MOTU DP7.2

Looking for some excitement in your life? Try DP 7.2…

Digital Performer beta testers could barely contain their excitement (and their non-disclosure agreements) when they first experimented with DP 7.2's new Themes. Within minutes of posting the first beta with this feature, comments like "AWESOME work guys!" and "I'm as giddy as a school girl!" came flooding in to MOTU Central. Want to see what all the excitement is about?

If you own Version 7, you can now download the free Version 7.2 updater and see for yourself.

Themes let you completely change the look and feel of Digital Performer's entire user interface with one click. Here is just a small sampling of the many comments we received about Version 7.2's Themes:

"AWESOME work guys! This is really cool."

"Thank you MOTU. You guys are the best!"

"Digging the themes! I’m as giddy as a school girl..."

"Man...This is really amazing! I am SO excited at this version and can’t wait for this to hit the users."

"I have to admit, I’m stunned! Thanks MOTU."

"Themes are worth more than you can imagine. This looks so cool!"

"These themes totally change the playing field. Hats off, MOTU!"

"7.2 looks and feels amazing guys. Really great work. Thanks very much!"

"As usual, MOTU has exceeded my expectations."

This free update includes the new Themes feature, live searching in list windows, right-click menus, and more, plus all the features and enhancements first introduced in DP 7.12 and earlier. For an overview of the latest new features, visit What's new in DP 7.2. Refer to the download description and update Read Me documentation for complete details.

Digital Performer 7

Digital Performer lets you record, edit, arrange, mix, process and master audio and MIDI tracks side by side for songwriting, studio production, live performance, film and television sound tracks, audio post production, surround mixing and other professional audio production tasks.

Advanced features with intuitive operation

For beginners and experts alike, Digital Performer delivers advanced features in an intuitive, streamlined design. With support for built-in Mac audio and MIDI, you don't even need additional audio hardware. Whether you're completing a surround sound DVD, or you just want to write a song and burn a CD or MP3 file, Digital Performer gets you there quickly with elegance and ease.

Award-winning design

Record-enable a track, check the input source and level meter, then press Record. Sound familiar? Then you should be using Digital Performer. It's that simple. Digital Performer's track layout, mixing board, and transport controls are all you need for the foundation of a powerful computer-based production system.

A flexible instrument for your creativity

Digital Performer's flexible, highly customizable interface adapts to your creative style. Loop-based music production? Linear sequencing and recording? Part and score notation-based composition? Digital Performer eliminates barriers and lets your creativity flow.

Advanced new features

Version 7 delivers a suite of stunningly accurate classic guitar pedal emulations, a meticulously detailed guitar amp emulator modeled after classics from Fender and Marshall, a superb physical modeling speaker cabinet emulator with mixable mic positions (close, near and far), inline EQ and Dynamics in the Mixing Board, consolidated V-Racks display alongside your sequence in the Mixing Board, Channel Strip and Info Bar mixer controls that follow the track you’re working on, realtime crossfades, Wave64 support for recording files larger than 4GB, range automation modes, lead-sheet creation with inline lyrics and chord symbol tools, freely resizable Counter window, Marker Counter, and many other productivity enhancements.

Superlative Mac OS X support

Digital Performer provides industry-leading support for Mac OS X Core Audio and Core MIDI services. Built from the ground up for Mac users, Digital Performer takes full advantage of the latest advances in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard's multi-threading and multi-processor operation, sample-accurate MIDI Time Stamping, Core MIDI patch list support, Audio Units plug-ins and virtual instruments, support for multiple Core Audio interface drivers and more.

Get it now

With features like these, it's no surprise that Digital Performer is the choice of studio professionals, film composers, touring professionals, and remixers worldwide — get Digital Performer today.

DP7 New Features

Digital Performer 7 offers new features, enhanced operation and improved performance at all levels, from hundreds of small enhancements driven by user requests to major new features and plug-ins that add unprecedented value.

Custom '59™

Three of the most famous guitar amps of all time, meticulously and faithfully modeled in one Digital Performer plug-in.

Fender® Bassman®

Originally designed for the Fender Precision Bass®, the Fender Bassman amp was quickly adopted by guitarists and eventually became perhaps the most famous and sought after guitar amp of all time. With its classic 4x10 design (four ten-inch speakers) and vintage lacquered tweed cover, the Bassman sound is a bona fide icon among guitar tones and a must-have for any tone aficionado.

