====== What is a DAW? ======

{{:howtos:multimedia:digital_audio_workstation:images:fairlight_ii_page_r-300x210.jpg?direct&200 |}} In simple terms, a //Digital Audio Workstation// is a device where you create and manipulate digital audio.

Before the era of personal computing, a DAW would be a complex piece of (expensive) hardware which was only within reach of music studios or artists of name and fame. \\
A good example of an early DAW is the Fairlight CMI (Computer Musical Instrument), released in the late 70’s of the previous century. This Fairlight was also one of the first to offer a digital sampler. The picture at the left of this page is its monitor with a light-pen input.

These days, the name “DAW” is often used for the actual software used to produce music, like the free [[http://ardour.org/|Ardour]], [[https://lmms.io/|LMMS]], or the commercial [[https://www.ableton.com/|Ableton Live]], [[https://www.image-line.com/flstudio/|FL Studio]], [[https://new.steinberg.net/cubase/|Cubase]], [[https://www.avid.com/pro-tools|Pro Tools]], etcetera.

But “Digital Audio Workstation” also applies to the computer on which this software is running and whose software and hardware is tailored to the task of creating music. To make it easier for musicians who use Linux, you can find a number of custom distributions with a focus on making electronic music, such as [[studioware:|StudioWare]] (Slackware based), [[http://www.bandshed.net/avlinux/|AV Linux]] (Debian based), [[https://qstudio64.tumblr.com/|QStudio64]] (Mint based), so that you do not have to spend a lot of time configuring your Operating System and toolkits.

===== Overview of DAW related content =====
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====== Sources ======
  * Originally written by [[wiki:user:alienbob | Eric Hameleers]]
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