@tom@aerovons.com said:
...but what confuses me about DP is how to manipulate waveforms onscreen. It just seems so cumbersome....it's like I click on the waveform and try to manipulate it in some way and it just stands there. I think you have to somehow make it "pop up" or something, I just need to get over that aspect of it and I'd probably be fine.
Tom: are you trying to alter the original sample itself? Because there is much you can do in the Sequence Editor screen, which is where one enters various non-destructive modifications on audio files. In Logic, this is all done on the main Arrange window, but in DP this feature is housed apart in the Sequence Editor Window. (Both DP and Logic have seperate screens for editing waveforms directly.)
To activate the particular edit feature you want, you will have to select it on the pulldown menu to the left of each track in the Sequence Editor. The default setting is called "Soundbites" which basically allows you to do such things as edge edit audio files, add fades, cut and splice. Change "Soundbites" to "Volume" and you can dot in your volume curves. A similar process applies for other control data as they are selected from the same menu. At least that part of it is very simple.
In the Waveform Editor, there are "mini-menus" on the frame of the window which will in turn activate what features you want to implement. Because it's so easy in this window to permanently alter the original waveform file, more care has to be taken as a safety precaution to protect the original audio file. The Sequence Editor window is much more non destructive.
With VI, I haven't really seen the need to use the Waveform Editor. It's much simpler to make a copy of the original file and then do the edits in the Sequence Editor window. The notion of re-editing VI samples goes beyond my understanding with the new format-- it's quite different from editing PE's ".wav" files and saving them as new samples/patches as part of the PE library. Getting edited VI sounds back into ".dat" format is well beyond my capabilities.
BTW-- one DP5 user has solved the issue of funny MIDI starts and Bounce To Disk issues by disabling a feature called "Pre-fill file buffers for Quick Start Delay" in the Configure Studio Settings dialog. Seems to me that a lot of concerns over some quirks with DP5 are actually being sniffed out and snuffed out with some very simple solutions. Hope that offers some encouragement if you are considering adding DP to your setup.
JWL...thanks for the tips..yes, I was just talking about basic, non-destructive editing. Coming from Pro Tools, I've never really even understood the need for destructive editing. I have to get the basics of DP down ( used Performer for years, before it was digital!). Most of my audio editing is real basic, cleaning up false starts, copying and pasting, etc.
The main thing I'd like to know is what the FASTEST way to work is using VI's. In Logic, when I'm ready to "render" a Midi track/Inst track, I use that "Export Track to Audio" function, etc. In DP, I'm not sure what I would do. Some kind of bounce to disk thing? I know Freezing won't help DP because it is REAL TIME, and I'll have to sit through the whole song each time.
Any ideas appreciated. Also, any comments on how solid DP 5.01 is...re crashing, etc. I'm mainly using Vienna Instruments, but do use the usual other suspects from Spectrasonics, Autotune, SSL EQ etc.
Fortunately I've farmed out the reverb to hardware, so the main demands will be from VSL....
Thanks
Tom