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Apart from GUI improvements, Pro Tools' layout hasn't strayed far from the first version.

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Avid's Pro Tools, originally developed by Digidesign, looms over the DAW world like a colossus, widely considered to be the industry standard digital recording solution.

Most contemporary DAWs were created by companies with prior experience of music software and hardware development, and Pro Tools is no exception.

The story starts in 1983 with the release of E-MU's Drumulator drum machine. A companion to the Emulator sampling keyboard and antecedent to the equally legendary SP-12 and SP-1200 samplers, the Drumulator was a relatively simple digital unit with EPROM- based memory for its non-editable 12-bit samples.

"The Pro Tools concept has always been based around the digital audio workstation, combining hardware and software."

The Drumulator was a hit despite the fact users were limited to its built-in sounds. Enter Evan Brooks and Peter Gotcher, high school buddies and University of California graduates with a shared interest in music, recording, electronic engineering and computer programming.

After consulting E-MU for details of the Drumulator's memory system, the duo set about creating new sound libraries and formed a company, Digidrums, to offer a series of upgrade EPROM microchips just a year after the release of the drum machine itself.

Digidrums' hugely successful range of chips were simple enough for Drumulator owners to swap in and out as desired, offering everything from Simmons electronic drum sounds to John Bonham-inspired 'heavy metal' samples.

However, Brooks and Gotcher anticipated that users would soon crave more than just a selection of alternative preset sounds. Luckily, they were already working on a solution.

Having recorded the Digidrums samples on Sony's videotape-based PCM-F1 digital recording processor, the duo were keen to find a less cumbersome and more flexible option.

Identifying the audio potential of the newly released Macintosh computer, they set about creating basic digital audio recording and editing software for their own use. Despite their primary interest in making their own lives easier, it soon became apparent that the software should be developed for general release.

Working in conjunction with E-MU, Digidrums changed its name to Digidesign and began work developing a groundbreaking Mac-based sample editing system for the Emulator II keyboard.

Released in 1985 at a price of $995, Sound Designer brought the visual editing features of exotic instruments like the Synclavier and Fairlight to a much larger market.

Although at this stage sampling was beyond the reach of most consumers and amateur musicians, Digidesign developed new versions of the software for each new sampler that hit the market, eventually releasing a Universal application, which could be used with all the most popular hardware by the likes of Akai, Roland and E-MU.

Sound Tools

Having successfully mastered software sample editing, a fully featured digital audio recording and processing solution was, in retrospect, the logical next step.

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