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What Is the Future of the DAW?

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Re: What Is the Future of the DAW?

#221
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…

In the open source world, a DAW could really just include everything. You'd still need plugins occasionally, but I don't see why there couldn't be a curated collection that covers all the basics.

Re: What Is the Future of the DAW?

#222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Unfortunately it requires Jack, which for me has always been a source of frustration. I can get very low latencies and excellent stability using Alsa alone, so don't feel the need to change. Unfortunately as much as Jack is incredibly powerful, its UI to organize and connect stuff together is an example of how terrible usability choices can ruin an otherwise great software.

It works fine on pipewire's jack emulation, which is much less of a headache

Re: What Is the Future of the DAW?

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We'll see. Companies like Abelton aren't going to throw out their whole codebase and start from scratch, just to accommodate advancements in technology. But if I can just talk to the LLM, and say "hey, gimmie a drum beat, now add in a bass line, no not like that, like ", do I really need the overhead of the traditional view of separate tracks and midi and plugins? When making music is as easy as describing something…

That sort of thing is only going to accelerate the amount of crap, derivative music that is already flooding the market The difference between music and driving a car is that music is art. Many of those who labor in the space enjoy creating from scratch. Technological progress does not automatically make things better

Crap music that other people made will flood the market, but music that's made just for personal enjoyment will explode. Writing music, creating/recording it, and arranging the tracks in Abelton is a very time (and money) consuming hobby if not done professionally. Learning to play an instrument in the first place can be far more rewarding because it's "yours". Prompt engineering on an LLM will be a total shortcut to creating music, but it will be yours.

Commuting to work/school/etc in a car might not be art, but driving for sport, at the top of the profession is very much an art form simply because of the technical skill, creativity, and emotional depth and investment. Just as a musician understands the nuances of their instrument to produce a captivating melody, a driver must intimately know their car's attributes to master each track. The racetrack is their canvas, with split-second decisions, adaptability, and emotional connection to the track, car, and other drivers. Like a well-composed symphony, high-level driving's graceful turns and passes resonate with both the drivers and the viewer. It's not just about who crosses the finish line first (despite what the Fast and the Furious movies told you), but the elegance and finesse required to drive at that level is befitting a music virtuoso to educated viewers.

Very much agree on the last point, technological progress often isn't. Electric cars are the future, but the diagonal torque curve of the motor lacks the charm of ICEs.

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