[T] TIMELINE
50 Years (1951-2001) in the Evolution of Digital Music Production - from the first digital synthesized sound to the invention of DAW plug-ins
| No. | Year | People | Place | Event | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T01 | 1951 | Geoff Hill (first programmer), Trevor Pearcey (hardware designer) | Radiophysics Laboratory of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Sydney | At the Conference of Automatic Computing Machines, one of the early tube-driven computers, the CSIR Mk1, played his first musical melody (raw code signals triggered analog loudspeaker) | 1. http://www.csse.unimelb.edu.au/dept/about/csirac |
| T02 | 1951 | Geoff Tootill, Alec Robinson (hardware, software designer) | University of Manchester, England | The BBC recorded its first computer tune, played by the Ferranti Mark I, the world's first commercially available general-purpose computer (raw code signals triggered analog loudspeaker) | 1. http://www.computer50.org/mark1/FM1.html 2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7458479.stm |
| T03 | 1957 | Max Mathews (programmer, inventor, Bell Labs), Newman Guttman (composer, Bell Labs), Bernhard Gordon (D/A hardware designer, EPSCO Corp.) | Bell Labs, Murray Hill, New Jersey (programming, D/A conversion, presentation); IBM, New York City (computing) | An IBM 704 computed a 17 s composition sequence from the Music I program to digital tape. It was generated as the first synthetic sounds from a digital computer, with a custom built 12-bit vacuum tube ‘digital-to-sound converter’ | 1. http://www.music.psu.edu/Faculty%20Pages/Ballora/INART55/bell_labs.html
2. http://www.csounds.com/mathews 3. http://emfinstitute.emf.org/exhibits/belllabs.html 4. Roads, Curtis: The Computer Music Tutorial (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996) |
| T04 | 1959 | Peter Samson | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts | The MIT TX-0 computer was programmed to generate a single voice of square wave sounds in real time | 1. Roads, Curtis: The Computer Music Tutorial (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996)
2. http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/TheCompMusRep/TCMR-V08.html#Past 3. http://www.computerhistory.org/pdp-1/index.php?f=theme&s=3&ss=10 |
| T05 | 1961 | Manfred Schroeder | Bell Labs | First implementation of an artificial reverberation algorithm on a digital computer | 1. Roads, Curtis: The Computer Music Tutorial (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996)
2. http://asa.aip.org/encomia/gold/schroeder.html 3. Sun, Jian: Schroeder's Reverberator: The Earliest Digital Solution of Sound Reverberation (2005) URL: http://member.sn7.de/niklas/mt/Sun-Schroeders_Reverberator.pdf 4. http://member.sn7.de/niklas/mt/Blesser-Electric_Reverberation_Apparatus-Patent.pdf |
| T06 | 1962 | John L. Kelly (programmer), Max Mathews (programmer) | Bell Labs | Using an IBM 704 computer, a programmed ‘vocoder’ synthesizer recreated a popular phrase with musical accompaniment, creating the first digital speech synthesis | 1. http://www.bell-labs.com/news/1997/march/5/2.html |
| T07 | 1962 | Thomas Stockham (engineer, MIT), Bernhard Gordon (A/D-D/A converter designer, EPSCO Corp.) | MIT | First (experimental) digital audio tape recordings using the TX-0 computer and an A/D-D/A converter from EPSCO | 1. http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/recording/stockham.html
2. http://www.psych.mcgill.ca/levitin/pubspages/stockham.html |
| T08 | 1964 | Jean-Claude Risset | Bell Labs | The Music IV program was used to digitize the sound of a trumpet. It was the first successful digital reproduction of a brass instrument. It also marked the beginning of acoustic research linked to digital synthesis (digital spectral analysis) | 1. http://emfinstitute.emf.org/exhibits/belllabs.html
2. http://www.music.psu.edu/Faculty%20Pages/Ballora/INART55/timeline.html# |
| T09 | 1964 | John Chowning (programmer, composer), David Poole (engineer, hardware designer) | Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), Stanford University, Stanford, California | Invention of the first integrated computer music system. Music IV was running on an IBM 7090 sharing the same disc space with a PDP-1 so that the first computer could generate the samples, store them to disc, and the second computer could read the samples from the same disc and convert them to sound | 1. http://ccrma.stanford.edu/guides/planetccrma/Some.html
