Blog 2 The Impact of DAWs

 The Impact of DAWs 

What is a DAW?

I'm aware that not everyone is educated on what a DAW or VST exactly is. A DAW is an abbreviation for Digital Audio Workshop. “It’s an electronic device or application software used for recording, editing and producing audio files”. The DAW is like a compressed real-life studio with mixing desks and analogue plugins converted into a digital computer version for home use at a cheaper price. This is all projected through a computer screen. In this modern age, this is how nearly all music is recorded, produced, digitally manipulated, mixed and mastered. They allow music creators to independently create a full body of music by recording and layering hundreds of acoustic and digital sounds together in a high definition of sound (24/32 bit depth and sometimes higher). As a producer myself I use these softwares such as Logic Pro or Pro tools or even Ableton. VST are the additional audio plug-in software that subsides with DAW’s to replicate real-life analogue effects like reverb, delay, EQ, compression and many more. It can also be software synthesizers and replica like instruments that are played through MIDI controllers and are recorded directly into the DAW by electrical input. 

A short history on DAWs 

DAWs came into the music industry between the late 70s and the earlier 80s, with the first Digital recorder being developed in 1977 by a company called Soundstream. Later on, a company called Fairlight would release the “Computer Musical Instrument''. This was a digital synthesizer and sampler that was the starting point for hard disk recording drives and also pathed the advancement in MIDI technology which we currently use. At this point in time, insufficient storage, slow processing and disk speeds were the technological disadvantages in that era. This was resolved when companies developed and released new computers for home use in the late 80s, providing the perfect platform to optimise DAWs. This was in the time period where Apple and Atari took the world by storm in the computer market boom. From these early points, this is where most of the DAW’s we’re familiar with today were born. [Logitunes 10th Oct 2014] [Musicradar. 20th February 2020] [Recording Connection] [Yamaha MusicUSA 5th January 2019]

This photograph is an example of early DAW’s, more specifically this was what Logic looked like on the ATARI sourced from MusicRadar.

Impact on the music Industry 

As a person growing up as part of Gen Z , I’ve never lived in a world without some sort of computer technology around me. But less than 50 years ago this was the reality. Knowing that I take technology for granted, I started to imagine what it must have been like when DAW’s computers were introduced and became popular globally. How did it influence the industry? How did it directly affect recording studios now that there was a cheaper alternative? Did some businesses boom and others nearly go extinct? How did these new systems directly change the sound of modern music?  

How they’ve changed commercial studios 

Research shows me that DAWs over the years have affected profits for studios and have placed studios under pressure. This is due to the fact that anyone can purchase recording equipment, studio monitors and a DAW for under £500. New artists can work from the comfort of their own bedroom as if they’re in a real studio and can spend as long as they wish perfecting their craft. Even big artists opt to make hit records from their own house. Take Charlie Puth for example. He made the majority of his “Voicenotes” album in the space of his bedroom using his phone, and his home studio all mixed and mastered by himself. Or Billie Eilish who makes all her music in her mother’s house with her brother Finnease O’Connell in their bedrooms. Her work has won multiple awards including five Grammys out of the ten she was nominated for. And she’s only 19. Quality music and big success coming from bedroom artists have been proven over and over again, Bryson Tiller, Post Malone, The Weekend, J.Cole, Dave, XXXTENTACION and many more respectable artists have come up from these types of backgrounds. It’s because of this, studios are only typically rented out for bands, big group recordings or group production sessions. SoundCity studios are a prime example of how badly DAWs hit studio owners. SoundCity studios was founded in 1969 and would go on to record icons like Elton John, Johnny Cash, Nine Inch Nails, Metallica, Guns N’ Roses and Nirvana. A slow decline started to take place causing the eventual closure of the SoundCity in 2011. Grohl, the drummer for Nirvana, exclaimed in his Grammy acceptance speech how Soundcity was very much focused on the “Human element” of music, he then went on to say “It’s not about being perfect.. It’s not about what goes on in a computer”. This highlights what was so unique about Soundcity. The studio was very much tape recorder and analogue based. So when the digital age began and more modern studios were making everything digital, with DAWs, computers and other modern electronics, the whole music industry changed and Soundcity couldn’t keep up, causing them to close. This was the same for plenty of other studios in similar situations. [Recording Academy Grammy Awards 31st Jan 2020]

 

To make matters worse, currently, forty-eight percent of commercial recording studios are at high risk of termination as a result of the COVID pandemic in the UK if governments don’t support them like other businesses. “Studios seem to be the bottom of the food chain in the music industry” Jasmine lee has said, she’s Dean streets studios Managing director [NME Tom skinner 5th May 2020]. This is an insight of what people who work in this industry alone think and when aligned with how detrimental COVID has been to studios as well, it’s proof that this section of the industry is sinking, and it started because of the DAW. It also doesn’t help that now artists that are accustomed to making music in rented studios have probably had to work from home, buying their own equipment and learning how to use a DAW, so when the world eventually goes back to normal people will find less use for a recording studio. This is one of the negative impacts of DAWs, being a key reason for commercial recording studios being at an all-time low because software replaced hardware. [The Evolution and Decline of the Traditional Recording Studio Sept 2015] [