Marshall® JTM45®

Introduced in the early 1960's, the Marshall JTM45 was essentially a clone of the Fender Bassman. Made popular by Eric Clapton, the so-called "Bluesbreaker" amp is named after Clapton's band at the time, in which he popularized the now signature sound of playing a Les Paul through the heavily distorted JTM45. Ever since, the JTM45 has been ensconced in the pantheon of world-famous guitar amplifiers.

Marshall® JCM800®

As guitar tones evolved during the '60s and '70s, the hunger among guitarists for more power became insatiable. By the early '80s, Marshall had developed the JCM800 to satisfy this craving, with higher power tubes and a power boost from 50 to 100 watts. The result? Perhaps the most widely recognized guitar tones of all time.

Create your own amp

Custom '59™, Digital Performer's modeled recreation of these three legendary amps, lets you play the sound of each amp with perhaps the most faithful reproduction ever devised. Even better, you can can mix and match the preamp tube, preamp circuit and tone stack from each model to create your own custom amp. The possibilities for tone are virtually limitless, all born from the iconic pedigree of three authentic originals.

Fender® and Bassman® are registered trademarks of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. Marshall®, JTM45® and JCM800® are registered trademarks and trademarks of Marshall Amplification Plc. These trademarks are not associated or affiliated with MOTU and are used solely for the purpose of identifying specific products referenced in the description of MOTU's sound modeling development process. Use of these product names and trademarks does not imply any cooperation with or endorsement by their owners.

Live Room | G™

A superb physical modeling speaker cabinet emulator with four mics, mixable mic positions (close, near and far) and three-band EQ per channel. Live Room | G adds unprecedented realism to guitar and bass parts — or any amped instrument.

It's a real speaker cabinet, in an actual room, at your fingertips

What convolution did for reverb, Live Room | G does for speaker cabinet emulation, thanks to the next-generation physical modeling technology at its core. Engineered for the unprecedented power of today's personal computers, the modeling technology in Live Room | G captures every nuance and detail of the hundreds of factors that interact to recreate the rich, detailed sound of a speaker cabinet in a real room recorded by four separate mics.

Five cabs

Live Room | G provides five cabs:

4 x 12 Modern — intended for ultra-distorted chunks and sludge, yet versatile enough to handle smooth Santana-style leads (...Mesa Boogie® with Vintage '30s).
4 x 12 Vintage — based upon an aging, road-worn British monster held together with gaffer's tape and AquaNet. Perfect for those '80's hair-band tributes and '70's proto-metal (...Marshall 1960B with greenbacks).
2 x 12 Combo — for Muscle Shoals-style southern-rock and country guitar tones (...Fender Twin with Eminence).
4 x 10 Combo — tuned for blues, jazz, rock and country (...reissue Bassman with Jensen reissue drivers).
1 x 8 Junior — this one was set up to record distorted rhythm guitar tones for rock and pop. If you like Eddie Money then this is your cabinet. You can hear the tube shields rattling in the rear mic when you drive it really hard (...Valve Jr. cabinet, heavily modded chassis, stock speaker that looks like a Weber/Mojo).

Multiple simultaneous mics with individual EQ and mixing

These days most cab emulations give you several mic choices and even some positioning control, along with the obligatory graphical representation of a mic in front of a cabinet. Live Room | G actually simulates the process of recording a guitar amplifier in a studio with multiple adjustable microphones. Live Room | G provides four mixable mic channels (two mono plus one stereo), each with their own predelay, sidechain output, 3-band EQ, solo/mute and volume. In addition, each mono mic has the following five positions around the cab:

On axis
Off axis
Near
Rear
Far omni

The stereo (far) mic channels provide four different configurations:

XY
ORTF
Blumlein
Wide omni

Authentic guitar tones

First and foremost, Live Room | G is an indispensable component (usually the final stage) in your guitar tone signal chains. Combine Digital Performer's stomp pedal effects, Custom '59 amp emulator and Live Room | G's cab emulation in virtually unlimited combinations and you are now in guitar tone heaven.

