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I think they are, but I could be wrong. I did a project last year where everything was supplied as MXL files. They were from different people created in different apps. They all imported seamlessly into Finale. I was actually quite surprised at how painless the process was - a few tweaks here and there, but otherwise easy peasy.MIDI Life Crisis wrote:Or are all XML files created equal?
Shooshie wrote:DP9, NAMM Presentation Notes
New Features
Thanks to James for posting the video of Magic Dave’s demo at NAMM. Many will immediately see how the new features benefit them. Some maybe not. I thought I’d just post a commentary of my own thoughts on it, if anyone’s interested. First of all, kudos to Magic Dave. That's a great demo, Dave, and if anything, it's understated and low-key, but what more could you do on the floor at NAMM, where it's hard enough to hear yourself think, much less give a demo for the ears! But you pull it off very well. Maybe if you had some fireworks to launch for certain parts of your demo... I just don't think the audience knew how big some of these announcements were. Every booth there is talking about exciting new features, but MOTU is really delivering!
1. Add Tracks Wizard: This could be a very impressive feature, but we don’t have a lot of information on it yet. If it combines the best of Audio Assignments with the Tracks Overview I/O, plus a savable template, in a small dialog space (not so much mousing around), then this will be a tremendous timesaver. If on the other hand it merely moves the setup from the Tracks Overview to the new dialog, then it may be a little faster, not having to use the menus and TO window, but it would not speed up the I/O settings for a large number of tracks. Here’s hoping that we can set up large numbers of Audio, MIDI, and/or Aux tracks with range I/O selection as in Audio Assignments. (Create and set 10 MIDI tracks to ten MIDI channels or one MIDI channel, for example) If it does that, in addition to the more convenient layout, plus saving a template, then this thing is going to let us ROAR through project setup!
2. Automation Lanes: Again, we don’t have a lot of information on what this can and cannot do, but it looks like a step in the right direction. For one thing, it makes the Sequence Editor MUCH, MUCH more useful for MIDI editing. I’ve never liked the Sequence Editor for MIDI, because you got this mess of data superimposed in one spot, with no real way to get at all of it quickly while keeping it separate. The MIDI Graphic Editor Window is far superior at that. With Automation Lanes, we may be seeing a new era in MIDI editing in which the Sequence Editor becomes equal to, if not superior to, the Graphic Editor for MIDI. I'm really hoping that Automation Lanes becomes available in the Graphic Editor, too, but read on. I'll explain more below.
The next question is whether this allows us to select notes AND automation simultaneously with one sweep of the mouse, while the automation types are in their various lanes. Moreover, it would be nice if we could select notes, then get the controllers and/or automation that goes exactly with those notes with a simple conversion from event to range selection.
Too soon to tell if they’ve given us that capability yet, but it’s an easy thing to program if they’ll just add it! Until then, I will have to use my workaround in the Tips Sheet, page 2: Working with Selections in DP. Seems awkward to read about it, but it works lightning fast. MOTU, we want something simple that works that fast to select the expression, breath control, or any other controller that goes with notes, so that we can pick up and move a perfectly-played phrase in one action, without having to select notes, then tediously select the controllers we want to go with the notes. Envision “auto-select controllers in open lanes.” THAT WOULD BE AMAZING!!! I’d use the Sequence Editor for that if they’d just make it happen! (but why not also in the MIDI Graphic Editor?)
3. Spectral Display: This is GREAT! Anyone who has chosen their EQ plugin because it has an FFT display, or who uses 3rd party meters while adjusting EQ and compression in other plugins, will love this feature instantly. This is a brilliant idea and a spectacular addition to DP. Nuff said.
4. Project Notepad: I think this is a very nice, convenient method of adding project notes. That said, let’s not forget that we already have many places to add various kinds of notes:Nevertheless, even with all this convenience and attention to notes and comments, we have needed an actual notepad window in which to write all we need to remember about a project. Sometimes it can be pages of stuff, and that just isn’t efficient (or possible) in Chunks comments. Startup Clippings are great, but most people do not know they exist or how to set them up, and it’s possible for those to get separated from the DP file over years of time. Plus, good luck finding the current version of the app you wrote it in if your startup clipping is archived with a DP file for ten years. I’ve got usable DP files that are 28 years old, and I can assure you that if startup clippings had existed then, none of their apps would open now. On the other hand, my tracks comments from those first files are STILL THERE. So, in 10 years, I feel confident that DP’s Project Notepad will still be readable. I wish we’d had it all these years!
- a) Chunks Comments
b) Track Comments
c) Markers
d) Song Lyrics
e) Startup Clippings: Store any app, alias, or a file from any app in the Startup Clippings, and it will open simultaneously with your project, although it will be in its own app space.
