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General Impressions of DP9 and Windows

musicalweather

Senior Member
For those of you who are working with Digital Performer 9 and Windows, is everything working smoothly? I'm particularly interested in hearing from anyone who previously used DP on Mac and switched to DP on Windows.
I'm a long time DP/Mac user considering switching over to PC/Windows (I guess it would be Windows 10) since DP is now Windows compatible. I need to get a new desktop, and PCs seem so much cheaper. But I'd want to make sure that everything would run well. Of particular importance to me, besides DP, are the plugin instruments and effects that I regularly use:
  • Kontakt 5 (I actually have Komplete 9)
  • PLAY (version 4.2.35)
  • Omnisphere 1
Your thoughts are appreciated. Thank you!
 
Still wondering if anyone has some thoughts about this they'd like to share. My Mac (cheesegrater) is getting old and creaky, so at some point, I'm going to have to either get a new Mac or move to PC. Anyone?
 
the PC version can be made to work... I use it with very large orchestral templates...

there are a few key issues on Windows that do NOT exist on the Mac version (I checked on both)... DP has been informed and acknowledged the problems... when they will fix it is a different story... (but there are also ways to work around some of the issues, if they cannot be avoided)

but once u're up and running it works... and I love the way DP handles certain things (V-racks etc)...

also worth mentioning checking the motunation forums... one of the reasons why u hear way less about DP is that once u're up and running u go get some work done... :cool:
 
Thanks, Ultra. I've been skimming through MOTUNation, but it's hard to find posts that give the big picture - most of them are very specific. Any particular issues with DP on Windows that you've experienced?
 
two that stood out for me - but they can be worked around:

(1) video

on one machine, DP would not play back the video, and right click or video specific functionality did not work. it has to do with hardware on that machine that DP has an issue with. This is a very weird issue that some had for years and DP never figured it out (see old posts on motunation). on two other low spec machines, same video, same DP version, same Windows OS, everything worked just fine...

the workaround is to use an external video solution which I'd used anyways sooner or later to not have the DAW handle video and save CPU resources... because u need CPU for everything else if u run large templates

(2) Sequence view not accessible

this happens if u have a lot of AUX or MIDI tracks. see the thread on motunation (earlier this year). so the sequence view will not be accessible at one point (once u go over a certain MIDI + AUX count. ~ 790), but u need it to do AUX track automation, or at least do it properly with a visual overview...

workaround (if u know u'll go high in total track count): open the sequence view at the beginning of the project and only select a few tracks in the track selector (only those will be shown then). by default DP selects ALL tracks and tries to show them. this is what jacks up this view when u go over a certain track number... but since the view saves ur last track select state, if u only select a few tracks to view, the Sequence view tab will always open and work ('cause u never need to see all 790 MIDI and AUX tracks simultaneously)...

if u are already on a project that has already a lot of tracks and the view does not work anymore, save some of the tracks in the the exportable snippet (forgot what it's called), delete those tracks until u get under the "track limit" that jacks up the view, enter the view, deselect all tracks and only select what u need to see and now re-import the tracks u deleted from the snippet...

one the sequence view is set up, it will stay this way until u make changes to the track selector in the sequence view (if u don't select more than 790 it won't be an issue)... trick is to not select more tracks than this "limit"... (read the motunation thread for details)


I'd advise to use VEPro for handling orchestral libs and/or plugins... I've seen the processing bar jump to red (and stay at red) with 500 empty AUX tracks and a single reverb on the master bus... no music playing at all... doesn't make any sense... having the reverb (and other mastering plugs) in VEPro solves all of that and keeps CPU strain away from the DAW...

visual appearance: the scaling of the text font in the GUI is annoying in the Windows version, much nicer in the Mac version... but u'll get over that very fast... (got bigger fish to fry)

HTH
 
That helps a lot. Thanks, Ultra! I guess I should download a demo of DP to make sure it works properly with video. Wow, 790 tracks! It's rare that I get to more than 200, so that shouldn't be a problem. I do have VE Pro on both my Mac and my PC, and I love it! Yes, it really relieves the cpu strain.
 
the great thing about video inside DP, is: u have scrubbing and frame by frame navigation.

but u can run external video on the same Windows machine, no need to get a 2nd computer. u won't get scrubbing (nice but not needed) but u'll def take CPU strain away from DP... IMO trick is to use these DAWs only for what they were intended for...

but maybe on smaller projects or on ur machine DP with video runs just fine... only one way to find out ;)))
 
One more question: can you exchange DP files back and forth between a Mac and PC? (I'm assuming the answer is yes, but I thought I'd ask.)
 
I can't read the font on Windows at all. The anti aliasing is horribly blurry. x.x
u can enlarge the font and it gets better, although the font issues need to be addressed asap, IMO... I have it on very small because I have a lot of tracks and needs on-screen organization... u get used to it, but clearly not up to par with other DAWs...
 
Not everything is enlargeable, and since I was new to DP, that meant a lot of squinting.
no idea what that means, but the font is, which is what you referred to... but simply use another DAW if that is the main issue for u... as annoying as the DP Windows issues, DP offers quite a few advantages over other DAWs IMO, especially for film scoring or orchestral templating...

good thing is though, there's lots of DAWs available...
 
Where do you do this? The only place I can see where you can change font size is in Quickscribe.
u can enlarge the font size in the Track Overview, which enlarges each track row... the general font size used in all other general GUI windows (Preferences etc) is what it is...
 
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