Film composers who use DP

dcoscina · Post by **dcoscina** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 10:45 am

I started this in another thread but I would like to know who is using DP and is a major film composer. Here are the ones I know of

Alexandre Desplat
Michael Giacchino
Marco Beltrami
Dario Marianelli
Howard Shore
Don davis

can anyone add to this list??

96khz · Post by **96khz** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 12:09 pm

Danny Elfman
http://www.apple.com/pro/profiles/elfman/index.html

Quote from DP's Wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Performer):

Notable users

Some notable users include the composers John Adams [4], Don Davis [5], Danny Elfman [6], Michael Giacchino, Elliot Goldenthal[7], James Horner, David Lawrence [8] and Hans Zimmer, alongside Dream Theater, David Bryan[9] Autechre, Matmos [10] and Trey Spruance of the Secret Chiefs 3.

Quote from http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/05/2 ... -features/:

Film Scoring Functionality

The one category where DP consistently bests its competitors on both Mac and Windows is film scoring. We could split hairs comparing other features in the 6 or so top DAWs for hours on end, but DP has more and easier-to-use scoring features than any of its rivals. If there was any doubt, DP 5 adds still more: DP 5 provides display and export streamers, flutters, punches and a visual click directly on a QuickTime movie. You can even trigger external hardware to display visual cues on an external video monitor. In other words, DP is the kind of app you can use with a full orchestra on a soundstage (and people do use it that way on a regular basis).

I••™ll just drool with you fellow composers thinking about that idea. I asked Cooper whether composers contributed to these ideas. His answer: ••œYes. Mark Mann - works with Danny Elfman. Composer Don Davis. Composer Rick Marvin. Composer Bruce Miller. Jon Klein (film scoring professor at Berklee College of Music). Plus others who I am forgetting at the moment.••

blue · Post by **blue** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 1:25 pm

wiki wrote:Some notable users include••¦Hans Zimmer

Unless he's recently switched, Hans Zimmer uses Nuendo, and Cubase before that. I think he's even on the board at Steinberg.

newrigel · Post by **newrigel** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 11:42 am

Mike McKnight Madonna's keyboardist.
http://www.mcknightsoundsinc.com/index.html
EDIT: OOPS he's not a film composer...

maxpatch · Post by **maxpatch** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 12:09 pm

Pat Metheny is a long time DP user. Listen to his score for "Map Of The World" - it's stunningly beautiful.

Also, check out Dave Bainbridge - he's not a major film composer but has done a fair amount of soundtrack work here in the UK and is a very highly regarded Celtic Rock Fusion guitarist and producer. A recent quote from his website:

"Thanks to my brilliant friends in the USA (John Kellogg and Matt La Point in LA (www.motu.com) and Jason Williams (www.ikmultimedia.com), I finally took the plunge into the world of software recording and plug in synths. I••™m now using Digital Performer running on an intel iMac as my main recording/sequencing platform at my Open Sky Studio. It••™s a brilliant and flexible piece of software and doesn••™t box you into one way of working."

http://www.davebainbridge.com/

tim57var · Post by **tim57var** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 6:58 pm

Trevor Rabin is a long-time DP user

tekarts · Post by **tekarts** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 7:12 pm

Long time user Wendy Carlos. Her DP files here:

http://www.wendycarlos.com/resources.html#MIDI

Shooshie · Post by **Shooshie** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 7:21 pm

maxpatch wrote:Pat Metheny is a long time DP user. Listen to his score for "Map Of The World" - it's stunningly beautiful.

