How did you come to using DP ?

[MIDI Life Crisis]

A bunch of years ago a student I was mentoring came to do some arranging work for me at my studio. He brought over a CD ROM with a ton of cracked and bootlegged programs from Photoshop to Word to DP and Finale, etc. - assuming I wanted to work with pirated stuff. I was working in SVP for years and happy with it, but the writing was on the wall at Opcode, and he was so excited about Performer 2.7 I let him show it to me.

It looked like it had promise, but I didn't want (or need) to change apps at that point, so I deleted it. I went to the MOTU site, bought the prog. and updated it religiously for about a year or two but never actually used it. I saw it as an investment in the potential and a fallback in the event SVP went belly up. When it did, as much as I didn't like DP all that much, I learned it and the rest is history. I did look at other apps but DP really had the features i needed, especially multi-sequence projects and superior MIDI editing capabilities.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

And now for something entirely different...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2QJvc_SxFQ

[bayswater]

This is all starting to sound a bit like Monty Python's Four Yorkshire men.

I had to write it all out in 0s and 1s on a slate. My granddad didn't have any 1s. He had to do it all with 0s

[Phil O]

A friend of mine had Performer on his rig and he was going to be out of town for a few months, so he let me use his rig while he was gone. A new version (Digital Performer) came out and I bought it. I fell in love with DP and have been using it ever since. Then, quite unexpectedly, the Spanish Inquisition showed up.

[HCMarkus]

Always look at the bright side of life.

[BKK-OZ]

This is all starting to sound a bit like Monty Python's Four Yorkshire men.

I had to write it all out in 0s and 1s on a slate. My granddad didn't have any 1s. He had to do it all with 0s

We used to dream of having 0's...

In my day, back before zero was invented... now those were some tough times.

[mikehalloran]

This is all starting to sound a bit like Monty Python's Four Yorkshire men.

I had to write it all out in 0s and 1s on a slate. My granddad didn't have any 1s. He had to do it all with 0s

We used to dream of having 0's...

In my day, back before zero was invented... now those were some tough times.

Luxury!

When I started, it was editing rusty wire recordings -- on second hand barbed wire with used masking tape. I had to pay for the privilege!!!

[bayswater]

This is all starting to sound a bit like Monty Python's Four Yorkshire men.

I had to write it all out in 0s and 1s on a slate. My granddad didn't have any 1s. He had to do it all with 0s

We used to dream of having 0's...

In my day, back before zero was invented... now those were some tough times.

Eeeee lad. It were easier before zeros. We 'ad to remember billions of them every night and put them all back in right order in morning.

[bjornln]

Started out with Southworth (sp?) total music back in 84'ish. When they went bankrupt, switched to Performer 1.05 (or was it 1.2 ?). The rest is history...


/B

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Well, if you want to make it a pissing contest, I started out writing music notes on paper with a pencil (HB soft was preferred) the way they did in the 1400s. Actually, I still do that and find it more reliable than ANY DAW or notation program. What you put down (or print) will surely last longer than anything you record or sequence.

[BKK-OZ]

...with used masking tape...

Ah, masking tape, if only we had some, we would have settled for third-hand tape...

All we had was the sticky side of the tape, and it weren't even sticky no more on account of the rats and all...

[apanacci]

I remember around 1999 , 2000 I was still using Studio Vision and I needed a digital interface and I went to buy one at Toronto,s music most popular music store Long&McQuades. I had decided on the Monitor 8 by eMagic ,I think. While I was about to pay for it I looked at the back of a Keyboard magazine and there was a ad for the 1st 2408. I had 2 Tascam DA38,s at the time. I quickly decided not to get the Monitor 8 and ordered the 2408. I was the 1st one to get it thru that store. Had it till a year ago. It worked flawless with DP.

[mikehalloran]

Well, if you want to make it a pissing contest, I started out writing music notes on paper with a pencil (HB soft was preferred) the way they did in the 1400s. Actually, I still do that and find it more reliable than ANY DAW or notation program. What you put down (or print) will surely last longer than anything you record or sequence.

Ahhh...You can use a pencil...

[rentadrummer]

In 2001 I was asked to be part of a recording project. Initially it was supposed to involve frequent trips to Chicago but we decided to try working long distance instead.

I didn't own any recording equipment, but I had recently purchased a set of Roland VDrums. The only home recording equipment that I was familiar with was a Yamaha AW4416 hard disk recorder that one of the musicians in Chicago was using for recording. I decided to go to Mars Music and get some ideas, and the very first thing I was shown was Digital Performer. Even though I knew it would work, I wanted to keep things simple and bought a Yamaha recorder instead, just so whatever I was using to record would be compatible with the equipment used by the other musicians.

As soon as I got the recorder I joined a Yahoo AW4416 forum, a community of some very friendly and helpful 4416 users and my first forum experience.

One nice feature of the 4416 was the ability to exchange backup discs with other users - via the mail. This was still when most of us were on dial up and there was no way to upload anything for review, other than a small mp3.

After months of recording with the Yamaha, and finally completing the original project, I decided to look into improving my setup and start using MIDI. The VDrums biggest problem, other than their less than stellar sound, was their mis-triggering that required constant punching in when recording audio. Eventually I bought a Yamaha sequencer, and while it worked okay in conjunction with the 4416, the editing was still very difficult.

One of the Yahoo 4416 forum members was a DP user and he and I discussed various options for improving my setup. He suggested that I look at the MOTU 828MKll and DP, both of which would work great with the VDrums, and would offer the best features for MIDI as well as audio. I decided to make the switch, and I have no doubt that it was moving to DP, joining Unicornation, and the eventual introduction of some great sounding drum software, that enabled me to work on several projects over the past few years. I doubt that I would have been in a position to work on much more than the original project if it hadn't been for switching to Digital Performer.

[cowtothesky]

I wish I could say I started early with DP, but before I used a computer for music, I used synth workstations. Yamaha - SY77, then EX5, which would handle the majority of drums, bass, strings, etc…, I played guitar and recorded it and whatever else I had around - DX7's, various synths, all into a 4-track recorder, bouncing like crazy. I am so glad those days are behind me. I was a touring musician then, so I put my money into things that worked live and mobile.

I always kept up with the tech though. I did a lot of synth programming and, having the benefit of traveling with a band, it led me to tons of really cool music stores, where I could try out all kinds of things.

When I started seriously looking into buying a DAW, I saw a Mike Patti video sketch that he was doing on youtube and loved the look, but was blown away by the editing abilities. I read everything about it, doing a lot of my research right here at Motunation! All of the studios in my area were using PT and I sort of liked it, but found DP to be much better for my needs. So, I picked up DP7 and have been using it ever since.