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Digital Performer 6.01 Released

Well fast on the heels of Digital Performer 6.0 comes the first ".01" release.

I'm still taking a look at it, but it appears the MOTU addressed the firestorm about the GUI: They toned it down. Instead of something that for all the world appears to be a BRIGHT WHITE as the default color for much of the interface, there is a shade or two of cool grey thrown in. The image below shows a screen shot from DP 6.0 and that same screen (more or less) from DP 6.01. You can see that the 6.01 is a bit more muted.

Click on the thumbnail. DP 6.0 is on the left and 6.01 is on the right. The change in the brightness of the GUI doesn't look to be much in the image, but it is enough to make a difference if you are working on a couple of 19" monitor. It helps the eyes, believe me.

MOTU also threw in a 'Track Inspector'. It's basically an information window that shows track settings for track color, input and output assignments, play- and record-enable status, take, automation, etc. It updates its focus to the current track selected in a window. It can be opened as a tab in the consolidated window or as a floating window. It can also be added to the info bar in other windows inside of DP. This gives you control of track parameters in situ and helps to preserve workflow.

It sounds minor, but once you start using it you really appreciate it.

They also have tweaked the whole plug-in real time preferences option for handling real-time versus pre-rendering of virtual instrument data. As this has not proven to be a real issue for me so far, I note it here because many on MotuNation have been dealing with issues related to the implementation of this feature.

MOTU has also tweaked a few other things in this release. I know there was a big issue involving DP and DAE/ProTools (something about rendering tracks from busses), but as I don't have a ProTools rig, I can't say whether or not it has been addressed.

Peace Out.

Is an album "art"? Or is it an attempt to bundle mediocre product?

I'll wager the cost of producing, pressing, distributing, and marketing a 45RPM single was not terribly different from the costs of putting out an album. But with an album, you could charge a lot more. To bump up profit, labels would have artists do an album's worth of songs, shove a few hit singles on it, and force everyone to buy the more expensive album to get the content (the hits) they really want. So the "album" is a contrived framework created more for the convenience and bottomline of the record labels than for the artist.

Some artists took that format to new heights creating wonderful albums that offer an experience greater than the sum of its parts. Everybody has their personal examples: Avalon by Roxy Music, Dazzle Ships by OMD, Secrets of the Beehive by David Sylvian, Mezzanine by Massive Attack, Music Has the Right to Children from Boards of Canada... The list goes on. These works are stronger as a cohesive unit IMHO than as an incomplete collection of singles.

Does that mean someone should be forced to buy them as a complete set?

Before you answer consider that there are a lot more artists who simply concoct filler BS and slap that around one or two hits. Should you be forced to buy that crap as a complete set?

Well, the record companies think so. Apparently they have started taking works out of iTunes because they think selling the singles kill album sales. In other words, letting you get the tracks you want without having to pay for other tracks is hurting their bottomline. So their solution is NOT to fund better quality work or encourage artists to create better product. Nope. Their response is to force you to buy the BS if you want to get to the one or two nuggets.

I believe that albums that are better as a cohesive whole will sell as a cohesive whole because it is obvious that it should be bought as a cohesive whole. Or, as artists, let's make it obvious to folks WHY it is better as a cohesive whole. Or encourage and incentivize them with additional content should they purchase your art in the way you intend. There are so many creative solutions to this issue. It boils down to:

Believe in the consumer. Produce quality product. Give them choice.

But the major record labels -- and in particular the leadership -- simply don't understand music or their customers. Too many accountants focused on minutae; too many lawyers focused on P2P networks; too many marketeers who could care less about that "product" shilling "the product" , and Too Many Old Guard who pine away for the days when the labels held all of the cards and artists were serfs and consumers were merely tolerated. (Unfortunately some of the "artists" in the industry are just as cynical.)

They lot of them are creatively bankrupt and frightened. And the result are ideas like this one: Bundle in crap you don't want so they can charge more for the stuff you do want.

So, a really good articles on this: More Artists Steer Clear of iTunes Apple's Online Music Store Sells Lots of Singles, But Labels Seek Higher Profits of Full Album Sales.

Tools Redux: Digital Performer 6

Last year on my page 'Tools' I said:

"I use Logic and Live for composition. I used to use Digital Performer a lot. I'm still a big fan and love the workflow and interface...but Logic and Live seem to be more "sympatico" with each other...Don't know; I really go back and forth between Logic and DP. Currently, the pendulum has swung to Logic. Check back in six months..."

