Best way/videos to learn DP as fast as humanly possible?

Discussion of Digital Performer use, optimization, tips and techniques on MacOS.

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Shooshie
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Re: Best way/videos to learn DP as fast as humanly possible?

Post by Shooshie »

Some things I might add to all the good advice given here:

Use the MIDI Graphic Edit Window for working on MIDI. MIDI tracks appear in the Sequence Editor, too, but there are reasons why it's not nearly as practical to edit MIDI there. But you can certainly multi-track there and see what's going on in your MIDI tracks. When you decide to edit them, switch to the Graphic Edit window. Of course, to each his own... you may decide you prefer the Sequence Editor, but heavy-duty MIDI editing is much more difficult there, IMO.

When you work on controllers — breath control or expression, volume, etc. — select one of them and click the "Quickfilter" box near the bottom left corner of the MIDI Graphic Edit Window to hide all types of data in the controller edit panel EXCEPT for the one you selected. This enables quick editing of controller data without fumbling around with a dozen other controller types. Also, you can change the icons for up to about 7 different controller types, so that your most commonly used ones are readily identifiable by the icons presented by them.

Check out the DP Tips Sheet in this forum (near the top; one of the "sticky" posts that doesn't scroll down with the rest) for hundreds of tips by our members, as well as tutorials and other info that may be helpful to you.

As stated before, DP does not do "regions" the way Logic and others do. That is, it's not object-oriented in that sense. (certainly object oriented in other ways) That is one of the few things you will find in DP that cannot be done similarly to and as well as other apps. There is a reason for that. DP operates on selections. Selections can be event-based or range based. Here are some suggestions for selection:
  • 1. Hold down SHIFT to add to or subtract from a selection of events and objects. Each click on an object will toggle it selected or deselected.
    2. Hold down COMMAND to add to or subtract from selections of lists. This includes track lists in any of the edit windows, and by that I mean the track names themselves. So, if you are selecting soundbites within a track or over multiple tracks, you will hold down the SHIFT key. If you are selecting tracks by name, you will click those names while holding down the COMMAND key. This is a case of Apple changing the way it does selections (from SHIFT to COMMAND key) in OS X vs. the old classic MacOS, but the old way (shift key) was so engrained in DP's workflow, along with other assignments for the other modifier keys (COMMAND, OPTION, CONTROL) that it was not practical to change it. They updated it recently for lists, but not for the way we edit data. While it's confusing at first, it was a wise decision. For Apple, SHIFT and COMMAND basically do the same things in 90% of cases. DP cannot afford to lose that functional separation of even one of its modifier keys, so they chose only to change it in lists, where the other functions are not necessary. You'll make more sense of this as you learn more about the way DP works.
    3. If you have a hundred objects to select, interspersed with 5 objects you do NOT want to select, first select the 5 objects, then SHIFT-DRAG over the whole lot. The five will de-select, while the 100 will all be selected. Much faster than carefully clicking 100 objects around the 5 you don't want. In other words, always consider whether "negative selection" will be faster than positive selection.
    4. DP has a search feature that is extremely powerful. Few people seem to know about it. Be one of the few. Learn about it. Once you've saved a dozen or so searches, you will find it to be amazingly useful, since new searches will usually use one of the ones you've already saved. These searches use note grids, boolean logic, and other methods of finding and selecting what you're looking for. There are tips/tutorials on working with selections in the DP Tips Sheet thread, page 2.
DP has a wonderful set of editing tools based on drawing tools. They have keyboard commands to quickly select tools either temporarily or to select them for longer periods. Learn these tools and their keyboard commands:
TOOLS:
  • Selections:
    A ••• Cursor (Marquee Tool, Event Selections)
    I ••• I-beam Tool (Range Selections)
    MIDI and Continuous Data:
    R ••• Reshape Tool (set functions in Reshape Mode and Reshape Actions buttons on toolbar)
    P ••• Pencil Tool/Insert Tool (add/subtract data. Set data type in Insert Data Type menus in edit windows)
    E ••• Rhythm Brush (Drum Editor; "E" looks like brush)
    Z ••• Zoom Tool (Option key zooms out)
    Soundbites:
    L ••• Loop Tool (Loops audio by dragging over soundbite region to be looped)
    C ••• Scissors Tool (cuts soundbites, pitch edit lines, possibly other line-based objects)
    M ••• Mute Tool (looks like an X, so don't confuse the keyboard command, which is M for Mute. Only works on audio.)
    S ••• Scrub Tool (Audio soundbites. Beware of volume. Quickly scrub to find a particular location)
    / ••• Trim Tool (most common editing tool for moving soundbite edges)
    ' ••• Roll Tool (an apostrophe functions between two things, the tool moves back-to-back
    • trailing and leading edges of adjacent soundbites in the same move)
    , ••• Slip Tool (Comma, "Slips" soundbite data while leaving soundbite edges in place, when you've got
    • it located in the right place, but the sound doesn't quite match surrounding soundbites)
    . ••• Slide Tool (Period. Slides soundbite edges and frame while leaving waveforms in place)
    Audio Takes:
    B ••• Comp Tool (For comping multiple takes this is a game changer. Multi-track takes so that they are
    • in time with each other. Then Show All Takes (take mini-menu). With takes expanded parallel
      to each other, this tool snips takes into sections which then can be chosen (click with tool) for the best take for each section.
      Amazingly fast tool.)
Commands Window SHIFT-L
This window serves multiple purposes. First, it enables you to customize any keyboard command. Second, it allows you to assign a MIDI event/channel/device to trigger any command. Third, and possibly most important, you can read this list and quickly grasp what is available in DP commands. Type in words like "Counter," "Selection," "Memory," or anything about which you want to know, and only the commands relevant to the word(s) typed will remain visible for quick studying of what can be done with those subjects. This is one of the fastest educational tools in DP. It's worth printing out and keeping handy in a notebook or something. It's about 28 pages long, printed. (close Fonts section before printing)