2. http://www.music.psu.edu/Faculty%20Pages/Ballora/INART55/timeline.html# |
| T10 | 1965 | Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK), Technical Research Laboratories, Japan | First research for direct digital recording on magnetic tape | 1. http://www.nhk.or.jp
2. http://www.nhk.or.jp/strl/publica 3. NHK Technical Report 12 4. Audio Engineering Society: Present and Future of Digital Audio. The Proceedings of the AES 3rd International Conference. Tokyo, Japan, 1985 June 20-21 (New York: Audio Engineering Society, 1986) |
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| T11 | 1966 | NHK | Monophonic experimental devices were available for direct digital recording on magnetic tape | See 1965 | |
| T12 | 1967 | NHK | Stereophonic experimental devices were available for direct digital recording on magnetic tape | See 1965 | |
| T13 | 1967 | NHK | First public experience in digital audio recording with rotary-head VTR (2-head, 1-inch tape) with sample frequencies of 40 kHz and 12-bit quantization | See 1965 | |
| T14 | 1967 | Max Mathews (hardware designer, programmer), F. Richard Moore (programmer, composer), Emmanuael Ghent (programmer, composer) | Bell Labs | GROOVE (Generated Real-time Operations On Voltage- controlled Equipment) was the first digital-analog hybrid system, in which a performer played an analog synthesizer; a Honeywell DDP224 computer stored the performer's manipulations | 1. http://www.music.psu.edu/Faculty%20Pages/Ballora/INART55/timeline.html#
2. http://emfinstitute.emf.org/exhibits/groove.html 3. Roads, Curtis: The Computer Music Tutorial (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996) |
| T15 | 1967 | John Chowning | CCRMA | Invention of the FM synthesis on an experimental base | 1. http://www.music.psu.edu/Faculty%20Pages/Ballora/INART55/stanford.html
2. http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug01/articles/retrofmpt1.asp |
| T16 | 1968 | Experimental Music Studios, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois | The earliest digital implementation of time-granulation | 1. Roads, Curtis: The Computer Music Tutorial (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996)
2. http://ems.music.uiuc.edu/history/timeline.html |
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| T17 | 1969 | Peter Zinovieff (founder, hardware, software designer), David Cockrell (hardware designer), Peter Grogono (software designer) | Electronic Music Studios Ltd. (EMS), London, England | MUSYS, the first digital-analog hybrid system using minicomputers - two PDP-8 were controlling an analog EMS Synthi 100. MUSYS was used for composition and performance likewise | 1. http://users.encs.concordia.ca/~grogono/Bio/ems.html
2. http://120years.net/machines/software/musys.html 3. http://www.ems-synthi.demon.co.uk/emsstory.html |
| T18 | 1969 | Salvatore Martirano | Experimental Music Studios, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois | SAL-MAR CONSTRUCTION was the first real-time hybrid system in which small and medium integrated circuits (digital controller) drove analog modules to produce sound | 1. http://ems.music.uiuc.edu/~martiran/HTdocs/salmar.html
2. http://ems.music.uiuc.edu/~martiran/HTdocs/r4view.html 3. http://ems.music.uiuc.edu/history/timeline.html |
| T19 | 1970 | Richard Factor | Eventide Inc., New York City | Eventide 1745 was the first digital delay device commercially available | 1. http://tide1.eventide.com/oldies/index.html
2. http://www.eventide.com/About/History.aspx |
| T20 | 1971 | John Chowning | CCRMA | The first simulations of the Doppler shift effect in computer music were carried out | 1. http://www.music.psu.edu/Faculty%20Pages/Ballora/INART55/stanford.html
2. Roads, Curtis: The Computer Music Tutorial (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996) |
| T21 | 1971 | Francis Lee (founder), Barry Blesser (inventor) | Lexicon, New York; MIT | The Delta T-101 professional digital delay device became commercially available. It was a 100 millisecond audio delay line and offered a response up to 10 kHz and 60 dB S/N | 1. http://www.lexicon.com/press/press-details.asp?pressID=46 |
