Intro to DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations)

J. Jordan • October 6, 2021

An Introduction to Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs)

Producing music is becoming more accessible than ever. What was once only achievable in the studio can now be created at home using music production software called Digital Audio Workstations - or DAWs for short!

DAWs can utilize both audio recordings as well as synthesized sounds better known as MIDI. When producing music, DAWs aid in the process of arranging these audio and MIDI pieces into songs into the cohesive music heard anywhere.

Every DAW can seem quite different, but they all ultimately work towards the same goal - creating a song! At Sunburst, we most commonly use Apple's Logic / GarageBand software as well as Ableton Live. There are other great options such as FL Studio or ProTools as well. For now, let's take a look at the layouts of both Logic and Ableton.

Apple Logic

A. Tracks – Your song comes together track by track. In this case, we’re showing four different tracks labelled Synth, Lead, Bass, and Audio

B. The song – This is shown in the main arrangement window, where you can see the information – notes, etc – as data that corresponds to the tracks on the left

C. Timings and bars – As this song plays, it moves from left to right (indicated by the pointer). The window at the top shows your song position in bars, or minutes and seconds

D. Transport controls – You can move the song pointer (C) by pressing various transport controls for play, record, rewind or fast-forward

E. Instrument track – You have either instrument tracks or audio tracks. In this particular project, Logic is triggering one of its own onboard piano emulations

F. Instrument – This instrument comes from Logic’s own library, which is listed on the left of the screen. You can load in instruments here, or via the mixer

G. The mixer – And here is the mixer. Virtual faders allow you to adjust the volume levels of each track, by clicking and dragging them up or down with your mouse

H. Audio track – The other type of track is an audio track and the audio information is shown as a graphical wave (white on blue representing sound waves of varying volumes)

Ableton Live

A. Tracks – Like other DAWS, Ableton Live has audio and MIDI/instrument tracks. But rather than running top to bottom, they run left to right

B. Clips – The software uses ‘clips’ within these tracks, which you can click on and they will play together or loop to make a song or live performance

C. Audio clip – Most clips shown here are MIDI clips triggering internal plug-in instruments, but here’s an audio clip triggering the drum loops shown at the bottom of the screen

D. Effects – Live comes packed with effects and you can have several per track as standard. When selected, they also appear in the bottom window

E. The mixer – As with Logic, the main mixer is a virtual set of faders and dials used to adjust volume of the tracks

F. Main browser – You load in all of your audio, samples, plug-in effects and instruments via this main browser

G. Other instruments – As well as the effects shown in (D), Live’s instruments and other devices pop up here when you click on the relevant track or icon

H. Arrange view – Here, you can flip Live into an Arrangement View. This will show tracks much like Figures A and B in Apple Logic.

As you can see, while DAWs may look different or feature different tools / abilities, their layout is very similar.
It's up to YOU - the producer - on how you want to use it!

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