MOTU Digital Performer 11

Introducing DP11
DP version 11 delivers exciting new features like Nanosampler 2.0, Retrospective Audio Record, Articulation Maps and MPE Support, plus dozens of workflow enhancements requested by DP users.


Musical inspiration meets powerhouse audio production
Get inspired, then refine your mix — all in a singular workflow. Digital Performer 11 delivers inspirational features devised to ignite your creative muse, combined with state-of-the-art studio production technologies engineered for the most demanding, world-class recording and production environment.

Get Hands-on Control
Gain complete hands-on control of DP’s extensive Clips window with pad controllers from Novation™ and Akai™. Record and mix hands on with DP 11's new control surface plug-ins for the Native Instruments™, iCON™, Avid™ EuCon™ and HUI-compatible worksurfaces.

Unleash your sound libraries
Take full control of the expressive depth of today’s most advanced orchestral sound libraries, from VSL™ to EastWest™ to Spitfire™ to Cinesamples™. Use Articulation Maps to build dynamic instruments and ensembles and experience the sheer joy of playing them live, on the fly. Or program your own masterpiece with unprecedented realism and musical impact.

Express yourself!
Next-generation MPE controllers like the Roli™ Seaboard™ add expressive dimension to your music.

Create your own instruments and sounds
This major upgrade of DP’s nanosampler is your new go-to virtual instrument for creating unique beats, instruments and sounds. Drop in a sample and start stretching, slicing, randomizing and transforming audio into just about any sound or instrument you can imagine.

• 3 Playback Modes:Classic, 1-shot, Slice
• ZTX time stretching
• Settings tab with Envelopes
• and LFO graphs
• Trigger and Gate playback
• Snapping to minimize clicks
• Sample gain, Fade-In and Fade-out
• Repeat and Reverse
• Drag and drop import
• Support for 32 and 64-bit floating point sound files
  

Embellish your masterpiece
Embellish your masterpiece with articulations, trills, tremolos, bowings and alternate noteheads, all connected to your orchestra library sounds. What you see is what you hear.

Add bends, slides, pressure and other expressive gestures to your music
MIDI Polyphonic Expression (MPE) is here! In DP 11, you can record multi-channel output from an MPE controller — such as a Roli™ Seaboard™ — as regular MIDI notes containing MPE expression data. Instead of note and controller data splayed across dozens of tracks, you see a single stream of normal
MIDI notes that each contain their own note-specific controllers, for easy and intuitive editing. Hide and show the contained per-note controller and pitch-change events in DP’s familiar piano roll. Zoom in the note grid for finer detail. Zoom per-note data independently of the notes that contain them.

Experience MPE with DP's included synth VI's
Digital Performer's included virtual instrument synths support MPE, so you can
get started right away with your Roli™ or other MPE-enabled controller. Explore
new dimensions of creative expression with DP's included MPE-enabled synths.

Quickly scale per-note CC curves
Quickly scale per-note expression data by simply dragging vertically with the new Scale Tool.

Easily edit per-note CC data in separate lanes
Add separate lanes in the Sequence Editor to view and edit per-note MPE expression data with DP’s familiar and powerful continuous controller (CC) editing tools. A check box in each lane allows you to easily toggle the lane between track data and per-note data. With zero learning curve, you’ll master the editing of per-note expression data.

Capture inspiration whenever it strikes
Imagine that moment: you’re noodling with your instrument, letting your muse take over — humming into a live microphone, strumming a DI’d guitar or playing your MIDI keyboard…when suddenly that spark happens: a phrase or lick that could be the start of something special. With DP11, just choose the Retrospective Record command and now it’s in a track, safely captured forever, ready for the next creative step. For both MIDI and audio input, Digital Performer frees your creativity and ensures you'll never lose that precious, fleeting creative gem.

Organize your songs and cues for scoring, production and performance
DP’s celebrated and unique Chunks feature allows you to create and manage multiple sequences, songs and V-racks in a single DP project file, from cues for a movie score to set lists for live shows. In DP11, you can now organize your chunks into folders and playlists. Folders are perfect for organizing your chunks, while playlists serve perfectly as set lists for your next live show.

Manage many chunks more easily
Split the chunk list in two sections for improved chunk list management. For example, you could search for a chunk in one list section and then drag it into a folder or playlist in the other. Managing your chunks has never been easier.

Perform your music live
Gain complete hands-on control of DP’s extensive Clips window with a pad controller like the Novation™ Launchpad™ Pro mk3 or Akai™ APC-40. Trigger individual clips or entire scenes (sections of songs). Apply filter sweeps and other effects processing as you go: Digital Performer is now a powerhouse live performance platform that can take your shows wherever you can imagine.

