New to DP, just wondering ....thx

While each audio track only has one "output," you can have multiple tracks using that output as their input. Another method would be to use sends on the mixer channel to split off an audio feed to another bus.

Do you have a specific use-case? If so provide it and we can try to give you a more specific workflow. If not, the general answer is "yes." DP's routing is very flexible once you get the paradigm down.

Hey thanks much! Yes I do have a specific use. It is as follows:

I have a client that always needs 3 versions of a song we get hired to do.

1 Main version (all vocals and instruments)
2 Background vocals only and instruments
3 Instrumental only.

I discovered Reaper is the only DAW that will allow you to save a snapshot of each of these versions, then add them to a "Render Queue"...then choose RENDER and all 3 get bounced at a once. Wonderful. I can go get coffee, make a phone call, whatever. Saves much time.

I got thinking "How could I do this in Pro Tools and or Cubase, both of which I use as well.

The answer in both programs was to choose multiple outputs, which are really busses. So I have a "to back Vox" buss, a "to inst" buss, and "to Main Mix" buss. These busses are then assigned to the INPUTS of 3 Auxes, which serve as each versions master faders. The outputs of these are sent to "bounce main," "bounce backs" and "bounce inst". In the Pro Tools or Cubase bounce dialog, I can choose each of those, and again, everything gets mixed (bounced) at one time. It sounds complex, but once you have it set up in a template the only thing you have to make sure of is that each track in your mix is assigned correctly.

While I am investigating DP mainly as a program for more orchestral work, where these multiple bounces wouldn't be needed, I am still curious as to whether this would even be possible in DP.

Thanks much
Tom

You're in for a treat.

DP has a couple of ways to do snapshots (I'll cover those below) and, as of DP 10, does have a batch bounce function that can behave similarly to what you describe for Reaper. You can even queue bounces up from multiple projects.

From the manual:

The Multi Bounce command lets you run multiple saved bounce operations in one batch operation. For example, you could save bounce settings for each track for a CD, and then bounce all of the tracks together in one operation, while you get coffee. You could even let a lengthy multi-bounce operation run overnight, if necessary.

The Multi Bounce window can also batch process saved bounce settings from multiple DP projects.

And from the most recent marketing text:

Digital Performer's Bounce to Disk feature now allows you to batch export audio stems and mixes faster than ever with both real-time and faster-than-real-time (off-line) mixdown operations. Bounce multiple tracks and/or outputs in a single operation for fast, convenient delivery of stems for your productions. The "Bounce Includes Audio Patch Thru" option even allows for real-time capturing of audio returns from external sources, such as a hardware reverbs, hardware synths or Vienna Ensemble Pro™ instruments.

Absolutely possible! When I've had to do this, I've set things up similarly to what you describe, bussing to submaster faders. I'd then select those three tracks/outputs in the multi-bounce dialog box.

Regarding the snapshots you mention, there are two key features in DP that you'll want to read up on.

The first is "Chunks"*, which is MOTU's term for sequences and/or sub-sequences, but which equates to an entire project in other DAWs. These are super flexible and extremely powerful. A chunk can be an entire song or cue, a different arrangement, a part of a song (e.g., verse, chorus) and so on. It's one of the hardest things for people to grok, but once you get it, it's hard to go back to other workflows.

Some composers will write an entire score in a single DP project, using a separate chunk for each cue (I did this on my most recent score). You can also use them for version control or experiments. Chunks are also what make DP a go-to for running live events.

The second feature is "Mix Mode". On the mixer, you have the ability to save multiple mixes, including automation, and quickly switch between them. While you could use this approach if you didn't want to do the routing described above, it wouldn't be as quick to do the multi-bounce because you'd have to queue one, change the mix, queue the next one, etc., and then batch bounce, whereas if you did the submaster routing approach, you could bounce all three in one dialog box.

Chunks are useful when you want to change the structure of a song, do a radical remix (or multiple remixes), create a version with a vamp for live performance, etc.

Saved Mixes are good when the structure of the song isn't changing, but you want to try different inserts, levels, etc., when you're creating a clean version with mutes, etc.

I'm not sure which version you're using, but here are the relevant page numbers in the DP10 manual (I'm upgrading to 11 after my current project) for these features:

Multi-bounce - 967
Chunks - 793
Multiple Mixes - 848

Finally, welcome to DP! I recommend joining the MOTU Gurus group on Facebook - a really helpful bunch of folks. I also recommend attending the weekly webinars for DP and DP Lite. The "Lite" ones are good for getting the basics of DP's workflow and vocabulary.


