New user interface

Digital Performer 7 is designed to inspire your creativity and drive your productivity. Here are just a few examples of the hundreds of design considerations that have been engineered from top to bottom.

Vertically resizable track list

Gives you a clear look at each track's settings and graphic overview.

Streamlined window design

Windows look clean and information is easy to see. Zooming and navigation controls are unified throughout. Live window resizing allows you to see the contents of the window as it is resized.

Waveform coloring options

Three different styles are available.

Resizable Counter

Freely resize the main Counter window to any size you wish, even with the entire width of your screen, so you can stay in time, even from across the studio.

Marker Counter

Both the counter in the main Control Panel and the Counter window can now display sequence markers. Click the marker name to access — and instantly jump to — any other marker.

By displaying markers in the resizable main Counter, you can expand it to fill the screen and then use markers as a teleprompter during live performance or recording sessions, with lyrics and cues that are perfectly timed with the music and your sequence timeline.

In addition to its award-winning "look and feel", Digital Performer 7 is streamlined for fast, easy operation. If you are an existing user, you'll work faster. If you are a new user, you'll learn Digital Performer quickly and easily. Here are just a few examples.

Window tabs

You can create as many tabs as you wish in any consolidated window sidebar cell.

Inspector palettes

Important settings and information appear in inspector palettes, which can float as independent windows or "pop into" the consolidated window as sidebar cells with tabs. Inspector palettes include Snap Info, Event Info, Cursor Info, Selection Info and others.

The Channel Strip palette is particularly useful because it gives you instant access to all of a track's mixer settings, and it always follows the track you are working on.

Universal track selector

The unified Track Selector conserves screen space by offering one track selector that updates when you switch to a different window tab.

Digital Performer's Consolidated Window streamlines your workspace, with access to major features such as the Track List, Sequence Editor, Mixing Board and Waveform Editor accessed via tabs across the top of the window.

Click a tab to view it in the Consolidated Window, either in the center (main body) or in the left- or right-hand sidebars.

You can customize the sections of the window to suit your exact needs, adding as many sections as you wish and resizing them as desired. And you can create and save as many customized Consolidated Window layouts as you like via Digital Performer's Window Sets feature. Factory presets are provided for tracking, editing, mixing and other stages of your workflow.

Channel Strip

In sidebar cells, you can display info panels of your choice, such as the Channel Strip. The Channel Strip displays all mixer channel settings for the track you are working on, and it follows you as you move from track to track while editing in the main area of the Consolidated window, giving you instant access to mix settings at all times. It can also be popped out as a separate floating palette.

It can be displayed as one long channel strip (just like it appears in the mixing board) or collapsed into two, three or more columns.

Consolidated Window movie

To see the Consolidated Window in action and glimpse many of the workflow shortcuts it offers, download and watch this full screen video.

Organize your lengthy track lists into folders and sub-folders and show or hide track groups with a single click on the disclosure triangle.

You can put folders within folders for as many levels as you need. Assign a unique color to the tracks in each folder to further enhance your project organization.

Track folders appear throughout Digital Performer in all windows that show multiple tracks, including all track show/hide selectors.

Option-click and command-click shortcuts help you quickly collapse and expand multiple folders, or even all folders.

Track folder viewing and editing

Track folders show an overview of their contents in the Tracks Window. When the folder is collapsed, the overview reflects the colors of the individual tracks contained in the folder.

Track folders can be fully edited when either collapsed or expanded, and they even have their own track controls (play-enable, lock, solo exempt, etc.), just like individual tracks.

The Meter Bridge™, which can be opened as its own separate window or as a central pane in the Consolidated Window, is dedicated to monitoring all signal paths in the Digital Performer mixing environment.

With a single click, you can independently show or hide available hardware inputs, available hardware outputs, busses, bundles, virtual instruments and tracks as desired. The Meter Bridge provides long-throw, scalable meters with extremely fast, smooth and accurate ballistics.

You can quickly toggle between two different layouts: the linear layout shows all meters side by side in one row that scrolls left and right. Resize them vertically as high as you want for detailed metering, or shrink them as small as you need. Zoom in on a specific level range for extremely detailed, hi-resolution level monitoring.

The wrap-around layout displays all meters in multiple rows that fit in the space available in the window for an instant bird's-eye view of all signal paths currently being viewed. Meters turn red to clearly alert you when clipping occurs. The entire meter changes color to be highly visible, even from across the room.

Download the full-resolution version of this video here.

The MIDI Keys window provides convenient, basic MIDI note entry - right at your fingertips.

Trigger synths and enter MIDI notes from your computer keyboard. Step record MIDI notes without a MIDI keyboard.

A click can be a very personal thing. Some of us prefer a more musical click sound, such as a side stick or closed hi-hat. Others require the precise snap of the venerable UREI Metronome.

In Digital Performer, the choice is yours.

The Click & Countoff preferences let you load any sound you want for the accented and unaccented click, played back through any audio output in your Digital Performer studio with sample-accurate precision. We've even provided several click sounds to get you started: the time-tested and true DP click (from earlier versions of Digital Performer), the legendary MPC click, and, of course, the UREI click.

Want to add your own click sound? Just drop it into Digital Performer's Clicks folder (in mono SDII or AIFF format) and then choose it from the Click & Countoff preferences menu.

Digital Performer provides hundreds of features that enhance your productivity every step of the way. Here are just a few.

Auto-Save

Digital Performer's Auto-Save feature gives you peace of mind as you work. You can choose to either Auto-Save your original document automatically, at a chosen time interval, or you can auto-save to an auxiliary document in the background. The latter option allows you to choose when you want to save your original, while always maintaining a separate backup at all times.

Auto-Check for updates

Digital Performer is constantly being updated, and releases are issued on a regular basis. Use the Auto-Check for Updates feature to take immediate advantage of Digital Performer's on-going research and development.

MIDI Device Setup

Conveniently configure your external MIDI gear directly in DP. Everything you do is reflected in Mac OS X's Audio MIDI Setup utility. Need to transfer your DP project to another computer, or exchange it with a colleague? Your MIDI device setup can transfer with the project, with all settings and track assignments still intact.

Track enable/disable

Audio tracks can be enabled or disabled to free up their system resources. There's no need for you to be involved in cumbersome audio voice management chores. Digital Performer handles all of this automatically for you.

Preferences and Settings window

All of the preferences and general settings in Digital Performer can be found in one consolidated Preferences and Settings window for immediate access.

Scroll wheel support

If your mouse has a scroll wheel on it, you can use it with Digital Performer.

Marker Locate Numbers

DP's Markers window displays a column that allows you to control the locate number assigned to each marker. You can then quickly locate to that marker by using the customizable Go To Marker keystroke and then typing in the desired locate number. This means you are never forced to relearn locate points when adding a new marker somewhere in the middle of a project's timeline. Instead, you have complete control over locate numbers, and you can preserve numbers you've memorized during the course of a project.

Drum Editor edit grid

In addition to all standard note durations, you can also use triplet, dotted, and double-dotted resolutions in the Drum Editor.

Help tags toggle

For the seasoned pro, Digital Performer's floating tool-tip Help tags can be toggled off.