Boy, i'm sorry to hear you had such a horrible experience.. and i'm the one who recommended DFH in the first place! Software companies should understand that there's nothing they can do to prevent piracy. They can only delay the inevitable, and not by very long. All software will be cracked. Sounds like MOTU knows this already.

By the way, you could have probably avoided your download problems by using a download manager like Get Right or something similar. These programs can resume in the middle after an incomplete download. I'm not up on what the best one is, so ask about them in the computing forum. Good luck with Toontrack.

Re: DFH Superior paranoid

maintiger wrote: Pissses me off. I buy DFH Superior but of course I can't use it rigth out of the box as I have to download thr AU upgrade so I can use it with digital performer. I go to the website, register, point to the download and starts.
After an hour it kicks me out before the download is complete. I go back to the site, start dowloading again and another 2 hours later it kicks me out again. I go a third time and now it tells me that I can no longer download, too many attempts! Talk about paranoia! So it tells me to use a form to e-mail them and of course it does not work. So I sent them a regular e-mail- lets see what they do, if they make good on it tomorrow. i hope so, or I'll sick sweetwater on them!

This is the third product I have had problems with in the last month or so, all because their security concerns. I bough bias peak last month and they never sent me the code to register it- even when I e-mailed them 3 times! they didn't even answer their e-mails, in fact. I had to call them, be put on hold and they finally gave me the code via the phone.
I also bought spectrasonic atmosphere and their disc din't work. After e-mailing back and forth for 3 days they finally sent me a new set. They fedex it, to their credit.

I guess what I am trying to say is that all this security sure is a pain in the butt. I know there is a lotta piracy out there but hey, we are paying customers here! You better believe it that I am going to think about it before I get a Toontrack product again, I don't care how great DFH is! And not everybody is so paranoid. Motu just gives you a code for digital performer, you type it in and that is that. I guess they feel that old copies of digital performer will probably go to a future client who will use it, then eventually buy their own. I did, my friends all did.
Hope DFH Superior turns out great in th end!
:twisted: :evil: :oops: :-? :? (y) :shock:
what other emotions are there in these smileys- or not so smileys- :oops:

Tell me about it dude. I've gone through so much crap with my Waves plug-ins, and now the whole new digidesign I-lok crap! And everytime you upgrade one thing you have to upgrade everything else and then reauthorize again! But then it won't work because you have to download this or that and install it, and then you have to make sure it's all compatible. God damn it's such a pain in the Ass!

Theres got to be a better way.

Thanks for the support guys, it is helpful to have friends! I guess the great pisser is that my co-producer and I were scheduled to work at the studio for the next 5 days basically non stop to knock out our current project. We cleared our calenders to do this and now its up in the air. We have all the drums (13 songs) recorded as midi through a roland v-drums and were looking forward to choosing drum kits for the first two days and rendering them to audio, then we were looking forward to getting a good head start on mixing the project. Hopefully Toontrack will come through today or tomorrow and we won't lose too much time...

Talk about frustration and cutting the creative flow! We had been on a roll with the project we are working on, getting most of the 13 tracks recorded when I decided to buy this DFH Superior to get sounds to augment the roland drums- 2 wasted evening and one entire friday later and the DFH Superior is still not up.

The designer Mathias even called me from Sweden and also sent me a new beta version of the thing but Im either too dense to get it or the programming is beyond my comprehension. Actally, the thing is not quite ready for Digital Performer as the drums are only in stereo here instead of multitracks using AU. He also provides rewire and vst but he couldn't tell me how to do it in DP- if the designer doesn't know how am toast! I can only get the kick to make a sound the other drums are totally silent.

We deciced to give up on it for now and just use the v-drums for this project. we already lost valuable time and momentum we had playing around with the thing. This is the classic example of technology robbing the music. I'll get back to playing with this thing later on- at this point it sure feels like three hundred bucks down the drain- (actually, it is on sale for $269) we certainly also lost quite a bit of recording time already- if time is money I don't wanna think about it-

Bottom line, if you are running DP you'll regret buying DFH Superior. First of all, you do not get separate tracks, second of all, nobody knows how to run rewire with it and the manual sucks big time. Mathias says it runs real good on Cubase. Go figure, I aint buying and learning Cubase to run this thing. I would have been way better off buying a new drum library for Mach Five- but hey, the 35 GB of drum sounds and the impressive list of sample drums was very entizing. Live and learn- :twisted: :evil: :roll: :x

I'm so sorry to hear this Xavier. This is very sad indeed. I still believe that if you stick with it, you will be happy in the end. There has got to be a way.

