Audition aggravitingly slow -- beachball on every action

Audition is running very slowly, taking up to a minute to do a simple merge clips, the beachball rolling on every action.  It's enough to kill the creativity and destroy the smooth workflow I count on.  I am working on a very fast computer with plenty of space -- a Mac Studio M1 Max Model 13,1, an Apple M1 Max chip, 10 cores, 64gb memory and 2TB of internal storage with 1.41 TB used.  I am auto-updated, currently running OS 15.1 Sequoia.  The project and all files are located on an external LaCie 8TB drive with 4.4 TB free.  I am running Audition 25.3.0.71.

Any thoughts?  I have heard I should locate my project and all files on the internal HD and just use the La Cie for storage...

Thanks.

Rob