported on a real-world test with it.) There are no reports so far on the performance of the US-224 in an operating system later than 10.2

There are no known reports of any tests done with any of the Edirol USB audio interfaces. If anyone can do any tests with any of those and report it here, it would be very much appreciated.

One of the manifestations of this problem is that the USB interface appears twice in the "Configure Hardware Driver" window. One, or both, of the instances shows a blank pull-down menu next to "Sample Rate" that may, or may not, allow a selection of "0" (zero). In other cases, that pull-down simply remains blank.

When selecting either, or both, instances of the interface and clicking out of the "Configure Hardware Driver" window, DP4 can exhibit a a variety of behavior. Either there is an error message, or there is no error message, but there also are no selectable audio inputs for the device appearing anywhere in DP4.

Any and all factual reports would be of great value.

Please, in addition to posting here, send e-mail with results of any and all such tests to techsupport@motu.com, plus to the appropriate support personnel at the relevant interface manufacturers. MOTU reports that they are actively working on isolating the problem(s). They have been corresponding daily so far.

Digital Performer 4--in Da House

How long can you stay mad at a unicorn?

This ain't yer granny's Digital Performer.

Just got it installed and launched once, opened an old, creaky DP 3x project, and it fired right up (after coughing a few times about missing--read: obsolete--OS 9 effects plugz that had been in the session). It played back like a champ.

I need to do some audio optimization (buffer, latency optimizations, etc.) because I have different hardware than I was running DP3 with, but overall it's a thing of beauty and grace. Several very nice GUI enhancements have made it even better than it was.

It does, by the way, have track "freezing": a sort of virtual (and revertable) "bounce" of a track or tracks, freeing up effects and other resources. Then you can "unfreeze" it to do further adjustments, etc.

This is really just a first-impression pre-review. The manual is about the size and mass of a concrete block. (Just kidding--sorta'.) I'm getting cozy with the Quick Start guide at the moment to see what is new and different, and will be gettin' serious with it here over the next day or two. I'll make this a sort of journal thread, with segmented reviews, and will answer whatever questions get thrown at me as I can.

Nobody will ever hear this boy sayin' "It was worth the wait," because I've already made my disgust with MOTU manifest over them dragging their horseshoes into OS X-land. But I will say that it seems, on first blush, that they did a thorough job of it. Now I'll see what happens when I crank 'er up to speed...

Dp4 Sightings

In mounting frustration over slow delivery on the elusive Digital Performer 4, some of the very creative people on the UnicorNation forum began uploading images of "DP4 Sightings," and it became one of the funniest, most entertaining threads I've ever read anywhere, so I thought I would share it, and pass on, at the end, an *actual* DP4 sighting for all those interested.

If you have any interest in any of MOTU's products, sign yerself up by all means:

http://www.unicornation.com/

Click on "Try the new UnicorNation Bulletin Board now!" at the top. The hilarious thread is in "Digital Performer Forum" and is called "So.... Anyone get DP4?"

For those not interested in signing up for the forum, one member has set up a web page with a slide show of most of the images that have been posted to the thread (it's not entirely up to date yet, but has most of them), and that's here:

http://homepage.mac.com/cargoplex/DP4/Phot...otoAlbum39.html

And for an *actual* DP4 sighting--Yes, Virginia, there *is* a unicorn--it's at Sweetwater: in stock, ready to ship. Unfortunately, that's only for retail sales, and apparently the upgrade prices (from DP or a qualifying competitive product) are only available from MOTU. And, apparently, MOTU got their product out to retailers before it shipped to upgrading customers. That's what all the fuss has been about in the thread referenced above.

At least they're having fun with it instead of *just* complaining. And fun it is!

Ezbus/audio Midi Setup Weirdness

For some weird reason that is entirely beyond my ken, Apple's Audio MIDI Setup will *not* retain the EZBus as the "Selected Audio Device." It's startin' to get on me nerves.

In the "Default Input" dropdown it has EZbus. In the "Default Output" dropdown it has EZbus. But for "Selected Audio Device" it has "Built-in audio controller" showing in the dropdown. If I drop it down, EZBus is there to select. So I select it (which then opens a whole "Input Section" that wasn't there before I selected it). So I quit Audio MIDI Setup. And *every time* I go back into it, it has changed "Selected Audio Device" back to "Built-in audio controller."

I've tried changing it, then rebooting. No go. I can't find any preferences file that I can trash. So now I'm at the end of my rope.

Does anybody know what in tarnation is going on here and how to fumigate the gremlins?