have a list of recommended extension to have active when
running Digi software. Do you have a list of known problematic
extensions?


--The only extensions that digi requires are:

DigiSystem INIT

OMS (if needed - SC 2.1, and PT 4.0 will require this)

QuickTime (if needed)

QuickTime PowerPlug (to run QT on PPC)

Most other extensions seem to be fine but it is always a good
troubleshooting idea to turn off all extensions other than the DSI.
The only known problematic extensions at this time are RAM Doubler and
Speed Doubler.


#2 Are there any control panels that are known to be problematic?


--We've had a few reports from users (Kensington Turbomouse Cdev 4.10,
DayStar CDev), but we do not specifically test non-Apple CDevs. It's
a good troubleshooting idea to turn off all Cdevs. Because of the fact
that there are soooooo many Cdevs and extensions and new ones coming
out all the time there is always a potential for conflict.


#3 On the memory control panel should Modern Memory Manager be turned
on or off?


--Keep it turned on.


#4 What should you have the Disk Cache set to - 96K? I have asked this

>question before when I have been on the phone with tech support but I


>keep getting got totally different answers from different techs!


--With System 7, it is possible to set the cache size too high or too
low. The default setting differs from Mac to Mac. If you are NOT
running a CPU accelerator in your Mac, the default setting should be
fine. If you are running a CPU accelerator, then that's where things
get sticky. Sometimes the default setting will work well for Pro
Tools, but maybe not so well for Sound Tools. We have, on occasion,
advised contradictory settings to users simply to keep disk-intensive
operations from crashing.

Cache size not only affects the performance of our applications, it
also affects the performance of the Mac. If there is a CPU accelerator
of some sort in the Mac, that seems to effect Apple's 'recommended
default', since they base that value on the machine ID, not the CPU
speed. Comparing accelerated Mac cache settings to similar speed CPUs
doesn't help, as the accelerators use instruction/data caching to get
speed over and above the CPU clock speeds.


#5 What version of Mac system software is the "best" to use? Are there

problems with System 7.5.5?


--This is a tricky question. When I am asked this by customers I will
usually fall back on the OS versions that a given system was tested on.
Pro Tools NuBus was tested on sys 7.5.1 and Pro Tools PCI was tested
on sys 7.5.3. This is not to say that 7.5.5 will not work, but it is
untested. I always suggest that customers not update their sys SW
unless they need the updated changes. Many customers update just
because it is new and they do not know what features are being updated
and if they need these features.


#6 Can you run Norton Utilities when your drive is connected to a Disk
I/O?


--We do not suggest it. The Norton apps were developed and tested on
the Mac SCSI bus.


#7 What formatting utility is "Official Recommend by Digidesign"?


--You can format with any utility because low level formats are all the
same. For initializing we suggest current versions of Anubis or FWB
with blind writes turned off.


#8 What is the low down with SCSI Manager - keep it or trash it?


--Digidesign has encountered problems with SCSI Manager version 4.3,
which is part of System 7.5, and in ROM in PPCs. Symptoms include
clicks, pops, and drop-outs that appear to be written to disk. If you
encounter these problems, try the following: In non-Power Mac systems,
simply remove the SCSI Manager Extension. In Power Mac (and 840AV)
systems, SCSI Manager is built-into ROM. In this case, the workaround
are to format Pro Tools drives with a non-SCSI Manager-based disk
utility program (such as SilverLining v.5.4), or to format it using a
non-Power Mac system, or update to SCSI Manager 4.3.1.


There is also a more unique issue reported with certain Quantum drives
losing authorizations. The problem is that the drive appears to the
protection to be different media depending on whether the SCSI Manager
extension is installed or not. This can happen if a user has
authorized software on a system without SCSI Manager, then SCSI Manager
is installed at a later date. Conversely, it can happen if SCSI
Manager was installed on a system when software was authorized and then
SCSI Manager is later removed (booting with extensions off, for
example). The result in either case is that the protection thinks the
user has copied the authorization from the original hard drive to a new
one and therefore the authorization is deleted.


#9 What is the formula for determining how much RAM to allocate to Protools and to DAE?


--For DAE I would suggest taking the amount in the DAE buffer setting and then adding 1MB per additional plug-in. By additional plug-in, I mean any plug-in that is not part of the TDM core set. If the customer has memory to spare, then I would suggest giving DAE 10-15Mb.


For Pro Tools It depends on how big the session is. Keep in mind that graphical overviews, tracks, automation MIDI, etc need RAM. So a movie soundtrack session that might be 1 hour or more will need to use more RAM than 5 minute song with no edits. Again if the customer has RAM to spare then have them give Pro Tools 10-15Mb or more.


#10 I have looked over your web site and BBS and I have found a great deal of great information. Are there any other sites that you can recommend to check out? Have you heard about the DAW mailing list - is it worth checking out?

--I do not have much info on the DAW mailing list but I think that any additional information is always helpful. We also now have an online FTP map for our WEB site. A map of the files on our ftp site can be found at: ftp.digidesign.com Hope this helps,
Kevin Miller
Digidesign Technical Support