30 years ago - DAWS for the day

[Dingo]

I was reflecting this evening on how far the DAW has come.

Thirty years ago Recording Engineer Producer (RIP) published a list of the available DAWS and their various pluses and minuses.

https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Al...992-05.pdf

The article starts page 20... so much work and heartache went into the companies who helped evolve the DAW as it appears today.

Protools is there as are some real big hitters who missed.... the DAW I worked on EDI Tracker (AKA Soundtracker) was aimed at the specialised post market had no MIDI and no intention of... and being a small Australian company we just could not compete with the majors...

One of the reasons I like Mixbus is the commitment to collaborative open source cross platform development - I see this as the only viable way to compete with large corporations.

[krans]

This was a fun read!
Thanks for putting it here.

I often think I probably wouldn't have been working in my profession 30 (or even 25) years ago. All the gear. Synths. Consoles. So expensive and big and also it feels like there was a certain crowd (nothing wrong with them, but I often don't fit very well in).
I'm so grateful for being just my age, going straight into the digital where I can have a pretty minimal setup and just dive into software and learn it as good as possible.
And having Mixbus 32C to make my sound shine no matter what I do.

[johne53]

Strangely, no mention of Pyramix there - tho' I'm pleased to see AMS Neve's AudioFile represented and also DAR SoundStation. Those were the two biggies at the time that I originally cut my teeth on. And those were the days when purchasers thought nothing of spending tens of thousands of dollars on a DAW.

Mostly rich companies of course... often working on films and TV programmes - but the time saving was truly enormous. To dub a tape-based TV programme in those days would typically take a whole week. DAW's cut that down to just a day! I guess the downside was that TV soaps which (mercifully !) had only been weekly could suddenly get transmitted virtually every day