Cab-mic anything

Live Room | G opens a world of possibilities for hearing any track through a speaker cabinet. What might take you hours of setup and tinkering with a real cabinet in a room with multiple mics will take just a few moments to set up on screen in your Digital Performer project. Try experimenting with just about any sound source to add depth, dimension and organic feel.

Classic guitar pedal effects

Digital Performer's suite of stunningly accurate classic guitar pedal emulations are modeled after all-time favorites from Boss®, MXR®, Electro-Harmonix®, Ibanez® and others. You get hundreds of dollars worth of classic stomp boxes, meticulously modeled after the originals. Dial in your favorite pedal settings, and the resulting sound is identical to — and indistinguishable from — the real thing. Experiment with hundreds of tones and thousands of combinations.

Tube Wailer™

Tube Wailer models the venerated Ibanez® TS-9 Tube Screamer® overdrive pedal, named for the "light" distortion it produces similar to an overdriven tube amp. The Tube Screamer circuit has served as the basis for an entire industry of distortion pedals over the last thirty years. Due to its popularity, the Tube Screamer is one of the most heavily "modded" (modified) pedals out there. Not to be outdone, Digital Performer's Tube Wailer emulation gives you your own mod: flip the "Diode" switch to simulate replacing the stock silicon clipper diodes with germanium diodes to extend bandwidth.

D Plus™

D Plus emulates the MXR Distortion+™ overdrive pedal, one of the great classic pedals heard on countless recordings and used as a signature sound by many artists including Randy Rhoads (Ozzy Osbourne), Jerry Garcia (Grateful Dead), Bob Mould (Hüsker Dü/Sugar), Dave Murray (Iron Maiden) and many others. Just like the original, D Plus produces a surprisingly wide range of tones considering the simplicity of the circuit design, from low-gain mild distortion, to warm tube-like overdrive, to crunchy overdrive "fuzz" with lots of sustain. Suitable for many musical styles, from jazz to heavy metal.

Delta Fuzz™

Delta Fuzz faithfully emulates the Electro-Harmonix® Big Muff p® pedal, first introduced in the early 1970's and made famous by artists like Carlos Santana and David Gilmour, who used it on two epic Pink Floyd albums (Animals and The Wall). While Electro-Harmonix had its ups and downs as a company over the years, demand for Big Muff's distinctive "sustained grind" sound grew and grew, pervading the recordings of many influential ’80s and ’90s bands including Nirvana, the Smashing Pumpkins, Dinosaur Jr., and Mudhoney.

Diamond Drive™

Diamond Drive emulates the Voodoo Lab® Sparkle Drive™ pedal, which is itself an Ibanez TS9™ clone, but with an innovative clean/saturated crossfader. By mixing the original clean signal back in to the overdriven signal, this pedal restores the "bite" and feel masked by the saturation, resulting in a perceived "cleaner" saturated tone — the magic that makes the Sparkle Drive one of the most sought-after pedals of all time.

RXT™

RXT is an emulation of The Rat™ distortion pedal by Pro Co Sound™, first produced by hand in 1978. Over the next several years, the Rat quickly gained widespread notoriety via artists such as Jeff Beck, Joe Walsh, Andy Summers and many bands like Nirvana, Sonic Youth, and Radiohead. Simply put, the Rat sound is truly legendary among stomp boxes.

Über Tube™

Über Tube is an emulation of the Ibanez® Super Tube™ overdrive pedal, a close but rare cousin of the Ibanez Tube Screamer™, with added mid boost control, introduced at around the same time as the original TS-9. A few years later, the Tube Screamer migrated to the Master Series where it was renamed simply Super Tube™ (STL).

Analog Chorus™

Analog Chorus emulates the Boss™ CE "Chorus Ensemble" series of foot pedals from the late 1970's and early ’80s, including the CE-2™ and CE-3™. Boss originated the chorus pedal effect with these ground-breaking products, and they are widely considered to be the ultimate analog chorus sound, especially for guitar, bass and electric keyboards.

Wah Pedal™

No pedal board is complete without a wah-wah pedal. This plug-in simulates the wah pedal experience with authentic flair and all the controls you expect, plus customizations any tweaker will love. Use it for guitar parts, bass parts, keyboard parts and even other instruments. Play it live for a conventional sound or use automation to create more unusual effects.

Intelligent Noise Gate™

Intelligent Noise Gate is a noise gate designed specifically for recording instruments that are prone to AC mains interference. Easily eliminate buzz and/or hum, with fine-tune adjustments for slight variations in power frequency.