* The "chunks" name dates back to the 80s when DP was just... erm... P.

Thank you SO much for all this info.

I know ages ago I tried to use that Multi Bounce feature in a DP demo, and couldn't get it to work. No one I knew that used DP had used it and couldn't help. But if it DOESN'T work, good to know I can still set up DP to do what I've been doing in PT and Cubase. Good stuff.

I was actually a BETA tester for Performer back in the 80s ! (I'm old!) .....I used Performer on every project and did a lot of advertising work where they needed a 60" version, a 30", a 15" etc, and always used chunks! Such a great feature. Unfortunately though it's been so long DP looks both like a long lost friend and a whole new program to me so right now I'm using the latest demo and trying to learn the basics all over....how to navigate around, etc. Even though it lacks features other DAWS have (bounce in place, freeze (don't get me started on why FREEZE is REAL TIME in DP in 2021 lol)...it has so many other wonderful things it's fine. I do a lot of work to video so checking out tempos with the best hit values, etc, is terrific. Not to mention V Racks, which I need to learn about. I just hate Vienna Ensemble, it's just way to convoluted for me. Thank you so much for page numbers in the manual and will go check all of that out. There is just something about DP that is very attractive to me, probably because Performer was my first sequencer used on the Mac, and I had so many great projects done on it. Warning...I may be back with a few more questions...

Thanks again
Tom

Very cool! I came to DP from Studio Vision Pro when Gibson killed Opcode. Prior to that, I used Dr. T's KCS on the Amiga. I may or may not be old enough to have used Mastertracks on a Commodore 64.

Bounce in Place is definitely a weird omission, but not one that slows me down very often. The multi-bounce feature is new as of DP10, and that alleviated most of my desire for BiP, but it would still be nice. The other thing I keep asking for is the ability to reverse audio in a single key command, but that's also not a major thing to me.

Since you used Performer in the past, DP's paradigm of separating track types (MIDI, Audio, Aux, etc.) will make more sense to you than it does to people who've grown up with Cubase or Logic. I wouldn't mind an option to have a combo track thing, but would never want to give up the flexibility that separating them has provided me.

The addition of MPE and articulation mapping has put DP squarely back in modern times. The new clips view is promising, but not quite there yet, IMO. It does some very cool things, though, and I suspect more is planned. I don't have any confirmation of this, but I believe that MOTU has been fundamentally refactoring the codebase for the last couple of versions.

V-Racks are definitely something to revisit. If you're using the same sound palette for multiple chunks, it definitely speeds things up.

There's a webinar tomorrow at 12:30 Eastern / 09:30 Pacific / 16:30 UTC. If you have the time, you should definitely pop in. There are a ton of helpful people there, and Matt LaPoint is an excellent teacher!

[QUOTE=Releaux;15707273]Very cool! I came to DP from Studio Vision Pro when Gibson killed Opcode. Prior to that, I used Dr. T's KCS on the Amiga. I may or may not be old enough to have used Mastertracks on a Commodore 64."

Hah! I actually had Mastertracks on the Mac Plus, as well as the infamous MidiPaint if you remember that! I tried Vision but just didn't like it, was too into Performer!

"Bounce in Place is definitely a weird omission, but not one that slows me down very often. The multi-bounce feature is new as of DP10, and that alleviated most of my desire for BiP, but it would still be nice. The other thing I keep asking for is the ability to reverse audio in a single key command, but that's also not a major thing to me.

Since you used Performer in the past, DP's paradigm of separating track types (MIDI, Audio, Aux, etc.) will make more sense to you than it does to people who've grown up with Cubase or Logic. I wouldn't mind an option to have a combo track thing, but would never want to give up the flexibility that separating them has provided me."

Yeah I always often use separate Midi tracks anyway. I can't imagine playing drum parts all in one instrument track, I have a midi track for each part of the drum set....



"There's a webinar tomorrow at 12:30 Eastern / 09:30 Pacific / 16:30 UTC. If you have the time, you should definitely pop in. There are a ton of helpful people there, and Matt LaPoint is an excellent teacher!"

Shoot missed it...I wish they would give one on that whole multi bounce feature that no one seems to have ever used...I WOULD USE IT

Thanks again, be in touch with more irritating questions as I rediscover Performer!

Tom

OK first big question...

I just did little test. Did a piano assigned Kontakt, and Harp to another instance of Kontakt. Both are routed to a submaster, then the submaster routed to the Main Out (mix).

