Just bumping this thread to let you guys know that 9.02 is out and OH MY GOSH

It's faster than before (it's less laggy when I drag windows, the piano roll cpu spikes when using low buffer size are gone), it uses way less CPU power and the Kontakt stuck notes appear to be gone. Awesome update.

 

Last edited: Feb 11, 2016

Thank you for updating the thread.
I am seriously considering to demo it now. Can I ask the specs of your computer as well as the libraries you use? What kind of genre you do? Am asking because I will have an idea to compare with my setup.

 

I've noticed something that doesn't happen to me with other DAWS... It's stuck dialogue boxes. For example, I may have Kontakt open and replace an instrument and the dialogue that asks if I want to replace (Yes/No) gets stuck behind Kontakt's window which, for whatever reason, stays always on top and doesn't let me focus on the hidden box. So annoying... Then it may randomly get unstuck after clicking and tabbing for minutes; some others it won't.

I saw another thread with someone who had the same issue a few days ago.

Other than that, I didn't really notice any bugs and it seems to flow and run pretty smoothly. Looks pretty solid to me. The workflow is pretty slow and some things are a bit weird in how they work but the CPU management is certainly inviting.

 

I tried it for a lil while, thought it was beastly, promptly banished to languish in anguish for eternity at the gates of hell.

 

Last edited: Feb 12, 2016

I have installed the demo and finally figured out how to create those teeny tiny midi and aux tracks
First thing I have noticed that the first kontakt output is not usable which makes routing really weird, at least for me. Routing overall is kinda complicated and scrolling to find the right channels is forever. One kontakt with 16 instruments took endless time to configure. On mixing board channels disappear and I need to make them appear every time when I open the mixer :I
Secondly, as soon as the midi starts the volume faders of kontakt instruments go up and stay high. Seems like automation is automatic.
May be I am not doing in the right way . Can someone educate me please?

 

Kontakt routing is easy dude



You add your Kontakt instance, then you load your instruments. In my screencap I've added an instance of Kontakt for pads. I have 3 instruments (pads) loaded in kontakt so I create 3 MIDI tracks, I click on the output tab of each midi track and I choose the right kontakt instance with the right channel (midi track 1 - Kontakt Pads 1, midi track 2 - Kontakt Pads 2, etcetera..
It works the same for any VST for that matter, you always have to link a a VST instrument track to a midi track. It's weird that you can't use the first Kontakt output, I always use it.

Sometimes tracks disappear from the mixing board, I don't really know what's causing this but when this happens I just click the small icon at the bottom left corner of the mixing board and I enable the hidden tracks.

About the midi volume being to loud I think it's because you forgot to turn down the velocity of your midi tracks. The default velocity for midi tracks is 127 (maximum value) lower it down to something like 96.

Digital Performer is very hard to use, it takes a long time to learn to use it effectively. But once you get used to it you'll never want to use anything else.

 

Last edited: Feb 12, 2016

Thank you for your explanation.
However, I am doing same, in fact I am also creating aux tracks as many as the midi tracks. You are right that midi tracks correspond to instruments. Let's take your example. Load 3 instruments in kontakt, create 3 midi tracks, create 3 aux tracks. Midi track 1 corresponds to instrument 1, 2 to 2 and 3 to 3. Now assign aux inputs. It will not start from kontakt 1-2 but from 3-4 leaving 1-2 as main. That makes the first output of kontakt unusable. This also means that instead of 16 instruments, 15 are available.
Regarding midi volume you are also right. I turned down the volume and it worked.
The disappearance of tracks is really off putting when toggling between other tabs but I think there must be something missing. If you find any solution, please post.
DP is very very different from other DAWs but you are right that it will take time to develop either love or hate relationship with it.
Thanks again, I will keep on demoing it as I like it.

 

I hate it when people say game changer...so overused its meaningless.

That along with 'nuff said.

 

Was curious to see if there was a performance improvement in 9.02. As long as I remember to put
the anti-virus in offline mode and disable virus scanning, it runs very smoothly. Sound is slightly improved.

Note: Audio Dithering is on by default.