5. XML Notation Export: Export Quickscribe to Sibelius and Finale? Bravo! C’mon, everyone say it together: BRAVO! This is a case of that obvious, bang-on-the-head idea, a “eureka moment” when the answer to one of our big complaints has been staring us in the face all these years, but it was never possible to do it. DP has a very good notation engine which gives you accurate transcriptions within Quickscribe, but QS has never been a full-featured notation engraver. So, to take the notes from DP and put them in Finale, Sibelius, or the late Mosaic (RIP), we had to copy the chunk and quantize the whole thing before spitting out a standard MIDI file. Quantization, by nature, doesn’t do nearly as good a job of transcription, because it’s responding to a whole different need. That means it’s hands-on throughout the sequence as you make sure every note is placed where it ought to be. Why not use that Quickscribe transcription for a whole new form of output, which then could be opened in Sibelius, et al? MOTU’s done it! Thank you, thank you, thank you, MOTU!
6. Instruments, plugins: Well, what can you say to free gifts? How about “Thank you!” I think MX4 will fill a large void in DP as regards synths. I happen to be one of those people who love the little synths bundled in DP many versions ago, but MX4 casts a huge shadow over those, as good as they are. Plus, it’s nice to see MX4 updated for 64 bits.
Then there are the plugins. you can’t go wrong with those. They’re simply wonderful to have, and they’re free. One thing we know about MOTU’s plugins is that they are always very well-done. The plugins they have added over the past 15 years or so have been legendary. I’m pretty sure these new ones will keep up the tradition.
and finally…
7. Learn Controller: Folks, if you take all the new features, possibly excepting Automation Lanes (if they’re done right) over the past several versions of DP, and if you give each one 10 points and add them together, they will not equal the number of points that this feature is worth. This is that Steve Jobs' “one more thing” moment that should have sent the whole showroom floor cheering when Dave mentioned it. This is freaking HUGE. Permit me to write a small book about it:
To paraphrase Magic Dave: “if I choose “Learn Controller” from the Consoles Menu, and then click on any parameter in the Mixing Board, inside of a plugin, any parameter inside of DP, and then go wiggle that external controller, then the controller will learn the parameter.”
Do you realize what that means? Hit the key command for Learn Controller, touch the parameter, then send a controller message, and you’ve got a link set up. External fader boards, keyboards with knobs, faders, ribbon controllers, anything that sends a MIDI controller message through the cables, can operate ANYTHING in DP in real time! He didn’t specifically say that it will work with 3rd party plugins, but I see no reason why it wouldn’t, since automation already works with them. Anything that reports its parameters to DP for mixing or automation should be able to use this.
But it doesn't stop there. Noooo... not by a long shot. You see, it revives what has essentially been a dormant feature in DP, rarely used by anyone these days: Custom Consoles. If you know how Custom Consoles work, imagine being able to create one so easily —touch the parameter, wiggle the controller— and you’ll instantly realize the possibilities here. Envision a customized board of virtual faders, knobs and buttons on your screen which control dozens of plugin and mixing board parameters. Some of these functions may operate in groups slaved to others, and you may choose to have some operate at a percentage, even OPPOSITE to the master. Not enough? How about letting other MIDI tracks control your plugins in real time? Even SysEx commands? And you can have these follow any MIDI controller in your hardware arsenal. Use all the faders, knobs, keys, wheels, transducers, ribbons and buttons on all your MIDI devices to run your plugins and mixing board either directly or indirectly via Custom Consoles, and the best part is that you don’t have to program the target. It just learns it! Once you’ve got an operating Custom Console, you can add operators, controllers, tracks, targets, master/slave modes, and so forth.
I’ve always believed that the Custom Consoles represented a hidden strength in DP that just needed some tweaking to bring it into the 21st Century. I used custom consoles for a lot of things, some of which were hard to explain. For example, when working with Yamaha Disklaviers, I set up sliders or buttons that directly moved the pedals on the grand pianos while I was remotely editing their MIDI in DP. It could shift the keyboard side-to-side (unacorda pedal) as a previously-agreed-upon signal to the pianist sitting at its keyboard, merely by pushing a button in a custom console. It could control lighting instruments. Convert controllers in real time. There were so many things that were possible, that it would be impossible to list them all. The imagination was the only limit… except for one thing: you had to program each and every one of them, and that was trial-&-error until you got the hang of it. The manual was not completely correct about some things. I’m still not sure if some of the SysEx stuff actually works as they describe it.
So, I’m going out on a limb, and I’m going to presume that they fixed up Custom Consoles and made them work correctly, then they have given us a means of creating them instantly with "MIDI Learn,” which has long been the most popular and desirable way of adding a controller to any parameter in virtual instruments and plugins. Some VI's literally allow you to add a controller to any and every parameter in the interface, dozens of them. But what if the developer didn’t program MIDI Learn into their VI or plugin? Well, many in this forum have suggested that MOTU figure out a way to add MIDI Learn to any and every parameter of all plugins. If I’m hearing Magic Dave correctly, that is exactly what they have done!
This is unbelievable. It’s a tremendous gift from MOTU to its users. It goes way beyond regular MIDI Learn, offering means of controlling many diverse parameters in various plugins and mixing board channels using faders placed together in a single window. It offers complex programming or utter simplicity, as you wish. Most of all, it allows the use of any external hardware to control pretty much anything in DP. And it sets up the basic Custom Console for you. (you add custom on-screen faders, groups, slaves, other targets, etc. after creating the MIDI Learn link.) Look out, world! One of the most powerful features in DP has been reborn!
