Last November, the guys from MOTU gave the entire Sweetwater sales staff a sneak peek at Digital Performer 2.5, the latest update in MOTU’s furious upgrade schedule for their industry-leading audio sequencer package for Macintosh. We were, as usual, greatly impressed. The good news is that Version 2.5 is now shipping, and it’s pack
 POLAR's hot-looking interface: a new feature in Version 2.6 |
At the NAMM Show, MOTU gave us another sneak preview — this time it was a look at Digital Performer Version 2.6, which is due a little later this spring. MOTU tells us that Version 2.6 will be sent as a free update to all 2.5 users! So it’s never been a better time to get into audio sequencing with (or crossgrade to) Digital Performer.
New Built-in Waveform Editor. Check this out: Digital Performer now has a complete, full-featured waveform editor onboard. It’s like having $400 worth (or more!) of waveform editing software built right into the program. Talk about value — and ease of use. The editor is seamlessly integrated into Digital Performer. It’s easy to get to, and it has all the trappings and accoutrements (bet you didn’t think we could spell that) you’d expect in a high end waveform editor. In fact, to our eyes, DP’s new editor appears to rival the leading stand-alone editors out there right now. Sure, it has all the basic features you’d expect in a waveform editor, but this editor goes way beyond the basics, giving you advanced features like 24-bit audio support, unlimited zooming and “zoom back”, 32-bit plug-in processing, automatic crossfades on all edit boundaries, sample loop editing, the ability to open multiple editors at once, and much more.
One of the cool things about DP’s new editor is that you can apply the processing of any real-time MAS plug-ins that ship with DP, as well as any third-party plug-ins you have installed, such as the Waves Native Power Pack or PPII, Antares AutoTune and the DUY plug-ins. The same goes for any Premiere-compatible plug-ins, such as BIAS SFX Machine or the Opcode Fusion series. Basically, any of the plug-ins you have available in Digital Performer can be applied “destructively” in the new Waveform editor. As an example, instead of using generic normalizing to maximize the level of an audio file, you could apply DP’s new MasterWorks Limiter plug-in (more on this in a bit) or the Waves L1 Maximizer. This is waveform editing for the 21st century.
When you combine Digital Performer’s new waveform editor with Digital Performer’s ability to import/export samples directly to a sampler connected to the Mac, you’ve got the most powerful sample editing solution available in an audio sequencer. There is simply nothing out there that even comes close to 2.5’s sampler support. If you’ve got a sampler, but you don’t have Digital Performer yet, call your Sweetwater Sales Engineer without further delay.
MasterWorks 64-bit mastering plug-ins. One of the most distinguishing things about Digital Performer over all the other audio sequencers is the massive collection of real-time effects plug-ins that are included with the program. In past Sweet Notes issues, we’ve talked a bit about the more notable Digital Performer plug-ins, like the smooth-sounding eVerb, the incredible PreAmp-1 tube preamp simulator, and the totally unique Sonic Modulator.
In Version 2.5, MOTU adds two incredible new plug-ins: the MasterWorks Multi-Band Compressor and the MasterWorks Limiter. As their names imply, these plug-ins are specifically designed for mastering. By using them at both the submixing stage and on final master output, you can achieve the kind of broadcast-ready, album quality sound you might pay top dollar for in a mastering studio. We heard these plug-ins in action, and they sound every bit as good as similar plug-ins that are sold separately for hundreds of dollars. They even have 64-bit native processing, which is double the normal processing resolution. These plug-ins are so useful, you can employ them throughout a mix.
 The user-friendly interface of the MasterWorks Compressor. |
What exactly is “bit-depth quantizing”? Well, this simply means that you can reduce or expand the number of bits (as in “16-bit” audio). If you want, you can make the output of the MasterWorks Limiter be full 24-bit audio, 16-bit audio or any bit depth you want between zero and 24! Want 21-bit audio? You got it! (Not sure why you would, but it’s there if you do.) Lower bit depths, on the other hand, can actually be used for special effects. If you’re into extreme grunge, a la Trent Reznor, try 4 or 5 bits — yeeeeouch! This is a surefire way to seriously munge your audio. For Web and multimedia material, use 8 bits.
Another great feature in the MasterWorks Limiter is its level histogram: This portion of the window shows a bar graph of the average energy of the signal going through it for the entire frequency spectrum. In essence, this display lets you see a “sonic fingerprint” of the average energy of your mix. This one tool can be indispensable when mastering a CD because you can compare the average energies of each track to make sure they aren’t mismatched. You wouldn’t want one track to be heavy in the high frequencies, then have the next track be mostly heavy in the low end.
Another great way to take advantage of the histogram is to run your favorite mixes through it to see what their “sonic fingerprint” looks like. You can then match that graph shape in your own recordings using the MasterWorks Multiband Compressor, which we’ll be discussing next.
MasterWorks Multi-band Compressor. This provides three separate bands of compression with graphic, adjustable crossover points between the three. Each band has its own unique settings, giving you tremendous control over the entire frequency spectrum of the signal you are compressing. You can even solo or bypass the individual bands to hear exactly what’s going on in each band. The first time you try this, you’ll be amazed at how much you can hear in terms of what’s going on in each frequency range, and how they balance each other. Even if you are running 16-bit or 24-bit audio files through this plug-in, its 64-bit processing ensures the smoothest possible results.