I have to agree that there are still some annoyances like having to set up multiple outs for every
instrument and save as a template. Would be nice if DP included basic blank templates or populated
templates for the well known virtual instruments in use today. Almost identical to Pro Tools.
Reaper is far ahead of anyone as it just asks you how you would like to setup your outputs,
multi or stereo and does it automatically. Reaper also has the option to bulid out 16 MIDI tracks or
the available amount of mono and stereo tracks for any VSTi. Samplitude is a close second.

The disappearing tracks are a mystery but could be a preferences issue. Will keep digging.

The small font size is corrected by using the -/+ windows resizing buttons at the bottom of the arrange view.
Would be nice to set the desired font in settings.

There is a lot of powerful features in DP, just a steep learning curve.

 

' nuff said. An Ike & Tina Turner Album I believe

 

So in other words, it's not very intuitive?
And I would have to use all its functions regularly in order not to forget all the tricks and tweaks?

As for performance, "up to 4 times boost" says nothing. Whatever plugins you use, DP won't magically make them less cpu hungry except you plan to use the included stuff only.

Motu remind me of Image Line, just the other way 'round:
While IL has been struggling with Mac versions for years literally, MOTU seems to struggle with Windows versions in a similar way.

Something like this can only happen if you don't pay great developers the money they deserve.

 

So I downloaded the demo version from MOTU website and here is my first impression.

I am coming from Studio One background and recently demoed Cubase element, Reaper, and PT first. In terms of RAM usage on an empty template, the memory load of Reaper is the least of them using only 18.1 MB leaving it the most light weight DAW among others. I don't remember Cubase elements (may be <150MB - not sure) but DP takes 146 MB for an empty project. I have asked one of my friend who uses FL studio and it seems FL is the second most light weight DAW engaging only 21.7 MB of memory. While Studio One consumes 369 MB of RAM which is the highest of all.

Plugin loading time in DP9 is the fastest of all. I think it is because of new Pre-Gen engine. In less than 3 secs Kontakt was up which I never experienced before on my old i5, 2.50 ghz, 8Gb, Win 10 laptop. It also scans plugin very fast and takes less time to integrate them into it. But it rejects some plugins which I use in S1 without any problem.

For new user, workflow sucks. Too much time consuming to build a simple Kontakt 16 instruments template. Studio One is the fastest of all (imo) and creating tracks with routing is lightening fast by just check on the outputs but looking at DP midi and other functions S1 is too young to compete. So far I have not experienced any glitches or stability issues, no crashes.

I think I have sorted out the mixer channels disappearance issue. I was looking into the preferences and got nothing which reflects specifically on this but found an option of 'Always open track selector window' in Edit Windows>Editing>Track Selector button>Always opens track selector window'. After checking this option all channels are visible now. I don't know I have done the right thing or not but so far so good. Try this tricks guys and please let us know.

Very limited preview of first time experience nothing complicated done yet.

 

The CPU boost is real. It's not about making the plugins less CPU intensive, but the software itself (take Reaper for exemple, it almost feels like my computer is twice as powerful when I use it, thanks to it's great code).

I wouldn't say that DP is less intuitive, it just works very differently from any other DAW. Once you understand the way it works (and the way it's meant to be used) it's pretty easy. It took me over a month to become effective with DP and now I can say that I don't regret spending so much time learning it.

 

Is there a way to change the pith of a separate audio region on the fly (indestructibly) without changing all the regions pitch related to that audio clip?

 

I don't know whether I love or hate DP. You know what the problem with this DAW is? YOU HAVE TO SET UP EVERYTHING MANUALLY OTHERWISE IT WILL WORK LIKE A TURD. For months and months I had troubles with Kontakt stuck notes (9.2 didn't fix them at all..) and horrible performance. These issues are quite common with DP. You know what the problem was?



All I had to do was to switch the plugin real time preference (both options) to All Plug-ins in Real-time.
AND GUESS WHAT? No more stuck notes, no more CPU spikes and stuttering when arming tracks during playback, performance is twice as good. To anyone having stuck notes/shit performance issues with DP, this is the solution.

 

That got me dying!

 

Oh my ... Evo, YOU'RE A LADY?!

 

Was DP ever in the game?

And Ferninand, this is why you died childless in 1713... Scared them all off with the silly mug of yours.

 

Last edited: Feb 26, 2016

Half of Hollywood (including Danny Elfman almighty) use it.

 

I died of an illness caused by homosexual sex (syphillis) I think I still have bits and pieces of my genitals in a box somewhere.