The age of the anorak

Though Thoug we generally consider the mainstream switch to DAW-based production as the beginning beginn of the computer music story, innovators had been working tirelessly to harness computer compu power to create a new production paradigm. The MIDI standard was established in 1983, tthis allowed stable digital communication between a huge variety of instruments and hardware, hardw with a MIDI cable carrying up to 16 channels of information. This was a major breakthrough, breakt and an important stepping stone to our modern multi-track era.

The ATARI ST was launched in 1985, and with it came Steinberg’s Cubase, a piece of software softwa which then was primarily concerned with controlling MIDI devices and MIDI phrase-editing, phrase a far cry from the multi-track virtual studio it would grow into. Speaking of DAWs, DAWs Logic was also learning to walk during this period, with the 1993’s Notator Logic growing grow out of C Lab’s Softtrack 16+. This was a development that indicated a more creative future, futu with the ability to weave together multi-track arrangements very much an eyebrow-raising eye development.

These developments, though critical, were largely under-the-radar for the average home h producer, but as the 1990s progressed, the importance of these steps increasingly opened the door to the centrality of the computer for musicians of all stripes.