Ibanez®, Tube Screamer® and Super Tube™ are trademarks and registered trademarks of Hoshino Gakki Co. Ltd. Corp. MXR™ and Distortion+™ are trademarks of Dunlop Manufacturing, Inc. Electro-Harmonix® and Big Muff® are registered trademarks of New Sensor Corp. Voodoo Lab® and Sparkle Drive™ are trademarks and registered trademarks of Digital Music Corp. Pro Co™ and The Rat™ are trademarks of Pro Co Sound, Inc. BOSS™ is a trademark of Roland Corp. These trademarks and registered trademarks are not associated or affiliated with MOTU and are used solely for the purpose of identifying specific products referenced in the description of MOTU's sound modeling development process. Use of these product names and trademarks does not imply any cooperation with or endorsement by their owners.

State-of-the-art mixing

Digital Performer’s Mixing Board window provides a powerful integrated mixing environment for MIDI, audio and instrument tracks in channel configurations from stereo up to 10.2 surround, along with real-time effects processing and virtual instrument plug-ins.

Simple yet powerful mixing

The Mixing Board will seem familiar to beginners and experts alike because it is modeled after standard hardware mixing consoles. Lurking under the hood, however, are many powerful features, as well as many time-saving shortcuts.

Uncompromising audio quality

Digital Performer delivers one of the most advanced digital audio mixing engines ever engineered. With internal 32-bit floating point precision throughout the mixing path, combined with 64-bit precision during the mastering stages, audio quality is unparalleled.

Live input monitoring

Each audio track has its own separate input monitor button, allowing you to listen to a live audio signal from the track's assigned input, independent of the track's record-enable state. This is similar to "Record Safe" mode on a conventional mixer. This simple feature facilitates all workflows that revolve around live input monitoring and recording.

Here's just one example regarding the use of Propellerhead Reason with DP6: instead of having to set up two tracks for each Reason instrument input (an aux track for live input monitoring and a disk track for bouncing the final Reason track), you can instead set up just one stereo disk track. Engage the input monitoring button to hear live Reason input, and then simply record into that same track when you are ready to commit the part to disk for archiving, session exchange or editing.

To further enhance input monitoring, the Audio Patch Thru sub-menu gives you four flexible input monitoring behaviors. For example, just like large-format consoles, Blend mode lets you hear both the live input and the disk audio during playback, before you punch in for recording.

Inline multi-band EQ and dynamics processing

Control EQ and dynamics processing directly in each Mixing Board channel with multi-band graphic EQ display and vintage-style compression meter, using any included EQ or dynamics processor, such as Digital Performer's award-winning MasterWorks Series modeled British console EQ and leveling amplifier faithfully modeled after the legendary LA-2A.

Complete mix automation

In Digital Performer, your mix is completely automatable, with an automation feature set that rivals, if not surpasses, even the most sophisticated large format mixing consoles. Automation spans both audio and MIDI tracks, and includes automation of effects plug-in parameters, track muting/unmuting, send levels, send mutes/unmutes and even pitch automation.

Automation data can be drawn by hand using a variety of tools with various shapes, and it can also be recorded in real-time with mouse gestures or a hardware control surface.

Nine automation modes are provided: Overwrite, Latch, Trim Latch, Touch, Trim Touch, Range Latch, Range Touch, Range Trim Latch, and Range Trim Touch. These last four Range modes are new in DP Version 7 and let you raise, lower or write automation moves within any selected range, preserving everything before and after. All four range automation modes are useful when mixing groups of tracks, such as background vocals or horn sections, within a specific time range, where you want to jump in and change the mix just for that range without changing it before or after.

Plug-in automation

Plug-ins can be fully automated with ramps, stair steps or other behaviors appropriate for each parameter. The management of automation parameters is optimized throughout the program for efficient and intuitive operation. For example, only parameters that are actually being automated are displayed in lists and menus. Automation snapshots provide many options. For example, they can include all parameters or only those currently being automated (i.e. parameters that exist in a track or that are enabled for automation).

Info Bar mixing controls

Every edit window in Digital Performer provides a configurable information bar across the top of the window to display critical information such as cursor location, edit grid settings and more. The Info Bar includes a "miniature" mixer channel for quick access to mix settings for the track you are working on. The Info Bar mix settings always follow the track you are editing.

