How the PC conquered the media industry with successful software: discussing Pro Tools and Media Composer
The roots of digital sound go deep into the 70s. Then the Japanese television company NHK sponsored the production of PCM recorders, which were involved during the broadcasts.
Later, with the spread of digital formats, large media studios began working with various compressors and equalizers. However, at that time no one used personal computers to process audio and video. Two companies undertook to rectify things - Digidesign and Avid. We tell how they managed to form a new market and offer tools that have become the "gold standard" of digital media production.
Photo Tom Pottiger / Unsplash
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The founders of Digidesign were friends Peter Gotcher (Peter Gotcher) and Evan Brooks (Evan Brooks). They met at the University of California at Berkeley. The first received a philological education, and the second studied engineering. And music united them.
They played in the same group. One day, Peter Gotcher brought to the rehearsal a freshly purchased drum machine E-MU Drumulator - the first "budget" device for working with samples. In the 80s, the device cost 2.5 thousand dollars, but the price tag was still two to three times lower than that of competitors. However, Drumulator was inferior in quality of samples.
Brooks, as an engineer, decided to rectify the situation and modify the drum machine on his own. To do this, he requested technical documentation from the developers from E-MU. They surprisingly agreed and sent the engineer all the information about the installed chips.
To modify the microcircuits, they used Brooks computer, which he assembled independently on the basis of the S-100 data bus. Initially, the bus was designed for the Altair 8800 computer, which is considered the first PC. The reprogramming process could not be called simple. Then there was no software for visualizing sound waveforms. Therefore, editing audio files, Gotcher worked with the HEX values ​​of each sample.
To solve this problem, in 1984 the company developed a special utility for visualizing and editing audio samples. She was called Sound Designer and sold for a thousand dollars. As time has shown, this tool has become much more popular than the company's chips.
The public welcomed Sound Designer positively. Therefore, Gotcher and Brooks continued to develop the product. In 1989, they released the two-track Sound Tools editor for the Macintosh.
It was supplied with a DSP card and was intended for editing audio recorded on DAT tapes . All this cost 4 thousand dollars .
In 1991, the program was renamed to Pro Tools. The number of tracks supported by her was increased to sixteen. Three years later, the utility added support for DSP plug-ins that emulate studio effects. Now with the help of Pro Tools it was possible to record and mix a full-fledged musical composition. This computer program has changed the approach to recording music - she was even given a Grammy Award for technical achievements.
Despite all the positive aspects, the adaptation of the product was slow. Uncompressed audio took up a lot of disk space, and plugins required powerful processors. Many producers did not see the point of abandoning analog media like film. But there were those who saw potential in Pro Tools. In particular, the Avid media company understood that the transition to "digital" is only a matter of time. Therefore, in 1994, Avid management acquired Digidesign for $ 205 million.
Photo AJ Colores / Unsplash
Here I would like to take a break and talk about why Avid showed interest in Digidesign and the audio industry as a whole. In the late 80s, Avid engineers were creating a digital studio for video editing. It was originally written for Apollo computers. However, Apple representatives convinced developers to port the system to new Macintosh computers. For this, the “apple company” even sent its specialist to Avid, who oversaw the project and talked about the features of the Mac II platform. The collaboration resulted in the Film Composer 1.0 tool, the first non-linear digital video editor. It was introduced in 1992, and a few years later was renamed Media Composer .
In 1993, the first high-budget movie released on a computer using Film Composer 1.0 was released. It was the Hollywood comedy Lost at the Yonkers . In 1996, The English Patient , directed by Anthony Mingella, was the first computer-mounted film to receive an Academy Award.
Thus, the company led the digital revolution in cinema. Management expected events in the music industry to develop similarly. So they made a deal with Digidesign.
And Avid were right. In 1999, Ricky Martin's hit hit Livin 'La Vida Loca , the first song entirely mixed in Pro Tools. She occupied the first lines in many charts for a long time. And at the beginning of the zero, Pro Tools became a kind of standard in the music industry, and computers appeared in almost all recording studios.
Of course, since then both Pro Tools and Media Composer have competitors - for example, Final Cut and Logic Pro. Adobe with Premiere has captured most of the amateur and professional segments. Many professionals use the Lightworks editor.
But Avid products retain the title of “industry standard”. It is their programs that they expect to see on the screens of large studios and use universities for educational purposes. And in general, the position is justified - Digidesign and Avid formed this market.
Further reading from our Hi-Fi World:
What kind of music was “wired” in popular OS
How Hollywood is gradually introducing AI to make movies
From critics to algorithms: labels, corporations, and 20th-century music culture
From critics to algorithms: how democracy and technocracy came to the music industry
Birth and death of an album: how music formats have changed over the past 100 years
Later, with the spread of digital formats, large media studios began working with various compressors and equalizers. However, at that time no one used personal computers to process audio and video. Two companies undertook to rectify things - Digidesign and Avid. We tell how they managed to form a new market and offer tools that have become the "gold standard" of digital media production.