Well, it took a little longer than 6 months, but I'm definitely back in the DP camp. Especially with the release of DP6. There's an awful lot to like about it:

• The new user interface updates the look of DP 6 and makes things a bit more sensible . And that's a good thing. Unfortunately it is REALLY BRIGHT and if you have a couple of monitors and the room is dark, you need sunglasses. This redesign has been a big source of consternation over at MotuNation. Hopefully MOTU will offer some color customization options.
• Track comping that goes beyond that offered in LOGIC.
• MasterWorks Leveler plug-in and the ProVerb convolution plug-in. The Leveler is modeled on the Teletronix™ LA-2A optical leveling amplifier. Folks who know what that sounds like (I don't), swear by Leveler's accurate reproduction of that unit. As to the reverb, it sounds very nice to my ears and it allows you to adjust parameters in real time without pauses for recalculation. Sweet. Altiverb is pushed down on my list of things to buy for a little while.
• Final Cut Pro integration and film scoring enhancements. This WILL be important to me one day, so I list it here. :-)
• Enhanced plug-in operation & softsynth operation. As I understand it, DP6 renders VSTI tracks when the application is idle. It's sort of like automatic track freezing with out all of the administrative headaches. Theoretically, DP can render this stuff when not doing anything else and have it ready to go when it's needed. In reality, this causes issues with Kontakt and other samplers reloading samples unnecessarily, and other weird behaviors. Seems like most folks are turning this option off. (DP6 DOES finally have a plug-in manager though so you can dynamically load different sets of plug-ins without relauncing the program. Sweet.)
• Direct audio CD burning for replication or archiving.

Note however that DP6 is a ".0" release so has some definite bug-type issues for some users. For me it's been a smooth upgrade, and I have not had very many issues at all. (You can head over to MotuNation to get a run down on the good, the bad, and the ugly with the release.) But my set-ups/templates/songs/projects tend to be fairly simple compared to some of the pros over at MotuNation.

FWIW, here are a couple of things that seem to help.

1) Rebuild your templates if possible. When people have had problems, it seems like they are trying to work with old pre-DP6 song files and templates. The two times DP6 crashed on me, I was working on an old DP 5.1.3 project file. Rebuilding that song in a new 'from scratch' DP6 file increased stability significantly. (Easy to do...unless the old template is something with dozens of stems, loads of chunks, and multiple sequences in the file. Then it must be a PITA.)

2) Trash all of your preferences (except for customized key bindings and the like) before installing DP6.

3) Keep a positive attitude if you are a very experienced user. Things have changed...menus, drop downs, etc. Which means that sometimes the way you used to do something doesn't work anymore. OK. So time to learn the new way. Who knows? Could even be a better way of doing things.

As to what happened with LOGIC for me? It's still (and will stay) on my hard drive. See, I spent a lot of time with Logic over the last year. I invested in and completed comprehensive sets of tutorials. (Really nice stuff by the way from MacProVideo. Well worth the bucks.) I used it for almost all of my sketches this past year. I feel like I got to know it fairly well...not expert mind you but comfortable.

Logic is a really, really nice program and it has a lot of strengths. It's much more pattern-based than DP for instance and for a lot of styles, this is great. The assets in the program -- the softsynths, loops, and effects in the Studio package are awesome. At $499 for everything, they are a steal. Logic Studio 8 and its price point are STILL causing ripples in the industry.

So what is my problem with it?

For the life of me, the interface and workflow leave me pretty cold. Don't get me wrong. I will use it for some things no doubt. I just prefer DP (or LIVE or REASON). But I miss those LOGIC softsynths. Fortunately there is a discussion thread at MotuNation on running DP and communicating with an instance of LOGIC to use LOGIC's built-in instruments. (If this works as advertised, I'm ecstatic.)

As to the rest of the tools, I'm still a huge fan of LIVE. And REASON 4 is just hands down a winner. In fact, REASON is all that I take with me when I'm on the road. It's more than enough to conceptualize and bring an idea to near, if not to, final.

And right after our son was born I sort of lost my mind and bought "a few" hardware pieces. ("Ebay been berry berry good to me....") Oh well maybe a piece on Waldorf hardware and resources next.... :-) )

Peace Out

Some site updates...

It's funny. Actually putting a track up for comment really gets you fired up to do "all those things you've been planning to do". (In my case, for years....!)

So. I think I've got this blog set up for everything I want.

• I've added a way for folks to bookmark this site all over creation. Please do.

• I've added a link to whatever will be the most current track on SoundCloud. Unfortunately you can't really see the comments from other folks with the size so constrained there on the side. Here's a tip: If you click the track title under the waveform display, it will take you to the SoundCloud site. You will promptly be met with a "Member's Only" message. HOWEVER, in that same pop-up is an option to request an invite. Don't know what criteria they use to send one, but asking is free....

• I've added a player to feature more tracks. (Currently no tracks are loaded.)

• There's the Pandora stations and SoundCloud Drop Box from before.

What's left?

• I'll probably add links to things like SoundClick or SnoCap when I have them.

• If there is an easy way to post a videoplayer I will, but I will most likely make this a seperate page like the photo album on the left.

Anyway, this is fun. And I encourage anybody out there who, like me, is sitting on the fence about getting "stuff" out there for folks to react to, comment on, or just plain hear "Just Do It". It's really cool.