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Gurudutt R.

Department of Telecommunication, Atria Institute of Technology

    

Abstract:-A Ô
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  (DAW) is an electronic $  c#
system designed to record, edit and play back digital audio. A key
feature of DAWs is the ability to freely manipulate recorded
sounds.
Consist of a mixing console, control surface, audio converter
and data storage in one device. Integrated DAWs were more
popular before personal computers became powerful enough
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The term "DAW" simply refers to a general combination of
audio multitrack software and high-quality audio hardware
² the latter being a specialized audio converter unit which
performs some variety of analog-to-digital (ADC) and/or
digital-to-analog (DAC) signal conversion. For example, a
workstation could have eight discrete audio inputs, and two
or more audio outputs for playback monitoring or routing
signal to other devices. Systems can have as few as two
mono inputs and outputs ² the discrete audio inputs and
outputs provide for simultaneous multitracking dual mono
sources or stereo recording. A professional DAC performs
the same function as a common sound card, but is generally
of higher quality and offers sonic or functional advantages
when compared with its consumer cousin.
While almost any home computer with multitrack and
editing software can function somewhat as a DAW, the term
generally refers to computer systems which have high-
quality external ADC-DAC hardware, and some form of
audio software; some of which is commercial proprietary
software. Besides having high-end sound cards most DAWs
also require a large amount of RAM, fast CPU(s) and
sufficient free hard drive space.
  
DAWs generally come in two varieties:

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Consist of three components: a computer, an ADC-DAC,
and digital audio editor software. The computer acts as a
host for the sound card and software and provides processing
power for audio editing. The sound card acts as an audio
interface, typically converting analog audio signals into
digital form, and may also assist in processing audio. The
software controls the two hardware components and
provides a user interface to allow for recording and editing.
Many radio stations in the U.S. prefer using computer-based
DAWs over integrated DAWs.
to run DAW software. As computer power increased and
price decreased, the popularity of the costly integrated
systems dropped. However, systems such as the Orban
Audicy once flourished in the radio and television markets.
Today, some systems still offer computerless arranging and
recording features with a full graphical user interface, such
as the Roland MV-8000, Roland MV-8800 and recent
Mackie HDR-series hard disk recorders. The DAW also
allows visual representation of console automation.
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The first digital audio workstation was developed by Bob
Ingebretsen and Jim Youngberg at Soundstream in the late
1970s, using a Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-11
minicomputer running a custom software package called
"DAP" (for Digital Audio Processor) for digital audio
editing and audio effects such as crossfades. A storage
oscilloscope that was connected to the minicomputer acted
as the audio waveform display. Edits were made by typing in
three-letter commands on a separate computer terminal,
listening to digital-to-analog converted results on
loudspeakers, and using the waveform display on the storage
oscillioscope as a reference.
Audio on the system was stored on disk pack drives, with
the audio transferred onto the drives from Soundstream's
proprietary digital audio tape recorders using a Unibus tape-
to-disk interface also of the company's own design.
Soundstream also developed a digital-to-analog interface for
this system for interfacing to conventional analog tape
recorders as well.
In 1981, recording engineer Roger Nichols built a digital
audio workstation of his own design, using a S-100 bus-
based computer with a Micropolis 8" form factor 32 MB
hard disk used for storage of digital audio data. It interfaced
digitally to a 3M multi-track digital audio tape recorder in
his studio, and was used to edit audio from the recorder.
Nichols' system was used during the recording and
production of Donald Fagen's 1982 album, Êhe Nightfly.
At the late 1980s, consumer level computers such as the
Apple Macintosh or the Commodore Amiga started to have
enough power to handle the task of digital audio editing.
Macromedia's Soundedit was the first audio editing software
to appear for the Macintosh in 1986, but the concept was
made popular by a company called Digidesign, who in 1987
introduced one of the first hardware & software packages for
the Apple personal computer for editing audio, Sound Tools.
The software was called Sound Designer II since it was
essentially an update of the sample-editing "Sound
Designer" software used with sampling keyboards like the
Emulator II and Akai S900. This was the predecessor to the
still current Pro Tools system. Many major recording studios
finally "went digital" because Digidesign had modelled its
Pro Tools software after the traditional method and signal
flow present in almost all analog recording devices. At this
time most of the DAWs were Apple Mac based (Pro Tools,
Studer Dyaxis, Sonic Solutions Around 1992, the first
Windows based DAWs started to emerge from companies
such as Soundscape Digital Technology later acquired by
Mackie then by SSL, SADiE and Spectral Synthesis. All the
systems at this point utilized dedicated hardware for their
audio processing.
In 1994 a company called OSC produced a 4 track editing-
recorder app called DECK ($399,95) for Digidesign,
employed in The Residents' "Freakshow" LP. The first
Windows based software-only product was Software Audio
Workshop (SAW) from IQS and it was able to record, edit
and mix 4 tracks of audio. It became heavily used
throughout US radio stations.
While DAWs are capable of mimicking the functions of a
traditional recording studio, there are areas where they excel,
and in some cases they can do things that are impossible
without a DAW.
Perhaps the most significant feature available on a DAW
that is not available in analogue recording (some other forms
of digital recording do have this) is the ability to 'undo' a
previous action, which makes it much easier to avoid
accidentally erasing or recording over a previous recording.
Commonly DAWs feature some form of automation,
commonly performed through "envelope points." Each dot
represents one envelope point. By creating and adjusting
multiple points along a waveform or control events, the user
can specify parameters of the output over time (e.g., volume
or pan).
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There are many DAW programs that provide recording and
editing audio, recording and editing MIDI data, sound
processing and synthesis. Commercial systems are often
designed to run on Macintosh or Windows operating
systems and are usually developed for profit.
Detailed information of commercially available programs is
available in other articles.
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Musicians and composers long had a desire to integrate c' )
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stereos, turntables, recording equipment, MIDI keyboards ' #+ #$+ $#  
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and even electric guitars with computers. Serious computer- /*$ - '

