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  #1  
Old 08-17-2015, 05:27 AM
Terry Wetzel Terry Wetzel is offline
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Default Who invented DAW software?

I got to thinking about this and I decided to ask the question here on the DUC. Who invented the original DAW software? I know that originally audio was recorded on video tape which was replaced by the Alesis hard disk system. So was it a collaboration of brilliant minds or a single tinkerer? Did the concept stem from gaming? Were musicians at all involved in the concept and development of the software that we now know as Pro tools? An inquiring mind wants to know. Thanks.
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Old 08-17-2015, 06:34 AM
musicman691 musicman691 is offline
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Default Re: Who invented DAW software?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry Wetzel View Post
I got to thinking about this and I decided to ask the question here on the DUC. Who invented the original DAW software? I know that originally audio was recorded on video tape which was replaced by the Alesis hard disk system. So was it a collaboration of brilliant minds or a single tinkerer? Did the concept stem from gaming? Were musicians at all involved in the concept and development of the software that we now know as Pro tools? An inquiring mind wants to know. Thanks.
Originally audio was recorded onto audio tape; it only went to video tape when vcr's came out with helical recording for the audio as well as video. Those machines also had audio heads for the old linear recording method. They did this because of the insanely high (for the time) frequency response possible from the helical method.

PS: The mods might want to move this thread to the general discussion forum.
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Old 08-17-2015, 06:46 AM
Glenjb Glenjb is offline
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Default Re: Who invented DAW software?

From Wikipedia:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_Tools

Pro Tools was developed by UC Berkeley graduates Evan Brooks, who majored in electrical engineering and computer science, and Peter Gotcher. The first incarnation of Pro Tools started life in 1984 as Sound Designer, while the pair were creating and selling drum sound chips under their Digidrums label. Sound Designer was originally designed to edit sounds for the E-mu Emulator sampling keyboard, but was rapidly ported to many other sampling keyboards, such as the Akai S900 and the Prophet 2000, and thanks to universal file specification developed by Brooks, Sound designer files could be transferred to and from one sampling keyboard to another by a different manufacturer. This file specification, along with the printed source code to a 68000 assembly language interrupt driven MIDI driver, were distributed through Macintosh MIDI interface manufacturer Assimilation, which manufactured the first MIDI interface for the Mac in 1985. Macintosh Editor/librarian software development pioneers and visionaries, Beaverton Digital Systems, provided a dial-up service called MacMusic starting in 1985 which used 2400-baud modems and 100MB of disk, and used Red Ryder Host on a 1MB Macintosh Plus, allowing users of Sound Designer to download and install the entire Emulator II sound library to other less expensive samplers. MacMusic would now allow users worldwide to share sample libraries across different manufacturers platforms without copyright infringement. Beaverton Digital Systems president John Connolly already had several conversations with Evan Brooks in 1985, as he was listed as a contact for technical support for the Assimilation MIDI toolkit, and the current Apple operating system in 1985 did not have native MIDI communications drivers. One evening in 1986 at John Connolly's Beaverton, Oregon home, an alert was fired online from MacMusic requesting the system operator, and to Connolly's surprise it was none other than Peter Gotcher, thanking him for providing such a revolutionary service and making Sound Designer a much more attractive program to buy, by leveraging both the universal file format and by developing the first online sample file download site in the world, many years before the World Wide Web use soared.

[1] In 1987, Gotcher and Brooks discussed with E-mu Systems the possibility of integrating their renamed 'Sound Tools' software into the Emulator III. E-mu rejected this offer and the pair started Digidesign, with Gotcher as president and Brooks as lead engineer.[2]

Sound Tools[3] debuted on January 20, 1989 at NAMM (National Association of Music Merchandisers). At this stage Sound Tools was a simple computer-based stereo audio editor. Although the software had the possibility to do far more, it was limited by the hard drive technology, which was used to stream audio and allow for the non-destructive editing that Sound Tools offered.[4]