| T22 | 1972 | Francis Lee | Lexicon, New York; MIT | Varispeech, the first digital time-compression system with an electronic circuit for level matching at splice points to reduce the clicking sound, was introduced | 1. http://www.lexicon.com/press/press-details.asp?pressID=46
2. Roads, Curtis: The Computer Music Tutorial (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996) |
| T23 | 1972 | Nippon Columbia, Denon; Institute of Image Information and Television Engineers (ITE), Japan | First use of a 4-head VTR with 2-inch tape at 42.25 kHz and 13 bit linear PCM for digital master but analog cutting | 1. http://www.denon.jp/museum/index.html
2. http://www.denon.com.hk/eng/about/history.php 3. Audio Engineering Society: Present and Future of Digital Audio. The Proceedings of the AES 3rd International Conference. Tokyo, Japan, 1985 June 20-21 (New York: Audio Engineering Society, 1986) |
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| T24 | 1974 | Peter Zinovieff | Electronic Music Studios Ltd. (EMS), London, England | The EMS Synthi 100 inhabited the first digital hardware sequencer with 3 voices and 276 steps | 1. Bickel, Peter: Musik aus der Maschine. Computervermittelte Musik zwischen synthetischer Produktion und Reproduktion (Berlin: Ed. Sigma Bohn, 1992)
2. http://www.ems-synthi.demon.co.uk/emsstory.html 3. http://www.synthmuseum.com/ems/emssynthi10001.html |
| T25 | 1974 | Curtis Roads | MIT | Development of the first computer-based implementation of granular synthesis | 1. Roads, Curtis: The Computer Music Tutorial (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996) |
| T26 | 1974 | Richard Factor | Eventide Inc., New York City | The Eventide 1745M was the first digital (delay) outboard device using RAM | 1. http://tide1.eventide.com/oldies/index.html
2. http://www.eventide.com/About/History.aspx |
| T27 | 1975 | Tony Agnello (hardware designer), Richard Factor (founder) | Eventide Inc., New York City | The H910 Harmonizer, the first digital and real-time transposing device, was brought to the market | 1. Roads, Curtis: The Computer Music Tutorial (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996)
2. http://tide1.eventide.com/oldies/index.html 3. http://www.eventide.com/About/History.aspx |
| T28 | 1975 | Sydney Alonso (hardware design), Cameron Jones, (software design), Jon Appleton (musical advisor) | Dartmouth College, Dartmouth, New Hampshire | The Prototype Synclavier was developed as the first self-contained digital synthesizer based on a network of integrated circuits and micro-processors | 1. http://120years.net/machines/synclavier/index.html
2. http://www.500sound.coml |
| T29 | 1975 | Barry Blesser (software), Karl-Otto Bäder (software), Ralph Zaorski (hardware design) | Elektromesstechnik (EMT), Kippenheim, Germany; Dynatron, Massachusetts | Development of the EMT 250, the first commercial digital reverb (introduced in 1976) | 1. http://mixonline.com/TECnology-Hall-of-Fame/1976-EMT-reverb
2. http://www.dancetech.com/aa_dt_new/hardware/item.cfm?threadid=457&lang=0 3. http://studioelectronics.biz/Services-EMT-13.html |
| T30 | 1976 | Institute of Electronics and Communication Engineers of Japan; Sony, Japan | First VTRs were sold as professional PCM processors, e.g. the Sony PCM-1600 using the U-matic format | 1. Audio Engineering Society: Present and Future of Digital Audio. The Proceedings of the AES 3rd International Conference. Tokyo, Japan, 1985 June 20-21 (New York: Audio Engineering Society, 1986)
2. http://www.ieice.org 3. http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/CorporateInfo/History/sonyhistory.html |
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| T31 | 1976 | Thomas Stockham | Soundstream Inc., Salt Lake City; 55th AES convention, New York City | Presentation of the first digital edited copy of a music recording. It was digitalized in linear 16 bit at a 42,5 kHz sampling rate | 1. http://www.todaysengineer.org/2005/Jul/history.asp
2. Audio Engineering Society: Present and Future of Digital Audio. The Proceedings of the AES 3rd International Conference. Tokyo, Japan, 1985 June 20-21 (New York: Audio Engineering Society, 1986) |
| T32 | 1976 | British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), London, England | First experimental 10-track digital recorder | 1. Roads, Curtis: The Computer Music Tutorial (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996) | |
