MOTUnation.com

After 30 years of 5 lb. upgrades from MOTU, getting the box in the mail was disorienting. I looked at it a few times, thinking "what IS this?" before realizing that it was my DP9 upgrade. At first, I thought it was some kind of plug in or something.

Well, glad to have it. I've installed it now, but still haven't had a chance to really use it. (Still working on something outside of my long-time DAW world.)

Shoosh

BTW, English release hard box has always been my choice till today. Mainly for sharing language on this board.
Download purchase means immediate access to new DP releases in foreign countries.
Now, I can buy DP upgrades from Motu web shop. No more weeks or months waiting, here...

billf wrote:

monkey man wrote:I need hard-copy versions for my synths etc. too; I'm not in the market for any portable electronic device for many good reasons, so the ability to read on the couch or wherever requires said manifestations.

Running the PDF on the main monitor covers up the application, so unless you are running two monitors, it necessitates toggling back and forth between PDF and app. Not elegant really, but those are the choices.

Yup. Single monitor here, with no room for a second. There'll also be one in the vocal booth should I ever get 'round to making the thing, but obviously that'll be of no use for this.

billf wrote:Maybe you can use your monkey powers to marshal enough support such that MOTU could give us the option of buying a printed copy from them.

Monkey powers depleted ATM, Billy. I don't curry the flav... I mean, favour or cut the mustard I used to.

Still hoping we'll have the option at some point, mate. I mean, if I had a dollar for every time I've heard someone on the board say how fantastic it is that MOTU provides a full hard-copy manual for DP, I'd be able to afford the vocal booth by now. Surely the company must be aware of this; it helped set it apart from the crowd.

Shooshie wrote:After 30 years of 5 lb. upgrades from MOTU, getting the box in the mail was disorienting. I looked at it a few times, thinking "what IS this?" before realizing that it was my DP9 upgrade. At first, I thought it was some kind of plug in or something.
Shoosh

I had a good laugh with this.
...expecting the heavy white upgrade box...but receiving the diminutive but attractively printed box...with no printed user guide...

You're gonna love it when you get to it.

Shooshie wrote:
Well, glad to have it. I've installed it now, but still haven't had a chance to really use it. (Still working on something outside of my long-time DAW world.)

Shoosh

There it is again. The mysterious Shooshie black ops project. Don't worry. We don't want to know. We know that if you told us you have to kill us -- possibly even with boredom, which is surely the cruelest death.

Don't ask. Don't tell. We'll still be here DAWgin' away in our DAWg gone world, whenever you reemerge from deep cover.

Agent 99 Babz

I am remembering that the DP 3, 4 and 4.5 upgrades came in plastic bags. One was expected to add the CDs and replace the appropriate manuals in the big box that came with 2,x.

I recycled that whole thing when I got DP 5 in a new box, as I recall. The boxes for 5 and 6 have since been sent to the recyclers. Since I still open some old projects in 7.24, I'll keep that around for awhile, I suppose.

Hmmm... looking at that 11 Lb brick (I've a postal scale in my office) that came with Logic Studio 8 and wondering why it is still taking up shelf space.

billf wrote:
Maybe you can use your monkey powers to marshal enough support such that MOTU could give us the option of buying a printed copy from them.

Not going to happen unless MOTU finds another printer. A couple of days after DP9 dropped I called MOTU to ask about DP9 not showing (at that time - it now does) in my account. I asked about getting the upgrade in the mail and was told it would only be what people are getting - the disk and a thin getting started book. The person I talked to at MOTU told me they were running into the limits their printer could handle with the DP8 manual (which is probably why the Plugins Guide is a separate manual).

Aha, so we have an answer! Good to know.

I suppose they could target a few other categories to not be covered by the hard copy manual, such as when they split off the plug-ins in DP7.

It might be hard to determine which features are the least likely to need consultation away from a computer (or backlit) screen and/or while using up the entire screen with DP (I can't stand the mistakes that I make with mouse focus and accidental mixer window edits, when toggling window focus to a PDF user manual).

You got a separate Plugins Guide with DP 8? None in my box nor is there any room for it. Hmmmm....

I know there is a separate .pdf for it. Oh well, that was so three years ago now.

There's also the logical approach and split the manual into multiple books and not one huge book. The problem with that approach that I see though is MOTU's propensity for not giving the whole explanation to something in one place but bouncing one to multiple pages all over the manual. To keep from having to have open multiple smaller manuals would be for MOTU to hire a tech writer to completely redo the manual.

No; PDF-only. My point was just that there might be ways to skinny-up the manual so they can supply a hardcopy version again.

It would have been nice to have the plug-ins guide in hardcopy, but no big deal as PDF consultations while working with a tiny plug-in window don't tend to block and require constant focus-shifting.

Yeah, I think the problem with splitting the main material into two manuals is that the PDF version would probably have to match, and that would create problems for a lot of people in terms of cross-referencing.

Surely we don't want to see FIVE manuals as with Cubase? Not that those were ever printed AFAIK, but still... it was one of the many things that made me question whether anyone really understood that program as a whole (and I mean including developers and managers).

mhschmieder wrote:Yeah, I think the problem with splitting the main material into two manuals is that the PDF version would probably have to match, and that would create problems for a lot of people in terms of cross-referencing.

Surely we don't want to see FIVE manuals as with Cubase? Not that those were ever printed AFAIK, but still... it was one of the many things that made me question whether anyone really understood that program as a whole (and I mean including developers and managers).

Cross referencing wouldn't be a problem with proper hyperlinks that would open the needed manual.

I'd rather have multiple smaller manuals than no printed manual.

Remember, what was it DP v 4 or 5, came with a whole bundle of little manuals? Everyone complained about that, so next version came out with the big brick manual. Little did we know we'd soon end up with iPads and the Captain Picard manual ... Just in time for El Capitan!

Babz

Babz wrote:

Shooshie wrote:
Well, glad to have it. I've installed it now, but still haven't had a chance to really use it. (Still working on something outside of my long-time DAW world.)

Shoosh

There it is again. The mysterious Shooshie black ops project. Don't worry. We don't want to know. We know that if you told us you have to kill us -- possibly even with boredom, which is surely the cruelest death.

Don't ask. Don't tell. We'll still be here DAWgin' away in our DAWg gone world, whenever you reemerge from deep cover.

Agent 99 Babz

AWRIGHT... You are sorely tempting me. I may just have to explain the WHOLE THING. (Better order a new keyboard first. This could be... hmmm... a medium length post for me.)

Nah. Better not. I'll wait until internet traffic drops and server loads are down.

Shoosh