Potential new user...

[Audiobob]

... with (I'm sure) a bunch of rookie questions.

I am currently involved in a project and the artist has an older version of DP (4.5 I believe) running on an older Mac. I happen to be a PC guy and am going to try and stick with what I know. Here's a couple of questions I'd like to try and get answers to before I take the leap:

1. He currently is not in a financial position to update his system, and as a side note, it is still working great! If I were to make the decision to purchase and run DP10 on a PC, would we be able to transfer files back and forth from his Mac (v4.5) to my PC (v10)?

2. If the answer to the above is no, what would I need to do to be "compatible" with his current system? I don't believe his older Mac has the processing power to run v10.

With the current social distancing and self quarantine, I'd love for this to be possible to keep the project moving forward..

Thank you for your time,
The latest rookie

[MIDI Life Crisis]

There's a fully functioning demo. I'd say, download it and try it. 4.5 is pretty old so I don't know about compatibility, but there are surely workarounds. And it might open, but the sticker is probably going to be the audio format. If it's MIDI that'd be easy. If it's audio, there might be some conversions to do; But DP might just read the files.

Go to MOTU.com and give it a shot.

[Prime Mover]

You're in luck, the answer is a definite "YES". DP10 has the ability to save as far back as DP3.1

You will need to take note of the various features that have been added since DP4.5 though. There aren't actually all that many large-scale data defining features. Most of the newer features for the past 10-15 years have been "quality-of-life" interface features and new plugins. Takes were introduced in DP3 I believe, TrackFolders may be a product of DP5, so they may be out of the question (you'll need to check). Take Comping is a product of DP6, however, the actual takes created through the Comping tool will be completely accessible, you just will lose the comping region data. The clip system is completely new to DP10. DP9 upgraded the pitch-shifting engine, but it still works the same way, it's just cleaner processing under the hood. I know that crossfading changed somewhere in there, DP7 I believe? It used to create pre-rendered crossfading soundbites. Now with better processing, the program does it in real-time. I don't think this should impact transfer between versions, it's just that DP4.5 will automatically rebuild these on load.

You'll DEFINITELY want to take note of the newer plugins, there are a lot of them. Most of the MW "Masterworks" plugs came in with... 4.5 or 5. It was right around that period. All of the guitar effects and stomp boxes came in with DP6 onward though. And the higher-end modeling plugins like MW Leveler, Proverb, etc, came in with DP6+ as well.

It may not be an easy ride, but it might be easier than you think. As i said, DP hasn't had a lot of large-scale data features over the years. You'll just really need to keep track of each-other's plugins so you don't accidentally spend your time tweaking something they can't use.

[Prime Mover]

Also, anyone know if there's any way someone can upgrade to old version? If your artist friend can upgrade a few versions to say, DP7 (which was an incredibly stable version, BTW), you'll be a whole lot closer in features. DP4 to DP6 is a large leap, but DP6 to DP10 is a very small little jump in overall features. So if your friend can upgrade a couple versions, you guys will be far more on the same page. But if you can, try to hit DP7, as DP6 was infamously unstable. DP7 is basically a maintenance upgrade, it should have been named DP6.5.

Also, by DP7, they added a whole lot of very nice new plugins that I still use today.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I think the issue is getting the 4.5 file into DP 10. I've not tried that.

[monkey man]

DP should read anything going back to 1983/4 IIRC.

I like to brag about this in other forums where folks aren't DP-literate.

[mikehalloran]

I think the issue is getting the 4.5 file into DP 10. I've not tried that.

Oh I have. I get asked to revisit projects that were done in 2.71 on my Beige G3.

As for DP 10 Windows opening 4.5 files, some plugins won't be compatible since they were 32 bit so there will be workarounds ant tweaking but it's not so hard. Some MAS plugs have moved to Trim.

[CharlzS]

There may be some cross platform issues, i.e. file extensions and resource forks. IIRC DP went to file extensions sometime around version 8. For the session file, I believe to move to Windows you only have to add the extension dpdoc. For any usage of SDII audio files though, I'd think that the sessions should use or be converted to AIFF (or WAV if available) so Mac SDII resource forks are eliminated. Otherwise with SDII, the PC would just be seeing raw audio (no headers). Not completely sure because I have nothing old enough to test.

[mikehalloran]

OS 9 went to file extensions, required under OS X with an option to make them visible or not. 4.5 was a paid upgrade to 4 and was OS X only.

MOTU was still using SD2 audio but that shouldn’t be a problem in DP 10 (got fixed in 9.52 IIRC).

I found the SOS review on 4,5.

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/mo ... rformer-45

[Audiobob]

OK, I took the dive and I purchased the software. NOW I cant get it to activate!! It created the account, downloaded the software, sent me a confirmation email with my login key... won't activate!!

I have uninstalled and reinstalled twice, I have also chosen the "modify / repair" option available in the control panel. nothing...

The software icon does appear with the Digital Performer Activation screen, but it will not open.

Anyone?

[cuttime]

Perhaps the solution lies here?

viewtopic.php?f=31&t=67110

Good luck and I hope you enjoy DP!

[cuttime]

I'm glad you got it sorted out.