The Robb Report May 2017

[Robb Scott]

OK, as you might remember, I keep a text file open as I work with DP, jotting down thoughts as they come to me. Every so often, I spew these thoughts out into the Ozone, where they serve to enlighten - well, actually, no one in particular, really. But the doctors are telling me it might help with the night sweats, so here goes....

DP 9.12/9.13. Mac OS 10.11.6 "El Capitan". 2009 Mac Pro, 2.26 mHz 8-core, 16g RAM.

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Keyboard Transport Controls (space bar, etc.) don’t work when some VIs are the top window. MOTU stuff seems to work fine, 3rd party stuff like EastWest, ummm, not so much...

I’ve got a MIDI track assigned to a device group, consisting of an Ivory Piano and an EastWest Play Celeste. I want the MIDI track controlling both VIs, but I want the Celeste up an octave from the piano. OK, easy enough, I chuck the Celeste up an octave in its VI control panel. However, wouldn’t it be cool if I could apply the MIDI Transpose plugin to the Celeste within the Device group? And there’s a can of worms to open: The Arpegiator, Velocity, Pitch Inversion, all those MIDI plugins available through the Device Group structure. Hmmmmm.....

So I start up a project, DP loads, then the project loads. This takes some time. Understandable, my system is a little old, the project’s getting big, no problem. Except...while it’s loading, I switch over to Firefox, or my email app, to look stuff up or check messages, and DP keeps switching back to DP while all the VIs and Plugs are loading. This is rather annoying. Can DP just load in the background, maybe toss up a notification when it’s good to go?

And who says “good to go” anymore? What is this, 1987?

“Change Continuous Data” and “Reassign Continuous Data”: They look so cute together, huh, him with his all-business no-nonsense vibe and her with that sense of adventure, that wide-eyed What’s-Next kinda attitude. We should, darn it, hook those 2 lovebirds up, no? Give ‘em that wee extra push, and in no time at all they’ll be setting up housekeeping in their very own sweet little shared plug-in. Ahhh, it warms the heart....

The ability to mute individual MIDI notes in the MIDI editor. Yeah, that opens up a dangerous front. I, myself, can see a morning in the future where I’m tearing my remaing hair out wondering where the *&^% the notes are, and calling up the *&^#$(& MOTU TS guys foaming at the mouth wondering where the *&^% the notes are. “Well, did you mute them?” “Ummmm, lemme check....OK, yeah I did that, I muted them myself. Ummm, thanks, ummm you guys rock...” Still, I came across a situation today where It woulda been useful. Just sayin’. Muted notes would obviously need to be tagged somehow.

And yeah, the MOTU TS crew rocks. Believe it....

Y’know what I want (No, Robb, Tell Us, ‘cause we have no life and harken we to your merest utterance)... I want that tiny Level Display, the one you see in MIDI and Audio tracks, to show up at the Track Folder level in the Tracks Window. Basically, I want to hit Play and see if anything in the folder is making some kinda noise...


So I want to Reverse a Soundbite. I select the Soundbite. Go to the Audio Menu. Choose “Apply Plug-in”. Choose the “All” Category. Scroll down to the “R”s. Choose “Reverse”. Answer the resulting Box. It works. However...

Remember when you just picked “Reverse” out of the Audio Menu? There were a couple other simple, workhorse functions in that menu, functions that are now buried hip-deep in menus. I mourn....


Startup Window: I’d like to right-click on a file to get stuff like “show-in-finder” and other right-clicky stuff...

MIDI Transpose plug: 99% of the time I’m setting this up to go either up or down a whole octave. A one-click solution would rock n’ rule...

Y’know what’d be cool in the MIDI Transpose plug? A “Mix” control. The user would mix the “dry” signal with the processed material, using Velocity - Zero would be midpoint, both streams putting out full velocity. Turning to the left would reduce velocities for the processed MIDI, to the right , well....Wouldn’t be perfect, but might be useful nonetheless.

UPGRADE: DP 9.13

9.13 seems a tad more stable. Still got a “Quit Unexpectedly” message on one quit. We’ll see....

Nope, still unstable on my system.Sigh....

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Thanks, Mr. Robb.

May I add: Chunk folders to the list?

Thanks, Roger. I mean robber. Welcome to 1959.