AudioMedia - December 2008 - (Page 46) DAVID HELPLING has his mind blown away by the advances MOTU has made with its latest version of Digital Performer. hether you’re a Digital Performer power user, an outsider looking for a better creative DAW solution, or a shiny-eyed new audio warrior ready to start a career, Digital Performer . is very good news all-round. New features include a completely redesigned user interface, XML file interchange with Final Cut Pro, track comping, support for interleaved audio file formats, prerendering of virtual instruments, enhanced operation as a front end for Pro Tools HD systems, and the ability to ‘bounce and burn’ directly to an audio CD. Beyond these new features are hundreds of small enhancements driven by DP users W fancy. Along with the new look are three new waveform colouring options including the background behind the waveform itself. The ability to customise the interface this much shows a trend towards user empowerment in the future on many levels. In addition to its new ‘look and feel’, DP has been streamlined in many ways. There are far too many new enhancements in this area to dive into complete detail and complexity, so let’s cover the major ones. Sleek , Slender, G raceful MOTU DIGITAL PERFORMER VERSION 6 Digital Audio Workstation and improved performance at all levels, adding unprecedented value. Has MOTU turned a serious corner here with DP and risen to the challenges of the everevolving world of the Apple-based DAW? Window tabs allow the user to create as many tabs as needed in any consolidated window sidebar cell. The completely new Inspector Palettes serve as a sort of ‘rap sheet’ on a particular track, showing all relevant stats. These info panes can float as independent windows or ‘pop ‘ into the cwindow as sidebar cells with tabs. One issue that many of us daily users have had with DP, is the inability to disable the tiny pop-up help bubbles that appear as your mouse travels atop the user interface. Now in DP us seasoned users have the esteemed pleasure to disable Digital Performer’s floating tool-tip help tags – thanks for listening MOTU. The new Track Comping feature is a major shift towards DAW supremacy. This comprehensive feature offers limitless comping possibilities and the ability to create a comp with just a few clicks. Digital Performer users have always had the power to record many multiple takes into a track, and then choose one take as the frontmost for playback and editing. Now with one click of the ‘Show Takes’ command all takes are exploded out to individual virtual tracks! Imagine viewing all vocal takes together instantly. Then with the Take Tool, you can easily make split points across all takes. No need to click and drag these regions to the composite (comp) take – simply click the desired section from each take to quickly create the master – now consisting of the sections selected from each take. If this wasn’t awesome enough, the ‘Turn All Takes Into Tracks’ and ‘Absorb Tracks’ commands allow you to explode takes into tracks, or collapse tracks into takes, respectively. THE REVIEWER DAVID HELPLING is a full-time composer/producer with over ten years experience in music for picture. He runs DHM Music Design in San Diego, California, producing music for film, TV, corporate, interactive, and web clients. David has two ambient/ cinematic albums released on the Spotted Peccary label, with a third now in production, and has several independent film projects on deck. Clients include DELL Computers, H e w l e t t Pa c k a r d , B o e i n g , Lexus, Microsoft Game Studios and Qualcomm. As a daily user of Digital Performer, the new interface is the most obvious sign that this is much more than a mere upgrade. MOTU calls it, ‘a sleek new look and feel to inspire your creativity and drive your productivity’. From the smooth shades of grey and muted colour schemes has emerged a bright, crisp, and sharp new DP . MOTU has kept the classic interface intact but pushed the look towards a cross between Abelton LIVE and Pro Tools. I personally LOVE the new look – it feels as new and bold as the transformation underneath – it is a joy to work in and seems to inspire something in me. As a user going back to before DP was ‘digital’, I am ready to leave the melancholy grays and periwinkle days of the Unicorn far behind. The new interface has instigated a few uprisings on the DP forums where some members complain of the new look being too bright, and the relocation of some tabs and buttons to be an issue. MOTU immediately addressed the most talked-about forum concerns in the . update, including colour adjustments, snapshot button, track inspector palette (to bring back play/rec buttons in Graphic Editor), real-time plug-in preferences, Load button in the selection palette, and others. These features are all mentioned in the ‘Read Me’ doc that ships with . . So, the guys at MOTU obviously read the forums regularly and responded with an update instantly – cool! Not Just Another Prett y Face A very exciting new addition is the ‘vertically resizable track list’. The ‘Tracks’ window is the global home base for routing and viewing of all of the audio and MIDI in your session. The ability to vertically increase the size of the tracks in this window while viewing the audio waveforms is wonderful. This allows for a wealth of audio editing before fine tuning fades and automation in the Sequence Editor window. With one click you get a better look at each track’s settings and graphic overview. In general all windows look cleaner and information is easier to see. Zooming and navigation controls have been unified throughout while live window resizing allows you to see the contents of the window as it is resized – very A New Size Fits All MOTU has created an invaluable tool that can save hours of tedious editing. Cuts and edits in audio often produce gaps between soundbites. This is especially true when editing dialogue, sound design, and using DP’s beat editing features. These gaps of silence are often audible and unnatural to the ear. The Smooth Audio Edits feature will automatically fill all gaps with ‘room tone’ to mask them, complete with automated crossfades for seamless transitions. You can create your own room tone or have Digital Performer find room tone for you in the original audio files, so that it exactly matches the natural silences in the audio. This is a breakthrough in DAW evolution, and makes DP a unique tool for dialogue work alone. Four new editing tools have been added to DP’s arsenal: ) Trim (drag region edges without needing to select the edge), ) Slip (audio moves, region edges stay put), ) Slide (region edges move, audio stays still), and ) Roll (drag adjacent region's border). These very The Power O f I nvention > 46 AUDIO MEDIA DECEMBER 2008
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