The Impact of Digital Audio: Samplers and Digital Audio Workstations

24th March 2013

Martin Kruger

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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.

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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; 1’s and 0’s. These bits, the 0’s and

1’s, 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.

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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

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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

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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)

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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)

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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 today’s DAWs.

Figure 3: Steinberg Pro-24 and Cubit

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Figure 4: Cubase 3

Figure 5: Creator 3.1, originally released in 1987

Figure 6: Creator evolved to Notator

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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

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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 Cher’s ‘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

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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 can’t 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.

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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 audio’s capabilities, and as

technology continues to grow, so do the strengths of digital audio.

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