KVR Audio

megl · Post by **megl** » Mon May 08, 2006 7:54 pm

Hi

I'm writing my Master Thesis and need some information about the history of GUI design for DAW's.

What DAW was the first to use the mixer interface for example? Was it available in in Sound Tools (later Pro Tools)? What was the design rationale behind making it look like a real mixer? And so on.

Does anyone have links, documents or something like that on the subject?

Thanks in advance

/megl

beej · Post by **beej** » Mon May 08, 2006 8:05 pm

I'd start with the history of music software development. That means following sequencer development from early Commodore 64 sequencers, through the popularisation of the Atari ST (Steinberg Pro 24, C-Lab Creator/Notator, Steinberg Cubit/Cubase, onto the rise of Macs and PC's (Cubase, Logic, Performer, Vision) and the arrival of decent digital audio (Macs, Soundtools to Protools).

There's other software I've missed, but you get the point. By tracing the evolution and facilities of these, you get an idea how the interfaces developed. For example, much of the traditional horizontal sequencing arrange page appeared with Steinberg's Cubit (which had a name change to Cubase) and has been adopted by most other sequencers.

A lot of research to do there, but that should get you started

Sascha Franck · Post by **Sascha Franck** » Mon May 08, 2006 8:30 pm

History of Cubase:
http://www.steinberg.net/326_1_.html (probably only useful for an overview).

Some further bits of sequencer history (yet no audio stuff):
http://www.tweakheadz.com/vintage_sequencers.html

Probably of interest as well:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Performer

Not bad either (nothing audio specific though):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIDI_sequencer

Haven't found anything about audio sequencing specifically. In case you find something, I'd be interested as well.

Pipelineaudio · Post by **Pipelineaudio** » Mon May 08, 2006 9:35 pm

Be sure to look at the AMS Audiophile, and old hardware editor to see where some of the wavelab/soundforge style 2 track editor stuff comes from

Angus_FX · Post by **Angus_FX** » Mon May 08, 2006 11:47 pm

Not to forget the Fairlight CMI...

kenn michael · Post by **kenn michael** » Tue May 09, 2006 12:04 am

or the Synclavier...

megl · Post by **megl** » Tue May 09, 2006 1:35 am

Sascha Franck wrote:Haven't found anything about audio sequencing specifically. In case you find something, I'd be interested as well.

Thanks for the links! I'll let you know if I find something!

/megl

megl · Post by **megl** » Tue May 09, 2006 1:36 am

Thanks for your suggestions so far guys - keep 'em coming

/megl

Help needed: DAW GUI history