A divorce... of sorts

[MIDI Life Crisis]

It's great at certain things and terrible at others. Pretty much like all DAWs.

Really? Tell me again what it is that DP is terrible at?

[Michael Canavan]

It's great at certain things and terrible at others. Pretty much like all DAWs.

Really? Tell me again what it is that DP is terrible at?

Terrible is a harsh word just used for dramatic effect here.
But if you want a list of things other DAWs do better than DP or features DP simply doesn't have, here goes:

Controller support - this is drastic, DP is literally in last place of the 5 DAWs on my system as far as control surface support. This includes the fact that Logic, Bitwig, and Live all do a sort of automapping for typically used parameters in a plug in, this is also user definable. Basically they all have a built in Kore, Komplete Control, or Automapping feature that's easier to use than any of those. There's zero haptic response to control surfaces for DP's new Clips feature. Logic came out the door with complete control with Logic Control support for clips, haptic response support for Novation Luanchpad etc. MMC receive does not work over USB, so companies like Akai who use MMC for transports on their keyboards etc. do not work with DP. Mackie Control and HUI is pretty much 20 year old tech at this point, and MOTU haven't adopted any new methods. DP Control needs to come back big time, and MOTU needs to start working with hardware developers or make their own, because this is a huge let down for most people when I try to sell them on how great DP is.

MPE- DP and Live are last in place here.

Articulation/Expression Maps - For being so strongly entrenched in scoring for video, somehow MOTU haven't found the reason to compete directly with Cubase and Logic here. It's better, there's no way around it, Articulation mapping makes changing articulations pleasant to work with, something that I cannot say about keyswitching, which seems to work slightly differently for every library I own, giving you little ability to adopt a playing style to get comfortable with it.

There are always bugs, always new features that other DAWs have that a particular DAW doesn't have. Right now, I'm not so patiently waiting on the next update, too many weird loose ends with the new features: Clip editing is completely cut off from the Drum, MIDI, and Event editors. Auditioning audio in the Content Browser isn't transparent, it's not even controllable volume wise from the browser, you have to go into preferences for that. REX is still a white noise fest in the browser. Other DAWs have delay compensation for hardware instruments, and even ways to, on the fly, fix timing in Beat Clock jitter.

Obviously there are dozens of ways DP is superior to other DAWs as well. Logic's lack of by Port MIDI input ticks me off, R is awkward and crap at editing MIDI, Run Command is best of class as far as key command searching and firing, Bitwig is in second place and the rest are terrible. With user organization the Tracks window is fantastic at huge projects etc. etc.

You really do pick your poison, and I really believe a good portion of DPs shortcomings are budget oriented, the Logic team at Apple literally has endless coffers, R and Bitwig are relatively new code compared, Cubase again has Yamaha behind them. MOTU are a solid company, but not without budget concerns for sure.

None of this says DP is flawed or a bad choice, the parts that it does well are in it's DNA.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

But if you want a list of things other DAWs do better than DP or features DP simply doesn't have, here goes...

[Michael Canavan]

But if you want a list of things other DAWs do better than DP or features DP simply doesn't have, here goes...

[bayswater]

My three long term beefs with DP are the limitations in the MIDI drum editing, the isolation of the waveform editor from sequences, and the inability of the Song window to use the individual tempos of the sequences in it. None of the these make it terrible, but they are weaknesses. Logic does the first two better, and Dr T KCS did the last one nicely, but it was never updated after the second absolutely final version.

Making CDs was an issue when making CDs was a thing. Can't recall exactly who was complaining about that.

Bundles can be PITA when you have a few VIs with 64 or 128 outputs, making it necessary to scroll acres horizontally. It would be nice to be able to limit how many channels show, or hide a VI altogether.

Others might mention articulations, but I'm happy to just use a separate track folder.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I complained about the CD thing. It's not that it was a big deal as I would never make a CD without a lot more control over content, but why was it even there. Is it still? I don't see it in the menu. I'd check the manual but I can't access the help menu when I have a project with a movie open. J'acuse! But that's not a DP issue, it's some 3rd party conflict I'm hunting down - in my leisure time, that is.

I need a drink.Hmmm 4:20. Perfect... and a Manhattan.

[bayswater]

I need a drink.Hmmm 4:20. Perfect... and a Manhattan.

4:40. The merlot is out.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

4:40. The merlot is out.

Pitch perfect.

[mikehalloran]

Making CDs was an issue when making CDs was a thing. Can't recall exactly who was complaining about that.

Besides everyone who tried it?

My first Beige G3 was bundled with a Yamaha SCSI CD burner and Toast along with DP and many other things. I used Toast to burn my first CD and never wanted to use anything else except Terminal to burn install disks.

I know that was only 20–25 years ago but seems like 50.

[Guitar Gaz]

My first Beige G3 was bundled with a Yamaha SCSI CD burner and Toast along with DP and many other things. I used Toast to burn my first CD and never wanted to use anything else except Terminal to burn install disks.

I know that was only 20–25 years ago but seems like 50.

I had exactly the same setup with the G3 and big SCSI CD Burner and Toast. It seemed great at the time - and didn't it work well? Happier times....

[Tritonemusic]

My first Beige G3 was bundled with a Yamaha SCSI CD burner and Toast along with DP and many other things. I used Toast to burn my first CD and never wanted to use anything else except Terminal to burn install disks.

I know that was only 20–25 years ago but seems like 50.

I had exactly the same setup with the G3 and big SCSI CD Burner and Toast. It seemed great at the time - and didn't it work well? Happier times....

Same setup here, except the burner was a "Smart and Friendly." Anyone remember those?