many of the magazines i have read claim that, back in 1985/1986/1987 time period
For the recording industry,
MOTU Performer on the Macintosh (running on the original compact mac's! like the macintosh 512k + the macintosh PLUS!) was perhaps the biggest standard in the mid 1980s rivalled only by
Steinberg's Pro24 on the ATARI 1040ST /w steinberg SMP24.
C-Lab Creator on ATARI ST came in 1987, and
Cubase on ATARI ST would come later in 1989.
Performer
?/?/1985 performer 1.0 ?
11/1/1986 performer v1.21
10/1/1987 Peformer v2.0
3/01/1988 Mark of the Unicorn's Performer 2.1
5/01/1988 Mark of the Unicorn Performer 2.2
01/01/1988 performer v2.2 (sos magazine january 88)
01/01/1989 performer v2.31
?/?/1989 Performer 2.41
10/30/1989 performer 3.21 https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/rec.music.makers/eZD8R7tLcMo/8GVV-JD9KnUJ
1/1/1990 performer 3.0 (january 1990)
2/1/1990 performer v3.2 (Feb 1990) http://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/mark-of-the-unicorn-performer/321
3/1/1990 Mark of the Unicorn Performer 3.3 (March 1990)
11/01/1991 Performer v3.61
01/01/1992 Performer v4.0
7/25/1993 performer v4.2
01/01/1994 performer 4.2 (still) https://web.archive.org/web/20150607010825/http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1994_articles/jan94/motudigperformer.html
10/1/1994 performer 5.0 http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1994_articles/oct94/motuperformer.html
6/1/1997 performer 5.5 http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1997_articles/jun97/softfocusjun97.html
?/?/1997 Launches Performer 6 The final version 6.x.
Digital Performer (performer + digital audio)
?/?/1992 digital performer 1.0
01/01/1994 digital performer v1.4 http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1994_articles/jan94/motudigperformer.html
12/1/1995 Digital Performer v1.6
9/1/1996 Digital Performer v1.7
01.16.1997 Digital Performer 2.0 pdf press release http://motu.com/other/press/dp_2.pdf
1/14/1998 digital performer v2.3
3/1/1998 digital performer 2.11
6/1/2000 digital performer 2.7.1
12/1/2000 digital performer 2.7.2
9/1/2001 digital performer 3 http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov01/articles/motudp3.asp
10/1/2002 digital performer 3.11 update
5/3/2003 digital performer 4
2/1/2005 digital performer 4.5 http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb05/articles/motudp45.htm
4/6/2006 digital performer 5
11/8/2008 digital performer 6
9/9/2009 digital performer 7
10/12/2012 digital performer 8
http://web.archive.org/web/19970113174810/http://motu.com:80/pages/FreeMIDIFAQs.html
Q. What is FreeMIDI? Why do I need it?
A. FreeMIDI is Mark of the Unicorn's MIDI Operating System Extension. It enables all of your MOTU software to share a common set of configeration info. FreeMIDI saves a virtual snapshot of your studio including information like what type of MIDI interface you are using, which port your interface is connected to, what MIDI devices are you using, and what banks and patches are those devices using. Once these definitions have been made in the FreeMIDI Setup program, all FreeMIDI compatible applications can share these definitions. Additionally, FreeMIDI allows one to MIDI multitask. For example, you can plackback Performer in the background while editing patches in Unisyn in the foreground.
Q. What advantage do I have by putting OMS Emulator in my system instead of OMS?
A. OMS Emulator will allow you to run OMS-compatible applications under a FreeMIDI environment. For example, you would be able to edit patches in Galaxy while Digital Performer plays in the background. If OMS were installed in place of OMS Emulator, only one application could be active at a time. This is because either FreeMIDI or OMS could have "claim" to the serial port at one time. With OMS Emulator installed, FreeMIDI has sole claim to the serial port.
(some versions of Mark of the Unicorn's FreeMIDI, including versions 1.34 and 1.35, can emulate OMS).
http://www.motu.com/download/download_matching_downloads.html?product_id=11FREEMIDIfreemidi 1.x.x (April 1993?)
freemidi 1.2.3 (December 1994)
freemidi 1.24 (may/june 1995)
freemidi 1.2.4 (October 1996)
freemidi 1.3 which dates back to (january 1997)
freemidi 1.31 (june 1997)
freemidi 1.34
freemidi 1.35 (emulates oms)
freemidi 1.38 (January 1999)
freemidi 1.40 (july 1999)
freemidi 1.41 (august 1999)
freemidi 1.42 october 1999
freemidi 1.43 november 1999
freemidi 1.44 april 2000
freemidi 1.45 september 2000
FreeMIDI 1.46 22-Mar-2001
FreeMIDI 1.47 Dec 6, 2001
freeMIDI 1.48 (November 2002)
FreeMIDI is a complete MIDI operating system for the Macintosh OS 9. It ships free of charge and is automatically installed with all Mark of the Unicorn music software products.
FreeMIDI automatically detects what type of MIDI interface is connected to the Macintosh serial or USB ports, automatically detects what MIDI devices are connected to interface (it "knows" over 200 types of devices), and provides a graphical representation of their MIDI studio.
FreeMIDI also provides pop-up sound lists for over 100 popular MIDI synthesizers-as well as generic support for any General MIDI device. It even includes advanced features such as inter-application communication, multiple application real-time synchronization, and support for Digidesign's Sample Cell Nubus card.
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=437.0http://web.archive.org/web/19991128112956/http://www.motu.com/english/software/performer/index.html(badly Translated from japanese)
1980 Mark Of The Unicorn company established.
1984 released as a Professional Composer music software for Apple Macintosh
1985 Launches Performer for Mac MIDI sequencer software Conflict
competing with sequencer software Vision , Cubase , Logic Pro
appeared, with growth for the Mac music production market,
and upgrade both companies ProTools to lead DAW to go head-to-head in the development of software.
1992 Launch of Digital Performer. DAW software with audio recording, editing and mixing function based on the Performer.
1994 Launches Performer 5. In addition to graphic is colored, significant additions have been made.
1997 Launch of Digital Performer 2.
"Performer" users transfer to "Digital Performer" begins
Launches Performer 6 1997 Japan.
added audio recording, editing and mixing functions, 8-track.
Performer final version 6.x.
2001 Launch of Digital Performer 3. PPC it is dedicated.
2003 Launch of Digital Performer 4. Mac OS X it is dedicated.
2006 Launch of Digital Performer 5. Than version 5.1 Intel / PPC it is both correspondence.
2008 Launch of Digital Performer 6.
2009 Launch of Digital Performer 7.
2012 Launch of Digital Performer 8.
2013 Release of version 8 Windows Digital Performer.