Digital Audio Workstations

The Sociological Review, 1986

The design of the technology used to duplicate sound recordings for eventual 'reproduction', the familiar disc, was not the result of chance decisions, or of technical imperatives. Gramophone discs of recorded sound and pre-recorded tapes satisfy a number of criteria for a commoditised entertainment industry; they can be manufactured and sold relatively cheaply, and in large quantities this can be made very profitable by economies of scale; they are semi-durable, and therefore the consumer purchases a long-lasting good, but may be persuaded to seek replacements; they are portable, and cheaply and easily transported and stored. Lastly, and most importantly, discs of recorded sound can only be made by a process of manufacture that is difficult and costly to set up. This usefully hinders the entry into the market for discs of competitors who might engage in price competition, but more particularly, and what is sociologically important, distinguishes a social division of labour between producer and consumer, allowing producers to maintain control over recorded material, and hence over consumers. This control of producers has recently been challenged by consumers using the newer technology of the blank magnetic recording cassette tape. The efforts of producers to combat this challenge by technical and legal means is testimony to its financial importance to them. l The chosen manufacturing process also gives producers control over the type of sounds that are available. The sound recording as a cultural artifact bears witness to its origins as an entertainment commodity. To paraphrase John Berger, the term 'sound recording' refers to more than a technique, it defines a cultural form that was developed only when there was a need for a particular way of listening. 2

Computers and Biomedical Research, 1985

A series of digital computer programs which facilitate the production and control of acoustic stimuli for hearing assessment and research are described. The package, which is available for PDP 11 computers under RT-11, allows sounds to be digitized, adjusted for amplitude and/or dc offset, edited while in digital form, and output to tie or tape. The waveform editor package includes facilities to edit sounds in time-with some sections removed or added with temporal precision of 0.1 msec or better. Two or more sounds may also be combined for stereo or monaural (sound-on-sound) output, or two may be concatenated. Together, the programs permit a wide range of manipulations useful in preparing sound stimuli for use in hearing experiments or in clinical audiometry. o 198s Academic PWS.

Digitalization of obsolete analog formats makes it possible that historically important material recorded on them can be again presented to contemporary listeners. During the history of recorded sound, there were several sound recording formats of which the phonograph record was one of the most common. The phonograph record has been used during almost the whole era of sound recording and reproduction. It has been produced of different materials and had various physical dimensions. Also, the nature of the recording varied. Learning about these details makes it possible to choose the digitalization strategy on optimal, the most rational way. Through several examples of digitalization and sound restoration of a particular 78rpm phonograph record, we demonstrate influence of various factors on the final result-restored audio recording.

Trilogía Ciencia Tecnología Sociedad, 2023

This article describes the technical possibilities that, through the use of digital audio processing technology, have influenced the evolution of music and record production, from the musical creation and composition to the distribution of the finished product. As a whole, these possibilities have brought about significant changes not only in the ways of creating but also in the final aesthetic-sound results. An analysis based on primary sources, bibliographic references, and the autoethnographic experience of the authors reveals the influence that these changes have had on producers, engineers, and musicians in the performance of their artistic work. Finally, there is evidence of a strong impact of the technological passage of time on the creative processes and the aesthetic-sound results, which demonstrates, once again, the importance of studies on technology and its effect on traditional arts.

Computer Music Journal, 1996

In general, cultural objects can be divided into two categories: (1) Tangible and (2) Intangible. All the physical and visual forms of art such as paintings, statues, traditional crafts and carving belong to what is commonly known as " tangible culture " whereas beliefs, folklore, dance, songs, and literature are considered as " intangible phenomena ". Where the tangible and intangible objects are compared, it becomes clear that there are several methods of preserving tangible culture. These include scripting, photographing, and drawing etc. However, the only possible methods of preserving the intangible objects such as music, drama, dance, folklore is audio video recording. When Compared to the objects mentioned under the tangible culture category, uniqueness becomes the main characteristic feature of intangible objects. When music is understood as an intangible phenomenon, it can be said that the method of notation is the only way of preserving such objects other than recording. The basic structure of a song or a musical piece work can be demonstrated only in terms of notation. It is quite impossible to capture the fine features belonging to the composition, voices of singers, playing patterns and timbers of instruments, customs related to musical cultures and so on. Thus, the most appropriate method of preserving an intangible object is recording. However, before the scientific inventions and evolutions of proper recording technologies for preserving unique performances, valuable folk legends had been documented using historical conservation methods, like writing on leaves, pictorial inscriptions etc., especially to report and record these elements as historical incidents and resources for future research.

