If you are a music producer or artists, then you have most likely heard about DAW and may have been using it for quite some time. But what does DAW actually mean? DAW is an abbreviation for Digital Audio Workstation.
It’s a digital system that’s specifically designed for editing and recording digital audio.
The Onset of DAWs
Because of this, DAW can be referred to as audio software, audio hardware or sometimes both. The DAWs created in early stage especially those that are made in the period of 1970s to 1990s were hardware units do include data storage device, mixing console and analog to digital conversion or simply ADC. These are used in recording, editing and playing back digital audio. These said devices are referred to as integrated DAWs and even until today, it is used at large.
However, majority of them have been replaced by advanced and powerful computer systems.
Birth of a New Age
In this modern period, computer systems serve as the central user interface of DAWs. Professional recording studios do include several mixing boards that are connected to desktop computer. Both portable and home studios might include laptop with audio software as well as recording interface.
Due to the reason that computers have been replacing great number of integrated DAWs, the post production and audio editing are now primarily performed with software than hardware.