DP 4.5 First Look: Composing
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Robert Watson
Independent composer
A&E/Biography, ESPN, Nickelodeon
Digital Performer 4.5 is, hands down, the most elegant, intuitive, and powerful DAW I have ever seen.
My projects consist of equal parts MIDI and audio, and I need serious editing capabilities for both. When I write for television, the film cues view in Quickscribe means that I don't have to ever use that old, OS9-only application anymore (Cue).
The consolidated window is a completely integrated way of looking at and editing my music, and the MP3 export means I can quickly email mixes to producers in NYC, my writing partners in Malibu, and the production house in Oklahoma.
The Beat Detection Engine has been indispensable in loop-based projects where I not only have to quantize a sloppy percussion track, but match the groove with loops from entirely different libraries and genres. Plug-in latency compensation means that I don't have to worry about which plug-ins I have on phase-crucial tracks (like room mics or drum overheads), and unlike some other DAWs, I can use them on aux busses.
DP's comprehensive Pro Tools support allows me to interface seamlessly with TV mixing studios that use Pro Tools, and the Apple Loop import lets me take ideas created in Garage Band and Soundtrack, and/or their royalty-free loops (this happens more than I'd like to admit), and drop them into DP for further manipulation.
I'm in session right now with Jamaican recording star Glacia Robinson recording a song for the people of Jamaica who were devastated by Hurricane Ivan. Glacia is a major singer/songwriter and household name in Jamaica, and we're using Digital Performer, of course.
Many DAW users consider themselves to be keyboard players (or whatever), and their DAWs are in-between themselves and their music. To me (and my DP using friends), Digital Performer is my instrument. I honestly don't even think about it when I use it, and my music is created as fast as my fingers can move.
I have writing partners that use Logic, and as good as that program is, they are constantly bogging down in unnecessary details that I don't even have to think about. Logic? Pro Tools? There is nothing any other DAW can do that I can't do easier and more musically in Digital Performer 4.5.
Hear from other users in In Their Own Words.