A positive of the DAW is the opportunity it’s given independent artists. In this century, anybody can become a creator of music and it doesn’t cost much as I mentioned earlier. A huge advantage is that artists can now cut out 3rd parties that used to be the norm, such as; the producer, studio musicians, editing, mixing and mastering team fees since this can now be all done from your laptop on DAW. All an artist has to do it learn the necessary skills. DAW’s provide us with all the necessary tools and more. Drum samples live and digital, time-based effects, virtual versions of real analogue plug-ins, digital synthesizers, MIDI input, mic input, DI input, and a colossal library of instrumental samples. People can make any genre of music from scratch and make it sound authentic by utilising a DAW, this can range from pop to full-blown orchestral music. The added features of extreme manipulation, quantising and editing re-ensures that music can be made with no human era. It has become apparent that every year the market for indie artists has grown exponentially each year and is currently “the fastest-growing segment of the music business, flipping the paradigm of major label dominance ”. Between 2017 to 2018 alone there was a “35% increase.. From the indie sector generating $643.1 million” and is still growing  [The Music Network July 12 2019].                                                 

These indie artists can put out more music more frequently and as a consequence have filled up the charts. [The Music Network 12th July 2019]  

You could combat this by debating that DAW’s have created the age of lazy music where people don’t have to be as talented or put as much work in to make something of themselves because technological advancements have made it easy to cut, paste edit and fine-tune any and everything. No longer are the days of musicians practising for hours to perfect their part to record a perfect take with a band. You could say that because everyone can now be an artist with access to DAWs, there’s an oversaturation of artists in the industry and a lot of underwhelming music being released as a repercussion. This also has “prevented new artists from being heard” and have resulted in artists releasing music more frequently to try and remain at the top of playlists and streams. This decreases the chances of breakout artists [Thecollegeview Lorna Lawless March 6th 2019]. You could say the industry is more quantity over quality. All you have to do is take a look at artists like Lil Yachty, 6ix9ine and Lil Pump who can shout “Gucci Gang” down the mic a total of ‘53’ times. It has lazy lyrics about sex and drugs but can generate over one billion streams across platforms and is now five times platinum [Royalty exchange]. It’s a strange world we live in. 

[Billboard 15th Feb 2020]

Bibliography 

• Logitunes.com. 2014. History Of DAW :: Logitunes Blog. [online] Available at: <https://logitunes.com/blog/history-of-daw/> [Accessed 10 October 2014].

• MusicRadar. 2020. Early Daws: The Software That Changed Music Production Forever. [online] Available at: <https://www.musicradar.com/news/early-daws-the-software-that-changed-music-production-forever> [Accessed 20 February 2020]. 

• Recording Connection Audio Institute. 2021. What Are Digital Audio Workstations (DAW)?. [online] Available at: <https://www.recordingconnection.com/what-are-digital-audio-workstations-daw/#:~:text=The%20DAW%20is%20Born,all%20was%20the%20easy%20part.> [Accessed 2021].

• Levine, M., 2019. The History Of The DAW. [online] Hub.yamaha.com. Available at: <https://hub.yamaha.com/the-history-of-the-daw/> [Accessed 5 January 2019].

• GRAMMY.com. 2020. Billie Eilish. [online] Available at: <https://www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/billie-eilish/251741> [Accessed 31 January 2020].

• Ronald Kirby, P., 2015. The Evolution And Decline Of The Traditional Recording Studio. [online] Livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk. Available at: <https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/3000867/1/200488719_Sept2015.pdf> [Accessed September 2015].

• The Music Network. 2019. Indie Artists The Fastest-Growing Segment Of The Music Business. [online] Available at: <https://themusicnetwork.com/independent-artist-revenue-rises/#:~:text=Revenue%20generated%20by%20independent%20artists,generated%20%24643.1%20million%20in%202018.> [Accessed 12 July 2019].

• LAWLESS, L., 2019. Over Saturation Of Singers On Streaming Sites – The College View. [online] The College View. Available at: <https://www.thecollegeview.com/2019/03/06/streaming-saturation/> [Accessed 6 March 2019].

• Auctions.royaltyexchange.com. 2019. 5X Platinum “Gucci Gang" — Songwriter Royalties. [online] Available at: <https://auctions.royaltyexchange.com/auctions/5x-platinum-gucci-gang-songwriter-royalties/> [Accessed 2019].

• Enis, E., 2020. 'The New Normal': Why Indie Artists Are Releasing Music At A Much Faster Rate In 2020. [online] Billboard. Available at: <https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/streaming/8551261/indie-artists-faster-releases-2020> [Accessed 18 February 2020].

Written by Aaron Lewis