DP 7 Officially Announced!!!!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I'm excited, only will it run on my G5 dual 2.0 with Leopard 10.5.8 , fingers crossed !!!

You and me both!

[bayswater]

My understanding of "versioning" was a ".0x" was a bug fix, a ".x0" was a product enhancement or upgrade (i.e. guitar pedal plugs), and a "x.0" was a product overhaul. This is certainly not an overhaul. Very disappointing, indeed.

That was your Grandad's versioning. No one can afford to do that in a niche market any more.

[zed]

...registered DP 6 users should get a bit of a break on the upgrade. Might make the pill a little easier to swallow.

I couldn't agree more. Give it to registered DP 6 users for $99 for a limited time and I would jump immediately. But another $195 just seems excessive to those of us on a tight budget.

[bayswater]

You have to admit, this looks very nice. Notice not only the channel strip to the left, but also the Info Bar Mixing Controls right above the tracks in the Sequence Editor. Now THAT'S handy!

That IS good. One of the few things I miss from Cubase, and as usual, DP did it better.

[Splinter]

My understanding of "versioning" was a ".0x" was a bug fix, a ".x0" was a product enhancement or upgrade (i.e. guitar pedal plugs), and a "x.0" was a product overhaul. This is certainly not an overhaul. Very disappointing, indeed.

That was your Grandad's versioning. No one can afford to do that in a niche market any more.

Apple does it. They do it because they actually do update their software with frequency... as all software should be. If MOTU supported DP the way they should and fixed problems as they became aware of them they'd probably have as many fixes and updates.

It just kills me that people will bitch and moan about shelling out a couple hundred dollars for Waves WUP every year and when MOTU does it for the annual update, we all cheer. It's no freaking different.

[BobK]

It just kills me that people will bitch and moan about shelling out a couple hundred dollars for Waves WUP every year and when MOTU does it for the annual update, we all cheer. It's no freaking different.

Actually I think there IS a difference: MOTU adds lots of features to their paid updates; unless I'm mistaken, except for the high-end bundles, where they might add plug-ins, the WUP covers mostly compatibility updates, not feature enhancements to existing plugs.

[bayswater]

Apple does it. They do it because they actually do update their software with frequency... as all software should be. If MOTU supported DP the way they should and fixed problems as they became aware of them they'd probably have as many fixes and updates.

You can't seriously compare Apple and MOTU on this. Apple will probably earn more net cash flow just on the initial release of Snow Leopard upgrades than MOTU will generate in its entire corporate existence. And I don't see Apple giving Logic 9 away.

[bayswater]

I won't even be able to run it on my agin' G5, but I'll be able to play with it on my MacBook Pro.

According to MOTU, it only requires a multi-processor Mac, not Intel. So why couldn't you run it on your G5? Is it not dual processor?

It's great that DP 7 will run on a G5. I sure got that prediction wrong. It's even more surprising that I could dig out my G4 from the crawl space and run it on that. But .... wouldn't we expect 64 bit etc support, and functions that work on Intel and SL at some point in the life of V7? If so, should we expect all the updates under V7 to run on a G5?

[syntonica]

Hooray! Now I can skip the Sorrows of 6 and precede right to the Sorrows of 7. And I was this many angstroms way from finally ordering 6!

Can't wait to try it out.

[James Steele]

I'm excited, only will it run on my G5 dual 2.0 with Leopard 10.5.8 , fingers crossed !!!

You and me both!

Yes it will. I asked a friend at MOTU since I have a dual G5 2.3.

[Armageddon]

I couldn't agree more. Give it to registered DP 6 users for $99 for a limited time and I would jump immediately. But another $195 just seems excessive to those of us on a tight budget.

That's what I was thinking -- at least shave off the $95 for those of us who paid $195 a year or so ago for the upgrade to 6 and make it seem more fair (and less likely that we'll be paying another $195 this time next year). I'm not sure this is the economic climate to spring a "Surprise! We know you thought we were gonna keep working on that 6 upgrade you paid for a year ago, but here's DP 7, instead! Hope you got your credit cards handy!" on us.

[Michael Canavan]

I couldn't agree more. Give it to registered DP 6 users for $99 for a limited time and I would jump immediately. But another $195 just seems excessive to those of us on a tight budget.

That's what I was thinking -- at least shave off the $95 for those of us who paid $195 a year or so ago for the upgrade to 6 and make it seem more fair (and less likely that we'll be paying another $195 this time next year). I'm not sure this is the economic climate to spring a "Surprise! We know you thought we were gonna keep working on that 6 upgrade you paid for a year ago, but here's DP 7, instead! Hope you got your credit cards handy!" on us.

Totally disagree. As a person with Live, Logic, DP and ReNoise. Only ReNoise beats DP upgrade policy wise, and ReNoise is a tracker.

Live gives discounts for keeping up with the software, and honestly all software is at least slightly buggy out the door. I would much rather pay for upgrades every other upgrade, as I really only want UI improvements, slight changes in workflow etc. the rest doesn't matter to me. What I'm having to do with Live to do this successfully is stagger it to right before a new version comes out, so I get the old stable one, and a copy of the new version to sit out until the whining quiets down.

MOTU allow you to skip versions with no penalty, and let's face it, they aren't going to give you a discount for being up to date. Logic 8 to Logic 9 is $199, Live 7 to Live 8 is $199..... What they might do eventually is become as ruthless as the rest and charge people like me $279 or some such nonsense.
So shush!
In case MOTU sales is listening!

[Michael Canavan]

Many of my concerns with DP have been related to some small shortcomings or some non-thoroughly thinked features, so this gets me particularily interested:

Digital Performer 7 offers new features, enhanced operation and improved performance at all levels, from hundreds of small enhancements driven by user requests to major new features and plug-ins that add unprecedented value.

Arrrgh! I wish they would list them all!

So far the two big ones for me are:

In line EQ, why Logic got rid of that I'll never know, but it wasn't as elegant as what this looks like.

VI Racks next to sequence tracks! Finally!

Big question then is will it all play nicey nice with the Mackie Control? If the Mackie can be used to tweak EQ as well as track volumes in a smooth ergonomic fashion deeeyam!

[beautypill]

I have a quick question:

What would you succinctly declare as the "must have" feature that distinguishes 7 from 6 in your own mind?

From what you see on MOTU.com, what would compel you to upgrade?

I ask because I know several people in my community who were reluctant to move from 5 to 6 because they didn't see what the compelling feature was.

This made my life difficult; having to always save versions of my files that someone using 5.13 could open, etc...

I want everyone I know and collaborate with to upgrade.

Help me sell the idea.

- c

[BobK]

Here are a few things, off the top of my head, that helped motivate me to buy the upgrades. I don't necessarily think they're 'must-haves' - to an extent, that's a personal thing, depending on the type of work you do and your work style.

5 to 6: comp tool and comp tracks (and associated features like expanding takes to tracks, etc), ability to use AIFF and BWF formats natively, MW Leveler, Pro Verb, new plug-in management capabilities, prerendering of VIs

also: film people got another frame rate they'd been requesting for a long time

6-7: the ones that got my attention are mix-related and have the potential to increase workflow efficiency (notice I said 'potential' - I won't know till I try it!): the channel strip window, mix info in Info Bar, in-line EQ and compression in the mixer; also: real-time fade computation sounds like it might be good; I probably won't use these much but welcome them: amp, cabinet, and guitar FX sims; enhancement to QuickScribe