I'm running DP2.7 on a blue and white G3 450. I can easily get 24 tracks plus tons of plug ins. I would think the problem is software. I'm running with a stripped down set of extensions and that seems to help. Are you using OS 9.1 or OSX. I've heard that OSX is a processor hog. Maybe it's DP3 is that a processor hungry. Good luck.
Bob

Hi Bob, thanks for replying.
I knew OSX wasn't that good so I decided to keep MacOS 9.2 running on. I don't like it's appearance either. What do you mean by a "stripped down set of extensions"? (yes, I'm a Mac newbie). Yet a couple of questions: What sound card do you work with? and, do you work with VST Wrapper? I've been thinking maybe it slows the system down, though it's very necessary for me.

Thanks for the assistance again

Capi

Capi,

Try this, it helped on my B/W G3:Improving MOTU Audio System Performance

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Fine Tuning your Motu Audio System and troubleshooting poor performance.

Go to the Basics Menu, Motu Audio System Options, Performance Monitor. Is the processor running high? Do you get better better performance if you remove some of the larger plug-ins?

In the Windows Menu, open the Memory Monitor. How much memory is available to the application? If you have between 4,000 - 6,000k available while playing you are in good condition. However, assigning too much memory to Digital Performer can work against you. The reason is that the Motu Audio system looks to the finder for available RAM as a resource for voice allocation and track playback. Allocating all of the RAM to Digital Performer leaves little left for the Motu Audio System.

If you have Motu Audio Hardware try increasing the Samples per Buffer size to 1024 or higher in the Configure Hardware Driver Window. While the lower buffer settings reduces latency on patch thru it also makes your processor work harder.

If you have more than one drive you may want to try dragging your project to the other drive and play it from and record with that drive. It may be that case that one drive needs to be de-fragmented. If the drive is connected to a SCSI accelerator the transfer rate of the accelerator card may need to be adjusted in it's control panel for optimal performance.

The MOTU Audio System (MAS) looks to the Finder (the Mac OS) for available memory. You can use your Extensions Manager to increasing performance under MAS. You may experience the "Ran out of record buffers, too many tracks, too many effects" with just a few tracks, or you may want want add to the number of tracks and effects in a current project.

Go to the Apple menu and select Control Panels/Extensions Manager.

For OS 8.0 to 8.6, choose the following extensions only, disabling other extensions:
DigiSystem INIT (if you own ProTools hardware or AudioMedia)
Korg 1212 driver (if you are using a Korg 1212)
FreeMIDI Power Plug
FreeMIDI System extension
MOTU USB Driver (if you have a MOTU USB interface)
PCI-324 Sound manager driver (if you have a 2408 system)
Serial Tool and/or Serial (built in)
Shared library manager
Shared library manager PPC
SOM Objects
Sound Manager

If you are running 7.6.1 or earlier, add the ObjectSupportLib extension.

For Mac OS 9 and higher:

If you're using a Blue and White G3 or G4 start with Mac OS base extensions and add the following extensions:
DigiSystem INIT (if you own ProTools hardware or AudioMedia)
Korg 1212 driver (if you are using a Korg 1212)
FreeMIDI Power Plug
FreeMIDI System extension
MOTU USB driver if you're using a MOTU USB interface.
Or any serial drivers and extensions needed for those serial expansion devices
SOMobjects
Shared library manager
Shared library
(sound manager is not necessary with G3s and G4s)

This is from the MOTU site.

Let us know if it helps.

p.s. I can't comment on the wrapper.

Thanks a lot, J. Lekson, for your help.

I did the job with extensions, and also defrag the HD. Though I haven't got more freezes, the processor still appears to be very busy with certain plugs. I guess it's just a matter of heavy plugs like Nautilus and non MAS plugs.

I hope this goes better when I purchase a 828 and external HD. Also, I've read at macmusic.org DP starts to choke with VST plugins.

Thank you JL, that info is very useful indeed.

Capi