What is a DAW?

A  DAW is a Digital Audio Workstation. It is a single place, either a device or software environment, from where you can record, edit and mix your multitrack digital audio. That said, today, a powerful DAW like Audio Evolution Mobile allows you to do much more than just record, edit and mix your audio. You can use MIDI and virtual instruments, apply effects, automate parameters, apply gradual or immediate tempo changes mid-project and do everything you'd expect from a desktop DAW, and all on your mobile device. 

It is worth considering just how astonishing this level of audio recording and processing on a mobile device really is. We can do things today - on our phones and tablets - which would have been prohibitively expensive, and truly only available to the very few, not that long ago.

The first sound recordings were monophonic, made with a single microphone recording all parts of the music at the same time. They captured a live performance in real time. Next came stereophonic recordings, introduced in real terms in the 1930s, made with two properly positioned microphones and played back through two speakers. Stereo recordings had a sense of space and of instruments being in a specific location within the sound field. These recordings were made on disc or film and could still only capture live performances in real time. It was the invention of stereo magnetic tape recording in 1943, which split the tape recording head into two tracks, that created the real possibility of audio multitrack recording as we know it today. By the mid 1950s, Ampex had devised the first 8-track recorder. Multitrack recorders allowed musicians to record different instruments separately on different tracks and they didn't all need to be recorded at the same time. This opened up a whole new world of creative possibilities as the recording machine itself became more of a tool for experimentation. By 1965, bands like the Beatles were creating music using multitracking that simply wouldn't have been possible without it. Multitrack recorders finally became affordable for the general public in 1979 with the release of the Tascam Portastudio. Early consumer multitrack recorders recorded onto compact cassette tape.

Running parallel to these developments in analog audio recording, there had also been research and the development of digital audio recording. Through the 1980s, more and more recording studios were moving towards recording digitally and, by the 1990s, digital multitrack systems had effectively become the industry standard. The first consumer digital multitrack systems eventually became affordable and the Digital Audio Workstation as we know it today had truly arrived.

And now, today, you can carry a fully featured DAW around with you wherever you go with Audio Evolution Mobile.