Soundbite volume & gain

Draw a volume curve on an audio clip and it stays with all instances of the clip.

Apply an overall, non-destructive amount of gain or attenuation to a soundbite. All instances of the soundbite are affected.

Multiple mixdowns

Digital Performer’s Mix Mode menu in the Mixing Board lets you create, save, edit and switch between multiple mixdowns of your project. For example, you could create several completely different mixes of the same sequence. A mix consists of all the volume, pan, plug-in and other mix automation data in all the tracks of the sequence, as well as all of the current plug-ins inserted on tracks. This feature has been enhanced to include the following initial track settings (regardless of whether there is currently any automation data in the track):

Track volume
Pan
Send levels
Send mute states
Track automation mode
Track play-enable/disable state

By adding these track attributes to each saved mixdown, the Mix Mode menu provides complete independence among separate mixes, even if they don’t have any automation data in them. For example, you could simply set initial volume and pan settings for each track, create a mix, duplicate it, adjust the faders and then switch back and forth between the two mixes. You can then freely switch between them, comparing the fader settings, without the need to insert or print any automation data. In general, you will find it effortless to create and use multiple mixdowns with this feature.

Mono, stereo and n-channel busses

Digital Performer's bussing architecture can be configured with any combination of mono, stereo or n-channel (surround) busses. The Mixing Board provides the appropriate style panner, depending on the channel format you choose. Surround panners are provided for n-channel busses. In addition, multi-channel signals can be summed to a mono send. Each send also has a pre/post fader switch.

Up to 20 sends

Digital Performer supports up to 20 sends per track in the Mixing Board window. Choose as many sends as your needs require.

Consolidated Window

Digital Performer's Consolidated Window streamlines your workspace, with access to major features such as the Track List, Sequence Editor, Mixing Board and Waveform Editor accessed via tabs across the top of the window.

Click a tab to view it in the Consolidated Window, either in the center (main body) or in the left- or right-hand sidebars.

You can customize the sections of the window to suit your exact needs, adding as many sections as you wish and resizing them as desired. And you can create and save as many customized Consolidated Window layouts as you like via Digital Performer's Window Sets feature. Factory presets are provided for tracking, editing, mixing and other stages of your workflow.

Channel Strip

In sidebar cells, you can display info panels of your choice, such as the Channel Strip. The Channel Strip displays all mixer channel settings for the track you are working on, and it follows you as you move from track to track while editing in the main area of the Consolidated window, giving you instant access to mix settings at all times. It can also be popped out as a separate floating palette.

It can be displayed as one long channel strip (just like it appears in the mixing board) or collapsed into two, three or more columns.

Consolidated Window movie

To see the Consolidated Window in action and glimpse many of the workflow shortcuts it offers, download and watch this full screen video.

QuickScribe Music Notation From lead sheets to orchestra scores, Digital Performer provides sophisticated music notation transcription, including special scoring features for film composers that you won't find anywhere else.

Accurate real-time MIDI transcription

Digital Performer employs an advanced notation transcription engine that inspired Keyboard Magazine to say its, "automated transcription abilities are the best we've ever seen." Play in your music and get the most accurate transcription available. Instantly. Advanced features include floating split points, dynamic hand-splitting, multiple voices per staff, and n-tuplet recognition. The Straighten Swing feature displays swung eighths as straight eighths (instead of triplets).

Advanced tools for fine-tuning your score transcription

If the notation display looks like a train wreck because it wasn't recorded to the metronome, DP's Adjust Beats feature lets you graphically drag beats and barlines to line them up with MIDI note data - without changing how it plays back. The result? Readable notation and time rulers that match your music.

Need to move a note in the piano part from the treble staff to the bass staff for proper hand positioning? Just select it and use the Switch Staff command.

Sometimes, you'd like to preserve the way the MIDI data in your score plays back, but you'd like to adjust the way it looks as notation so that musicians can easily read it. Digital Performer lets you create Display Only notes and Playback Only notes for just this purpose. You can make your score look and sound EXACTLY the way you want.

Dynamics, articulations and page text

Simply point and click to add adjustable dynamics symbols, articulations and page text items such as rehearsal numbers, title, composer, copyright notice and directions to musicians.