New Control Surface plug-ins for Native Instruments™ and iCON™
DP 11 includes new control surface plug-ins for the current Native Instruments™ Komplete Kontrol™ lineup, including the M32, A-Series, and S-Series MK2 controller lines, plus hot new iCON Control™ mixing worksurfaces like the QCon™ Pro G2/EX, Pro X/XS, Platform Nano and Platform M/X series. These state-of-the-art control surfaces empower your DP workflow so you can work faster and more intuitively.

iCON™ Control Series
DP 11 includes full support for the entire iCON family.  Grab a QCon Pro G2, QCon Pro X, or Platform Nano, and get started right away using the specialized DP overlay included in the box.  With a connected QCon Pro X/XS, DP also takes advantage of the secondary display to provide digital readouts of your track volume and pan levels.

Akai APC™ Control Series
Go beyond clip launching with an Akai APC™ series controller. DP’s Clips view automatically maps directly to the button grids on the Akai APC40 mkII™, APC Mini™, and APC Key 25™, allowing you to navigate and launch clips with no setup fuss. Use the tap tempo button and tempo knob on the APC40™ to adapt your sequence on the fly. Use the built-in keyboard on the APC Key 25™ to record into and launch clips on the same surface.

Novation Launchpad™ Control Series
DP 11 takes advantage of the advanced control modes on the Novation Launchpad™ to let you record, mix, and perform entirely on the control surface with both hands. Record and play with color-coded pads that match DP’s clip colors. Toggle mute, solo, and record-arm. If you forgot
to hit record, trigger DP’s Retrospective Record. Use the onboard mixer on the X and Pro mk3 models to adjust pan, volume, and send levels.

Deeper integration with Softube Console 1
Together, DP 11 and Softube's Console 1 deliver a unique, unprecedented mixing experience for your Digital Performer sessions, combining real console feel with premium plug-in processing. Supported models include Console 1, Console 1 mkII and Console 1 Fader.

Work faster with your control surface of choice 
A new plug-in called “MCU Compatible” enhances support for third-party control surfaces that are Mackie Control Universal-compatible. Substantial improvements have been made to DP’s Mackie Control Universal (MCU) and HUI control surface plug-ins, which can be used with any control surface that supports those protocols, including improved automation toggling, scrub modes, send mode, loop toggle and much more.

Streamline your worksurface experience
For all control surfaces that support these features: V-Racks can now be displayed on all control surfaces. New track pinning modes (Pin to Mixer, Pin to Focus Window and All Tracks) significantly improve the way corresponding tracks are displayed in DP and on the control surface, so that you always see the tracks you need. New track indicator lights in the Sequence Editor and Mixing Board show which tracks are currently active on any control surface.

Accelerate your DP11 experience
DP11 is fully qualified for macOS Big Sur (11.x) and the latest generation Apple silicon Macs. No Rosetta required. Optimized for native multi-core performance, DP’s audio engine prioritizes audio threads on high-speed cores and reserves CPU bandwidth for critical, time-sensitive processing.

Turn your computer into a musical instrument
When performing live, you want all effects processing to be done in real time, rather than pre-generated, for instant responsiveness. Live Performance Mode ensures that your computer feels like an extension of your hands.
Record, play and edit multi-channel MIDI streams
You can now record and play multiple channels of MIDI data in a single track. When setting MIDI track input and output assignments, instead of choosing a specific channel, you can choose ‘any.’  When you choose ‘any’ for input, you can record all 16 MIDI channels into the track at once. The channels are stored with the MIDI events in the track. When you choose ‘any’ in the track's output assignment, the events will be played out on the same channel they were recorded.

See your music more clearly
Show and hide individual MIDI channel data using the new ‘Channel Selector’ section in the Track Selector. Use the ‘Event Type Selector’ section to show and hide specific event types.

Apply non-destructive quantizing and transposition
Every audio track, MIDI track and clip now has a basic transpose setting that you can use to transpose the content of that track or clip by an interval on playback, leaving the original data unaffected. You can conveniently change the setting at any time. MIDI tracks and clips also have a quantize setting, in addition to transpose.

Hear audio output where you expect it
On macOS, if you haven’t yet selected the audio hardware you wish to use with DP, DP finds the best option for you. If you have a MOTU interface, or other professional interface, DP uses it. If not, DP uses whatever input and output devices you have selected in the System
Preferences Sound Panel, and will follow your selection there if you change it. Of course, if you do choose an interface from within DP, DP uses it.
Work more efficiently with clips
The ‘Double Clip Loop’ feature doubles the length of the looped portion in a clip and repeats the material to fill the new loop, so you can easily create changes that you hear every other time through the looped material. The ‘New Empty Clips Scene’ command fills empty cells with new empty clips. 

Give your eyes a break
Now you can resize the text in DP’s list windows, independent of the scaling for the rest of the UI. Control three new font size preferences: List, Project Notes and Lyrics.

Get visual clarity on Windows 10
Taking advantage of the latest text rendering engine in Windows 10, DP’s text appears significantly crisper. Numerous additional text alignment tweaks improve DP’s look on Windows.

Maximize your mixing workspace
DP's faders resize when you make the Mixing Board and Channel Strip windows taller (or shorter).