Digital Performer Notes

The single-window user interface of MOTU's new 'universal sampler' plug-in, MachFive.

The recent NAMM show served to confirm many of MOTU's previous announcements about DP for OS X, as well as various rumours that have been knocking around for a while. Although DP for OS X wasn't actually released at NAMM, it was shown in action, and used for most of MOTU's presentations. That would suggest that it's well into the beta-testing phase, so a projected release date of March or April could well be achievable. As ever, keep visiting www.motu.com for the latest info.

Here's a roundup of the latest information regarding DP for OS X. Support for OS X's built-in Core MIDI is confirmed, and would seem to dispense with the need for FreeMIDI. Some form of time-stamping technology, which provides very accurate external MIDI timing via MOTU MIDI interfaces, survives the transition to OS X, though it's not clear at this stage if this is MOTU's proprietary MTS system, as used with their USB-equipped interfaces under OS 9. Luckily MOTU is currently converting all of its FreeMIDI patchlists for the new Core MIDI format, so users won't be left with hours of tedious typing a

Current Version     MOTU Digital Performer: v3.1.

Although it was never mentioned in earlier MOTU press releases, the new DP will support X's Core Audio. Consequently, it will be able to take advantage of the new Apple Audio Units plug-in standard without resorting to a 'wrapper'. MAS is still very much alive and well, though, and will apparently operate 'inside' Core Audio (although it's not currently clear exactly what MOTU mean by that!). This means that the current complement of MAS plug-ins should still be on offer, though no doubt in an upd

Rewire 2.0 compatibility has been announced, and though Rewire has worked OK with DP since version 2.7, hopes are now high that the minor timing inaccuracies of the present version will be ironed out.

Lastly, DP's scoring capabilities, QuickScribe, will receive a boost, allowing essential notation symbols like repeat and ending barlines as well as codas to be used for the first time.

The implications of Core Audio support, in particular, are very wide-ranging. It should mean that DP users have access to a far wider choice of plug-ins and virtual instruments than ever before, and enjoy better compatibility than was possible via intermediaries like VST Wrapper or Pluggo. Having said that, it's almost certain that Audio Ease will be bringing out a version of VST Wrapper to work under OS X. And Cycling '74, who make Pluggo, have already announced an OS X version, with both MAS and Audio Units formats very much on the cards.

So, on balance, it seems to be a win-win situation for DP users who switch to OS X, with wider compatibility, less complexity, and enhanced operation of what we already know and work with. It also seems likely that a move to OS X will be nothing less than essential for users who want to stay right up to date with the latest offerings from third-party developers. Native Instruments, for example, has dropped support for FreeMIDI and MAS in its Reaktor v3 release, and it seems likely that many smaller companies which have MAS-format offerings will begin to put their efforts into Audio Units instead.

If you're the sort of person who gets a kick out of watching automated faders move on a digital mixer (and, let's face it, who doesn't?) then DP v3.1's Track Groups are for you, although almost anyone should find them handy.

The idea behind them is to allow editing or mixing actions to take place on a number of tracks by working wi

DP v3.1's new, enhanced Track Groups feature, allowing work on just one track to control faders, pans and a range of editing actions on a whole group of tracks simultaneously.

For starters, it's as easy as ever to temporarily group faders (or pans) in the Mixing Board. Hold down Shift and click on the faders or pan knobs you want to group, and then grab just one of them — hey presto, they all move. But this is the most primitive and temporary form of grouping, in that the group disappears after you've made just one adjustment. For a more permanent group, choose 'Create Group' from the mini-menu. Now you can click around to your heart's content (you don't have to use Shift this time) and simply hit return when you're done. Now the New Track Group dialogue box appears, asking you which features of the tracks you chose should be grouped, and you'll notice there's a lot more on offer than just faders and pans. For now, though go with the default, give your group a name, and hit Return. Your faders (or pans) now stay grouped, although you can still make individual adjustments by holding down the Alt/Option key before clicking and dragging.

However, Track Groups can do much more. Go to the Tracks window and select some tracks by dragging over their names. Now hold down Shift and Command/Apple and hit the 'G' key, and the New Track Group dialogue appears once more. Select Edit and Mix from the pop-up menu and hit Return. In one fell swoop, you've now linked the selected tracks so that not only their faders

The nerve centre for DP's new grouping abilities is the Tracks Group window, accessible from the Windows menu or by holding down Shift and Alt/Option and hitting the 'G' key. This shows all the groups present in a project, indicates which are active, and details the type of grouping each has. Groups can be turned on and off here by deselecting their 'On' checkboxes, or renamed by holding down Alt/Option and clicking in the Name column. By clicking a 'disclosure triangle' next to a group name, you can see which Tracks are included in a group, and finally, by selecting 'Custom' from the pop-up menu in the 'Type' menu, you get to see exactly which aspects of each track are linked. MOTU have provided three 'presets' to cover common tasks like editing and mixing, although in many cases you'll want to specify the exact nature of a group from scratch using the Custom option.

So what can Track Groups really do? Well, imagine you're recording a multi-miked drum kit to six or seven tracks simultaneously. Group those tracks appropriately to start off with and they'll all become record-enabled when you record-enable just one of them. Similarly you can mute or solo them with one click. After recording, you might configure the same Track Group to one of MOTU's preset types, 'Edit'. Now a selection in just one track will be faithfully duplicated in all the other grouped tracks. With this in place, it's easy to delete, split, copy, drag and duplicate multiple track data en masse, which ultimately should result in less time spent editing, and better uniformity between tracks. On a simpler level, though, just try making fader or pan groups for the key instrumental forces used in your sequence. You could group all the guitars, percussion or synths in a sequence, or create mute groups for trying out production ideas or simplifying a mix.

The remaining nuts and bolts of Track Groups are concerned with adding tracks to groups, or removing tracks from groups. To add to a group, first select the track you want to add, then, in the Track Groups window, select the name of the group you want to add it to. Finally, select 'Add Selection to Group' from the mini-menu. Removing a track from a group is easy — just select it in the Track Groups window, and choose 'Remove Tracks from Group' from the menu. Finally, to turn track grouping off entirely, select 'Suspend Track Grouping' from the Track Groups menu, found under the Edit menu.