Smooth Audio Edits

Audio edits that you make often produce gaps between soundbites. This is especially true when editing dialog, or splitting soundbites into small slices using Digital Performer's new beat editing features. These gaps of silence can be audible and usually sound unnatural. The new Smooth Audio Edits feature can save hours of tedious editing by automatically filling gaps with "room tone" to mask them, complete with automated crossfades for 100% seamless transitions. You can create your own room tone or have Digital Performer find room tone for you in the original audio files so that it exactly matches the natural silences in the audio.

QuickScribe Film Cues View

Digital Performer is used world-wide by film composers because of its unparalleled advanced features for scoring to picture. Version 4.52 introduces a new QuickScribe notation view that shows film cues in a manner familiar to film composers, allowing them to see cue points (markers) with respect to beats on a time line above each staff system, complete with SMPTE time code locations, beat locations and nearest beat or half-beat. Meter changes, key changes and tempo changes can be inserted directly on the staff with convenient pop-up menus. Numerous other enhancements have also been made to the QuickScribe Editor.

QuickTime movie DV playback offset

Digital Performer 4.52 can now compensate for the slight playback offset inherent in DV video playback devices. You can now achieve frame-accurate lock-up to picture with QuickTime movies both stopped and during playback.

Bounce / Export to MP3 and other formats

Digital Performer 4.52's Bounce to Disk and Export Audio features can now output directly to a variety of interleaved stereo file formats provided by Mac OS X. In addition, Version 4.52 can now bounce and export directly to MP3's - a huge time saver. A wide variety of MP3 export options are provided, including constant bit rate and variable bit rate encoding.

Saving Bounce Settings

DP 4.52 allows you to save your bounce-to-disk settings by name so that you can quickly “re-bounce” any material after making further changes to the source tracks. You can re-bounce by either pressing a user-assignable keystroke or choosing the bounce operation by name from the Bounce Settings sub-menu.

Multi Bounce

The Multi Bounce command lets you run multiple saved bounce settings in one operation. You can even run bounce settings from multiple DP projects. For example, you might have 7 or 8 different multi-track DP projects from which you are bouncing stereo mixes for an album. After making minor tweaks and adjustments during the final stages of mixing, you could conveniently re-bounce all 7 or 8 tracks in one operation. At the end of the multi bounce session, a summary window provides detailed information regarding each bounce.

Plug-in automation

Plug-ins with many automation parameters are handled faster in previous versions, and the management of automation parameters has been optimized throughout the program. Only parameters that are actually being automated are displayed in lists and menus. Automation snapshots provide new options: they can either include all parameters (there is a new menu item for this) or only those currently being automated (i.e. parameters that exist in a track or that are enabled for automation). The latter is the default option.

Hardware-accelerated plug-ins

Hardware-accelerated AU plug-ins load only for the currently play-enabled sequence. This is especially important for TC PowerCore and Universal Audio UAD-1 users. In DP 4.52, these plug-ins would take up precious DSP resources, even when they were instantiated in sequences not currently enabled for playback. With DP 4.52, only the plug-ins in the currently play-enabled sequence will load.

Preferences and Settings window

All of the preferences and general settings in Digital Performer, old and new, are now gathered in one consolidated Preferences and Settings window for quick and convenient reference.

More voices and busses

Digital Performer 4.52 supports up to 99 mono voices, 99 stereo voices and 99 stereo busses. These new maximums provide 297 audio voices (for automatic voice allocation) and 198 bus channels.

Mono, stereo and n-channel busses

Digital Performer 4.52's bussing architecture has been enhanced. Busses can now be configured as 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 now has a pre/post fader switch.

More sends

Digital Performer 4.52 can display up to 20 sends per track in the Mixing Board. Choose as many sends as your needs require.

Apple Loop import

Drag and drop Apple Loops directly into Digital Performer audio tracks, where they immediately and automatically conform to the tempo of your music.

Better previewing of effects plug-in region operations

When you apply a plug-in as a region operation from the Audio menu Plug-ins sub-menu, previewing has been enhanced. When you click the Preview button, the currently selected region loops continuously until you click the Stop button (or click anywhere outside the effect window). Parameter adjustments can be heard in real time as you change them. A preroll and postroll amount can be added to the beginning and end of the currently selected region for previewing purposes. These previewing enhancements have also been made for Audio Units being applied as region operations.

Plug-in preset enhancements

User plug-in presets are grouped into a new User Presets sub-menu. In addition, many factory presets have been organized into convenient, categorized sub-folders.

Bypass automation for AU plug-ins

DP 4.52 supports bypass automation for Audio Unit plug-ins.

Scroll wheel support

If your mouse has a scroll wheel on it, you can now use it with Digital Performer.

Marker Locate Numbers

DP's Markers window displays a new column that allows you to control the locate number assigned to each marker. You can then quickly locate to that marker by using the customizable Go To Marker keystroke and then typing in the desired locate number. In previous versions of DP, locate numbers were automatically assigned to markers (via their order in the marker list), forcing you to relearn the locate points when adding a new marker somewhere in the middle of a project's timeline. Now, you have complete control over locate numbers, and you can preserve numbers you've memorized during the course of a project.

Many other productivity enhancements

Digital Performer 4.52 introduces many other enhancements that you'll use every day. For example, when bussing a track to an aux track, you can now assign the track's output to a bus and create the new aux track, all in one operation. The bus will then feed the track’s signal to the newly created aux track. For many additional shortcuts and enhancements like this one, upgrade today.