MOTUnation.com

Hi All

Like a lot of people I've been waiting for DP8 on Windows since it was announced... and waiting... so I was very pleased to get the email saying the demo had finally arrived.

Over the years I've worked with most PC DAWs starting out on Cakewalk Pro Audio in the mid 90s, through Logic until apple took it away. Then toyed with Cubase finally settling on Pro Tools (which I use to this day). I've never been a fan of MIDI in Pro Tools so was looking for something else and as working to picture is of interest to me DP seemed to be the perfect solution.

It's not.......yet.

I've worked on a few small pieces with it and I like the way it works for the most part (once I got my head round it). There are things that are weird , there are things that are great (being able to save plug in chains for one). I like the 'everything there' interface with the tabs.

There are crashes and problems but not loads for me. I have it running on a Win7 i7 32bit desktop and a Win8 64bit laptop and it works well on both and is great on the laptop.

The biggest problems I've noticed are some VSTs won't show despite passing muster. ASIO seems buggy for some devices, and a few random crashes when using 'undo'.

Neither V-Station or Bass Station are selectable but show in the plug in settings as 'passed'(yes they are legit versions and the latest). Anyone have these running? I think there are a couple of other plugs with the same behavior.

Can't drag MIDI from EZdrummer to the sequence without DP crashing.

Kontakt seems to cut notes short or not play them depending on it's mood. I have a feeling it used to do this in Pro Tools too and I figured it out so may not be a DP problem (I only use it for Session Strings occasionally).

My Alesis IO14 keeps loosing connection be it native ASIO drivers or ASIO4ALL. My M-Audio Firewire solo works without issue as does the Realtek built-in soundcard on my laptop with ASIO4ALL.

I want people to be enthusiastic about DP in Windows. I want it to happen!

Lets hope they can get it a little more stable before the demo runs out.

OK so 8.03 solves a couple of the issues!

MIDI can now be dragged from EZdrummer and the ASIO drivers seem more stable.

Good work chaps. Now for the missing plugins......

About the missing plugins. Just a thought. Are these WIN 8 compatible?

Yup the Novation plugins are Win 8 compatible (even listed as such on the Novation website).

The same problem occurs on both machines the same way(Win 7 32 and Win 8 64). DP sees them and they show as passed in the plug in settings dialog but they don't appear in the instrument list or even effects by mistake.

I have even tried wrapping the plugins with jbridge on the 64 bit machine (which works well for some of my older plugins) with the same results, DP passes it but wont let me use it!

Plugins work fine in Reaper (the only other VST host I have on the WIn 8 laptop)and Pro Tools 9 although that is RTAS anyway).

I'm tempted to lay blame on Novation, as the same problem afflicts more than one of their plugins but the same plugins work in everything else.

I'm technologically able and open to ideas anyone?

Could this be related to Stereo vs mono plugins view in related tracks?

Thanks for the suggestion Don T. I just had another look and most VSTs come up with a mono or stereo choice but the novation ones have neither. I tried adding an empty instrument and selecting plugin after the fact (rather than creating it with the instrument populated from the context menu) but that still didn't get any result.

I have sent a support message to Novation so maybe they can shed some light.

What is your case number so we can speed up the process and help you get your issue resolved?

No word from Novation as yet but I am in the hands of Dave at MOTU.