DP 7 Officially Announced!!!!

[Shooshie]

As I read more about 7 I'm really getting tempted. Is two weeks really the date for ship?

No, they are shipping as we speak.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

No, they are shipping as we speak.

Anyone get shipping confirmation yet? OMG we are such geeks!

[Mr. Quimper]

How many copies do they sell to twenty-somethings anyway? Those are your mBox/PT LE crowd anyway, but hey... MOTU should try and bust that market open huh?

Well, I was 22 when I ordered DP5...got 6 @ 24 and will hopefully be able to get 7 before I hit 26.

But in general I find the 20-something market to be more dominated by Live, Logic, Reason, and Cubase than anything from Digi or MOTU.

[bayswater]

I had to pay expedite to get it across the boarder.
That already put it close to 3 bills.

?? I didn't.

[James Steele]

How many copies do they sell to twenty-somethings anyway? Those are your mBox/PT LE crowd anyway, but hey... MOTU should try and bust that market open huh?

Well, I was 22 when I ordered DP5...got 6 @ 24 and will hopefully be able to get 7 before I hit 26.

But in general I find the 20-something market to be more dominated by Live, Logic, Reason, and Cubase than anything from Digi or MOTU.

Purely anectdotal from my standpoint, but I was associating this with the stompboxes and how often I encounter the kids in bands running PT LE. I'm talking about the bands with guitars, drums, rock bands that are using less synth if any. I know a lot of people locally doing this sort of thing and they're using LE quite a bit.

[bayswater]

Does anybody know if there are any plans to address the GUI concerns? Or is MOTU's stance "That's the way we like it. Nice and bright. Deal with it."

Has there been any official communication from them on the topic?

- c

Apple fixed it for you:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3712

[jloeb]

On this (dopey) guitar-in-the-demo-video topic, here's the answer:
The guitar in all but the last two of the DP7 amp sim demo videos is a Line6 Variax 700.

http://line6.com/variax/specifications.html

The Variax series are modeling guitars and basses. They use the string input as a trigger for mathematical models of 25 different guitars. The guitars modeled are here:

http://line6.com/variax/collection.html

The models are better - a lot better - than you'd imagine. Many of them are completely convincing. In the context of making demo videos for an amp sim and its versatility in making different kinds of sounds for different musical genres, the Variax is actually a very sensible choice, because for each sound you can choose an appropriate guitar model to play in that genre (Telecaster for one type of playing, Ricky for another, etc) without having a rainbow of different guitars appear in the videos.

Before anyone asks, yes, other amp sim vendors (Amplitube, NI, Softube, etc) also vary the guitars being played according to the genre being demoed. Notice that they don't generally have videos on their websites, like MOTU does here.

Variax guitars and basses have no internal amp sim modeling whatsoever. They only model resonance characteristics of body and strings, pickup circuitry etc. of the guitars themselves.

Bongo_x was correct in that, as with all Variax instruments, there is no standard electromagnetic pickup on the exterior of the instrument. Instead, interior piezoelectric pickups mounted beneath the bridge itself provide the input signal driving the mathematical models.

Regarding the "MOTU should get in touch with tha youthy koolness!" remark: I have done production work with three young (late high school age) precociously talented alternapop/rock bands in the past few years, and two of those had a Variax guitar for regular use; one of those also had the Variax bass as well. While i wouldn't carry one in to play at a top studio (typically a waste given the arsenal of good-to-great guitars already present), for anything short of that they're great, highly convenient tools, and much in favor among the young, who tend to be less technophobic than their puritan elders (>30 ).

(Also, i'm no forensic pathologist, but it looks to me like the guys playing the guitars in the MOTU videos are themselves probably mid to late 20somethings.

[jloeb]

Does anybody know if there are any plans to address the GUI concerns? Or is MOTU's stance "That's the way we like it. Nice and bright. Deal with it."

Has there been any official communication from them on the topic?

