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What Is the Future of the DAW?

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Re: What Is the Future of the DAW?

#91

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

robenkleene wrote: post #81
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 wheth…

In the DAW space, ProTools continuing-but-diminishing semi-dominance (at least at a professional level) is rooted in hardware rather than software. When they started, you could do not realtime audio on the CPU, so you got a DSP box with the software. The sort of hardware requirement was invaluable to Digidesign in establishing and locking in their early users, and it really didn't go away until sometimes in the mid-2000s when everybody started noticing that you really could do a remarkably large amount of processing on the CPU itself.

So in this world at least, the longevity of the first mover has more to do with actual and imagined barriers to entry rather than anything especially good about the software itself (and indeed, many of its users used to complain endlessly about the software).

Re: What Is the Future of the DAW?

#92

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

duped wrote: post #63
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See my #4 ... but also feel free to expand the taxonomy!

I would say that there's a pair of taxonomies, one being of audio content (social audio, radio, film, multimedia art, music, etc) and one being of the level of user (hobby/beginner, student, pro, academic, etc) and the problem with DAWs are that they generally gravitate towards where the money is, which are pro users in music and film.

I think that another axis to take into consideration is the extent to which audio will originate outside the computer. The needs & desires of people recording actual performances on some kind of instrument (even an electronic one) are going to differ significantly from people working, as they say, entirely in the box.

Re: What Is the Future of the DAW?

#93

Post by bandrami »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #20
bandrami wrote: post #14

I'm still getting used to the "new" scene-based model (which is I guess actually pretty old at this point) but it seems mostly unavoidable now that Ardour has switched to it in v7. Though I also think there's a lot of space on the low end of simple sequencers that the tracker renaissance is starting to fill.

We haven't "switched to it" - it's an addition, not a replacement. ProTools just announced their version too. And yes, this model is roughly 20 years at this point (Ableton Live started at about the same as Ardour).

Sorry, "switch" was the wrong word there, and I absolutely love the clip launcher. It's just kind of like the difference between editing text in a dumb editor vs an IDE or something like slime; lowering the "cost" of trying stuff absolutely changes how you think about your music and what you do with it.

Re: What Is the Future of the DAW?

#95

Post by bandrami »

squarefoot wrote: post #73

What I really miss in DAWs is a drum arranging tool that goes beyond scores or xoxo grids. Those are good for editing patterns in atomic ways, but I'd love something to quickly record new patterns played on drum pads on the fly, with arbitrary duration, create a new pattern that inherits parts of the one I just recorded (to make variations and fills) just by hitting one key and/or sending a MIDI note from a controlle…

Have you ever looked at Non? It has a recording mode that is a lot like what you described if I understand you right. Development is kind of moribund but that can be an advantage in some ways.

Re: What Is the Future of the DAW?

#96

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

bandrami wrote: post #93
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We haven't "switched to it" - it's an addition, not a replacement. ProTools just announced their version too. And yes, this model is roughly 20 years at this point (Ableton Live started at about the same as Ardour).

Sorry, "switch" was the wrong word there, and I absolutely love the clip launcher. It's just kind of like the difference between editing text in a dumb editor vs an IDE or something like slime; lowering the "cost" of trying stuff absolutely changes how you think about your music and what you do with it.

As long as your music is "in the box", yes. If you're a classical oud player, not so much.

Re: What Is the Future of the DAW?

#97

Post by bandrami »

barkingcat wrote: post #33

DAW innovation will only come with inventing new algorithms. There needs to be significant number theory and computer science algorithmic work related to sound and how we represent sound with data. GPU's currently cannot work with sound data in the processing chain, and multicore is basically just used to scale horizontally (ie to have more plugins or instruments) New algorithms are needed to scale out audio processi…

The GPU separates vocals and percussion from the instruments on my DJ laptop (also why has nobody made spleeter an LV2 yet?)

Re: What Is the Future of the DAW?

#98

Post by dharma1 »

roblh wrote: post #10

DAW version control is one of my dreams. If I could have a really tight git equivalent for reaper projects, it’d be so cool. Plugins are, as usual, the biggest barrier there. Doesn’t seem like there will ever be a good way to deal with different people having completely different plugin collections. Unless someone makes “Netflix but for plugins” or something. The other thing I saw the other day that I thought was coo…

Splice actually started out with version control for collabs - it was called Splice Studio and was killed off recently. Don’t think it ever found PMF (doesn’t mean there won’t be a product for this eventually) - https://cdm.link/2021/04/splice-studio-is-free-backup-versio...

Turns out their pivot to being Netflix for samples/plugins is more in demand :)

Re: What Is the Future of the DAW?

#99

Post by mxmilkiib »

squarefoot wrote: post #73

What I really miss in DAWs is a drum arranging tool that goes beyond scores or xoxo grids. Those are good for editing patterns in atomic ways, but I'd love something to quickly record new patterns played on drum pads on the fly, with arbitrary duration, create a new pattern that inherits parts of the one I just recorded (to make variations and fills) just by hitting one key and/or sending a MIDI note from a controlle…

Maybe https://github.com/ahlstromcj/seq66? Spiritual successor of seq24.

Re: What Is the Future of the DAW?

#100

Post by NikolaNovak »

duped wrote: post #63
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See my #4 ... but also feel free to expand the taxonomy!

I would say that there's a pair of taxonomies, one being of audio content (social audio, radio, film, multimedia art, music, etc) and one being of the level of user (hobby/beginner, student, pro, academic, etc) and the problem with DAWs are that they generally gravitate towards where the money is, which are pro users in music and film.

>> problem with DAWs are that they generally gravitate towards where the money is, which are pro users in music and film.

Is that the case though?

Ableton and such don't charge per revenue as far as I'm aware. They charge same whether you are scoring a $500mil movie or fooling around after hard day of coding.

And I feel in sheer numbers, latter outweighs the formers by several orders of magnitude. All forums I've been to are filled by, at best, "enthusiasts". Thousands upond tens of thousands of us with some disposable income we give to synths and software to tinker with :-).

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