| T33 | 1976 | David Behrman | New York City | First use of a microcomputer (a Kim-1) for real-time pitch detection in one of the first interactive computer music performances. The computer was accompanying flute and bassoon sounds triggering an analog synthesizer | 1. http://www.furious.com/perfect/behrman.html
2. http://www.lovely.com/titles/cd1041.html 3. http://emfinstitute.emf.org/exhibits/behrmanocean.html |
| T34 | 1977 | Mitsubishi; TEAC; Todenka; Sony; Hitachi; Japan | First experimental DAD systems with optical signal detection | 1. Audio Engineering Society: Present and Future of Digital Audio. The Proceedings of the AES 3rd International Conference. Tokyo, Japan, 1985 June 20-21 (New York: Audio Engineering Society, 1986) | |
| T35 | 1977 | TRW LSI Products, La Jolla, California | The TRW MPY 16 was one of the first single-chip DSPs, which was capable of 16-bit fixed-point multiplication. It was used for synthesizers as well as for digital outboard | 1. Roads, Curtis: The Computer Music Tutorial (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996)
2. http://www.computerhistory.org/semiconductor/timeline/1979-DSP.html |
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| T36 | 1977 | Peter Samson | CCRMA | The System Concepts Digital Synthesizer (Samson Box) introduced the notion of an update queue for controller input to engage the parameter update problem of real-time DSP. It was the second real-time hardware device after the Synclavier (third was the Bell Labs Hal Alles Synthesizer the same year) | 1. Roads, Curtis: The Computer Music Tutorial (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996)
2. http://ccrma.stanford.edu/~jos/kna/Experiences_Samson_Box.html |
| T37 | 1977 | David Cox, Hal Chamberlin (founders) | Micro Technology Unlimited (MTU), Raleigh, North Carolina | First real time music software synthesizer for a microcomputer provided 4 voices | 1. http://www.mtu.com/support/mtuaudioproducts2.htm
2. Byte magazin, Volume 2, Number 9, September 1977 |
| T38 | 1977 | David Cox, Hal Chamberlin (founders) | Micro Technology Unlimited (MTU), Raleigh, North Carolina | First audio 8-bit D/A converters running on 6502 microcomputers from MOS Technology, Rockwell, and Synertek (influenced the early D/A converter for the Apple II, developed by MTU as well) | 1. http://www.mtu.com/support/mtuaudioproducts2.htm |
| T39 | 1977 | Steve Wozniak (hardware designer), Steve Jobs (founder) | Apple Inc., Los Altos, California | The Apple II was the first personal computer with a built-in speaker to reproduce sounds from an 8 bit D/A converter | 1. http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/recording/digital.html
2. http://www.apple-history.com |
| T40 | 1978 | Sony, Japan | First standardized VTRs were sold as consumer PCM processors, e.g. the 14-bit PCM-1 from Sony | 1. http://www.aes.org/aeshc/docs/audio.history.timeline.html
2. http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/CorporateInfo/History/sonyhistory.html |
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| T41 | 1978 | BBC; 3M, St. Paul, Minnesota | First experimental 32-track digital recorder (used for the first fully digital recoding sold - Ry Cooder’s „Bop Till You Drop” the same year) | 1. Roads, Curtis: The Computer Music Tutorial (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996)
2. http://digital_audio.totallyexplained.com |
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| T42 | 1978 | AMS Neve, Lancashire, England | The first microprocessor controlled digital delay line, full bandwidth, 15 bit, was introduced | 1. http://www.ams-neve.com/about-us/History/The70s/70s.aspx | |
| T43 | 1978 | William Buxton | Dynamic Graphics Lab, University of Toronto, Canada | The real-time digital synthesis system called Structured Sound Synthesis Project (SSSP) featured a graphically-oriented computer system with integrated composing tools and controllable sound synthesis parameters (graphic knobs, sliders, envelope drawing, mixer) | 1. http://www.music.psu.edu/Faculty%20Pages/Ballora/INART55/timeline.html# |
