Digital performer is ridiculous.

[kanoharuayu]

I mean, wtf? How are you suppose to get anything done?
You have to create an instrument track, assign output, then a midi track, then set input for midi track everytime? Takes forever.


I haven't figured out how to even actually draw or edit midi notes in yet, and I tried really hard.
it took me 5 to 10 good minutes to even figure out how to get audio out of the instrument track
===> Add instrument
===> set output to audio interface
===> add midi track
===> set output for midi track as instrument track
===> hit tiny red dot
grats you now can play and hear sound from that single track only.
other daws it's just ===> add instrument, hit keys

5 unnesssasary steps, everything else looks so confusing, the tiny menus,
The menus are super tiny, it looks all so convoluted and unnecessarily complex. It's like programming just to lay down a track. why??? Why do ppl use this?

[maanga]

Every DAW has it's own way of doing things. If you do not like, just move away.
There are many who use it. And there are many others who do not.
From the way you complain, I am very sure you did not buy DP or not doing a demo of the current version.
Regards.

[lfm]

I evaluated DP 9 last, and it was a learning curve and very different.

Wait till you find that recorded midi is not in a clip, but always end up as separate midi events in timeline. Then you have to learn 20 key shortcuts to select the midi you want to work on.
- some using DP say you get used to it, but I abandoned that idea

[ozinga]

I mean, wtf? How are you suppose to get anything done?
You have to create an instrument track, assign output, then a midi track, then set input for midi track everytime? Takes forever.



The menus are super tiny, it looks all so convoluted and unnecessarily complex. It's like programming just to lay down a track. why??? Why do ppl use this?

With the latest version you do not need to create separate midi track
For the tiny menus DP has native zoom feature for menus.
Mostly veteran film composers use it. It has great features for that.

[ralfrobert]

I evaluated it three years ago and didn't like it. But it seems to have its advantages for huge live setups and other things. What I liked is the bundle concept. Also, the stock stuff is really good.

[legendCNCD]

It feels like other "big" DAWs - cumbersome to actually MAKE music (until you learn the ropes). One of the reasons I/we changed to Live.

[zerocrossing]

It feels like other "big" DAWs - cumbersome to actually MAKE music (until you learn the ropes). One of the reasons I/we changed to Live.

Same here. I used it for years… I think up until version 3, then I tried Live and never went back. Sometimes a giant feature set is just not worth the effort.

[Winstontaneous]

The person I know who uses DP (local studio owner and pro film/video scorer) really knows how to get the most of it. She’s been using it forever and and can bend it to her will.

That said, I think there is something up with its timing, every time I get exports from her - even when they are the exact same sample/bit rate and lined up with a delta impulse at sample 1 - they always drift out of time with tracks in the DAWs I use (Live and Logic) and I have to do a bunch of manual massaging - like chopping up phrases and song sections and sliding them in the timeline - to get it back in time. Never had this issue importing AIFFs or WAVs from other DAWs, or anywhere else for that matter. Adding/subtracting a set number of samples/ms doesn’t fix it, it accumulates over the course of the track. Maybe floating point/rounding errors or something?

I personally find DP jumbled and confusing, and the non-official MOTU forum that redacts “REAPER” as “******” is the most toxic music site I’ve encountered on the internet, which - as a longtime KVR and Reddit member, is saying something!

[Benedict]

DP is one of the early ones, predates the DAW thing (along with Opcode Vision, Grrr Gibson) and was The choice for most professionals and particularly Film Composers.

DP has held a lot of its conventions which made sense, but were still complexicated at the time. While this makes sense in some ways, it is also easy to see as nonsense compared to the elegant simplicity of workflow of say Reason.

However, I assume that once familiar, like in the dreaded R****r, one gets pretty fast, probably having a lot of the set-ups, chunks, and the hotline to the Illuminati baked into your starting Templarate.

[Winstontaneous]

Haha, hey great to see you Benedict, your SynthEdit VSTs were some of the most inspiring plugins I found when I got into making computer music in the ‘00s!

[careyletendre]

From the way you complain, I am very sure you did not buy DP ...

Yep

[Pillimees]

I mean, wtf? How are you suppose to get anything done?
You have to create an instrument track, assign output, then a midi track, then set input for midi track everytime? Takes forever.

Right-click on an empty space, choose "add track" and "instrument track", choose your synth and start playing. I have keyboard shortcuts for this.

You can make the Digital Performer user interface as large as you want. Select "wiew ... scale" from the menu and select percentages from there.

I agree that Digital Performer is not the easiest at first glance, but it has its own logic of use and once you learn it, it is very easy and pleasant to use.

[jonston1]

Boomer DAW

[coolbass]

This thread title is ridiculous.
DP certainly is not.

[syntonica]

(along with Opcode Vision, Grrr Gibson)

Which I found to be the better DP, but it was quite dead when I found it.

DP has held a lot of its conventions which made sense, but were still complexicated at the time. While this makes sense in some ways, it is also easy to see as nonsense compared to the elegant simplicity of workflow of say Reason.

MOTU has very strongly held onto it's analog recording studio paradigm for too long. I haven't even tried the new way of adding VI tracks yet as they just lost me...