MIDI routing, Effects - expander, linear eq, MIDI regions

[Aries]

Dear DP users,
I am evaluating DP 9 and would like to ask few questions for which I did not manage to find answer myself. If any of them is RTFM, just point me to the FM.

How does MIDI input routing work?
When on Sequence tab, there is input set to any, however no menu is shown when clicking and all MIDI device input is listened.
How can one set input to given MIDI device and set receiving channel? And how to instruct DP to not listen to given device?

How do MIDI pieces in track work?
Coming from Reaper, I still do not understand this one. When recording MIDI, on pauses there is empty space between pieces. It is possible to somehow fill them and have one piece that can be moved around? It is possible to loop those pieces and then drag one end to repeat the loop?

Effects
There is a lot of effects that look really great. However, I would like to ask if there is
- Dynamic expander? (in AudioDesk there is http://www.motu.com/products/software/a ... fects.html and it seems to me that DP i beefed up AudioDesk - is that right?)
- Linear Phase EQ? (There is MasterWorks EQ, but not sure if it is linear phase)
- Exciter? There is Hi-Top booster, however isn't it just eq? I would like something like http://www.waves.com/plugins/aphex-vint ... al-exciter

Many thanks for answers!

[bayswater]

1. You may have Multi Record mode turned off. From p 128 of the FM:
"When Multi Record mode is turned on (checked), each MIDI track can record from an individual MIDI device on a particular MIDI channel. "

2. No, the display in the Tracks window is not really user controllable. You might find it easier to do this in the MIDI edit window, or the Sequence Editor using the loop tool. See p 252. DP does not have MIDI regions. You can read endless threads on this topic here on forum. Some want MOTU to introduce MIDI regions. The rest want MIDI regions so the others will stop asking for them.

3. The Dynamics Plugin can run as a Compressor, Limiter, Expander, or Gate. IIRC there may be other plugins that can have a compression ratio of less than 1, but I may have that confused with other 3rd party plugins.

[Aries]

Many thanks, bayswater!