Audio Processing

Digital audio workstation (DAW) refers to a variety of hardware and software combinations that create a virtual studio, including an audio multitrack mixer and recorder, MIDI recording and playback, usually incorporated in a host computer with audio/midi interface hardware. A professional DAW must have high quality ADC-DAC hardware, professional audio software and a fully empowered midi sequencer. Home studio versions of DAWs are increasingly common and affordable but have limited capabilities. To be really useful, the computer host needs a fast multicore CPU, > 4 GB RAM and 2 fast SATA hard drives > 500 GB. 2 drives are required: the boot drive should contain the operating system, programs and data; a second drive should be committed to audio recording.

Brief History of Audio Recording

Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877. His recoding medium was cylinder covered with wax that was etched by a stylus that turned sound into grooves. Playback was a reverse process using mechanical means of amplification. These phonograph cylinders could not be produced in quantity. A more successful medium, the flat disc, recorded a mechanical analogue of sound waves horizontally across the width of the track. The horizontal disc rotated on a record player and a movable arm guided a pickup needle along the tracks. The disc became the standard recording medium for several decades.

Electronic amplification appeared in the 1930s and permitted progressive improvements in recording and playback equipment. I recall being impressed by the new, expensive hi-fi amplifiers and speakers that appeared in the 50’s in monophonic form. New turntable designs featured magnetic cartridge pickups that that floated through the grooves on vinyl discs described as long play albums. The disc approach continues in the form of CDs and DVDs that contain digital data. Sound is processed thru analogue to digital converters to write digital bytes on hard drives and portable media. Players convert digital data to analogue signals that drive speakers to reproduce sound.

Recording studios are moving toward computers and software mixers. Desktop computers with fast dual to quad core processors, gigabyte RAM chips and SATA hard drives are now common and inexpensive. With the right software, they can do multitrack audio mixing and editing as well as professional equipment. Old obstacles to computer based recording have disappeared.

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Topics presented at Persona Digital Studio are from the book, The Sound of Music by Stephen Gislason. Click the Download button to download the eBook from Persona Digital Online.

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