MOTU's Digital Performer

My name is Lee Shapiro, I'm a keyboard player originally from Bergen County, New Jersey.
Some of you might find that name familiar.  There is in fact another keyboard player named Lee Shapiro also from Bergen County, NJ. And THAT Lee Shapiro was the keyboard player and song arranger for Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons (2nd generation).  He currently performs in his new band called The Hit Men, along with other famous side-musicians, whose credits are way too numerous to mention.  This Lee Shapiro is also famous for creating the popular "Rock n Roll Elmo" doll from several years ago.

So what's this have to do with anything?  Well, I've become Facebook friends with "the other" Lee Shapiro, and we often have a good laugh confusing his fans, while I get some free publicity for my songs, as well as his occasional misdirected fan mail.
And I just talked to him about what DAW he uses (telling him about the Cakewalk saga).  He suggested MOTU's Digital Performer (which has a sidegrade offer for other competing DAWs, including Sonar) and said it's the only DAW software he uses. (No ProTools)

I downloaded the trial version, but haven't had a chance to work with it yet.  But if you look at the website, you'll find a very familiar looking user interface, and many of the same features as Sonar, along with many other cool features, not found in Sonar.

Since this DAW has not been mentioned here before (at least I couldn't find any mention of it), I figure I'd suggest it for those of you looking at alternative DAWs.  I think it's definitely worth checking out:

http://motu.com/products/software/dp

I did the Demo....not for me.  Font's too small.  Don't care for the workflow.
It just seems cumbersome to me...

I'd like to hear more about people's experiences with DP. I often overlook it, but having a look at it on the website just now, it does seems to remind me of Sonar more than the other DAW's being floated around.

BrianSzep
You would think someone from MOTU would be here...

We need more vultures gathering around the carcass.

I found for what you get it's a bit more expensive than Cubase right now. $395 vs $255. Tho someone said some Cubase crossgrade plugins are only demo.

Leee
Under the TEXT dropdown menu there is an option to make the text bigger or smaller.  Unfortunately those options (and keyboard shortcuts) are grayed out.  Useless.
 

Yeah, I found that too. Can't imagine why it was greyed out. Is that a functionality they withhold from the demo? Font size? 
 
Anyway, it looked like a full-featured DAW -- at least judging from the number of buttons, tabs and sliders I couldn't read. :) I've seen DP in action, actually -- Michael Patti uses it one some of his walk-thru and live composition screencasts demonstration for Cinesamples -- and it looks like an effective DAW. Of course, he's on a Mac, and the Mac version looks a little bit different than the Windows one, and he's working from a mammoth template he has set up that is no doubt customized to his specific needs.
 
Some folks might find it works for them, but I really felt out of place in DP -- much more so than in Studio One or Reaper. I don't think its for me...

There are some videos on Groove3 for versions 8 and 9.
Haven't watched; IF I move, I'm leaning toward Cubase I think.
Right now that's a big IF
 
T

Keni
<whew>

Painful!

That pretty much summed it up for me.
 
I managed to get midi working during my trial run, but I actually couldn't tell you how, as I was basically clicking on this and that, and suddenly there it was. I used the Sequence tab when trying to manipulate audio or midi information, as that was resizeable. The track view, I think, was intended as a summary screen or your-project-at-a-glance screen. It was too small to work with or get much detail from. At least, that is my theory. 

Dang. Loved that idea as well. Gone and buried now.