There's more. Much, much, much more. It takes many years to get completely fluent in DP, but if you do the things in this post and others in this thread, you'll shorten your learning curve literally by years. That's no idle statement. I wish someone had been here to tell ME these things back in the beginning.

Shooshie
|l| OS X 10.12.6 |l| DP 10.0 |l| 2.4 GHz 12-Core MacPro Mid-2012 |l| 40GB RAM |l| Mach5.3 |l| Waves 9.x |l| Altiverb |l| Ivory 2 New York Steinway |l| Wallander WIVI 2.30 Winds, Brass, Saxes |l| Garritan Aria |l| VSL 5.3.1 and VSL Pro 2.3.1 |l| Yamaha WX-5 MIDI Wind Controller |l| Roland FC-300 |l|
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bayswater
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Re: Best way/videos to learn DP as fast as humanly possible?

Post by bayswater »

Michael Canavan wrote:
bayswater wrote: Use Create Multiple Aux tracks, make 16 of them
You reminded me of this. This is a key command feature. On my system this is control-option-shift-A
Not just a key command. It's in the menus but it's strange the way it is set up. If you hold down Alt and go to Project>Add Tracks, the multiple track options are there for most track types, but not the Aux track. If you then press the Shift key, the multiple option for Aux will show up. I can't see why it was done this way.
2018 Mini i7 32G 10.14.6, DP 11.3, Mixbus 9, Logic 10.5, Scarlett 18i8
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Michael Canavan
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Re: Best way/videos to learn DP as fast as humanly possible?

Post by Michael Canavan »

Oh wow? that's some buried feature action right there! Is that in the manual or did you find it by poking around? sort of like how you can drag the entire contents of a V-Rack back into a Sequence?
M2 Studio Ultra, RME Babyface FS, Slate Raven Mti2, NI SL88 MKII, Linnstrument, MPC Live II, Launchpad MK3. Hundreds of plug ins.
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bayswater
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Re: Best way/videos to learn DP as fast as humanly possible?

Post by bayswater »

Michael Canavan wrote:Oh wow? that's some buried feature action right there! Is that in the manual or did you find it by poking around? sort of like how you can drag the entire contents of a V-Rack back into a Sequence?
Poking around. Or forgetting what mod keys to press, and trying them all out.
2018 Mini i7 32G 10.14.6, DP 11.3, Mixbus 9, Logic 10.5, Scarlett 18i8
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Shooshie
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Re: Best way/videos to learn DP as fast as humanly possible?

Post by Shooshie »

bayswater wrote:
Michael Canavan wrote:Oh wow? that's some buried feature action right there! Is that in the manual or did you find it by poking around? sort of like how you can drag the entire contents of a V-Rack back into a Sequence?
Poking around. Or forgetting what mod keys to press, and trying them all out.
I discover more stuff that way than just about any other way! :D

Shoosh
|l| OS X 10.12.6 |l| DP 10.0 |l| 2.4 GHz 12-Core MacPro Mid-2012 |l| 40GB RAM |l| Mach5.3 |l| Waves 9.x |l| Altiverb |l| Ivory 2 New York Steinway |l| Wallander WIVI 2.30 Winds, Brass, Saxes |l| Garritan Aria |l| VSL 5.3.1 and VSL Pro 2.3.1 |l| Yamaha WX-5 MIDI Wind Controller |l| Roland FC-300 |l|
MDesigner
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Re: Best way/videos to learn DP as fast as humanly possible?

Post by MDesigner »

I just wanted to take the time to thank everyone for pitching in. Wow! What a welcome. ;) The plan is to start using DP on new projects alongside Cubase as I slowly transition over. As soon as I figure out enough of it to get work done, of course. No doubt I'll need to spend a week on videos and experimentation.

Thanks again!
Sam Hulick
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http://samhulick.com
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Babz
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Re: Best way/videos to learn DP as fast as humanly possible?

Post by Babz »

Since "fast as humanly possible is the goal", I recommend these two extensive video courses as Groove3:

http://www.groove3.com/str/Digital-Perf ... ained.html

http://www.groove3.com/str/Digital-Perf ... anced.html


Babz
MDesigner
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Re: Best way/videos to learn DP as fast as humanly possible?

Post by MDesigner »

Thanks! Cram it all into 10 hours of video lessons.. dedicate a full day or two. Works for me. :)
Sam Hulick
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http://samhulick.com
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