Make computer music with a DAW.
DAW stands for Digital Audio Workstation. While the term workstation refers to the entire hardware and software system used to produce music, the center of any DAW is the software used to record the actual music. There are several popular software DAWs on the market including Apple's Logic, Steinberg's Cubase, Ableton's Live and M-Audio's Pro Tools. All of these programs offer many of the same features but achieve tasks in slightly different ways.
Instruments
All DAWs feature a suite of virtual instruments including synthesizers and samplers. These instruments allow the user to create new sounds from scratch or from prerecorded samples. Most instruments are designed to mimic real-life music hardware like classic synthesizers or drum machines. All of these instruments can be played with a MIDI keyboard, which transmits information about how the keys are played in order to closely resemble the way a real keyboard works.
Effects
Every DAW has a suite of built-in effects processors. These effects can be assigned to individual tracks in the sequencer or to specific instruments. Like the virtual instruments, these virtual effects are designed to mimic real-world hardware effects processors. Although the effects available in each DAW differ, there are many common effects every DAW features including reverb, delay and equalization.
Plugins
Plugins are third-party extensions that give DAWs capabilities beyond those that come standard with the original software. These extensions can be in the form of extra instruments or effects that were not part of the core DAW. Plugins can also augment the audio exporting capabilities of the DAW to improve the overall final quality of audio produced by the DAW.
Sequencer
Every DAW has a sequencer, which is the visualization tool used to arrange the many different parts of a musical arrangement. The way each DAW implements its sequencer is one of the elements that distinguishes DAWs from each other. Although the features available are almost identical across the most popular DAWs, the workflow required to achieve tasks can vary widely among them.
MIDI Controller
All top DAWs can record audio and MIDI tracks. MIDI tracks do not contain actual audio information, but rather information about how an instrument should be played as recorded by a MIDI controller. Think of a MIDI track like the roll on an old player piano that holds the note information and repeats it perfectly each time. A MIDI controller is what you use to record notes and how hard or soft the notes should be played. It is the only other piece of hardware, besides the computer and computer speakers, required to set up a DAW.
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