A Logic Switcher's Thoughts

[JyotiMishra]

Brilliant. Welcome Jyoti!


Jim

Ey up!

If you check the vid out, you'll see a lot of Derbyness.

Back on topic - are you composing for Eurocom? Using DP?

[JyotiMishra]

Jyoti, a little advice for you since you're skipping the manual. Open the COMMANDS window (Shift-L). Notice that it's laid out in sections.

Wow, thanks for the tip, Shooshie! Much appreciated!

I am working my way through the manual, slooowly (I've hired a forklift to balance it in front of me) but this sounds like a great way to get to grips with the most important bits in an accessible manner.

[grimepoch]

I have used the multi-machine setup in Logic just to see if it worked, and it worked, but the project was not huge so I didn't really tax it.

I honestly never seem to run out of CPU in Logic as long as I am careful with the UAD plugs. Too many in a chain will destroy the performance of Logic for me.

[croftish]

Brilliant. Welcome Jyoti!


Jim

Ey up!

If you check the vid out, you'll see a lot of Derbyness.

Back on topic - are you composing for Eurocom? Using DP?

Certainly am mate mmm Derbyness goood

[JyotiMishra]

Certainly am mate mmm Derbyness goood

Cool - well, I know who to bug when it comes to more soundtrack-y type questions!

Switcher's thoughts for today:

1. I've only had DP6 crash once in the 40+ hours I've now been using it and that was when I dragged a rather hefty sample onto Nanosampler. Got the spinning beach ball of death and then a crashout. Apart from that, it's been fine. Having said that, I'm certainly not taxing it in a professional context as yet.

2. I'm loving ProVerb more and more! The lengthen / shorten thingy is better than on Space Designer as that's only switches, not continuous. I definitely prefer the sound of it over SD.

3. I've got to get more into the rubato capabilities, this is one of the things that most excites me about DP. Yeah, I know it's possible to do similar things in Logic but I've always found it unwieldy and spontaneity-deadening.

[croftish]

Certainly am mate mmm Derbyness goood

Cool - well, I know who to bug when it comes to more soundtrack-y type questions!

Switcher's thoughts for today:

1. I've only had DP6 crash once in the 40+ hours I've now been using it and that was when I dragged a rather hefty sample onto Nanosampler. Got the spinning beach ball of death and then a crashout. Apart from that, it's been fine. Having said that, I'm certainly not taxing it in a professional context as yet.

2. I'm loving ProVerb more and more! The lengthen / shorten thingy is better than on Space Designer as that's only switches, not continuous. I definitely prefer the sound of it over SD.

3. I've got to get more into the rubato capabilities, this is one of the things that most excites me about DP. Yeah, I know it's possible to do similar things in Logic but I've always found it unwieldy and spontaneity-deadening.

By all means fire away with q's anytime Jyoti. I'll do my best to come up with kind of vaguely coherent answer, even if it's utter nonsense

Let me know how you get on with these amazing rubato capabilities, I'm curious to find out exactly what you are referring to beyond re-quantizing (which you can presumably do in Logic). Or is it a tracks overview re-arrangement of blocks thing?

Jim

[JyotiMishra]

By all means fire away with q's anytime Jyoti. I'll do my best to come up with kind of vaguely coherent answer, even if it's utter nonsense

Cheers, ears!

Let me know how you get on with these amazing rubato capabilities, I'm curious to find out exactly what you are referring to beyond re-quantizing (which you can presumably do in Logic). Or is it a tracks overview re-arrangement of blocks thing?

Jim

Yeah, I've tried recording rubato stuff in Logic before and then integrating it with normal bits and it's proved very frustrating. Kind of took the fun out of it.

With DPs seq / song / chunk architecture, it looks like it's more geared towards the kind of flexibility I'm looking for. I'm off to read that bit of the manual again now...

[monkey man]

Hey Jyoti, thank you for sharing your impressions man. Always great to hear from you (as you know).

Cheers, mate!
I know I should have read the manual before starting. But I wanted to leap in, see how easy it was. It reassures me that I'm not having to refer to it that much for the basics. (Of course, I'm probably missing loads of extra features and shortcuts.)

I'll certainly be telling Logic-using mates to check out the new DP. There's a lot of fear in certain circles towards DP which I think is un-warranted.

Good on you Jyoti! Spread the word man. I'm very glad you're happy thus far.

FWIW, I do feel that the manual tends to make often simple procedures seem like major operations, so I'm all for diving right into the app itself first and reaching for the monolith when necessary. Shooshie's command tips are timely too, IMHO.

All sounds positive to me so far mate. Good stuff!

[JyotiMishra]

Good on you Jyoti! Spread the word man. I'm very glad you're happy thus far.

Well, I see these DAWs as paintbrushes. Different brushes may have different strengths and weaknesses but it's up to the artist to choose the correct one for his/her purpose.

Really, I want no part of the DAW Wars (the Clone Wars knackered me out). I've got Logic, I'll use that if I feel like it. Now I have DP6 and I find that different, inspiring and exciting. This will hopefully translate into music I would not have done in Logic.

FWIW, I do feel that the manual tends to make often simple procedures seem like major operations, so I'm all for diving right into the app itself first and reaching for the monolith when necessary. Shooshie's command tips are timely too, IMHO.

