Mark Of The UNICORN - D1G1TAL PEFORMER 11

[HREQ]

Does nobody use this daw? How have they kept this daw alive so long? Who actually uses it? I've never met a single person using it throughout my 12 years in this hobby. Are they actually making money off this or is it a depreciating asset for them?

[masterhiggins]

I went to a music school for a couple years from ‘99-‘00. Back then most people were using cubase, Logic, or ProTools. I’m all my life I’ve only met one person that uses it.

I’ve been Logic since day 1.

[mgw38]

I know some long time film composers who use it. DP was able to do surround sound very early on and they just kept using it over the years.

[zerocrossing]

I used it from v3 to… I can’t remember. But at some point I started using Live 4 for performances and I enjoyed using it so much more that I just never went back. It’s a great DAW, at least it was. Very comprehensive. I just wasn’t using that much of it. I think I once downloaded a modern demo and it had been so long I didn’t really recognize much of it. Maybe it’s great.

[syntonica]

It's an excellent program, from end to end. I love the built-in effects and the overall vibe they give. However, it is best suited to large or complex projects. It's not something you can just pick up in a day and be fully productive on the basics. I haven't tried the latest version, but I hear that there's finally an option for a single VI track vs routing a MIDI track into an audio track, thus stepping away from the recording stidio paradigm they've had since the beginning.

I think that their main user base is aging out, however, so may be they are losing users. Their latest improvements are hopefully attracting new ones. I can'r remember if they have a relationship with Berklee or not. I do doubt that DP is a loss leader, but I also doubt that they really make any money on it either. They make the lion's share of profit from their hardware. (I also suspect they must own the building their offices are located in as it's deep in the heart of Harvard Square, as in directly across the street from Harvard U.)

[ozinga]

I can'r remember if they have a relationship with Berklee or not.

It was the only program when I was there between 96-00. Now I believe it is a multi Daw institute with Cubase as the main DAW in Film Scoring department.

[machinesworking]

I'm the token DP user here. No DP is not dead, there's a few young users, it's mostly classical and Jazz people, although I don't fit into either of those categories. DP got it's ass handed to it by Apple when they bought Logic. It used to be the Mac DAW, then Logic defacto became that. IMO I think DP's biggest issue is it doesn't have the hype of Cubase or Pro Tools, and it doesn't have the price range of Logic and Reaper. Those are it's direct competitors, and it's the odd man out there.

I don't know? some things in DP put users of other DAWs off, it just recently got MIDI on Instrument tracks. Chunks confuse people, and it's a 30+ year old DAW like Logic and Cubase, with a ton of features and complexity. It doesn't take too many loyal users to keep a DAW going though, if DP only has 20k users that upgrade, that a solid chunk of money every three years at $200 to upgrade.

[Spitfire31]

Further resources if you're interested in the current state of DP (now DP 11):
www.facebook.com/groups/31959118409/
www.motunation.com/forum/index.php

Digital Performer is a goto for many composers of big, symphonic projects, I believe – hundreds of tracks, and so on.

Last time I used it was for a handful of live jazz albums a couple of years ago. I've still got DP 9.5 on my Mojave system, just in case. Otherwise I tend to use Logic Pro or Live.

DP can do anything, but it has a fairly high threshold unti you feel familiar with it.

There's a free demo, though, and a free 'light' version!

[3lu5iv3]

bought UltraLite MK5 audio interface about a month ago and DP lite was included. haven't tried installing it yet cuz
i'm learning Reaper and Bitwig ATM but it looks like a cool DAW.

[mgw38]

I'm the token DP user here. No DP is not dead, there's a few young users, it's mostly classical and Jazz people, although I don't fit into either of those categories.

I remember that they ran an extremely aggressive competitive cross-grade campaign/sale when Sonar went kaputt a few years ago. They specifically targeted Sonar users and probably picked a few of them up back then.

[richardein]

Longtime DP user. Reports of its death are greatly exaggerated. It does everything I need and a lot more.

Best unique feature (as far as I know, it's unique): You can have multiple sequences in one project file.

As others have said, it takes a long time to learn at an expert level, but so does every other DAW I'm aware of.

[machinesworking]

Another reason for DP being ignored or underrepresented here on KVR is DP for the longest time was Mac only, and KVR has always leaned a bit towards Windows and PC users.

DP is a complex and unique DAW, it presents probably to the beginner, too many ways to use it to create a song. There have been big improvements over the years but the same thing that applied to Logic pre Apple buyout and applies to Reaper, applies to DP.

IMO if MOTU were smarter about it the would give away Performer Lite regardless of whether you own one of their interfaces, that would help massively with DP etc.

[spigmu]

I was a solid DP and PT user up through maybe mid 2000s. Stopped upgrading DP mainly due to cost vs time using, working with a partner who was a DP user and spending most of the time happily in PT even for midi. Got into Reaper on a lark in mid 2010s when I left the PT studio I was working at and couldn't rationalize the hefty cost of using PT as my home studio DAW. So it's been Reaper for a while. A great business model and very cost effective. Some obvious other good points. But a recent purchase of an Ultralite mk5 got me a license for Performer Lite and good lord am I thrilled to be back doing midi in Motu land and out of the ridiculous mess that Reaper midi is for tracking and editing. I could care less about how Reaper can shoot you to the moon and back if it takes 8 hours to edit piano performances that I can do in P Lite in 90 minutes. I'll probably keep upgrading Reaper for audio, but, and I've been all around the barn 100 times with posters in the Cockos Reaper board, I have no idea how anyone can do fine tuned performance editing in Reaper without wanting to shoot themselves in an hour. Beg as I have to be shown examples of it, all I'm ever directed to are videos where the music sounds like pushing the start button on a 1980 Casio keyboard, and the editing is substituting one echoing hh for another, and ironically on a 42" monitor. After mucking around in the midi paradigm in Reaper for years I'm happier than a pig in #### to be dancing through midi editing in P Lite! It is beyond most other DAWs in terms of intuitiveness and making sense. It's worth buying one of Motu's lowest level interfaces that is bundled with it just to have it, if one can deal with its audio restrictions. I may eventually end up getting back on the full DP train (at literally ten times the cost of a Reaper license) but after a month I have yet to hit up against the limitations of PL as far as midi work. I either export as midi when finished and import into Reaper or print the damn instruments as audio and import.

[Babz]

I have used Performer/Digital Performer since the beginning of computers in the late 80s. I've tried other platforms over the years, including Protools, Logic, Cubase, Live.. and never found anything that I liked as much as DP. I use DP constantly every day to create all different kinds of music. I just released a track yesterday that shows the latest version of DP in action:

[cryophonik]

How is DP for hardware synth/external MIDI integration? The reason I’m asking is because MOTU is one of the few companies still making MIDI interfaces, and probably the most widely used.