Digital Performer 4--in Da House, Yeah, I broke down and got it... Options

[Levon River]

How long can you stay mad at a unicorn?

This ain't yer granny's Digital Performer.

Just got it installed and launched once, opened an old, creaky DP 3x project, and it fired right up (after coughing a few times about missing--read: obsolete--OS 9 effects plugz that had been in the session). It played back like a champ.

I need to do some audio optimization (buffer, latency optimizations, etc.) because I have different hardware than I was running DP3 with, but overall it's a thing of beauty and grace. Several very nice GUI enhancements have made it even better than it was.

It does, by the way, have track "freezing": a sort of virtual (and revertable) "bounce" of a track or tracks, freeing up effects and other resources. Then you can "unfreeze" it to do further adjustments, etc.

This is really just a first-impression pre-review. The manual is about the size and mass of a concrete block. (Just kidding--sorta'.) I'm getting cozy with the Quick Start guide at the moment to see what is new and different, and will be gettin' serious with it here over the next day or two. I'll make this a sort of journal thread, with segmented reviews, and will answer whatever questions get thrown at me as I can.

Nobody will ever hear this boy sayin' "It was worth the wait," because I've already made my disgust with MOTU manifest over them dragging their horseshoes into OS X-land. But I will say that it seems, on first blush, that they did a thorough job of it. Now I'll see what happens when I crank 'er up to speed...

[Levon River]

Go on Levon, you can make it long this time   
(the report!

Wish I could--you know me, lepetitemartien --but I am under deadlines here and strapped for time. Damn it! Here's a brief rundown:

The hardware I'm using is a Quicksilver 867 (single processor--the earlier Quicksilver model with the backside cache) and an Event EZBus interface (only the USB audio right now--no digital I/Os in the loop).

DP4 saw everything on first starting it, including Reason. Reason doesn't have to be running for DP4 to be aware of it; whatever outputs Reason is configured to publiish show up as DP input options. The manual describes how you need to set up an aux or audio track for those prior to starting Reason (or whatever other ReWire2 app you have installed). It is absolutely no-brainer, no-config.

The EZBus was automatically found, too--both its audio and MIDI connections. They just had to be selected in "Setup/Audio System," and music happened. (One thing, though, specific to the EZBus: it has a "virtual" MIDI I/O in USB numbered 1, plus two standard hardware MIDI I/Os, numbered 2 and 3 that go to and from the computer over the USB connection as well. The "virtual" MIDI I/O is reserved by the EZBus for its control-surface operations, and, so far, DP4 isn't seeing that I/O. It is seeing the two hardware I/Os that have synths created for them in OS X's "Audio MIDI Setup." I need to talk to MOTU and Event about this, because it's one of the features of the EZBus I wanted to use, and it does work in some other programs.)

The GUI speed seems much faster and smoother to me. I haven't run DP3 in a lonnnng time (refused to boot into 9 ), so this is "not a scientific survey," but it seems much snappier and alive. Buttery.

The vertical and horizontal live-zoom buttons in the graphic editor are outstanding; holding down on them smoothly zooms in or out, centered on the wiper. Only the most bug-eyed soundbite mangle-jockeys--like me--might appreciate this as much as I do. I've lost 10 years of me poor life dealing with and waiting for zooms in earlier versions, voluably cursing arcane key combinations, and scrolling (read: jerk-jumping) to find me edit points. This, now, is pie.

I haven't thrown any huge sessions at it yet, but some representative common ones, and I haven't gone in and replaced some of the missing effects that were on the OS 9 session, but the processor indicator, so far, is idling against a lampost on the corner picking its teeth and saying: "What--are you doing something?"

Wish I had more time with it, and more time to write, but will come back with more soon.

This post has been edited by Levon River: Sun 13 Apr 2003, 15:52