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What Is the Future of the DAW?

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Re: What Is the Future of the DAW?

#81

Post by robenkleene »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #28
robenkleene wrote: post #22

The umbrella topic to this is one of my favorite topics in all of software and one where strangely we as an industry don't seem to have internalized its lessons: That the right approach to building a software program (like a DAW, NLE, bitmap/vector editor) emerges early. This is why these applications have lifespans measured in decades, and it's extremely rare for a new player to be able offer anything new, different…

I don't think this is true at all. For several different reasons: First, "the right approach" to building a software program is wildly unspecified: it could refer to the UI/UX aspects and/or the internal design, and these both have dramatic impacts on long term evolution. Second: the "right approach" for "making music" in the early days covered things as distinct as MIDI sequencers, trackers and early ProTools. It wa…

Not sure which point you think I'd disagree with here, I guess the core thing I didn't add is that yes, the design space changes over time as computers get more powerful. The original paradigms have proved to be remarkably durable though, hence the note in the piece about many pieces of software being the first ever in their category continue to be the market leader:

> I started thinking about this question, of whether software transitions ever really happen, when I noticed just how common it was for the most popular application in a category to still be the very first application that was ever released in that category, or, they became the market leader so long ago that they might as well have been. The Adobe Creative Cloud is a hotbed of the former: After Effects (1993, Mac), Illustrator (1987, Mac), Photoshop (1990, Mac), Premiere (1991, Mac), and Lightroom (2007, Mac/Windows) are all market leaders that were also first in their category. Microsoft Excel (1987, Mac) and Word (1983, Windows) are examples of the latter, applications that weren’t first but became market leaders so long ago they might as well be (PowerPoint [1987, Mac] is another example of the former).

Re: What Is the Future of the DAW?

#82

Post by roblh »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #36
roblh wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s true that you can dump a project into a git repo, but the real problem is diffing. It would be pretty miserable trying to reconcile any significant changes or conflicts. What I think would be cool is a tool for auditioning and merging specific changes that’s backed by git somehow. I’m not really sure what it would look like though.

In the mid-late 2000's, Ardour (and a couple of other DAWs) had support for branching undo/redo histories. We (Ardour) abandoned it, because the universal experience of non-programmers was that they had no idea how to even begin to use this sort of feature. The majority of DAW users don't come ready to deal with the complexities of a branching workflow, or even a desire to learn it. There is at least one band out of…

That’s wild, super cool that you guys were trying to make that work so long ago. I can see how people unfamiliar with that way of thinking would be completely lost. Especially in the context of a daw which is basically a wall of buttons and switches.

As a very entrenched Reaper user, I haven’t tried Ardour, but I’m glad it exists and continues to exist. Thank you for your work :)

Re: What Is the Future of the DAW?

#83

Post by luckyt »

It would be great to see more innovation like AI in DAW tools, but there are some challenges. The main constraint is it needs to process in real time, allowing just a few ms to process a sample. Very few neural methods can work with that constraint, without it, they can't fit into the standard DAW workflow where you string together many plugins, each processing the signal in real time.

There are some AI tools that work outside the main workflow, like for mastering after you're done with the DAW. But it's quite difficult to improve and bring new ideas beyond the typical signal processing modules without completely revamping the current workflow.

Re: What Is the Future of the DAW?

#85

Post by reassembled »

robenkleene wrote: post #22

The umbrella topic to this is one of my favorite topics in all of software and one where strangely we as an industry don't seem to have internalized its lessons: That the right approach to building a software program (like a DAW, NLE, bitmap/vector editor) emerges early. This is why these applications have lifespans measured in decades, and it's extremely rare for a new player to be able offer anything new, different…

I highly encourage folks to check out a new DAW called Blockhead. It upends a lot of typical ideas of how a DAW should work. There’s no MIDI events and no global tempo.

Everything is represented as blocks of samples on rows of timelines which are then effected by transforms placed on the rows above the rows containing samples. Edits and transform adjustments all happen in real time, and everything is continuously rendered to a scratch buffer that can also be dragged in to the project as a new block of samples.

It is truly a very creative approach and when you see it you will be wondering why nobody tried this approach before. The developer, Colugo, has a new video on YouTube showing how it’s main features work.

Re: What Is the Future of the DAW?

#86

Post by delgaudm »

jimmaswell wrote: post #80
delgaudm wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5. People who record, but have nothing to do with music whatsoever. For example, I have literally no musical skills whatsoever, but have at least 15k hours in my DAW. I'm a Voice actor, who worked hard to customize my DAW to get rid of as much music making stuff as possible from cluttering my interface (Reaper FTW) It's a Digital AUDIO workstation, not a Digital MUSIC workstation

If you're only recording lines, why isn't Audacity a lot more convenient?

Audacity is not more convenient. Not by a mile. Voice actors have tons of workflows that only a DAW can help with.

Re: What Is the Future of the DAW?

#87

Post by luxpir »

jimmaswell wrote: post #80
delgaudm wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5. People who record, but have nothing to do with music whatsoever. For example, I have literally no musical skills whatsoever, but have at least 15k hours in my DAW. I'm a Voice actor, who worked hard to customize my DAW to get rid of as much music making stuff as possible from cluttering my interface (Reaper FTW) It's a Digital AUDIO workstation, not a Digital MUSIC workstation

If you're only recording lines, why isn't Audacity a lot more convenient?

"Only recording lines"? There may be more to it than you think.

Re: What Is the Future of the DAW?

#88

Post by [deleted] »

luwatobil wrote: post #21
thegagne wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any recommendations for #3? Particularly with low barrier of entry for kids? Something you can use a midi keyboard and a mic with?

I always find GarageBand to be an easy-to-pick-up app that can be used to generate fun sonic blurbs in a short amount of time. It has its own limitations, but the lack of complexity contributes to its ease of use.

[deleted]

Re: What Is the Future of the DAW?

#89

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

delgaudm wrote: post #78
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #5

TFA starts down an important path - identifying different categories of users - but doesn't really get this quite right IMO. There are (at least) four categories of DAW users: 1. Professionals who are being paid to make music, and for whom time is essentially money. Tools that speed up the production of that music are both financially valuable to them, and also make their overall lives easier (if done right). 2. Musi…

5. People who record, but have nothing to do with music whatsoever. For example, I have literally no musical skills whatsoever, but have at least 15k hours in my DAW. I'm a Voice actor, who worked hard to customize my DAW to get rid of as much music making stuff as possible from cluttering my interface (Reaper FTW) It's a Digital AUDIO workstation, not a Digital MUSIC workstation

I was trying to cover that with #4, but i put too much 'music-y" stuff in there. You're precisely one of the examples I was thinking about there.

Re: What Is the Future of the DAW?

#90

Post by duped »

matjus wrote: post #31

DAWs will need to refocus on managing recordings of live performances -- young kids are starting guitar bands again, and in a few years I think we will enter yet another period where electronic sounds are out of fashion. I'd also like to see more music creation nuts & bolts built into DAWs, like integrated lyrics, a quick way to shuffle pieces of a song like "bridge" and "verse", visualizations of key center shifts,…

> DAWs will need to refocus on managing recordings of live performances

They never stopped

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