A digital audio workstation (DAW) is an electronic system designed to record, edit and play back digital audio. A key feature of DAWs is the ability to freely manipulate recorded sounds. Many DAWs, especially computer-based DAWs, have
The term "DAW" simply refers to a general combination of audio multitrack software and high-quality audio hardware — the latter being a specialized audio converter unit which performs some variety of analog-to-digital (ADC) and/or digital-to-analog (DAC) signal conversion. For example, a workstation could have eight discrete audio inputs, and two or more audio outputs for playback monitoring or routing signal to other devices. Systems can have as few as two mono inputs and outputs; the discrete audio inputs and outputs provide for simultaneous multitracking dual mono sources or stereo recording. A professional DAC performs the same function as a common sound card, but is generally of higher quality and offers sonic or functional advantages when compared with its consumer cousin.
While almost any home computer with multitrack and editing software can function somewhat as a DAW, the term generally refers to computer systems which have high-quality external ADC-DAC hardware, and some form of audio software; some of which is commercial proprietary software. Besides having high-end sound cards most DAWs also require a large amount of RAM, fast CPU(s) and sufficient free hard drive space.
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