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What was the first DAW ever on a computer?


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Just curious. What was the first program in which you could record and edit, etc. on a computer? When did it come out? What kind of computer did it run on?
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Hmmmm. I dunno. The general idea seemed to kinda slowly crawl out of sampling technology. The question kinda pops up "when does it become a DAW?" I can remember recording and editing stereo WAV files with some PC DOS program in the late '80s...about ten seconds worth and my hard drive was full. Still, that wasn't really a DAW. If I had to lay down some money, I'd bet Synclavier will be involved.
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I guess by Definition, a DAW means working AUDIO and MIDI in the same machine. I guess it was Studio Vision from OPCODE, released in 1990, the first one on achieving this.

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[quote]Originally posted by Gus Lozada: [b]I guess by Definition, a DAW means working AUDIO and MIDI in the same machine. I guess it was Studio Vision from OPCODE, released in 1990, the first one on achieving this.[/b][/quote]Of course, it ran on a MAC

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I'll take a guess... The LucasFilm "Sound-Droid," 1985 they had one for film as well, called the "Edit-Droid." and no, this is not a joke... Howzat?

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I thought about the Fairlight, too, and other DAWs (even cheap ones like the Ensoniq ESQ 16 or whatever it was called). But unless the Fairlight was run off a computer (as opposed to having computing in it), I was wondering which was the first DAW on a computer specifically. I just can't think of what it would be!!! In either case, we'll have some really great guesses, and the lines will probably be blurred a bit.
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Ken, you are asking two ndifferent questions, I think. 1. What was the first DAW? 2. What was the first software-specific DAW to run on a standard PC? The answers are also different depending at what point in the evolution you call it a DAW. There were mono and two-track sample waveform capture/editing apps quite awhile before the computer power caught up with the code base ability for serious multitrack work. - Jeff
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Although there were early audio programs on the Amiga,they were hardly usable compared to tape or digital tape(Adat ect.).I'd say "Deck" on the early Mac's were the first usable mulitrack DAW on a computer.
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It was the Mac plus/SE, and the atari 1040 st...but at a smoking 8mhz, it was incapable of recording...Soon came the Mac IIx and SE 30, which doubled the clock speed, but lacked any dsp....In 1989, Digidesign released "soundtools", which was a box that hooked to your mac or atari...It added a motorola 56000 dsp...Next came "soundtools II" and the apple nubus card....And the rest is up to you to research....
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used to have a Yamaha music computer. don't remember the model name. midi only of course. it had a 4 operator synth built in (dx27 i think). you could even program in basic. cassette tape back up.

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Sound Designer was before 1990, Digi also had a card for SE/30. I remember seeing some system for Atari that consiisted of software + external hardware but it might have been as late as 1989/90? Then, on the other hand, the Synclavier had it all.... way before anyone else. /Mats

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My first "DAW" was C-Lab Notator on an Atari Mega 2 using an AKAI S1000 for recording and triggering samples. It was a very effective workstation with a wonderful MIDI engine w/ groundbreaking SMPTE support and very workable audio control via samplers.
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[quote]Originally posted by Gary flanigan: [b]Aren't we forgetting about Pro Tools? I'm pretty sure it was around as a DAW before Vision.[/b][/quote]Nope. The first COMMERCIALLY available -and at a price affordable for the masses- MIDI/AUDIO sequencing software was Opcode's Studio Vision. There were some other audio-only apps around previous to this one but this was the first on achiveving it at this level.

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[quote]Originally posted by Gary flanigan: [b]Aren't we forgetting about Pro Tools? I'm pretty sure it was around as a DAW before Vision.[/b][/quote]No. Pro Tools evolved from other Digi technologies like Sample Cell and Sound Tools. I'll refer back to what I said in my first post. This all depends on what you define as a DAW. And no, MIDI does not make a DAW. We're talking about audio recording and editing, usually combined with MIDI in a single integrated app. - Jeff
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[quote]Originally posted by Jeff the Wandering Weasel: [b] Pro Tools evolved from other Digi technologies like Sample Cell and Sound Tools. [/b][/quote]Yes,and before that was Deck.In fact Digi enlisted the creators of Deck in their quest,but eventually they parted ways.Deck was around before Sound Tools and Waaaay before Sample Cell.It's still around in fact.
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I had a Synclavier back in about 1986, 87 and it had a hard disk recording option... 8 Tracks ... for about $225,000 extra on top of the $200K for the main sampling keyboard unit!!! The sequencer in it was so lame I had to go back to Performer 1.22. It couldn't even do a tempo change. For laughs, I have a copy of my $400,000+ Synclavier quote in our lobby. Chuck
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[quote]Originally posted by Chuck Surack: [b]For laughs, I have a copy of my $400,000+ Synclavier quote in our lobby.[/b][/quote]Awesome. Both the Synclavier and the Fairlight were incredible technologies for their time, and when you have a unique capability like that, the price is whatever the market will support. Plenty of serious musicians and composers bought them, even at a quarter mill and way up. Today, you can get free software (as in the "LE" versions bundled with audio products) that exceeds the capabilities of those early dedicated DAW tools. - Jeff
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[quote]Originally posted by Jeff the Wandering Weasel: Today, you can get free software (as in the "LE" versions bundled with audio products) that exceeds the capabilities of those early dedicated DAW tools. - Jeff[/QB][/quote]Yes, but those pieces had a "sound", unlike the new stuff. Just liek emax samplers had a certain "sound". It's not just one's and zero's.

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It was probably something developed at IRCAM to study sound synthesis, recording, storage and recall. [url=http://www.ircam.fr/presentation/historique/page-e.html]Read their history here.[/url]
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[b][/QUOTE]Yes, but those pieces had a "sound", unlike the new stuff. [/b][/QUOTE] Awwww, sure they do: thin.
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I'll go with Gus on this one -- the first computer-based DAW that resembled what we're used to today was StudioVision, which integrated hard disk recording with MIDI. There were audio recording programs before that, and MIDI programs, but nothing like StudioVision. I remember sitting at a NAMM show suite, as David Willebrink (formerly with Blank Software) demonstrated audio recording over a MIDI sequence, and even edited it. It was quite a shock at the time.
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