Im sure I'll get it eventually when I get some extra time- the manual of this thing is really bad, though, and the advertising does kinda misrepresent this thing as it does not get multiple outs with DP, is stereo only. Mathias says is DP's fault, not DFHS, as multiple outs in AU is not implemented in DP. If I had known this, if they would have had a disclaimer, I would have gone with a different program instead. The USB drums support multitimbral, multiple outs in Mach Five, which I have. I hate to put out another 100 bucs, though, after I already got DFHS And haven't used it.

xavier,
i too am running DP4, but i purchased Drum Kit from Hell (the Akai Version) and i am using Mach5 to load the samples. i did have some issues. I was thinking of upgrading to DFHS, but now after hearing all of your issues, i guess i will steer clear of it. i had a question though, are the issues because you are trying to use the sampler that it comes with? can you use the samples with mach5 or are you locked into their interface? also, are there any other samples that you would recommend? DFH stuff sound really good... i wanted something on par...
thanks

wafuradio wrote: xavier,
i too am running DP4, but i purchased Drum Kit from Hell (the Akai Version) and i am using Mach5 to load the samples. i did have some issues. I was thinking of upgrading to DFHS, but now after hearing all of your issues, i guess i will steer clear of it. i had a question though, are the issues because you are trying to use the sampler that it comes with? can you use the samples with mach5 or are you locked into their interface? also, are there any other samples that you would recommend? DFH stuff sound really good... i wanted something on par...
thanks

I wished I was using mach Five to load the samples... the sampler that comes with it just doesn't work right with DP- not only that, it does not do multiple tracks in AU, just stereo. Mathias says the problem is in the way that DP supports AU, not in DFHS but if I had known I could not get multiple tracks in DP I would have never bought it in the first place- so it is deceptive in my book.

As far as converting the files to mach five format- I'll have to think about it. i already tied up 35 GB in the original install and I don't have another 35 GB in the Mach Five folder to convert them...

To be fair, Mathias did say that the vst version will work with DP in multiple tracks using rewire, which I downloaded from the DFH site.
I haven't gotten in to work but since I am in the middle of the project I haven't invested the time in getting rewire to work.

Actually, the reason I got DFHS was to use it in the current project, Elrod Geare, but after wasting 4 days trying to get DFHS going we decided to skip it and went instead with what we already had: Roland v Drums (the drummer owns a kit), and Pure Drums and more roland drums for Mach Five- mixing and matching we got the sounds we needed. It was kinda a pisser as some of the drums we got using DFHS were great, it was just too much hassle to warrant losing anymore time besides the four days that went down the drain trying.

I expect I'll either eventually get the rewire version going or AU will become available for multiple tracks and that will solve the problem.
When that happens I'll probably become happy with DFHS but what pisses me off. like I said before, is that if they had specified in their advertising that AU won't do multiple tracks I wouldn't have bought it at all! there are also other issues that I would have never resolved had I not e-mailed back and forth with the designer, Mathias. So if you buy DFHS and plan to use it with DP be prepared for multiple headaches. :?

xavier,
when i loaded my DFH samples into mach5 i noticed that the drums did not map to the "regular" keys like most midi drumkits map. it is REALLY spread out weird across the keyboard. my drummer has a v-kit as well. do you know if you can change the v-drum pads to trigger specific notes on the keyboard. i am not familar with how the v-drums work.
thanks,
lisa

Lisa-

I am sure you could probably map the v-drums but that's not the way we've been doing it. We've been recording a midi performance into Digital Performer (midi channel 10 is the drum channel for roland), then using DPs split notes function to separate the instruments into dedicated midi tracks.

For roland, for example, kick is usually B0 or C1- but it really changes with the different kits available in the v-drums. I have the drummer check it out right after we slit notes and then I go ahead to go into DP and rename the midi tracks, always leaving the note name. So thus kick becomes "kick B0" snare "snare C3" and so on. Then we can go into mack five with the separate midi tracks and play the instruments. mach five also gives you the key board and you can find the notes with your mouse on whatever instrument you load. If we use, for example, yellow kit on pure drums and we find a kick that we like in a different key other than B0 or c1, all you have to do is to transpose the midi track to whatever note and then render the kick to audio. It is time consumming but it works.

