MOTUnation.com

I had been using DP for over 25 years. During this time it has been my companion to hundreds of projects, songs, albums, film scores and all manner of audio work.
A year ago I started using Reaper out of interest. In many ways it is way less refined than DP, but there were a few things that sped up my process so much, that I ended up switching over. The last version of DP that I have bought was 9. I tried version 10 but I still preferred some things in Reaper. I thought I'd share the main things that make me continue down that path.

Sub-Projects - a huge time saver scoring for film
Shortcuts and macros and templates of all sorts - another time warping thing
Folders being stems - I can't live without them!
Rendering options
Console 1 integration - fantastic
Melodyne ARA - also a great step up in workflow
There are many many others. But theses are the ones that come to mind.

I am so grateful to DP, MOTU and You guys for years of community life that was quintessential to me.
I consider You like a family. I will probably be a lot less here then elsewhere but I will be checking on the progress DP makes in those areas. I am more then happy to jump right back in.

Big hugs!

Hmmm... Reaper?

How does Reapér handle picture? Can you have multiple sequences in a single project?

supersonic wrote: Sub-Projects - a huge time saver scoring for film
Shortcuts and macros and templates of all sorts - another time warping thing

Could you please expand a little on those 2 points?
What are Sub-Projects and how are they different from DP's chunks?

What about those macros and templates? How are they different from DP, or why do you like them?

MIDI Life Crisis wrote:How does Reapér handle picture? Can you have multiple sequences in a single project?

Video is handled like audio. It can also be edited within the sequence just like audio, with fades, effects etc.
You can have multiple sequences via the sub-project. A subproject is a nested sequence. Whereas in DP you need to use the song, which I always found cumbersome, the sub-project can be made from a single item or from many. What that means it that I have the main sequence with the film and it's audio. I then have 2 to 4 stems of my own score, where live the sub-projects. Each one of them represents a cue. They look like a normal wav but are in fact a rendered version of the sub-project and can be edited further just like a normal wav would. You can for example shorten in right there and then, by simple slicing it and taking parts out. If you double click it or any of it's parts, the entire project gest loaded as a second project (they load in tabs). You work on it and as soon as you are done and click close or update, the render in the main sequence will get updated with whatever changes you made to it. While in the sub-project, the audio from the main (parent) sequence plays in sync. The caveat is that the video does not but that is easily resolved with the Videoslave, which plays the video separately from Reaper.
you can have nested sub-projects as much as you like. For example, in a song you can have the entire instrumental in a subproject, working as a render, therefor not using any CPU, and record vocals. Whenever you need to edit something you go back in, make the changes and then continue. Very useful on very large sessions.

I'm sure you and the new girlfriend will be very happy together.

supersonic wrote: Video is handled like audio. It can also be edited within the sequence just like audio, with fades, effects etc.

Wait! This is also a video editor? How deep can you go? I'll check their site (they do have a site, don't they?)

No impressed based on their site. They don't tell you a lot about the GUI and features and I'd rather not climb down that rabbit hole and install the app if I don't know exactly what it claims to do.

I'm also put off by the pricing. $60 for home use; $225 for "commercial use" as long as you don't make over $20k a year. And f you make over $20k? And how do they police that?

This smells bad to me. I've heard good and bad things about this app, and it just doesn't seem that it can possibly be better than DP for audio work. It may jump a few hurdles that DP hasn't targeted, but I've yet to hit a ceiling where DP could not perform a desired process. Video editing seems like an interesting addition. I wish I knew more about the implementation but FCP X is a pretty good editor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_ncvqnsvk4

Best of luck and happy producing, Supersonic.

Nothing wrong with the grim one. It's not some evil plot. I tried it out a while ago, and it was fine, but didn't do enough better to make it worth the effort to become proficient and productive with it. For some it would be just what they want.

One of the side benefits of trying other DAWs is they sometimes do things that you haven't considered, and you might ask yourself whether DP can do the same thing. Often it can.

As for the pricing, it's an honour system, and I doubt there is any policing beyond the stupidly obvious cases of piracy. DP pricing, in the end is also an honour system. We all pay for it because we decide to do so. Some don't pay for it, but get it, and use it anyway.

bayswater wrote: As for the pricing, it's an honour [sic] system...

So according to their request, don't use R... if you plan on being successful. DOesn't exactly instill confidence in their business model, nor their clientele. lol

Non Sequitor.

bayswater wrote:Non Sequitor.

You mean my objection to the pricing? If so, it's completely illogical. I'd be interested to know which morons paid the $225 or which complete idiots didn't use the program because they made $20,00.01.

It's illogical and insincere. If they're that stupid in the marketing, how smart can they be in their programming?

Pass.

MIDI Life Crisis wrote:

bayswater wrote:Non Sequitor.

You mean my objection to the pricing? If so, it's completely illogical. I'd be interested to know which morons paid the $225 or which complete idiots didn't use the program because they made $20,00.01.

It's illogical and insincere. If they're that stupid in the marketing, how smart can they be in their programming?

Pass.

I mean your argument doesn't follow. An unusual pricing model for a DAW does not translate directly into the talent or morality of the users. Some people will pay for the R thing to support it, because they like what the developers are doing, not just because they'll be arrested if they don't. Some won't pay for it at all, and some who make $20,001 using it won't pay the full ticket, but if the users and developers are generally happy with this arrangement, what does it matter to us? It has made this one of the most widely used DAWs on the planet. It may not be the usual business model but it works, and it's pretty common in other markets.

Sometimes people are asked to pay what they think they can afford or what they think the product is worth. You might have done a concert with admission by donation, and might expect a local billionaire to pay more than a first year music student. It's all good. Here, the winner of the Chopin piano competition is hired each year by local music societies to do a concert in Vancouver. This year, they couldn't do a concert, so they taped it, put it on youtube and asked people to pay what they wanted to watch it. I could have watched it for free, but I paid. Some paid a lot. It doesn't make them idiots.

You might say people who pay for DP are idiots. They could get it for free, and no one would ever know. Instead we buy paid updates because we like what MOTU does, and we know they can't do it if we don't keep doing the updates and they don't keep getting new customers. Like the people who pay the full freight for R, we're not idiots, just socially responsible members of a musical market.

MIDI Life Crisis wrote: If they're that stupid in the marketing, how smart can they be in their programming?

and BTW, I think we all know people who are brilliant at something like music or IT or cooking, etc., but haven't figured out how to make money at it. Lots of great bands would have never seen a recording studio without a good business manager. They're no necessary connection between technical brilliance and marketing prowess. Otherwise the world would have no middlemen. Probably no lawyers or real estate agents either.

I suppose it just reeks of amateurism and assumptions in the marketing. A lot of people I know use it and like it. None of them are making over $20k a year. And why it that the yardstick? Again, an imbecilic and arbitrary number pulled out of someone's ying yang. It just feels like the kind of people I'd rather not support. Maybe, MAYBE if they actually described the product in detail w/o having to d/l it I might even give it a look. But no, "we say it's good so it's good... download it." To which I say "eff you."

And frankly, I'd really miss MOTU's plugins. It shall remain Sléeper for this kid.

BTW, did you ever think that DAW spelled backwards is WAD? Makes ya think... lol