James Steele wrote:I'm just going to speak my mind... that's all. I'm weary of these posts that only exist to stoke concern that DP is slipping or DP is going away because this or that DAW has some feature.
"Music technology is moving ahead. DAW competition is fierce. The question is: Will DP remain relevant?"
Answer: Yes... yes it will. Based on the past history of MOTU, that really doesn't seem to be in question. The few features mentioned really don't seem to rise to the level of anything that's going to make or break DP or justify the alarmist vibe of the post.
Thing is, DP's list of features has just continued to grow, consistently with each release, over the years. If you look at just the past 15 years, the list is amazing, and yet most releases only had a few blockbuster features added, along with half-dozen to a dozen minor features which add up to and awesome app. We've seen the interface redesigned several times over the years, and the current one has been enhanced with themes and track colors that go way beyond just setting the events to a color. The most traffic we've ever had in this forum came after Andy Selby created the "mods" that persuaded MOTU to make them into a feature. Thus, themes were born. BTW, Andy has just won his third Grammy with DP, and not for themes, though I wish there were a category for which he could receive an award for his huge feature. If I'm going to live in an app for years on end, I want to decorate the darned thing to my taste. Themes and complex track and background color preferences give me a lot of control.
Some other "relevant" features over the years:
• V-Racks are ingenious, and I love being able to save them and load them into other chunks.
• Pitch control is amazing; no other DAW does it quite as well as DP without a 3rd party plugin like Melodyne.
• The Comp Tool is one of the most amazing recording tools on the planet.
• Filling audio with similar room sound to hide the seams was brilliant
• the ability to "throw" soundbites in a track, to abut with the next soundbite, is one of those things you think is a minor feature until you start depending on it.
• Track Folders have grown into a major feature and organizing principle in all the track viewer lists.
• Keyboard control has grown over the years
• Slip, Slide, Trim and Roll tools are brilliant additions. Trim has been there, I guess, but I didn't know until fairly recently that the
Trim Tool works on Continuous Data! Read pages 313-314 in the DP8 manual! Give it a try!
• Click patterns: brilliant, advanced feature!
• Search: how many DAWs can locate and select all the occurrences of certain rhythmic patterns that also happen within a certain pitch range? The search feature is deep and powerful.
• Chords in Quickscribe were sorely needed, especially given that QS is in its element when printing lead sheets, where chord symbols are practically a must.
Well, this is barely scratching the surface of the last 15 years, just random features that popped in my head while writing. This list could go on for pages. Just check out the table of Contents of the DP manual if you want to see the REAL list. MOTU has announced some brilliant features in the upcoming release of DP9, too.
Honestly, when people start making lists of what DP lacks, half the features on those lists, or more, are already there. DP is so deep, it takes years to learn them all, and it takes repeated use to remember that they are there. I don't blame anyone for forgetting, but I do wish more people would give credit where it's due.
Shooshie