- c

Apple fixed it for you:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3712

I started appreciating the brightness a lot more after I started using DP6 on laptops more often. You can see what you're doing at a lower screen brightness with all those bright shades, which helps when you're working from a battery.

[James Steele]

Bongo_x was correct in that, as with all Variax instruments, there is no standard electromagnetic pickup on the exterior of the instrument. Instead, interior piezoelectric pickups mounted beneath the bridge itself provide the input signal driving the mathematical models.

Thanks for identifying the guitar. From what I remembered of the video, it looked as if it might have been a guitar that had no neck pickup but just a bridge pick up obscured by the player's right hand. Thanks for clarifying.

Regarding the "MOTU should get in touch with tha youthy koolness!" remark: I have done production work with three young (late high school age) precociously talented alternapop/rock bands in the past few years, and two of those had a Variax guitar for regular use; one of those also had the Variax bass as well. While i wouldn't carry one in to play at a top studio (typically a waste given the arsenal of good-to-great guitars already present), for anything short of that they're great, highly convenient tools, and much in favor among the young, who tend to be less technophobic than their puritan elders (>30 ).

(Also, i'm no forensic pathologist, but it looks to me like the guys playing the guitars in the MOTU videos are themselves probably mid to late 20somethings.

They are... or at least one of them is... I'm pretty sure Thomas is the same Thomas who works at MOTU and has made it out to the last few MOTU-MAC dinners we have every year at NAMM. Nice fellah! Although I don't think the older set are necessariy technophobic, else we wouldn't be on the cutting edge of the DAW world. However, when it comes to guitars and amp technology, we're loathe to just walk away from what's prove to work. There's nothing more priceless than seeing the look on some kid's face who owns a Line 6 mega modeling 2 x 12 combo etc. that gets 100 different amp sounds, etc. when you let them play though an old school tube amp rig. Of course, it is the generation that grew up with 16-bit CD audio and listen to most of their music on MP3s so a great guitar tone might bite them in the keester unaware.

[bongo_x]

...and much in favor among the young, who tend to be less technophobic than their puritan elders (>30 ). ...

No, they just;
a) don't know any better
b) don't have any money

The other day I put my 13 year old nephew in front of an Orange half stack and blew his mind. He's only played through a modeling practice amp before.

bb

[jloeb]

No, they just;
a) don't know any better
b) don't have any money

Of course! Thus the reduced technophobia!

But seriously, if you're putting the thing upstream of a guitar amp (real or simulated) with any amount of distortion, they do ok. Certainly a good choice for making a bunch of demo videos.

[James Steele]

The other day I put my 13 year old nephew in front of an Orange half stack and blew his mind. He's only played through a modeling practice amp before.

Love it! I can see his jaw drop. That kiddies is jammin' "old school."

[rthorderson]

You can get MX4 2.2 for $99 with DP7. I have it all ready so I wish they would just give me $200 off of Mach5.

Amen to that! That would certainly help heal my DP6 bruises...

[jloeb]

(Also, i'm no forensic pathologist, but it looks to me like the guys playing the guitars in the MOTU videos are themselves probably mid to late 20somethings.

They are... or at least one of them is... I'm pretty sure Thomas is the same Thomas who works at MOTU and has made it out to the last few MOTU-MAC dinners we have every year at NAMM. Nice fellah!

Heh. Missed my calling as a forensic pathologist.

[Mr_Clifford]

64-Bit mastering tools for crystal-clear sound
The master fader is just the beginning. Digital Performer ships with mastering tools including MasterWorks™ Limiter, Multi-Band Compressor, Leveler and Parametric EQ. Bring out the ultimate detail from full-bandwidth program material. With 64-bit, floating-point precision, these tools preserve and enhance the natural sound and fidelity of your 24-bit audio with no added noise.

Did anyone else see this on the MOTU website? 64bit floating point audio on the Master Fader plug-ins.