The DDP player that comes along with Steinberg has some major issues. If I load up a DDP with seamless transitions, it will inevitably replay the first 0.5 seconds twice on every track making it seem like there is some sort of glitch. Every seamless DDP I’ve ever made does this with the Steinberg DDP player but not with any other players. I’d really like to see the player improved and not have to send out a 3rd party player to the clients. Let me know if I need to provide an example.
I can reproduce this with DDPs that have seamless transitions (meaning to me crossfaded or butted tracks, or CD Splice Markers placed in continuous audio), skipping track to track or continuous play.
I don’t hear the problem if there is about 300ms silence between CD Start Markers and beginning of audio, but I do hear it again if there is only 50ms of silence between CD Start marker and beginning of audio.
Using DDP Player 1.0.40.
IMO the Steinberg DDP Player is not ready for primetime for a few reasons. There also isn’t a really clear way of distributing it to clients and who knows if it’s been updated since initial release. It actually has a nice GUI but it doesn’t feel like a solid effort behind the scenes.
One major thing the DDP Player is missing is the ability to burn a CD. I’m sure that only a minority of my clients actually burn a CD-R from the HOFA DDP Player I send but it’s certainly nice for clients to have that option.
I honestly haven’t given the Steinberg DDP Player much of a workout because of these things and it sounds like not many other people have either or this would probably been discovered sooner.
Yes it’s free, but I don’t think it really adds much value to WaveLab in its current state, especially when you consider how solid, impressive, and affordable HOFA DDP Player Maker is.
It’s just my opinion but since I usually send out multiple DDPs with DDP Player per day (when you consider revisions), I can’t imagine doing it with Steinberg DDP Player at this time.
PG, I just wondered if the DDP player programmers do fixes based on posts here. It seems like they do, but they’ve never confirmed or refuted anything here. I posted about a year ago what seems to be the same problem stated here, but I didn’t make the connection with seamless transitions or tightly placed markers, so if they did try to test my claim with a normal montage having normal 2 second pauses, they probably wouldn’t have found a problem. I just wondered is it enough to post here about the DDP player or better to Support, and is there a reason why they don’t confirm or refute here?
“Load a DDP. Press Play. It starts playing Track 1. Press Skip to Next Track. The player plays about 1/4 second of the start of Track 1 again, then starts playing Track 2. Etc, etc. all down the line.”
(I’m uncertain whether it’s playing the previous track start, or the current track start again. it’s very short)
For example will this now be fixed because christophercridley posted this, and it seems totally repeatable with seamless transitions?
PG, I just wondered if the DDP player programmers do fixes based on posts here
I don’t develop this tool, I can’t say. Maybe someone from Steinberg will speak in.
Hi,
we are currently working on an improvement of that issue.
Greetings
Kay
Hi Kay,
Glad to hear you chime in. Would love to see some good communication back and forth from the development team or a representative and the community on the tool and it’s future. Anything that can be done to more Wavelab to a single source solution would be super helpful for me and many here I’d assume.
Thanks,
Christopher
Any update?
Hi Kay, the Wavelab 9.5.50 version history says “The DDP Player is now available to download and install independently from WaveLab via the Steinberg DownloadAssistant or from the Support / Download pages.”
Can you tell us the status of this? The installers are not on the download pages or the Assistant. It really needs to be on a download page for mastering clients to install.
Also there is a glitch bug in the current version when playing continuous audio track to track in the player. And the Windows DDP standalone player installer doesn’t find the latest update 1.0.40 when installing.
As well as a few other things:
Hi Bob,
we plan to release the new version soon until all tests are done.
The mentioned issue is fixed.
cheers
Kay
Thanks Kay.
This is something which has been asked for many times, but with a persistent lack of information. Is it definitively Steinberg policy to NOT provide the DDP player as a separate download for mastering clients?
It seems that WaveLab users are on their own for delivering the DDP installer to their clients. If were to use the Steinberg DDP Player instead of HOFA DDP Player Maker for daily deliveries, I’d probably upload the Windows and Mac install files to my Dropbox, and then make an email template with the download links for sending out each new project with additional install info.
It’s not as elegant as HOFA DDP Player Maker but if budget or other reasons prevent you from using HOFA DDP Player Maker, which also allows clients to burn CDs, and gives the player a branded studio logo and other features if you want them, I suppose the Steinberg DDP Player is better than nothing.
Maybe it was just intended for people that need a DDP Player every now and then and not for regular DDP deliveries each day.
FWIW indeed! Without the functional level of HOFA DDP or Sonoris, I find this pretty pointless as a pro tool. A very big disappointment re all the delays and bugs etc from day one.
Right. As a HOFA user, I I hadn’t really paid too much attention to this. Now that I use WaveLab in my mastering class, I looked at it closer because we can’t get HOFA in the classroom (budgets, logistics, etc) and right away, I ran into the gapless track bug that seems to be fixed now.
I think this is good for people that need something now and then, but if you’re a busy mastering engineer sending DDPs out daily, I think HOFA is the best option, and I’m lucky to have bought Sonoris OEM years ago and now I can also offer my clients an iOS DDP Player. So it’s just the Android users who are out of luck at the moment.
Glad to see this status seems to have changed as announced here:
https://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=244&t=159495
and apparently some bugs have been fixed.
I agree, but if I remember correctly, it was originally part of the WLPro offering, as WLPro is the only version that can create a DDP. I guess I expected something a bit more pro. I also use HOFA and still have a current license for Sonoris OEM, but I also tend to use HOFA these days.
This app should probably be moved out of the Wavelab forum and into the Steinberg App forum where it can get better focus. If they promote it a little more, others looking for a free and extremely basic option DDP option will help it gain traction as I understand there are no free options out there right now. Maybe then, a pro version will be forthcoming. If so, I’m hoping it gets beefed up HOFA style!
Maybe. But at least the DDP player is freely available as a separate application via the ‘Downloads/Sound Content and Accessories’ menu on the Steinberg website. Despite the criticisms, in my opinion this is a handy tool for those who need a basic free DDP player. I don’t think there will ever be a so called ‘pro version’.