‘DAW-IN-A-BOX’
1The past decade has seen the advent of standalone hardware devices that offer near DAW levels of sound creation, sequencing and effects processing, albeit in a self-contained device that puts more emphasis on hands-on control. The obvious examples are Ableton Push, which offers a fully-equipped version of Live in standalone mode, NI’s Maschine+, a fully-featured version of the Maschine software plus some, but not all of Komplete’s synth and effect line-up, and Akai’s latest-gen MPCs, which combine extensive audio and MIDI sequencing along with an array of Air instruments and effects.
These are as close as you’ll get to using a DAW without the need to rely on a mouse and keyboard. Into this category we could also include some of the better-equipped samplers and grooveboxes, such as Roland’s MC-707 and MV-1.
Despite any limitations, each can cover most of what we’d