Also, check out Dave Bainbridge - he's not a major film composer but has done a fair amount of soundtrack work here in the UK and is a very highly regarded Celtic Rock Fusion guitarist and producer. A recent quote from his website:
"Thanks to my brilliant friends in the USA (John Kellogg and Matt La Point in LA (www.motu.com) and Jason Williams (www.ikmultimedia.com), I finally took the plunge into the world of software recording and plug in synths. I••™m now using Digital Performer running on an intel iMac as my main recording/sequencing platform at my Open Sky Studio. It••™s a brilliant and flexible piece of software and doesn••™t box you into one way of working."
http://www.davebainbridge.com/

Just for the sake of accuracy (and I'm not claiming 100% of that), Pat and Lyle use whatever works for them at the moment. That has included DP in the past, which they used for mixing stems. Pat used it himself for taking down ideas and tracking while on the road. He did a solo album with it, I think. But they also use Pro Tools quite heavily. DP is a part of their music making, though, and they are very complimentary of it.

Shooshie

Shooshie · Post by **Shooshie** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 7:56 pm

blue wrote:
wiki wrote:Some notable users include••¦Hans Zimmer
Unless he's recently switched, Hans Zimmer uses Nuendo, and Cubase before that. I think he's even on the board at Steinberg.

I'd heard something about him using DP, too. I don't remember when or where, but it was at least 5 years ago. I remember the excitement of reading his comments. Unless I'm confusing him with someone else (which is always a possibility with my crazy inability to remember names) he did use DP for a while.

Shooshie

Shooshie · Post by **Shooshie** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 8:11 pm

I just went searching, and the only evidence I found of HZ's DP use was in Wikipedia's DP article. I wrote that article, but someone else added those names. Everything else I found in relation to HZ was about Cubase. I think his "DP use" is an urban myth that's been documented by other examples of the same urban myth.

frankymax · Post by **frankymax** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 8:59 pm

composers I know that use DP:
John Ottman
George S Clinton
Larry Groupe
Trevor Rabin
Michael Giacchino
John Debney (at least he used to)
Danny Elfman (but last I heard he was on DP 2.7 (that's probably changed by now!)

composers on Cubase:
Hans Zimmer (and his whole team which includes Steve Jablonsky, Geoff Zanelli, James Dooley etc)
James Newton Howard

composers on Logic:
Mark Isham (also uses Live)
Jeff Beal (but I think he may also use DP)

...and when I talked to Thomas Newman 2 years ago he was still using Studio Vision!!

homebilly · Post by **homebilly** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 9:30 pm

frankymax wrote:composers I know that use DP:

...and when I talked to Thomas Newman 2 years ago he was still using Studio Vision!!

as late as 1 year ago. i saw him at 2 screenings Little Children & the Good German and he said that he was still using Vision.

it really made me re-evaluate how i work and has improved my writing for the better. it kicked me in the butt but good!

frankymax · Post by **frankymax** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 9:36 pm

homebilly wrote:
frankymax wrote:composers I know that use DP:

...and when I talked to Thomas Newman 2 years ago he was still using Studio Vision!!
as late as 1 year ago. i saw him at 2 screenings Little Children & the Good German and he said that he was still using Vision.

it really made me re-evaluate how i work and has improved my writing for the better. it kicked me in the butt but good!

Yeah, Tom Newman is one of my favorite composers (not just film composer!) I was lucky enough to be a composer fellow at the 2004 Sundance Lab and he was there as a composer advisor- what a really nice great guy! He had so much deep insight into music and he really opened my mind to a lot of great ideas. It just goes to show you, it's not the tools, it's your own creativity and energy that make good music!

greeny · Post by **greeny** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 9:52 pm

**

The late Joe Zawinul was still using StudioVision as well, he said because because "he knew it so well"...

Jan Hammer still using it as well on a separate dedicated machine, because he found Vision to be structured in a most musical way and essential for fast creating.

I found both of these statements in Sound-on-Sound magazine.

At a gig a couple of years ago I saw Lyle Mays still using Opcode's Galaxy librarian with a Studio5 interface, on stage!

Ahh, the vintage stuff...!

Can't wait for DP6 though!

killerpineapple · Post by **killerpineapple** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 9:13 am

Christopher Young has (or at least had) Digital Performer in his studio for recording small ensembles and doing mock-ups, but I'm not sure he really uses it much himself. I think he does most of his composing at the piano.

B.T. (Fast and the Furious, Monster) uses Logic.