Precision metering with numerical Peak and RMS value displays make this plug-in a precise mastering tool. But again, this plug-in is so useful, you can use it throughout your mix, not necessarily just on the main stereo output.
New graphical EQ plug-ins. Digital Performer has had 2, 4 and 8-band parametric EQ plug-ins for some time. But in Version 2.5, these three plug-ins have been given a complete facelift, with a graphical display that shows a single EQ curve over the entire frequency spectrum made up of the settings of all of the EQ filters in the plug-in. So you get a very clear idea of exactly what the EQ you are applying looks like. Best of all, you can click on the EQ points right on the curve and drag them. As you do, numerical values appear so you can see precisely what you’re doing as you drag. There are five different types of EQ filters; if it’s a notch filter, the bandwidth of the filter is represented as two vertical lines when you click on it. You can then drag the lines left and right to adjust the width of the filter, again with an updating numerical display. Very sweet! Did you know that you can set the EQ bandwidth to as little as 1/100th of an octave? We’re talking precision EQ here! You can even marquee select over several filters at once and drag them simultaneously. In effect, when you do this you’re modifying all of the selected filters at one time, so you can generate some interesting effects with this, to say the least.
Sample-accurate editing. Most audio sequencers have an internal timing resolution that’s based on their roots as a MIDI sequencer. As a result, when you go to edit audio in them, you can experience timing inaccuracies and phase problems after audio editing operations, even something as simple as splitting an audio region. These types of problems are quite insidious because they are so subtle. You might not notice them in the heat of an editing session, but as they build up with each edit, they can seriously compromise the overall impact of your mix, so beware!
Digital Performer 2.5 solves this problem because MOTU has raised the internal timing resolution to either 44.1kHz or 48kHz. As a result, audio always remains on the exact sample it’s supposed to be. You’ll never experience phasing problems or timing inaccuracies in Digital Performer as a result of editing. This implementation of sample-accurate editing truly is another industry-leading breakthrough from MOTU, and is most evident in the completeness of their implementation of this feature. You can now actually zoom in to the sample level right in Digital Performer’s multi-track audio editor and view multiple audio tracks at the sample level. You can nudge audio regions by as little as one sample at a time. When working at this level, there is absolutely no question about what’s going on with the timing of your audio. When you combine this level of accuracy with Digital Performer’s ability to accomplish sample-accurate digital audio transfers with ADATs (using a 2408) and DA-88s (with a 2408 and a DTP), this is truly the most advanced system we know of in terms of sample-accurate timing.
The program also has four main time formats: Measures / beats, SMPTE, real-time, and now samples. That’s right. You can set Digital Performer’s main counter to samples and start playback at a specific sample in your project. Talk about precision! Want to go to sample number 48,356,129? Just type it in. Here’s another example: If you’re working on a 44.1kHz session, and type one second into the real-time counter, the sample counter will read 44,100 samples.
And now for the aspect of this feature that takes it right over the top for us: You can edit MIDI data at the sample level, too! As MOTU explained during their visit, nudging a MIDI note by one sample will have absolutely no effect on how it actually plays back because 1 sample is well below the normal timing tolerances and jitter of MIDI in general, regardless of what hardware you are running the MIDI data through. But it is remarkable that you now have “sub-tick” editing capability of MIDI data. Being able to edit MIDI with an accuracy of one 48,000th of a second is truly another landmark in MIDI sequencing, but there are many other enhancements, too, but as usual, space is at a premium and we want to get to the Version 2.6 sneak peek.
We do need to let you know that DP 2.5 supports all of Digidesign’s latest hardware, including MIX and MIX plus. Also included is support for Digi’s “Direct I/O”, which allows Digital Performer to talk to their new Project II card, or any other current Digi PCI product via Digital Performer’s own MOTU Audio System instead of DAE. It also includes support for the Sonorus StudI/O card and the Event Electronics Layla system.
Version 2.6 preview. MOTU doesn’t normally reveal what’s in the next update of Digital Performer until right before it ships, but they recently took exception to this rule at the NAMM Show in January and gave us a sneak preview of Digital Performer 2.6, which is due later this spring. Version 2.6 will be a free update to all Version 2.5 users. Wow. Talk about even more added value! One of the cool new features MOTU previewed was the POLAR window. POLAR stands for “Performance Oriented Loop Audio Recording”. It’s RAM-based loop recording directly with Digital Performer, where you can layer audio — just like you’ve been able to for years with MIDI — right into the computer, while the music never stops. It’s awesome. MOTU had live guitarist Chris Parks, the New York based musician and producer, in their booth overdubbing live bass, rhythm guitar and lead guitar tracks, in real-time during the demo, and the music never stopped. It was great. MOTU’s booth was more packed than we’ve ever seen it, and they even had guest appearances from a few recording artists. The highlight of the show was when THE Chaka Khan came by and sang into POLAR during MOTU’s demo. Chaka stacked six-part harmony and then soloed on top of that. Man, what a voice she has. MOTU tells us that she absolutely loved it, and so did the huge crowd of about 300 people. POLAR will be part of Digital Performer 2.6, which again will be a free update to all 2.5 users. And MOTU tells us that there will be plenty more beyond 2.6, so stay tuned . . .
For more information about Digital Performer 2.5 and updates on the availability of 2.6, call your Sweetwater Sales Engineer. If you currently use another audio program and you are interested in Digital Performer, ask about our special crossgrade program. — B.H.