What Does a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) Do?

A Digital Audio Workstation or DAW is a music production software that is used to record, edit, mix and manipulate sound while making music. A DAW can be compatible with Windows and other operating systems as well. Earlier, there were 4 types of software to create music, but they were all amalgamated into one standard software called DAW. Those conventional 4 types of software are:

A digital audio processor that records, edits and mixes the audio.
 The MIDI sequencer that records, edits, and mixes MIDI information.
 A virtual instrument is a plugin that receives information from MIDI and then allocates it to different pre-recorded sample sounds.
 A music notation editor allows users to make music by inserting notes on the digital music sheet.

A DAW has all these 4 programs in one software, making it a go-to software for all music creators, especially the young and independent artists who do not have a production house to support them. They make their music single-handedly, and the DAW is a handy tool because it does not require any other setup. For recording, editing, and mixing can be done in this single software.

Digital audio workstations are a software system that incorporates many user interfaces. Still, they are typically based on the traditional multitrack tape recorder interface convenient for the music producer or sound engineer to get familiar with the software. Hence, computer-based DAWs have a basic layout that consists of transport controls (such as play, record and rewind), mixer and track controls. A quite common display feature is the waveform display.

DAWs that display only one track at a time are known as single-track DAWs, whereas multitrack DAWs support processing on multiple tracks simultaneously. Each track has its controls that enable a user to make adjustments in the track's sound just like a mixing console. In traditional music studios, you would have to plugin extra setup to add reverbs to the song, but with DAW, it's so easy to make any changes or process the sound in a track.

One of the most notable features in the modern DAW that was not available in the earlier recording studios was to undo any action you do not approve of anymore. You can undo any change made in the track's sound using a similar command as that of MS Office. Undo option helps in avoiding mistakes as well as in correcting them. You can easily revert any action you do not want and change the original state's data. Common desktop commands such as cut, copy, paste and undo are available in most DAWs in one or the other formats such as pitch, tempo, filtering, and wave shape.

DAWs usually consist of mix automation that uses curve or line-segment based procedural and interactive graphs. Adjustable points connect the lines and curves of these automation graphs. The user can make out the output parameters over some time by making these adjustable points along a waveform. The data for automation can fetch directly from human gestures recorded in the MIDI controller. MIDI editing, recording and playback has come into use a lot more these days in the DAWs.

Some of the best DAWs for windows and macOS according to GrooveNexus are:
 Ableton Live
 FL Studio
 Steinberg Cubase
 PreSonus Studio One
 Cockos Reaper
 Audacity
 Reason Studios
 Bitwig Studio
 Avid Pro Tools

Whether you are sitting in a studio or making music at home, a DAW is crucial to creating music and making the whole process easy and convenient. With so many different software to choose from, you can go for whichever DAW suits you according to your requirements the best and you can make the music of your dreams.