In Summary

Developers spend loads of time and money to constantly make the DAW better than before. What do some do that others still fall short on? Has it all been done before, and if not what are the things that every DAW should do now? We investigate.

Going Deeper

The DAW is the audio production powerhouse that can do pretty much anything. Certainly for those engineers who remember working before its appearance, the things that are now possible used to be anything but. From simple or complex editing and time manipulation, through to bottomless mixes with infinite tracks and processing, their functionality blows away the old ways of working using purpose-built hardware.

Following their meteoric rise, we now see DAWs’ features converging by the day, yet every now and then we get those collective sighs of relief from one tribe of users who just got the feature the others had for years. Clearly it’s still possible to pick and choose the weapon of choice based on the things one does better than another. What are those things, and what should they all being doing that they currently don’t do? Here we take a deeper dive…

Existing DAW Features We’d Like To See More Of

Despite the mixer-and-tape roots of the modern DAW, it’s taking a while for their mixers to sprout the familiar buttons and features lifted from their hardware ancestors. Then there are the features that only the DAW can bring (if your tape machine -did have an Undo button let us know in the comments!). These themselves have ‘inspired’ other DAWs to be better. Following a quick straw poll, there are a few things the Experts would like to see more of. Does your DAW do these? Hopefully so, and for everything it doesn’t do there’s always the next update to not bet your house on…

Our first DAW feature highlighted by Graham Kirkman allows assets such as tracks or media to be organised and nested in handy containers. Folders let engineers stay organised and in control of their session. Although many DAWs now offer track folders, fewer provide folders to use inside bins or lists of media as used in many NLEs. Avid Pro Tools brought in track folders a while back, but folders in the Clips List still elude mix engineers.

A good few DAWs reckon we should be doing a bit more multitasking. For that, a number allow multiple session to be open at once. Whether in their own windows as in Apple Logic Pro X or in tabs, this can be useful for alternative versioning or copying assets between timelines, for example. Some even allow tabs to be opened or closed as one, or the ability to copy and paste audio plugins and other goodies.

As mentioned, the ease with which audio can be edited in the box is astonishing. One of Steve DeMott’s features of choice is beloved of dubbing mixers and music mixers alike: Tab To Transient. Having a way to skip right up to the onset of audio transients is indispensable for anything from drum hits to gunshots, and more than one platform refers to this killer move as by the same name.

Prized for its instant technical or artistic uses, being able to press a button or flip a switch to invert polarity was almost standard equipment on recording consoles from days gone by. The arrival of some DAWs brought in the absence of this classic channel strip sweetener. Many reading this will be all too aware of the clunkiness forced upon them by the industry’s favourite workstation, whereas others provide the right to flip out as needed. Some also provide a mono sum button on the Master for another mix essential.

A number of engineering creators now find themselves doing work that used to be done exclusively by dedicated post production mixers. On indy productions, those composing and producing music to picture, and those handling production sound and editing can sometimes be the same person! Increasingly, a wider number of DAWs need to handle things like field recorder workflow, as well as surround & Atmos mixing for the screen.

Groundbreaking DAW Features We’d Like To See

The DAW may have been around for years, but that doesn’t mean that their development is done. Some of them sport the features above, where the others will eventually follow. Other DAW super powers however are there for the taking. Here we talk about the things that we’d love to see happen in the not too distant future…

• Built-In Level Matching Balancing levels is what we do, and closely matching the levels of sounds is a big part of that. Whether by ear, or by using the audio’s metrics to get there, level matching is a normal day at the office for many of us. Many DAWs however leave us to use third party tools or judgement to level-match media. Russ Hughes recently mentioned how useful a single button or other auto level-matching tool would be for any DAW. Why is no-one doing this? As far as we know this would be one groundbreaking feature we’d all benefit from.

• Rock Solid Content Protection Does this sound familiar? It’s late, but luckily you’ve just done that last bounce and now it’s time to eat. Do a quick Save and Quit and… You’ve just saved over something that you needed to keep (usually in-between your DAW’s way of backing up in the background). Most DAWs allow us to save and overwrite the saved version, and some we can think of let us record without having created and saved a session to work inside. Also, muscle memory makes it far too easy to quit when we meant to save - no update can change that layout of your keyboard! We think that rock solid content protection should come as standard.

• Track Re-Ordering Graham Kirkman recently pointed out something that has been hiding in plain sight. If you’ve ever thought that dragging tracks to re-order them is a bit clunky you’re not the only one. Yes, being able to do this text-only already exists in Pro Tools’ track list, and some control surface users can do it on the hardware, but for most the MO is the same. Scroll across to track(s) and drag and drop them. Clicking to re-order tracks could be a real time saver in any DAW. Something like “Move Selected Tracks To…” using a modified-click at the destination would do the trick…

Missing What We Haven’t Got

Despite decades of DAW development, there’s usually room for improvement. Some DAWs have features that are totally unique or very hard to come by, such as REAPER’s options for loudness metering directly in output channels. We’ve all received that email or other info that unexpectedly solves all those problems we didn’t realise we had!

As platforms evolve, not only are new features influenced by competing platforms, but also they are driven by the industry itself (and at the same time can drive what pros are doing as well). It’s sometimes surprising what our beloved DAWs are yet to do, but that’s nothing compared to what they have already helped us to achieve.

How About You?

What should all DAWs do that they currently don’t? What it is about others’ daily drivers that gives you feature-envy? Let us know in the comments.