Potential FAQ Question for new DP users?

[James Steele]

Q: I am a [insert DAW] user who is trying out the Digital Performer demo. In [DAW], I can [desired operation] by [detail workflow using feature very specific to DAW], but I can't in DP? How can I get DP to [desired operation] exactly like [DAW]?

A: Digital Performer is not [DAW].

Hehehe... just joking around...

[Gravity Jim]

Man, would that save on bandwidth.

[stubbsonic]

But I think it raises an interesting meta point.

When I tried Logic years ago, I could find no version of "COMMAND-J" (which snips,-- i.e., deletes and removes the time range from the track(s) ). Sounds simple, and Logic users could just say, IN OFFICE SPACE MGR VOICE: "Um... yeeeah, you can't do that in Logic."

If a person doesn't have the luxury of a long transition, and they have clients lined up, they are going to want to get their main go-to commands ported.

So TIP SHEETS about converting from "logic to DP", "PT to DP", etc. might be useful. Maybe those already exist.

[mikehalloran]

So TIP SHEETS about converting from "logic to DP",

That's easy. Export your files, quit Logic. Open DP, import the files. Get your work done. I do it all the time.

[twistedtom]

How about this?

Q; There are so many things that are easy to do in DP but in the (DAW) I am trying out I am not sure I can even do the same thing, how can I make (DAW) work lIke DP?

Q; In DP I can get my work done fast as it is so logical and most things are very easy to do, I am trying (DAW) and it is hard and time consuming to do the same stuff as in (DP), should I just give up and go back to DP?

[mikehalloran]

Q; There are so many things that are easy to do in DP but in the (DAW) I am trying out I am not sure I can even do the same thing, how can I make (DAW) work lIke DP?

A:What is your time worth?

Q; In DP I can get my work done fast as it is so logical and most things are very easy to do, I am trying (DAW) and it is hard and time consuming to do the same stuff as in (DP), should I just give up and go back to DP?

A: What is your time worth?

Q: I tried DP and liked it but (DAW) costs a lot less. How can I make it work like DP?

A: What is your time worth?

[billf]

Q: I tried DP and liked it but (DAW) costs a lot less. How can I make it work like DP?

A: Call MOTU and ask about a crossgrade to DP.

[stubbsonic]

So TIP SHEETS about converting from "logic to DP",

That's easy. Export your files, quit Logic. Open DP, import the files. Get your work done. I do it all the time.

Not sure if you understood. I don't mean converting FILES from logic to DP, I just mean like if someone wanted to learn how to find the functions that exist in logic, where to find them in DP.
I think they make those kinds of references for folks converting to & from mac & windows.

[FMiguelez]

A lot of the latest new threads have been very similar... People switching from DAW x to DP not knowing their way around.

Perhaps we should make some kind of "DP Primer" or a new forum member package? A few links to tutorials, the Tips Sheet, and useful threads (about soloing, chinks and chunks, etc.) would do it. Lots of new users always have the same questions, and this would answer them before they're even asked...

No. DP does not work like that because... well... this is DP and it works its own way.

[James Steele]

Q; In DP I can get my work done fast as it is so logical and most things are very easy to do, I am trying (DAW) and it is hard and time consuming to do the same stuff as in (DP), should I just give up and go back to DP?

That's exactly what I did with Logic years ago during the dark DP6 days. I just couldn't... or more like refused... to wrap my head around the way it did things.

[James Steele]

A lot of the latest new threads have been very similar... People switching from DAW x to DP not knowing their way around.

Perhaps we should make some kind of "DP Primer" or a new forum member package? A few links to tutorials, the Tips Sheet, and useful threads (about soloing, chinks and chunks, etc.) would do it. Lots of new users always have the same questions, and this would answer them before they're even asked...

No. DP does not work like that because... well... this is DP and it works its own way.

Keep in mind, I was kind of joking with my post. In order to do such a "switching" type tutorial, you'd have to know BOTH apps well and I sure don't. The posts that sometimes irk me are when it's a very specific function of a particular DAW and seems written by someone who has pinpointed ONE small thing DP doesn't do. Seems so many of these well-targeted first time posts appear, if I were paranoid, I'd think competing developers were posting them! But I'm not paranoid. LOL

[Shooshie]

The main problem in making a crossover tutorial is that you really need to know both apps in great depth.

There are several things that I take for granted in DP, and when I went to Logic I scoured the manual looking for how to do them there. I tried what I found, and it was similar, but not the same, and the difference made a WORLD of difference. So, thinking "surely Logic can actually do what I'm talking about. It's basic," I'd go find Logic users who were proficient at it. They'd tell me just how it's done. It was the same thing in the manual. I'd explain that it doesn't really do it, and they'd insist that it does.

This would send me on an escapade of searching, asking questions, studying, and leaving no stone unturned. In the end, I learned an important fact: people who have never used an expert feature with great subtlety built into it, have no idea what such a feature could be like. They assume their coarse feature with no subtlety is the same. It's not.

Thus we have to be very careful when helping a crossover user. That problem works both ways. Things that Logic may do with great subtlety might be impossible or impractical on DP. There are VERY FEW people qualified to compare features on that level. Count me out. I simply don't know enough about Logic... but I can tell you a few things it sure doesn't do as well as DP!

Shooshie

[stubbsonic]

I think that info would be helpful both for pre-purchase (cross-grade) questions and for folks who have already taken the plunge.

As for having in-depth knowledge of two DAWs. We already have quite a few folks here with that kind of knowledge. And even the noobs who arrive with those questions could re-post the info in a special TIPS thread.

We need a good name for the person who is arriving from another DAW. I kinda like "DP-SL" (DP as a second language). Other DAW-to-DP WorkFlow Conversion Tips-- too wordy.

[Babz]

How can I get DP to [/color][desired operation] exactly like [DAW]?[/b]

A: Digital Performer is not [DAW].

Hehehe... just joking around...

If you remove the "exactly like" from this, it goes from being a joke, or a pet peeve, to something that is actually a legitimate issue.

Unlike other software sectors where very early on one company took over everything and became the standard (Office->Microsoft, Design->Adobe), the pro music world is quite unique. Entrenched user bases of a half dozen DAWs have coexisted for decades, and at this point it appears it will remain that way perhaps indefinitely. In fact, the field of choices only continues to multiply and further fragment in recent years.

This means that the chances are quite high that you are going to have to interact with someone working in another platform, or that you yourself may to dip your toes into another DAW in some capacity. In such situations, you are going to want to get oriented as quickly as possible. I don't think anyone expect things to be "exactly the same", but even basic stuff can be quite disorienting. I've had to work in Cubase or PT or whatever for a brief time and you can often figure out enough to get by, but inevitably you run into some particular thing, often something that seems so basic, and it is handled so differently from the way to which you are accustomed, that you find yourself stumped, or even down some tunnel from which you can't seem to extricate yourself.

The problem I am running into a lot lately is I am trying to figure out how to do some particular effect that is trendy right now (usually in dance or more tech-driven music). You find tutorials on YouTube, but they are almost always done in some other DAW and I find myself trying to translate the steps into a DP equivalent.

We are players in a game with at least a dozen different teams, and we don't appear to be getting any closer to common ground. Some sort of Rosetta Stone, FAQ of equivalents, could be of great benefit in a field where we are all increasingly foreign travelers.

Babz

[James Steele]

"XYZ has MIDI Objects. I can't find them in DP. Where are they?"

"They're not there."

Next question.