based composition tools began to appear with the Atari ST
and Amiga computer systems. Enthusiasts continued to seek Other professional DAWs that use a combination of
more integrated, easier-to-use and higher-performance tools hardware and software include;
for audio creation tasks. Many current DAWs even support
integration with video streams allowing full A/V production. $+ +.0+$# +'*
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production tools.
As software systems, DAWs could be designed with any
user interface, but generally they are based on a multitrack
tape recorder metaphor, making it easier for recording
engineers and musicians already familiar with using tape
recorders to become familiar with the new systems.
Therefore, computer-based DAWs tend to have a standard
layout which includes transport controls (play, rewind,
record, etc.), track controls and/or a mixer, and a waveform
display. In single-track DAWs, only one (mono or stereo
form) sound is displayed at a time.
Multitrack DAWs support operations on multiple tracks at
once. Like a mixing console, each track typically has
controls that allow the user to adjust the overall volume and
stereo balance (pan) of the sound on each track. In a
traditional recording studio additional processing is
physically plugged in to the audio signal path, a DAW,
however, uses software plugins to process the sound on a
track.
 
There are many free and open-source programs that can
facilitate a DAW. These are often designed to run on a
variety of operating systems and are usually developed non-
commercially. The LADSPA plugin architecture, the JACK
API and the ALSA soundcard driver represent the 'cutting-
edge' in free and open source DAW development for
professional audio production.
REFERENCES
1.Y Introduction to DAW by Mitch Gallagher at Sweetwater Sound.
2.Y "Workstation Blues", an article about DAW systems (circa 1990) by
Roger Nichols
3.Y Music Articles and Loops articles and audio for music producers. All
free under either Creative Commons or Public Domain.
4.Y WikiRecording's Guide to Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs).