The Impact of Digital Audio: Samplers and Digital Audio Workstations

24th March 2013

Martin Kruger

The shift of audio from analog to digital formats and working environments, as well as the introduction of Digital Audio Workstations, or DAWs, has changed and shaped the way that composers and musicians handle music. Audio in its digital format has allowed for many new technologies to exist and enabled people to develop new styles of music and techniques for composing music. There have been a great number of changes that have occurred since the discovery of digital audio. In sales and music storage mediums, there was the Compact Disc (CD) that was released and dominated over vinyl and cassette since 2002 (Christman, 2007). Now there is the MP3, or other compressed formats, which has surpassed CDs, or physical, sales in certain areas of the world (The Guardian, 2012). In the past, it was not possible for studios or an average home consumer to perfectly duplicate a vinyl record or cassette tape. Even if they were to record the vinyl to tape, there would have been quality loss, due to the nature of analog audio being degraded each new recording on tape systems. As digital audio is data, it is a lossless duplication process. This is very easy for a studio or home consumer to do as the cost of a blank CD is minimal, and the straight duplication of an MP3, or audio data file, is essentially free. Another area to also have been greatly impacted by digital audio is sampling. Sampling is the method and process of taking a part of an audio recording, storing it and reusing it in a composition or performance.

The word digital can be applied to any technology where sound is created and manipulated in a discrete or quantised way (numbers which represent the sounds) rather than continuous values. (Russ, 2008, p.54)

When sampling into a digital system, there is the conversion of a continuous signal to a discrete signal. (Proakis, Manolakis, 2006) In order for a digital sampler to be able to record and play a sample, the analog signal goes through a conversion process. An analogue audio signal is fed into the machine where it goes into an ADC (Audio to Digital) converter. The amplitudes, or voltages, in the analogue signal are stored, or sampled, at specific intervals, depending on the sampling rate. The sample rate can be defined by how frequently data, or samples, is captured from an analog signal to make a discrete or digital signal (Fig.1). (FADGI, 2013) Another aspect to influence the sampling process is the bit depth. A computer can only process data, which is in binary language; 1s and 0s. These bits, the 0s and 1s, are what make up a digital word. The higher the bit depth, the more bits are available; and as result, more data can be stored each pass of the sampling conversion. The higher the bit depth, the more accurately you represent an analog sound digitally. (Fig. 1) (Franz, 2004) It can then be summarised that the bit depth is how much information is captured each time the sound is sampled, as determined by the sampling clock.

Figure 1: Sampling rate and bit depth

An unavoidable side-effect of ADCs, or converting analogue signals to digital data, is that there will always be some form of quantization that occurs due to the truncation, or rounding off, of the analog signal in the conversion process. The difference between the original analog signal and the digital quantized data is known as quantization error and can often result in there being quantization noise or aliasing. Because of this, there will always be an amount of quality loss in the process of converting audio to digital data, the amount of the raw signal being lost being dependent on the sampling rate and bit depth. It can then be said that in most cases and generally speaking, is not a reversible process due to the way the conversion is done. A sampling theorem, developed by Harry Nyquist and Claude Shannon, states that a sample can be perfectly reconstructed if the sampling frequency is greater than twice the maximum frequency of the signal being sampled. (FADGI, 2013) Using a lower bit depth will degrade the sound, however for some styles of music, this is a positive attribute. Grunge styles such as industrial and urban prefer to have

sounds with a grit or grunge feel to them, leading to composers seeking out samplers that use a lower bit depth, such as the Akai MPC60. Television video games, such as the 8-bit and 16-bit systems, had to make use of these lower bit depths, of which the Mario Brothers game song is very widely known. These lower bit sounds have had a resurgence and now have own label known as chiptune, which is being used in styles that suit the sound, such as dubstep, drum n bass and house; and can be heard in Tik Tok by Ke$ha, which in 2009 was a No.1 hit on The Billboard (Ke$ha Tik Tok, 2009). A large number of samplers also have a variety of ways to modify the way a sound is played back, such as altering playback speed, essentially altering the pitch; looping the sample; reversing the sample; as well as using an ADSR (Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release) envelope to shape the sound. Modifying a sample led to a variety of new styles and songs, with some styles of music, such as early hip hop songs being based almost entirely on samples. The Amen Break, a drum loop sampled from the Amen Brother song by The Winstons, released in 1969, has been used in 1000s of released songs (Video explains the world's most important 6-sec drum loop, 2006) and is the most sampled loop in all of history. While this has been a copyright infringement, as well as the copyright holder believing it was plagiarism, there has not yet been any legal action taken. (Amen Break DB, 2013) The history of samplers dates back as far as the late 1970s. In 1979 the Fairlight CMI was released to the public, which is considered to be the grandfather of synthesizers. The price of the CMI was far too expensive for an average home consumer to be bought, initially selling for a figure of $40,000, and therefore only a 4

handful of the elite few were able to obtain one. Among these musicians were Janet Jackson, The Pet Shop Boys and Stevie Wonder. (Vintagesynth, 2012.a; Solida, 2011) Three years later, E-MU released the E-MU Systems Emulator in 1982. A revised model, the Emulator III, was the first sampler to offer 16-bit CD-quality specs with stereo or mono sampling at 44.1kHz or 33kHz. The Emulator initially sold for about $8000, which would generally be too expensive for home owners, but allowed samplers to feature in many studios. Artists to use the Emulator include Depeche Mode, John Carpenter and David Bowie. (Vintagesynth, 2012.b; Vintagesynth, 2012.c; Solida, 2011) In 1984, Ensoniq released the Ensoniq Mirage. This was introduced at a price of $1,695; something far more affordable for a musician who was interested in sampling. The 8 bit, 30kHz sampling rate offered by the Mirage was nothing compared to the more expensive samplers, however the 8-bit sound quality gave it a more grungy sound, making it ideal for, but not limited to, urban or industrial styles of music. The Mirage was used by artists such as Vangelis, Jimmy Edgar, and Jimmy Jam (Solida, 2011) A break from the traditional types of samplers made was seen in 1988, when Akai released the Music Production Centre, otherwise known as the Akai MPC, which spanned through a number of variations such as the professional MPC1000 to the more affordable MPC60. This featured a 4x4 grid of drum pads, which made it ideal for playing drum patterns with additional instrument hits or vocal samples being used in the drum pattern. (Vintagesynth, 2012.d)

Some of the advantages of the MPC is its portability; its swing timings; warm sound due to 12-bit bit depth in early models; and its ease of use when it comes to loading samples. The MPC was highly sought after by hip-hop and rap musicians and became the tool of choice when composing these styles of music, although the MPC was diverse enough to cater for many styles. The MPC was such a great design that even the modern Native Instruments Maschine has a design based off the MPC. Later MPCs had MIDI integrated which enables a person to use the MPC within their DAW, allowing the MPC to still be used in current studio setups. Many musicians have made their success through the MPC, such as the artist Araab Muzik. As technology advanced, so did the power of computers and processors. Digital Audio Workstations, or commonly known as DAWs, evolved to the point where a home user can affordably compose their own music on their everyday computer. There are two types of DAWs; Integrated DAWs (Fig. 2) and computer-based or software DAWs. Integrated DAWs, otherwise known as multi-track digital recorders or all-in-one DAWs, combines the necessary components such as an audio interface, an on-board computer with dedicated audio-editing software as well as a control surface and graphical user interface and a hard disk for storing audio. (Inspired Songwriting Tips, 2013; De Gregorio, 2006)

Figure 2: Yamaha AW1600 16-Track Hard Disk Recorder, an integrated DAW

Computer-based, or software DAWs, have all the necessary components built into the software. The requirements of such a system would be the DAW software, a computer and an audio interface. Software DAWs (Fig. 3 to 7) first started to surface in the late 1980s on the Commodore64, such as Creator launched by C-Labs, however they lacked many of the necessary features as seen in todays DAWs.