DFHS does have a learn function in the instrument that lets you change the note on the kit. I just wish that the separate track function was compatible with the AU units in DP. maybe the next DP upgrade will adress that, but until then you can only have DFHS in stereo in AU. Like I said in my oher post, rewire and vst is supposed to work with DP and separate tracks but I haven't had the time to get into it yet. :D

By the way, I took the paranoid off the title of the thread as I am no longer pissed off. For what I've heard so far from the sound of the drums it is a great sounding kit- it is just convoluted plus I stand by all the other comments I made before when I was pissed off. If truth be told, Mathias was very helpful but I think the design still needs some work - once the bugs are worked out DFHS will be a great program to go with DP. Until then, DP users beware, you will have many difficulties with this set up- not to mention the problem of no separate tracks with DP and audio units.

xavier,
that is a great idea! i really don't do to much with midi so i did not even know that there was a split notes function. i am going to do that instead... makes more sense in the end... incase i have different samples other than the DFH stuff. i am going to wait on the DFHS for a bit... even though the thought of 35gigs of drum samples is exciting...
Lisa

When I finish mixing my current project hopefully in a week or so, two at most, I will devote some time to figure out DFHS with rewire for DP. Hopefully it will work as advertised, separate drum tracks available-

Another issue you should be aware though is that you will need like 2 Gigs of ram in your computer to take advantage of the program. I only have 1 Gig and it just wasn't enough with most of the kits. there is a function in DFHS that it tells you how much ram per instrument you will need and to fully configure the kits it was well over 1 GB- I need to order another GB of ram before I mess with the rewire DFHS version or what's the point, it won't work!

DP and Superior support

Hi Rogue here,

I'm the main man behind support at Toontrack. I was not officially in this role when you experienced your problems so I'm sorry I couldn't help at the time.

Mattias is correct about the multiple output issue with AU in DP being a DP limitation. Unfortunately DP 4.5 does not address the problem... we have now send an evaluation copy to Motu and are working with them to help speed up the process.

Anyway multiple outputs is available through ReWire and works very well. If you have already say Reason up and running that way in DP then it will be no more difficult than loading the template provided.

Again because of timing it is possible that the template wasn't available in early September as we had just finished the AU beta program and I had started working straight on on resources and the much revamped and improved version 1.3 (released on 15th of September).

Anyway to all Motu users experiencing difficulties I am online every night (mostly weekdays) on instant messaging (ICQ/AIM/ichat/MSN/Jabber and yahoo) so don't hesitate to contact me this way if necessary but please read the new manual and check the faq section on our user forum before requesting support through that channel.

I strongly believe dfhS is ready for DP, especially now that Motu support delay compensation across the whole audio path so they are IMO a perfect match (well aside of the AU limitation).

Also while there is no denying that Superior is Ram hungry there are many function that makes it workable with 1Gb of Ram (Toontrack recommends 1.5Gb but this only applies to live performances). There is an entire chapter (ch 6) in the manual dedicated to Ram usage but if you need more info or clarifications I am there ;-)

Best regards,
Rogue

Hello Rogue, nice to have you here!

Re: DP and Superior support

RogueM wrote: Hi Rogue here,

I'm the main man behind support at Toontrack. I was not officially in this role when you experienced your problems so I'm sorry I couldn't help at the time.

Mattias is correct about the multiple output issue with AU in DP being a DP limitation. Unfortunately DP 4.5 does not address the problem... we have now send an evaluation copy to Motu and are working with them to help speed up the process.

Anyway multiple outputs is available through ReWire and works very well. If you have already say Reason up and running that way in DP then it will be no more difficult than loading the template provided.

Again because of timing it is possible that the template wasn't available in early September as we had just finished the AU beta program and I had started working straight on on resources and the much revamped and improved version 1.3 (released on 15th of September).

Anyway to all Motu users experiencing difficulties I am online every night (mostly weekdays) on instant messaging (ICQ/AIM/ichat/MSN/Jabber and yahoo) so don't hesitate to contact me this way if necessary but please read the new manual and check the faq section on our user forum before requesting support through that channel.

I strongly believe dfhS is ready for DP, especially now that Motu support delay compensation across the whole audio path so they are IMO a perfect match (well aside of the AU limitation).

Also while there is no denying that Superior is Ram hungry there are many function that makes it workable with 1Gb of Ram (Toontrack recommends 1.5Gb but this only applies to live performances). There is an entire chapter (ch 6) in the manual dedicated to Ram usage but if you need more info or clarifications I am there ;-)

Best regards,
Rogue

so how do we contact you? at toontrack? I still need to set up my DFHS as it was put aside because I could not really get it to work with DP- and the manual doesn't help much either- thanks-

Rogue, are you out there?

yes. sorry - I do not monitor all the forums but I'd swear I had notifications on this thread.

to contact me just use the official support channel and/or go to the Toontrack forum for my personal details.

Best regards,
Rogue

xavier,
don't know if you got Superior working well with performer or not, but here is a great link from the toontrack website that explains just how to set it up using Rewire in DP4. (I tried using the AU, but it does not work well in performer 4.12)

http://www.toontrack.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=support;action=display;num=1096223744

I bought superior and was able to get it up and running without any problems by using this.

lisa