Well, I cannot wait to see this. I believe this dormant, quirky feature reborn as a MIDI star will revolutionize DP and create a whole new buzz of interest in this “old” DAW.A side comment:
There are still many features we have asked for — some for years — which have not yet been addressed, and while I want to give MOTU a big pat on the back for a job well-done, I also think it’s important for them to stay with it and keep listening to us. Some of these things people keep asking for are important to growing a base of new users. Please keep reading our “wish list” threads: more intelligent parsing of regions in the tracks overview (parsing the dangling controllers at the edges) and the ability to keep regions (and/or selections) grouped as MIDI objects in the graphic editors; absolute (on-beat) grid snapping for any MIDI event or objects; a MIDI mute tool (expand the audio mute tool to edit MIDI similarly); and many other features, fixes or tweaks are constantly being asked for by a wide cross section of users. And most of all: keep responding to our bug reports, fixing little details that aren't quite the way they were intended.
This round of new features actually DOES address several of our requests in spectacular ways, but we're not there yet. I’m not being critical; just saying that these are fantastic steps toward the “complete” DP that we all hope to use some day. And of course you haven't even announced all the new features and fixes, so it's likely there's even more to be happy about in DP9.
But with all the above said and done, there is no doubt about it: this round of new features is not just for show, not just to wow and woo new users to DP. Some of these are answers to our begging on bended knee. Your attentiveness and hard work are MUCH appreciated! Except for one little niggling annoyance: WHY DIDN’T YOU DO ALL THIS 20 YEARS AGO?
In gratitude, I think I speak for DP users everywhere.
If those controls send out MIDI commands, then yes. How they could apply to scrubbing, however, is a question only answerable by using what MOTU has created, and seeing how they implemented it. Most commands in DP have always been accessible with MIDI, via the Commands Window. So if scrubbing has a "joggable" command, and if the jog wheel sends MIDI, then you can probably do that even now. (Use the MIDI masters to turn on MIDI control of DP) That's an "if" you'll have to explore, however. I don't have a jog wheel.Bennie Sims wrote:I have a real simple question and maybe you have answered already; Does learn controller mean I may finally be able to make the joystick and Jog wheel functional on my Tascam US 2400 controller? If this is true I would like to prepay for DP 9!!!LOL!!! The jog wheel is functional in scrub mode but in Logic I can Jog extremely fast through a long project without scrub mode. I want that!!
I relied on FFT meters for years, but you kind of have to be looking at the right place at the right time to really see what's going on. Spectral meters, especially those in 3-D and in color, give a much more vivid, graphic picture of what you're hearing, at a more relaxed pace. For years before the FFTs I worked without meters most of the time, proud of my ability to translate harmonics and structure of sound into numbers I could manipulate with EQ, but then one day I tried using meters and discovered how much time I had wasted just analyzing the sound and doing mental math. Geez. That was a dumb feeling and comeuppance. Kind of like pounding nails with your bare fists, and then one day discovering the hammer. But the problem with meters is that you have to insert a plugin and open it, arrange the window, and all that. DP9 has solved that with the new spectral meter built into the Sequence Editor. I don't see how this could be anything but great.Babz wrote:Lanes seems the most exciting for me. Spectral Display may become something I will learn to rely on, but I'm getting by just fine with waveforms as my main visual cue in the SE.
Oh, I'll forgive him for that. After all, he was a member of the Fab Four. Some folks can sure make nice music with those little dots. Ravel, for example. Or Bach. I think there may have been others, too, prior to the Beatles. ;^)Babz wrote: I don't remember much about MX4 (if I ever heard it at all), so I'm curious to see what it can do. The guitar fx and 1176 are redundant for me, but it's nice to have them native to DP. Don't use notation much, but anything that makes what I play more readable by those people who DO use "the little dots" (as Sir Paul refers to them) is welcome.
Dave didn't specify that 3rd party plugins are covered, but why wouldn't they be? Basically, this is a combination of track automation layers and Custom Consoles, so any plugin that reports its controls to the track automation layers should be covered, wouldn't you think? And yeah... that would be huge! Being so quick, easy, and universal makes it better. But connecting all that parameter automation and control with Custom Consoles (if they work as advertised, which sometimes in the past they have not) just opens up a magical mystical realm for those who like to tinker.Babz wrote: LOVE the idea of Learn Controller, but my initial reaction is "How is this really much better than the MIDI Learn I've used for years?" Most third party plugins already have MIDI learn, and you can use it in DP with the Mixing Board, etc. If it truly does bring MIDI Learn to third party plugins that lack it, that could be HUGE.
Babz wrote: P.S. What was your favorite DP 8 feature? For me, I now think it was the Dynamic EQ (which I initially thought was redundant for me as a UAD user, but it turned out to me much better than UAD for me when I tried it in a mastering project. Just goes to show, hindsight, yadda yadda ...) Oh, and 64-bit, of course!