On-screen page layout

Digital Performer's QuickScribe window provides an on-screen, full-page, what-you-see-is-what-you-get environment for page layout and formatting. Control staff spacing, system spacing, measure spacing, measure numbering and many other layout features.

Scores and parts

Format and print separate multi-staff scores and individual instrument parts, all from the same sequence. Each instrument part can have its own clef and instrument transposition. Make edits either in the score or when viewing individual parts — or even in the event list or MIDI Graphic Editor. All are dynamically linked to the source MIDI tracks and update instantaneously across all editor views.

Lead sheets

Digital Performer makes it easy to create and print lead sheets, complete with multi-stanza lyrics, transposable chord symbols and score arrangement features (endings, codas, etc.)

Score arrangement

In an arranged score, you use repeat barlines, endings and other similar arrangement symbols to condense your linear sequence. For example, lead sheets are usually condensed to one or two pages. In Digital Performer's QuickScribe window, you simply point and click to add repeats, multiple endings, consolidated rests, segnos, codas and even double codas. Then choose Show Arranged Score and your linear score is displayed in arranged form. Playback proceeds through the arranged score as it should, and measure numbers are preserved through repeats and endings. Advanced features are provided for choosing what measures are displayed during multiple repeat sections.

Digital Performer's arrangement features make your scores and lead sheets look professional and readable.

Lyrics

Click with the Lyric tool to enter lyrics directly on the page. Or type text into the Lyric window. You can even paste in lyrics from an email or text editor and then automatically flow the text into one or more parts (tracks) with one click. Add multiple stanzas. Lyrics even follow the QuickScribe window's advanced score arrangement features (repeats, multiple endings, codas, etc.), flowing through repeats and ending as required. Choose any font and format the type as you wish.

Transposable chord symbols

Click with the Chord tool to add chord symbols directly on the page. Digital Performer can easily handle complex chord spellings and extensions. Best of all, you can select and transpose chord symbols at any time, together with or independently from notes.

QuickScribe Film Cues View

Digital Performer is used world-wide by film composers because of its unparalleled advanced features for scoring to picture. Click here to learn about DP's unique Film Cues View for scoring stage sessions.

Multiple QuickScribe windows

Digital Performer provides separate QuickScribe window for each sequence in a project. For example, if you have three sequences, you could open three separate QuickScribe windows all at once, one for each sequence. This allows you to easily view, compare and edit multiple scores simultanously, side by side.

Recent additional QuickScribe Enhancements

Numerous recent enhancements give you even more control over the look of your score and help speed your notation workflow, including improved editing of page text objects, the ability to associate page text objects with more than one track (so it can appear on multiple tracks, such as individual parts, for example), and improvements to the way that dynamics symbols are displayed.

Additional DP7 new features include…

Freely resizable Counter

Resize the Counter window to any size you wish, even the entire width of your screen.

Marker Counter

Display markers in large type in the resizable Counter window. Use markers as a teleprompter for lyrics during live performance or recording sessions.

Consolidated V-Racks

Display V-Rack virtual instruments and effects side by side with disk tracks in the Mixing Board.

Lyrics

Type in lyrics directly below notes on the QuickScribe page. Or paste them into the Lyric window from your word processor and flow them into a track with one click.

Transposable chord symbols

Add complex chord symbols directly on the page and transpose them at any time, together with or independently from notes.

QuickScribe notation enhancements

Numerous enhancements give you even more control over the look of your score and help speed your notation workflow.

Support for Pro Tools 8

Industry-leading support for operation as a complete software front-end for Pro Tools | HD systems.

Info Bar mixer controls

Get instant access to mixer channel settings in any editor window that follow the track you’re working on.

Next-generation sample rate conversion

A new ultra-fast, CPU-efficient sample rate conversion algorithm delivers increased precision, efficiency, and transparency, with an astonishing 138 dB signal-to-noise ratio.

Real-time crossfades

All crossfades are now computed in real time for lightning fast edits.

Wave64 support

Support for the industry standard Wave64 extension to the Broadcast WAVE file format lets you record and import audio files larger than 4GB.

Range automation modes

Raise, lower or write automation moves within any selected range, preserving everything before and after.

Audio Units instrument side chains

Route side chain inputs to all your favorite third-party Audio Units plug-ins.