What was the first Daw on Windows?

[Harry_HH]

The original (only MIDI) Logic started 1993, it's predecessor was Atari ST based Creator/Notator (1985-). The thread header asks about the DAW, which is a bit confusing 'cause some people count only D/A workstations to this category by definition, which was of course later than this.

[Jim Roseberry]

The first DAW for Windows was the original S.A.W. (Software Audio Workshop).
Turtle Beach had also released a 4-track audio recording/mixing app called Quad-Studio.

Quad-Studio was very basic... and horribly unstable.

S.A.W. by comparison was rock-solid... and offered detailed editing.
If you bought the EFX Rack, you could use destructive EQ/Dynamics.

Cakewalk added Audio at Cakewalk Pro Audio 4 (not too long after the release of S.A.W.)
The audio side was fairly basic (by today's standards), but it make using Audio & MIDI easy on the PC.

Cubase and Logic were ported to PC shortly after.
Cubase made a big stride by developing ASIO and VST (Virtual Studio Technology)... which kicked open the door for mixing ITB.

DAW software (and hardware to effectively run it) has come a LONG way over the last 20 years.
Today, we take for granted massive amounts of quality DSP processing power... including high-quality reverb (which was one of the final hurdles for mixing ITB)

[Acid Mitch]

The original (only MIDI) Logic started 1993, it's predecessor was Atari ST based Creator/Notator (1985-). .

Those are sequencers , not DAW's.
There has to be some sort of Digital Audio for something to be a DAW.

[fmr]

The first DAW for Windows was the original S.A.W. (Software Audio Workshop).
Turtle Beach had also released a 4-track audio recording/mixing app called Quad-Studio.

Quad-Studio was very basic... and horribly unstable.

S.A.W. by comparison was rock-solid... and offered detailed editing.
If you bought the EFX Rack, you could use destructive EQ/Dynamics.

Cakewalk added Audio at Cakewalk Pro Audio 4 (not too long after the release of S.A.W.)
The audio side was fairly basic (by today's standards), but it make using Audio & MIDI easy on the PC.

Cubase and Logic were ported to PC shortly after.
Cubase made a big stride by developing ASIO and VST (Virtual Studio Technology)... which kicked open the door for mixing ITB.

DAW software (and hardware to effectively run it) has come a LONG way over the last 20 years.
Today, we take for granted massive amounts of quality DSP processing power... including high-quality reverb (which was one of the final hurdles for mixing ITB)

Yes, this was the beginning (those were the days)

[She Changed Her Mind]

Cakewalk. I remember my pc dealer had to laugh when I asked them if you could actually produce music with a SB16. 8 bit.

[fmr]

Cakewalk. I remember my pc dealer had to laugh when I asked them if you could actually produce music with a SB16. 8 bit.

Actually, the SB16 was 16-bit already (hence the name). Problem was the drivers (no ASIO - very high latency).

[deastman]

What was that old Mac DAW called that introduced audio channels and had "super awesome intro demo videos you totally have to watch"? Anyway, Trent Reznor swore by it until it stopped working and he had to switch to windows, much to his dismay. I don't get it when people despise what actually works?

Opcode Vision. That was what most of us used on the Mac in those days. I think StudioVision was the first version to introduce audio recording.

I don't think it was the first, but Voyetra was another early player in the PC sequencer market.

[She Changed Her Mind]

Cakewalk. I remember my pc dealer had to laugh when I asked them if you could actually produce music with a SB16. 8 bit.

Actually, the SB16 was 16-bit already (hence the name). Problem was the drivers (no ASIO - very high latency).

Lol, I can remember we used 8 bit samples. Maybe that's why. The samples made with SB16 actually sounded pretty ok. To my surprise.

[Reefius]

I still have this:

Cubase3.jpg

Too bad I don't have a floppy drive anymore, I would like to see if it runs on my current PC

Notice the dongle, it had to be plugged into the parallel port (printer port), because back then there was no USB yet

[She Changed Her Mind]

Neat. For a few bucks you can buy a floppy to USB device.

[fmr]

What was that old Mac DAW called that introduced audio channels and had "super awesome intro demo videos you totally have to watch"? Anyway, Trent Reznor swore by it until it stopped working and he had to switch to windows, much to his dismay. I don't get it when people despise what actually works?

