COMPUTER MUSIC: THE PAST VS THE FUTURE
In the 23 years since Computer Music Magazine first launched, home music-making technology has undergone some rapid, dramatic changes. As boxy desktop computers were supplanted by sleek, powerful laptops, we watched the gradual rise of the internet – and the resultant music streaming industry – completely upturn consumer attitudes towards music itself. For the home producer, increasingly user-friendly gear has made many processes far easier, though little has changed at heart. All the while, Computer Music has kept a fixed focus on giving the average musician the tools, skills and insight into the best methods to expand their creative imagination – without shelling out a fortune. That ambition continues today.
Poring over our decades-spanning archive also reveals a story of an industry-wide sea change, as the very concept of ‘computer music-making’ shifted from a novel production approach to being the cornerstone of pretty much everyone’s setup by the 2020s.
Though many incremental developments led the way (see Part 4), a critical step toward the dominance of software came at the very eve of the 1990s, when, in 1989, Steinberg launched their multitasking MIDI sequencer, Cubase, on the Atari ST. At the same time, the eggheads at Digidesign introduced a brand new dual-track software workstation. Then called ‘Sound Tools’, this would of course, in just a couple of years, be re-titled ‘Pro Tools’, and the rest is history. These two integral DAWs remain innovative industry standards to this day. These were the first major examples of software intended to virtually replicate the recording studio in the world of home computers.
By the end of the 1990s, home computing – previously considered the preserve of anorak-wearing spods – was becoming an ever more accessible pursuit for both families and creatives. At the same time, the refinement of digital audio workstations led to them having so much more capabilities than their earlier iterations. No surprise then that many musicians began to see much higher appeal in hard drive-stored versions of the pricey (and
