DAWS

HISTORY    STYLES   DAWS


DAW (Digital audio workstation) is an electronic system designed to record, edit, and mix digital audio. There are two main types of digital audio workstations, standalone and software based. Standalone systems look like a mixer with an LCD screen. They are great and have their uses, but here we are going to focus on software DAWs. Modern DAWs are software running on computers with audio interface hardware


A computer-based DAW has four basic components: a computer, a sound card , a digital audio editor software, and at least one input device for adding or modifying musical note data. This could be as simple as a mouse, and as sophisticated as a MIDI controller keyboard, or an automated fader board for mixing track volumes. The computer acts as a host for the sound card and software and provides processing power for audio editing. The sound card or external audio interface typically converts analog audio signals into digital form, and for playback converting digital to analog audio; it may also assist in further processing the audio. The software controls all related hardware components and provides a user interface to allow for recording, editing, and playback. Most computer-based DAWs have extensive MIDI recording, editing, and playback capabilities, and some even have minor video-related features.
Simple smartphone-based DAWs, called Mobile Audio Workstation (MAWs), are also available, used for example by journalists for recording and editing on location.



TOP 15 DAWS

APPLE GARAGEBAND

SONY CREATIVE SOFTWARE ACID

ACOUSTICA MIXCRAFT PRO STUDIO

MOTU DIGITAL PERFORMER

MUTOOLS MULAB

MAGIX SAMPLITUDE

CABEWALK SONAR

AVID PRO TOOLS

COCKOS REAPER

APPLE LOGIC PRO

REASON

STEINBERG CUBASE

PRESONUS STUDIO ONE

ABLETON LIVE

IMAGINE-LINE FL STUDIO