If I want to bounce offline and re import these two tracks and have them rendered separately on two audio tracks, what do I choose in the bounce dialog? It looks a bit confusing...here's the tracks window I have:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yihvut9wxp...%20PM.png?dl=0

Thanks!
Tom

Apologies if I'm being too basic, but I don't want to gloss over something that might be important.

Starting with a similar project:



First, I select both the MIDI and instrument tracks in the range I want to bounce:



Once the time range and tracks are correctly selected, open the Bounce window. I suspect that you didn't have the "Tracks" box checked, so weren't seeing those.

Note that I have also included the MIDI tracks. I'm not 100% sure this is necessary, but I vaguely recall doing a bounce once and getting silence because MIDI wasn't going to the instrument during the bounce.

You can bounce individual tracks or specific outputs / submasters / busses. In this case, you want to bounce the two Kontakt tracks, so your bounce window should look like this:



The two important bits here are that I've enabled the Tracks area to select the two Kontakt instrument tracks, and that I've changed the "Import:" option to "Add to Sequence."

After clicking ok, you should see this:



The track colors don't get copied to the new audio tracks, so I set those after the fact to make things easier to follow. Let me know if this doesn't work for you or if anything isn't clear.

I know there have been at least one or two sessions that were devoted to multi-bounce. The webinars have been recorded, but MOTU hasn't posted any of them yet (we're all eagerly waiting, but they're stuck in editing apparently).

There's normally time for Q&A in each session, though, and Matt's really good at going over things multiple times, so just tune in next week if you can.

Super! Thanks much , will try this as I bumble through re learning Performer now as DP

And will try to keep up with the webinars, I saw one the other night and I see what you mean about taking questions at the end...good stuff.

Thanks again
Tom

So, tonight I'm trying to import a midi file (for it's tempo map, not so much it's midi notes or tracks) into DP.

I could have sworn I saw a YouTube with some one simply dragging it over to the tracks area. DP then asks "Do you want to merge with the existing conductor track?" and I say "YES". The result is, the Conductor track in DP remains at 120. I've exported both formats of midi files from PT (type zero, or multitrack) and the result is the same. It WILL work if I choose IMPORT MIDI FILE and say "Create New Sequence", and the new sequence has the proper tempo info, but I'm trying to import it into an existing template.

Any pointers appreciated!

Sounds like you have the tempo set to follow the Tempo Slider rather than the Conductor Track. You can change that with the dropdown arrow next to the tempo in the control panel (under the time display) or shift-spacebar and type 'tempo mode'.

I switched it from the Tempo Slider to the Conductor track, it just doesn't see the tempo from the midi file if you drag it in. It gets all the midi track data, but not the tempo or time sig info. Only if you use the File menu to import the midi track, then it creates a new sequence, you have to go into the conductor track of the new sequence, highlight all, copy, then paste into the original one you were in. Almost as silly as "real time freeze" lol....oh well.

My first thought was also that you had the wrong mode for tempo selected - that's a very common thing to miss. I still do after 20+ years working with DP. ?

But after rereading your description of what you're doing, I think you're dragging to the wrong place. Try dragging the MIDI file into the Chunks window, not the Tracks window. I don't do this very often, but I'm positive that this worked for me in the past, including tempo information.

If it still doesn't work after dragging to the Chunks window, either something else is misconfigured, the MIDI file has some weirdness, or you've found a bug. If you can make the MIDI file available, I'd be happy to test it on my rig to see if I get the same results.

Chapter 2 in the manual (Page 33) covers import and export and explicitly mentions drag-and-drop import, so hopefully it's just a matter of dragging to the Chunks window.

But isn't dragging the MF into the Chunks window going to just create a new seq/chunk? That doesn't help, as I'm working from a template. I just want the template to have the same conductor track info that the imported MF does...?

UPDATE:

Yes, unfortunately I just confirmed dragging the MF to the Chunks window just makes a new sequence.

What is particularly strange is that if you drag the MF to the Tracks window, you get this message:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nj09p2ab73...%20PM.png?dl=0

If you say "Merge" nothing only markers from the MF are added, no tempo info.

This is a feature I rarely use, and I'm still on DP10, so I may not be much more help on this issue.

Based on what you describe above, I'd say either you have a malformed MIDI file or have found a bug in DP11. If you're able to test with a different MIDI file, or even make one of your own and export it, I'd start there. If it's not the file, the tech support form is here: https://motu.com/techsupport/tracker

I would also recommend asking on the MOTU Gurus group on Facebook or at MOTUNation. You're much more likely to find someone who has expertise in this area.

No the MF is fine, it imports into Cubase Pro with no problems. I will post on Motunation...thx