Figure 3: Steinberg Pro-24 and Cubit

Figure 4: Cubase 3

Figure 5: Creator 3.1, originally released in 1987

Figure 6: Creator evolved to Notator

Figure 7: Notator Logic and Logic Pro 9

The layout of a DAW has its roots from analog systems, with a lot of the workflow and design such as the transport bar, mixing console and channel strip, stemming from the way that analog systems work. Software DAWs are relatively cheap in comparison with the equipment needed for a physical, analog system, that have the same functionality, such as a mixing desk; a step sequencer; recording medium, such as tape; processing hardware such as compressors and EQ; and various cables. While it is recommended to have a good processing speed and a high-speed hard drive, the system requirements for a software DAW are very low. This has allowed home users to be able to install a DAW on their home computer and use a DAW, such as Fruityloops, to compose their music from their very own household. Generally, DAWs have a once-off cost, however there are free DAWs that are available and despite being free, they still have the functionality to be able to produce great music. Majority of DAWs are able to accept plugins, or inserts, which can range from software synthesizers to effect plugins such as reverberation or delays. While many of the DAWs developed do offer their own software synthesizers or sound 9

generators, as well as effects such as reverberation or delay, they generally do not compete with those offered by third-party companies who specialise in specific effect products. These effect plugins often emulate hardware which exists. While it is not possible for a software emulation to sound exactly like the hardware counterpart, it has allowed people to affordably be able to use effects in their music, whereas it would otherwise impossible to obtain due to immense amount expenses involved. Because of this, home users can now develop music which would have otherwise only been possible in a studio. There are also pitch correction inserts now which digital audio has made possible. In 1997, Antares released a product called AutoTune, which as the name suggests, does correction pitching to an audio file or performance, generally a vocal part. This however has been creatively used for pitch changes not intended for note correction, but for manipulation of pitches, which has made artists such as T-Pain quite famous, as well as being used by artists such as Lil Wayne and Kanye West, as well as being used in Chers Believe. DAWs are able to receive send and record MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) messages. With MIDI messages being sent through a performance controller, such an Electronic Wind Instrument, an entire performance of an instrument could be recorded and converted into musical notation; whereas in an analog world, this would not be possible. One of the biggest changes to the methods of composing music is Automation. Automation allows the DAW to automatically control parameters or events, which would be specified by the composer through modulation, physical input or 10

programming code. The automation is recorded by the DAW and these parameters or events will automatically be performed by the DAW when the song is played back. The moving of faders while recording, or riding the faders, is possible in a physical, or analog, environment, however a person would be needed for each fader, or two. However, there would be no saved state of the actions performed by these people, such as automation being saved in a DAW and everyone would need to know the song intimately as to know exactly when to move the faders to the correct positions. It would also be close to impossible to accurately perform very fast movements such as software compressor with a quick attack that happens in milliseconds. A feature which a DAW has which cant be found in an analog system is Undo, Redo and Repeat functions. This allows one to correct a mistake; reapply a setting or effect; or duplicate almost anything within the DAW. This can also be done in a very fast manner. Another feature of a DAW is being able to change the arrangement of a song, which allows a composer to add or remove sections as they find fit. While some argue that this has made composers indecisive (How Analog and Digital Recording Techniques Influence the Recording Process, 2007), the ability to rearrange, add or remove sections quickly and effortlessly provides an invaluable workspace for being creative. DAWs, and computer file systems, also allow the management and sorting of audio files, which could be titled according to what the sound contains, such as the timbres or type of instrument. In the DAW, a user can perform a search on specific names, such as type of instrument, and these can generally be previewed very quickly. This allows for a very creative environment, which also saves a lot of time when compared with auditioning on an analog system. 11

DAWs are not only bound to the studio, which was one of the key points the Ableton designers had in mind when they developed Ableton Live. Ableton Live has enabled musicians to perform otherwise-complex actions while performing on stage, which is not only limited to sound as their MIDI events in Ableton Live could also be used to trigger stage lighting and video feeds. Furthermore, a DAW has also allowed a single person to arrange a multitude of instruments, synths and drums, which would have otherwise required a large number of people to perform in an analog setting. (Battino et al., 2004) While there is a degradation of sound in digital systems from the conversion of analog audio to digital formats, there are many new possibilities and ways of working with sound that makes a slight degradation worth the cost. Many new techniques and styles of music have been created because of digital audios capabilities, and as technology continues to grow, so do the strengths of digital audio.

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