MOTU Digital Performer 9 is out

Want to talk about music hardware or software that doesn't include Reason?
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marcuswitt
Posts: 238
Joined: 17 Jan 2015

24 Jun 2015

Great news from MOTU: they're finally shipping Digital Performer 9.

http://www.motu.com/

To me it's always been the perfect 'partner' and Rewire master host application for Reason, especially when it's about making music in a 5.1 surround sound environment. And the fact that they've included the MX4 synthesizer, which is one of the most underrated software synths among a few others, makes that package even more valuable and more attractive to go for this upgrade.

shropshirelad
Posts: 80
Joined: 24 Jun 2015

24 Jun 2015

Now that's what you call an upgrade! MX4 - nice, Retina support - lovely. 8-)

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normen
Posts: 3431
Joined: 16 Jan 2015

24 Jun 2015

Note that they added muting for single MIDI notes. Here that would probably cause a shitstorm of people saying "finally the Props arrived in the 21st century" ;)

DP really has some nice features but I could never get it to work with control surfaces the way I'd like to so I went back to Logic (that was some years ago though).

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Theo.M
Posts: 1035
Joined: 16 Jan 2015

24 Jun 2015

normen wrote:Note that they added muting for single MIDI notes. Here that would probably cause a shitstorm of people saying "finally the Props arrived in the 21st century" ;)

DP really has some nice features but I could never get it to work with control surfaces the way I'd like to so I went back to Logic (that was some years ago though).
The core of DP hasn't changed.. it's very tricky (imo) to get to grips with (over complicated).

It's overview arrange page works different to what we are used to as there is no proper zooming, you have to go to a dedicated editor/track page type of thing. I just could never get used to that.

On the other hand it was the first ever to offer a power boost with the auto freeze of instruments and fx.. that's a pretty insane feature doing backround rendering all the time (if enabled) to all but eliminate your cpu overhead. If you make an edit requiring "unfreeze" it does it in the backround and when you are finished it silently updates the frozen file. On today's pci flash it would be so fast to use i imagine.

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marcuswitt
Posts: 238
Joined: 17 Jan 2015

24 Jun 2015

@Normen: Indeed, control surfaces like the Mackie Control Pro series or AVID's Artist series are not as well and deeply integrated in DP as they are in Logic or Cubase - that's true. And it took me a while to get my Mackie 'rig' (incl. the C4) running properly in DP and in Reason as well, although there are still some minor flaws. But thanks to Rewire and Apple's IAC, everything's fine so far, but still far from being perfect.

@Theo: Yes, DP's core seems to be the same since version 5, which isn't necessarily bad. Yes, things like the low resolution of DP's stereo panner/balance knob and so on are a bit old fashioned, from a technical point of view. But on the upside I got to say that once you've learned how to customize DP - and it is very customizable in many ways - then you'll find great solutions for almost every situation, incl. zoom options and settings, etc.. And some of those solutions and features blow other DAWs out of the water. Cheers to Australia! :)

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Theo.M
Posts: 1035
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24 Jun 2015

marcuswitt wrote:@Normen: Indeed, control surfaces like the Mackie Control Pro series or AVID's Artist series are not as well and deeply integrated in DP as they are in Logic or Cubase - that's true. And it took me a while to get my Mackie 'rig' (incl. the C4) running properly in DP and in Reason as well, although there are still some minor flaws. But thanks to Rewire and Apple's IAC, everything's fine so far, but still far from being perfect. @Theo: Yes, DP's core seems to be the same since version 5, which isn't necessarily bad. Yes, things like the low resolution of DP's stereo panner/balance knob and so on are a bit old fashioned, from a technical point of view. But on the upside I got to say that once you've learned how to customize DP - and it is very customizable in many ways - then you'll find great solutions for almost every situation, incl. zoom options and settings, etc.. And some of those solutions and features blow other DAWs out of the water. Cheers to Australia! :)
Thanks Marcus cheers to you too!

Mate I must admit there is something I am very curious about.. do you know if the prerender in backround works on rewire streams? That would be a game changer as it would allow virtually unlimited power for Reason.

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marcuswitt
Posts: 238
Joined: 17 Jan 2015

25 Jun 2015


@Theo:

Well, I can clearly say that DP doesn't prerender incoming Rewire streams in background, unfortunatelly. But to me the reason for that is pretty clear. To DP, incoming Rewire streams are actually nothing but signals coming from a 'external' input, like a mic or line input on an audio interface. Therefore, DP doesn't 'know' what kind of signal is coming in. Moreover, I think that the Rewire technology doesn't support  pushing audio streams to a Rewire master application without any transport function, "Play" in particular beeing activated and running.

Your idea and wish is very amazing, BTW. You should contact PHP's to suggest your idea as being part of the next Rewire overhaul. :)

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motuscott
Posts: 3420
Joined: 16 Jan 2015
Location: Contest Weiner

26 Jun 2015

I switched over to Reason as my main squeeze @ DP7. DP is an amazingly detailed and customizable program. Too much for my child like brain apparently.
Who’s using the royal plural now baby? 🧂

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