2015

COMDASUAR, a personal computer dedicated exclusively to musical pur-poses built from scratch by José Vicente Asuar in 1978 in Santiago de Chile. At the end of that chapter the author writes the following about the composer and engineer: “Hopefully these lines that we have written about everything done by him during more than thirty years of work in our electroacoustic music landscape, will pay a fair and perhaps forgotten tribute, to the person who has done more than anyone for electroacustic music in Chile”. José Vicente Asuar (1933) is a pioneer in his!eld; he was the!rst com-poser to build a studio for electronic music and sound processing in Chile in 1957. The construction of that laboratory gave him the opportunity to write his dissertation in order to get accreditation as Civil Engineer, and was also the origin of his activity as electroacustic composer. His text “En el umbral de una nueva era para la música ” (In the Threshold of a New Era for Music, 1959) is a foundational t...

International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 2004

In this article, the authors describe the process of converting from analog to digital audio data. They address the step-by-step decisions that they made in selecting hardware and software for recording and converting digital audio, issues of system integration, and cost considerations. The authors present a brief description of how digital audio is being used in their current research project and how it has enhanced the “quality” of their qualitative research.

Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 2005

The design objective was to develop an inexpensive digital to analog (D/A) converter for use in vision science. Soundcards are hardware units that can be integral or can be added to a computer to add sound capability. A soundcard contains D/A converters designed to work in the audio frequency range, typically 20-20,000 Hz. Soundcard outputs are high-pass filtered and thus do not convey sub-audio frequency or dc information. It is possible to circumvent this design feature by programming the desired output waveform as an amplitude modulation of a high frequency carrier, and then demodulating the soundcard output. The circuit, using a 20 kHz carrier, provides precise D/A conversion for the frequency range relevant for vision experiments, dc to 100 Hz, using inexpensive readily available components. The specific application was for 8 channels of D/A conversion using a Macintosh computer running under OS X. The software needed to program stimuli was created using CoreAudio, a library for programming sounds in OS X. Using soundcards on other platforms would not be a problem, as long as there exists a low level library that would enable the wave table to be filled.

Journal of The Audio Engineering Society, 2001

In this paper, an overview of Direct Stream Digital (DSD) signal processing is given. It is shown that 1-bit DSD signals can be dithered properly, so the resulting dithered DSD stream does not contain audible artifacts in a band from 0-100 kHz. It is also shown that signal processing can be done best in a high rate, multi-bit domain. Arguments are given that the minimal frequency span needed to comply with the human auditory system is roughly 0-300 kHz. Following the signal processing, nal conversion to DSD is made. It is demonstrated that Super Audio CD (SACD) is a very eÆcient consumer format: it is the format which, while maintaining all necessary psycho-acoustical characteristics such has high band width, ltering with wide transition bands etc., uses the least bits from the disk; hence o ering the longest playing time. INTRODUCTION In the past few years, there has been an evolving trend in the audio world to move from the standard CD-format (i.e., 16 bit resolution, and a sampli...

IEEE Spectrum, 2003

Digital technology continues its march from media like CDs and DVDs toward your audio speakers. Today, amplifiers based on digital principles are already having a profound effect on equipment efficiency and size. They are also beginning to set the standard for sound quality. What distinguishes Class D amplifiers from all others is that their power transistors are always operated either fully on or fully off. This is the only and complete definition of Class D. In their most obvious form, these systems will be able to accept a stream of bits from a CD or MP3 player and convert it into an analog signal that can drive a set of speakers.

Investigación Bibliotecológica: Archivonomía, Bibliotecología e Información, 2016

Because thousands of sounds documents are lost every day as a result of the fragility and deterioration of recording supports, and the obsolescence of analogue recording and playback equipment, the preservation of the sound archives is at a critical point in its history. Currently, the transfer of analogue content to digital platforms is the only way to guarantee the survival of sound heritage. Therefore, the preservation of digital audio files constitutes a long-term safeguard that will eventually replace analogue backup methods used to preserve the world's audio heritage.