The first version of Pro Tools was launched in 1991, offering 4 tracks and selling for $6,000 USD. The core engine technology and much of the user interface was designed by and licensed from a small San Francisco company called OSC, known at the time for creating the first software-based digital multi-track recorder, called DECK, in 1990.[5] That software, manufactured by OSC but distributed by Digidesign, formed the platform upon which Pro Tools version 1 was built. The OSC designers and engineers responsible for that technology, Josh Rosen, Mats Myrberg and John Dalton, split from Digidesign in 1993 in order to focus on releasing lower-cost ($399)[6] multi-track software that would run on computers with no additional hardware. The software was known circa mid-1990s as Session (for stereo-only audio cards) and Session 8 (for multi-channel audio interfaces). Although the original design remained largely the same, Digidesign continued to improve Pro Tools software and hardware, adding a visual MIDI sequencer and more tracks, with the system offering 16 bit, 44.1 kHz audio recording. In 1997 Pro Tools reached 24 bit, 48 tracks. It was at this point that the migration from more conventional studio technology to the Pro Tools platform took place within the industry.[7]

Ricky Martin’s "Livin la Vida Loca" (1999) was the first No. 1 single to be recorded, edited, and mixed completely within the Pro Tools environment, achieved by Charles Dye and Desmond Child.[8]

More recently, Pro Tools was used for creating the audio for the games DJ Hero and Guitar Hero, using the modeling plug-in Eleven for the guitar sounds.[9]
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Old 08-17-2015, 06:48 AM
Manu101 Manu101 is offline
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Default Re: Who invented DAW software?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_audio_workstation

From the article: In 1978, Soundstream's Digital Editing System could be considered the first digital audio workstation.
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Old 08-17-2015, 07:49 AM
Wall2Wall Wall2Wall is offline
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Default Re: Who invented DAW software?

I was a youngin but I'm pretty sure I saw a Synclavier in use (studio on steinway st, queens, ny) a ways before Sound Tools hit. Think Fairlight was around before Sound Tools also.
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Old 08-17-2015, 11:26 AM
Craig F Craig F is offline
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Default Re: Who invented DAW software?

Digital Audio Workstations they were specialized workstations before they were just software
NED Synclavier/Post Pro and Fairlight were both around in the early days
other pre software only workstations were Lexicon Opus and Studer Diaxis
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Old 08-17-2015, 12:11 PM
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Bob Olhsson Bob Olhsson is offline
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Default Re: Who invented DAW software?

Digidesign was first to allow recording with a personal computer to standard off the shelf, regular format hard drives and the first cheap enough to put on a credit card.

You could also lock it to picture or a multitrack recorder. Five people using Sound Tools could leave one person using a Synclavier in the dust at much lower cost. For that reason Sound Tools followed by Pro Tools rapidly became the standard for post production sound editing and nothing better has come along to replace it in 25 years. Digidesign also invented the audio DSP plug-in.

There is almost nothing in any of today's DAWs that wasn't pioneered by digidesign although some such as faster than real time bounce got left behind for various reasons. The only exceptions I can think of are Sonic's crossfade editor and Samplitude's object editing.
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Old 08-17-2015, 12:16 PM
musicman691 musicman691 is offline
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Default Re: Who invented DAW software?

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Originally Posted by Wall2Wall View Post
I was a youngin but I'm pretty sure I saw a Synclavier in use (studio on steinway st, queens, ny) a ways before Sound Tools hit. Think Fairlight was around before Sound Tools also.
Those two things you are talking about are/were not daw's. They were very early samplers/synths.
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Old 08-17-2015, 12:22 PM
Wall2Wall Wall2Wall is offline
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Default Re: Who invented DAW software?

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Originally Posted by musicman691 View Post
Those two things you are talking about are/were not daw's. They were very early samplers/synths.
The "Synclavier Direct to Disk" was a DAW in a big box for $200k. Audio tracks, editing, fx, mixer, etc. Records were done in there.

The first gen "Synclavier I" was just a big synth. Don't know much about the first fairlights before the "direct to disk" versions used it Post I read about. I have actually never seen a fairlight ever in person.
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Old 08-17-2015, 12:33 PM
musicman691 musicman691 is offline
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Default Re: Who invented DAW software?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wall2Wall View Post
The "Synclavier Direct to Disk" was a DAW in a big box for $200k. Audio tracks, editing, fx, mixer, etc. Records were done in there.

The first gen "Synclavier I" was just a big synth. Don't know much about the first fairlights before the "direct to disk" versions used it Post I read about. I have actually never seen a fairlight ever in person.
I was talking about the Synclavier 1 and 2 both of which I managed to get my hands on in the original versions. The Fairlight CMI was a computer terminal connected to a computer box with a lof of processing in it and a basic music keyboard. Nothing special in the looks department. Also got to mess with one of those as well.
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