Opcode Vision. That was what most of us used on the Mac in those days. I think StudioVision was the first version to introduce audio recording.

I don't think it was the first, but Voyetra was another early player in the PC sequencer market.

Actually the first to introduce audio recording was Sound Tools (the ancester to Pro Tools, which was then Digidesign). It was only single track mono or stereo, using Sound Designer II.

Then, OSC created Deck, and it was between OSC and Digidesign that the first Pro Tools was born (it had two application running together: Pro Deck and Pro Edit, the first an expanded version of Deck, and the second an expanded version of SD II). Four tracks.

I'm not sure if Studio Vision came before or after Deck (they were launched more or less at the same time), but it added MIDI and audio together, also with 4 tracks of audio.

[She Changed Her Mind]

Yes, but in 1994 Cakewalk was the most popular DAW. Though we used Scream Tracker and later Fasttracker.

[fmr]

Yes, but in 1994 Cakewalk was the most popular DAW. Though we used Scream Tracker and later Fasttracker.

I don't think Cakewalk was already a DAW in 1994 (only MIDI still, although it could trigger single WAV files).

[bungle]

I would personally call it as Digital Soup by DIgital Music in 1991-92 as the closest to the first DAW as we now know it, while the others where struggling to rumble out 1 or 2 tracks of audio, Digital Soup was an interesting system that pre rendered a little before playback, using this system it was able to playback 32 audio tracks on a mortals Win 3.11 set up, and on a fast set up 32+ audio tracks.
It was definitely a clever bit of software but very "Of the time" and when processor speeds moved on, realtime became more viable and the company seemed to just disappear

[Compyfox]

Cakewalk. I remember my pc dealer had to laugh when I asked them if you could actually produce music with a SB16. 8 bit.

As somebody that encountered the very same comments/behavior/response, I can relate. Even after affordable hosts came along, and/or freeware, these people still insisted that this is "not pro" and "crap gear". I still encounter that up until this day "you use x hardware company? You must be a newbie - nobody is using that noisy throw-away stuff".

I started out on 22kHz sound cards - before that, I tried to mess with one of C64's MIDI hosts, but I brushed it off as a "game". The time I went into Cubase on my old trusty Intel 486 (pre Pentium!) I already saw the predecessor of ProTools in studios and I was on an ISA SB16 myself, with an attached Yamaha DB50XG wavetable synth. I later got the AWE64, but couldn't use the DB50XG anymore (no connector unlike the old AWE32), even though I could get two audio cards to run in one rig (after days of messing around with it).

Ah, memories from the early days. Though not necessarily "great" memories if I look back at maintenance and cost for hardware.


I can't really tell what was the first "Digital Audio Workstation" on Windows. Actually, I don't even care anymore at this point as software went a long way in the last 20 years. What I do remember however, was that Logic was still on PC (until it got "bought up" early 2000s), ProTools was still hardware DSP bound, Cakewalk and later Magix (they were still running their "Music Maker branch at that time) were "new kids on the block", and Steinberg started the "rise of the VST technology" in mid 90ies.

Early 2000's was a revolution in terms of host creators (Ableton Live, ACID, Propellerheads Reason, Arturia Storm, Magix Samplitude, Image Line!!!, the formation of Presonus' "host division")... so, yeah.

I still have this:
...

Notice the dongle, it had to be plugged into the parallel port (printer port), because back then there was no USB yet

At times while it was still called "dongle". I remember the pain from back then - sending in the LPT key, then getting a new one addressed, etc. So going USB was much better IMO.

I still have my Cubase 3.7 VST Score license lying around (dunno what happened to my first Cubase versions - then again they would have wasted space) - nice bulky box from times where people still complained about missing printed manuals(!). But I can't help you with the CD, as you need the corresponding LPT key. The one for Cubase 3 (the "original" Cubase 3) doesn't work with Cubase 3.7

And do notice the .7(!). It's been a while since the dot-upgrades exceeded the number 2, now barely .0 other than .5 as instant-paid upgrade.



Again... memories....
And a sad reminder of how old I am, not to mention how long I am in this particular game!