Digital Performer vs Podium

Digital Performer is an application for recording audio, sequencing MIDI, editing, arranging, mixing, and creating music notation. Its MOTU Audio System combines a hard-disk recording engine with a mixing environment that includes internal busses, aux tracks, master faders, sends, and real-time effects. The application supports virtual instruments and third-party VST plug-ins on Mac and Windows, plus Audio Unit plug-ins on macOS. QuickScribe exports notation scores as MusicXML for use in notation programs such as Finale and Sibelius. Digital Performer runs on macOS and Windows and is 64-bit only; it does not support 32-bit plug-ins or virtual instruments, and PC ARM processors are not supported. The guide lists macOS 10.13 or later and 64-bit Windows 10 as minimum operating systems. A 30-day demo includes all features except MP3 exporting and allows documents to be saved. There is no free plan. The listed full version costs $499, paid once, and the DP11 competitive upgrade costs $395 as a one-time purchase. Registered users are eligible for technical support through the support website or by telephone.

Podium is a Windows digital audio workstation for recording and editing audio and MIDI, and hosting VST instrument and effect plugins. Projects can contain unlimited arrangements that share sequences and sounds. It can record any number of MIDI and audio inputs simultaneously and supports loop recording on audio input tracks. Its hierarchical track engine supports group tracks, multicore plugin processing, automatic delay compensation, and up to 100 mixer bus instances. Podium handles Wave and AIFF files with up to 32 channels, as well as RF64 files larger than 4 GB. It supports VST 2.4 plugins and includes zPEQ, zReverb, and zPitch; external MIDI and audio devices can be routed in the track hierarchy with latency compensation. Podium Free is available at free, with limits including disabled ReWire, surround playback, the 64-bit mixer option, and plugin multiprocessing, plus MIDI setup limited to one input and one output. A single-user license is listed at $50 as a one-time purchase for a one-year upgrade period, $75 as a one-time purchase for two years, or $90, paid once for three years. Podium does not support audio warping or VST3. The maker lists Windows 7 or Windows 10, an 800 MHz CPU, 512 MB memory, 32 MB graphics memory, and an ASIO or MME sound driver as minimum requirements.