Photo Tom Pottiger / Unsplash
')
Start Digidesign, or Chip Business
The founders of Digidesign were friends Peter Gotcher (Peter Gotcher) and Evan Brooks (Evan Brooks). They met at the University of California at Berkeley. The first received a philological education, and the second studied engineering. And music united them.
They played in the same group. One day, Peter Gotcher brought to the rehearsal a freshly purchased drum machine E-MU Drumulator - the first "budget" device for working with samples. In the 80s, the device cost 2.5 thousand dollars, but the price tag was still two to three times lower than that of competitors. However, Drumulator was inferior in quality of samples.
Brooks, as an engineer, decided to rectify the situation and modify the drum machine on his own. To do this, he requested technical documentation from the developers from E-MU. They surprisingly agreed and sent the engineer all the information about the installed chips.
After reviewing the documentation, Brooks and Gotcher reprogrammed the Drumulator's chips. The team founded a small company - Digidrums (later renamed Digidesign ), and began to earn money from their activities.
To modify the microcircuits, they used Brooks computer, which he assembled independently on the basis of the S-100 data bus. Initially, the bus was designed for the Altair 8800 computer, which is considered the first PC. The reprogramming process could not be called simple. Then there was no software for visualizing sound waveforms. Therefore, editing audio files, Gotcher worked with the HEX values ​​of each sample.
To solve this problem, in 1984 the company developed a special utility for visualizing and editing audio samples. She was called Sound Designer and sold for a thousand dollars. As time has shown, this tool has become much more popular than the company's chips.
From Sound Designer to Pro Tools
The public welcomed Sound Designer positively. Therefore, Gotcher and Brooks continued to develop the product. In 1989, they released the two-track Sound Tools editor for the Macintosh.
It was supplied with a DSP card and was intended for editing audio recorded on DAT tapes . All this cost 4 thousand dollars .
In 1991, the program was renamed to Pro Tools. The number of tracks supported by her was increased to sixteen. Three years later, the utility added support for DSP plug-ins that emulate studio effects. Now with the help of Pro Tools it was possible to record and mix a full-fledged musical composition. This computer program has changed the approach to recording music - she was even given a Grammy Award for technical achievements.
Despite all the positive aspects, the adaptation of the product was slow. Uncompressed audio took up a lot of disk space, and plugins required powerful processors. Many producers did not see the point of abandoning analog media like film. But there were those who saw potential in Pro Tools. In particular, the Avid media company understood that the transition to "digital" is only a matter of time. Therefore, in 1994, Avid management acquired Digidesign for $ 205 million.
Photo AJ Colores / Unsplash
What did Avid do
Here I would like to take a break and talk about why Avid showed interest in Digidesign and the audio industry as a whole. In the late 80s, Avid engineers were creating a digital studio for video editing. It was originally written for Apollo computers. However, Apple representatives convinced developers to port the system to new Macintosh computers. For this, the “apple company” even sent its specialist to Avid, who oversaw the project and talked about the features of the Mac II platform. The collaboration resulted in the Film Composer 1.0 tool, the first non-linear digital video editor. It was introduced in 1992, and a few years later was renamed Media Composer .
In 1993, the first high-budget movie released on a computer using Film Composer 1.0 was released. It was the Hollywood comedy Lost at the Yonkers . In 1996, The English Patient , directed by Anthony Mingella, was the first computer-mounted film to receive an Academy Award.
Two years later, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of the United States handed the statuette to the Avid developers for outstanding technological achievements.
Thus, the company led the digital revolution in cinema. Management expected events in the music industry to develop similarly. So they made a deal with Digidesign.
New industry standard
And Avid were right. In 1999, Ricky Martin's hit hit Livin 'La Vida Loca , the first song entirely mixed in Pro Tools. She occupied the first lines in many charts for a long time. And at the beginning of the zero, Pro Tools became a kind of standard in the music industry, and computers appeared in almost all recording studios.
Of course, since then both Pro Tools and Media Composer have competitors - for example, Final Cut and Logic Pro. Adobe with Premiere has captured most of the amateur and professional segments. Many professionals use the Lightworks editor.
But Avid products retain the title of “industry standard”. It is their programs that they expect to see on the screens of large studios and use universities for educational purposes. And in general, the position is justified - Digidesign and Avid formed this market.
Further reading from our Hi-Fi World:
What kind of music was “wired” in popular OS How Hollywood is gradually introducing AI to make movies From critics to algorithms: labels, corporations, and 20th-century music culture From critics to algorithms: how democracy and technocracy came to the music industry Birth and death of an album: how music formats have changed over the past 100 yearsSource: https://habr.com/ru/post/461299/
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