Yep, yep. That sticky is definitely essential reading!

All sounds positive to me so far mate. Good stuff!

I notice there's a lot of doom on the forum. Initially, when I was lurking, this worried me. Until I remembered the HORRIBLE experience of upgrading to Logic 8 and the disappearing complaints off the Apple Logic forum... There is no DAW that is crash-proof, no DAW that hasn't got issues somewhere. Even my Fostex X15 has issues.

And forums, of course, generally are full of people searching for solutions rather than happy users (who are just getting on with making music).

I'm saying this for any other lurkers reading this considering giving DP a go. Really, it sounds marvellous and seems as stable (in my experience!) as Logic. As for which is better... which is better, orange or green?

Anyway, enough rambling, more Switcher Thoughts:

1. The looping is a bit more cumbersome than Logic's. This may prove frustrating for folks doing more repetitive, loop-based stuff.

2. I like DP's input monitoring options - feeding through the channel (inc. FX) or not. Flexible, nice.

[monkey man]

Yeah, I think the freely-and-easily configurable nature of the mixer has always been one of DP's strengths Jyoti. It closely follows the analog paradigm IMHO, more so than most (if not all) other DAWs.

You know, until February this year the forum enjoyed a more-or-less universally happy vibe. The delay of DP6's release, the wait for it and the subsequent issues many experienced have soured the mood somewhat. Given that this is a recent, concentrated phenomenon, I'm betting we'll see the end of it once MOTU gets to play its hand again. It seems most of us who upgrade will have to endure one test or another, so the best we can do for now is wait or upgrade at a safe time, away from commitments.

If you started lurking during or after February, you've surely not seen just how well-oiled the forum usually is and how she can purr along IMHO. Happy times for you though, and I'm very glad for you!

[HobbyCore]

1. The looping is a bit more cumbersome than Logic's. This may prove frustrating for folks doing more repetitive, loop-based stuff.

Can you explain your stance on this? I've found dp6's looping to be more powerful yet as easy as logic's. The loop tool makes things very quick, and allows a lot of flexibility imo.

I'd be interested the converse.

[JyotiMishra]

Yeah, I think the freely-and-easily configurable nature of the mixer has always been one of DP's strengths Jyoti. It closely follows the analog paradigm IMHO, more so than most (if not all) other DAWs.

Obviously, I'm still a newbie to DP's mixer but I'm getting there. I do have moments of going, 'OH! I can do that now - wow!'

You know, until February this year the forum enjoyed a more-or-less universally happy vibe.

Even with all the problems and related sad/angry posts on here (understandable if folks are frustrated!), this place is an invaluable resource. Just scoping back through the history, there's so much info! Kudos to James for making it happen. I wouldn't have gone for DP6 if I hadn't read this forum!

DP6 is settling slowly into my studio. Now I just need to hammer the manual and do a lot of recording.

[JyotiMishra]

Can you explain your stance on this? I've found dp6's looping to be more powerful yet as easy as logic's. The loop tool makes things very quick, and allows a lot of flexibility imo.

I'd be interested the converse.

Well, here's one experience I had in DP:

Did a little two-bar pattern of drums. But, unlike Logic, the notes are contained in a box where they play, as opposed to the nearest barline. Therefore, when I turned the loop on, it looped out of time, since it wasn't using the whole bar. Then, when I wanted to turn the loop off, I couldn't do that on the Tracks page. Pattern disappeared, loop marker remained! Clicked on the little looping symbol, that didn't work. Finally double-clicked and deleted the loop. But in Logic, it would be a case of simply selecting the pattern and un-ticking the checkbox in the details bit.

NOW...

I know the above is because I'm inexperienced with DP, I know I'm probably making some very glaring newbie errors. There are probably settings to do everything I want in loop terms. But I do feel, so far, that the looping controls are a little counter-intuitive. ON FIRST IMPRESSION.

Anyhow, doesn't matter, I'll get there slowly...

[HobbyCore]

You'll probably want to change your phrasing in the preferences->tracks overview. You can use MIDI CC events (various ways to quickly insert them) to make clever use of DP's dynamic phrasing.

Also, to loop.. just grab the loop tool (or double tap the L key). Then select the area you'd like to loop. Starting at the beginning to the end. It will automatically create the loop. You can select the loop and goto region->set loop to adjust the number of times.

You can also make a selection (tons of ways to do this quickly) on the track and goto region->set loop. You can make a hotkey for this in the commands window. This can be done across multiple tracks.

To quickly look at and delete loops, open the events list and select your track from the mini-menu on the right. Set the events list to 'loop'. Just click and delete the loop.

You can also set loops by selecting items in the soundbite and event lists.

There is also the repeat command. Select an area you wish to repeat and goto edit->repeat. This creates copies of the data you've selected and repeat it, rather than being a clone of the original like the loop command.

Lots more stuff

----

I missed the 'grab and loop' function of logic for the first few days in DP6, then once I realized the L tool can create partial loops, segmented loops and whole loops with a single swipe I was absolutely sold!

BTW, you can hold the L key to temporarily use it. When you let go it will change to the last tool. Double-tapping L 'sets it' to the loop tool.

[JyotiMishra]

WOW!

Thanks so much for all the tips, mate! You FTW!

Really, I appreciate it!