NAMM NEWS - DP 10 - It's Here!

[MW1]

Anyone know if MOTU has addressed the visibility of the velocity stalks in the MIDI Edit window in DP10?

[MikeInBoston]

Hey guys,

I have a feeling that the new snap features do not include being able to snap to the grid when you are drawing in automation. What do you think? Does anybody know if this has been implemented?

Mike

[kwiz]

Hey guys,

I have a feeling that the new snap features do not include being able to snap to the grid when you are drawing in automation. What do you think? Does anybody know if this has been implemented?

Mike

Yes, it has!!

[Michael Canavan]

Hey guys,

I have a feeling that the new snap features do not include being able to snap to the grid when you are drawing in automation. What do you think? Does anybody know if this has been implemented?

Mike

Yes, it has!!

[Gone To Lunch]

What is VCA support for faders, and why does it matter ?

[frankf]

Anyone know if MOTU has addressed the visibility of the velocity stalks in the MIDI Edit window in DP10?

The reply I got was not really, only as much as the new Scale command increases the sizes of all the DP windows. It’s “on the list” I was told.

A new feature is display of the note name when cursor is over it. If implemented as I understand the answer to my question, it may help when grabbing a note and dragging to change pitch. We will see.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[mhschmieder]

Ah, thanks for the reminder -- I hadn't seen the MPE acronym as much as the longer descriptive title. Is it something that can be grafted into a DAW through other means?

VST3 support is important, even for those of us who likely will stick with AU due to the added protection of capturing one's settings at a level that won't get overwritten by a plug-in update.

I went through the MOTU presentation at their website over lunch, and definitely found some big time-savers in there, such as the ability to filter the MIDI Event view -- something I do laboriously by hand and which therefore also can cause complications with the Undo/Redo buffer.

What struck me the most though, was the cleaner graphics and especially the more legible fonts, in conjunction with GUI scaling. Having wider mixer columns helps too, so it's easier to avoid confusion in big projects.

I'm curious whether they re-did the GUI from scratch using a different toolkit. Possibly they simply went from Objective-C to Swift? Although I don't know if they're now using a cross-platform toolkit like Qt or JUCE (it's definitely not Java or wxWidgets -- at least in DP 9.5). It looks like they are using CSS styling (which is now supported by both Qt and JavaFX; not sure which other toolkits support it for skinning applications).

[Michael Canavan]

In order to make it really enticing they would have to add in a lot more than just MPE, and it wouldn't make sense to open up MIDI to the level to add MPE without addressing the other areas of MIDI people are on about.

I couldn't have put it better myself. For a while I've felt like they were very behind in their MIDI implementation, and was hoping DP10 would be the overhaul with all kinda of track-specific settings and updates, but alas, once again MIDI takes a back seat. I do feel like MPE is just one specific to a larger issue, one that hasn't been addressed for about 10 years now.

I would bet it's coming. I'm not 100% on this, but it feels like DP is on a forward move into the future. Because the company makes so much dolla's off of hardware I feel like they can really go into the software if they want to, and lately we're seeing that, NextGen, New stretch, Z plane etc. it's a lot of major improvement over the last 5 years.

Not to compare arbitrarily, but I'm seeing this with AKAI and the MPC software as well, they have a huge legacy product in the MPC sequencer, hell almost as old as DP, and the MPC Live and X are truly modern products. They keep on dumping in free upgrade features, adding in embedded soft synths to the stand alone etc. etc. They've decided to go all in on the surface tech they're embracing it and moving an older product into the future.

I'm sure some are just WTFing? their buttocks off about Clips, but it's a sure sign that MOTU aren't just thinking about the audience they have right now. If done right Clips Window puts them in the unique position to be both a dinosaur and a modern DAW, Cubase usually has this spotlight, but moving past Cubase with Clips instead of playing catch up in terms of MPE and the like is an interesting move.

I really wouldn't be surprised at all if the next upgrade to 11 was in two years or less. Also they will need to license rights to use Spinal Tap in their advertisements..

[mhschmieder]

About the question on VCA faders, which I will answer off-the-cuff for now as it's been so long since I looked into that (it was originally going to be in DP 9.5 as I recall).

My vague recollection is that it is like a combination of a Group and an Aux, in that it allows for treating a bunch of faders as though they are linked together, but I think it also is related to helping with matching Equal Power.

I know there was a much more in-depth discussion and description a year or two ago when it was first proposed/announced for DP.

Someone (several people actually) early on said that VCA faders weren't in the published spec for DP 10, but that must have been while I was still asleep, as ALL of the announcements I saw late this morning already mentioned it. So perhaps it was an oversight in the first write-up and got corrected quickly.

[mhschmieder]

With MIDI 2.0 expected to finally become "real" and widely adopted, MOTU may also be waiting to do that and MPE at the same time.

It may also have been too risky (not to mention developer resource intensive) to take care of that at the same time as VST3, considering how they might collide if not done carefully (both probably require some restructuring of existing code, communications, and module interactions within the app).

[Michael Canavan]

No one has commented on it yet, but in the photo for the new Clip Window on MOTU's website the dudes hand is on his iPhone, using what looks like a mixer app. Wondering if MOTU aren't redoing their app for DP10? That would be great!

[mhschmieder]

Michael, thanks for the hints on how Clips might be useful.

I do occasionally work that way -- especially when deliberately going after a specific genre or feel. And that means I might take a well-done MIDI loop from Twiddly.BITS and others who do human-feeling MIDI, to sort of set the tempo map (which I rarely keep constant through a song) and transitions, overall arrangement, before "detailing" later. So I do sometimes use placeholders and/or a bit of pattern or fill-based stuff -- especially for genres that aren't my forte.

Good suggestion also on partnering with control surface builders, for good integration of MIDI messaging and a more ergonomic interaction vs. mouse and keyboard, as that could speed up that phase of song construction even more.

[Michael Canavan]

About the question on VCA faders, which I will answer off-the-cuff for now as it's been so long since I looked into that (it was originally going to be in DP 9.5 as I recall).

My vague recollection is that it is like a combination of a Group and an Aux, in that it allows for treating a bunch of faders as though they are linked together, but I think it also is related to helping with matching Equal Power.

I know there was a much more in-depth discussion and description a year or two ago when it was first proposed/announced for DP.

Someone (several people actually) early on said that VCA faders weren't in the published spec for DP 10, but that must have been while I was still asleep, as ALL of the announcements I saw late this morning already mentioned it. So perhaps it was an oversight in the first write-up and got corrected quickly.

Yep, pretty much. The idea of VCA faders is that sends and returns don't have to be remixed, also there's a limit to group tracks and volume, at some point you can't go to 11, or you get to absolute zero, not so with VCA faders. I'm probably more guilty than most of you of having to constantly remix my song while composing and recording because my hand always reaches for the quite track instead of lowering the louder ones.. this should help me..

[frankf]

What is VCA support for faders, and why does it matter ?

Check this 2008 Sound on Sound article (ProTools):
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... vca-groups


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[Michael Canavan]

With MIDI 2.0 expected to finally become "real" and widely adopted, MOTU may also be waiting to do that and MPE at the same time.

It may also have been too risky (not to mention developer resource intensive) to take care of that at the same time as VST3, considering how they might collide if not done carefully (both probably require some restructuring of existing code, communications, and module interactions within the app).

This seems like a dead logical reason why the MIDI improvements we are seeing are all tiny non VSTi influencing parts.

The only thing I hate about early announcements is early announcements.
That's one thing I love about Apple with Logic, they just drop it like a bomb, no teases, just BAM!
I'm liking this "first quarter" thing though, that's a huge improvement!