| T44 | 1979 | David Cox, Hal Chamberlin (founders) | Micro Technology Unlimited (MTU), Raleigh, North Carolina | The first direct-to-disk digital audio workstation on a microcomputer was shipped. It used Ram-Disk operations for larger files and Delplay-12 converters with 16-bit dynamic gain control and 11KHz frequency response for conversion | 1. http://www.mtu.com/support/mtuaudioproducts2.htm
2. http://www.mtu.com/support/dawparadigms.htm#RamDisk 3. Mix magazin, September 1997 |
| T45 | 1979 | Peter Vogel, Kim Ryrie (founders) | Fairlight, Sydney, Australia | The Fairlight CMI was the first commercial sample player keyboard to enter market. It had an 8-bit resolution per sample. The CMI as a pure digital sampling device was predated only by the DHM89B2 harmonizer from Publison in 1978 | 1. http://members.tripod.com/kmi9000/kmi_cmi.htm#kmi_cmi
2. Roads, Curtis: The Computer Music Tutorial (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996) 3. http://www.music.psu.edu/Faculty%20Pages/Ballora/INART55/digitalsynths.html 4. http://120years.net/machines/fairlight/index.html 5. http://pagesperso-orange.fr/..publison/_german/historique.htm |
| T46 | 1979 | Dean Wallraff | Digital Music Systems | The DMX-1000 synthesizer offered the first commercial, programmable, digital signal processor (non-microchip DSP), capable of processing sounds from external sources | 1. http://members.tripod.com/kmi9000/kmi_multim.htm#kmi_digital
2. http://www.music.buffalo.edu/faculty/lippe/pdfs/cmj.pdf |
| T47 | 1980 | Curtis Abbott | Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM), Paris, France | The synthesis package 4CED included an interactive command language for controlling real-time effects on 4C synthesizer sounds | 1. http://member.sn7.de/niklas/mt/Computer_Music_Journal-Vol5_No1_1981.pdf
2. Roads, Curtis: The Computer Music Tutorial (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996) |
| T48 | 1980 | Roger Linn | Linn Electronics, Berkeley, California | First digital drumcomputer (sample based), the LM-1, was brought to market | 1. http://www.vintagesynth.com/linn/linn.shtml
2. http://www.rogerlinndesign.com/bragging/museum.shtml |
| T49 | 1980 | Neve Group of Companies (Neve), England; BBC Research Department, Kingswood Warren, England | Early experiments and inventions for the Neve DSP-1 digital console | 1. http://wiki.ibs.org.uk/audiocompendium/index.php?title=DSP-1
2. http://www.ams-neve.com/about-us/History/The80s/80s.aspx |
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| T50 | 1980 | Phillips, Netherlands; Sony, Japan | The Philips/Sony compact disc standard was finalized (standardization process finished in 1981) | 1. http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/recording/digital.html | |
| T51 | 1981 | Giuseppe Di Giugno | IRCAM | Completion of the 4X machine, one of the first universal, fully programmable, audio signal processors, which could process external multi channel inputs in real time | 1. http://www.ircam.fr/62.html?&L=1 |
| T52 | 1981 | Japan | First A/D D/A converters on LSI chips | 1. Audio Engineering Society: Present and Future of Digital Audio. The Proceedings of the AES 3rd International Conference. Tokyo, Japan, 1985 June 20-21 (New York: Audio Engineering Society, 1986) | |
| T53 | 1981 | Dave Rossum, Scott Wedge (founders) | E-MU Systems, Scotts Valley, California | First mid price sampler, second commercial hardware sampling device ever, the E-MU Emulator I, was capable of 8-bit 27.7 kHz sampling | 1. Roads, Curtis: The Computer Music Tutorial (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996)
2. http://www.emu.com/corporate/history 3. http://www.emu.com/corporate/history/timeline.asp |
| T54 | 1981 | Texas Instruments, Dallas, Texas | The TMS32010 chip was one of the first DSP microchips to be built into audio applications | 1. Roads, Curtis: The Computer Music Tutorial (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996)
2. http://www.computerhistory.org/semiconductor/timeline |
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| T55 | 1981 | AES, ANSI | AES and ANSI agreed on an RSSF of 44.1 kHz for customer devices, 48 kHz for professional use and 32 kHz for satellite broadcasting (first meetings for standardization as of 1977, final settings in 1984) | 1. http://www.ansi.org
2. Audio Engineering Society: Present and Future of Digital Audio. The Proceedings of the AES 3rd International Conference. Tokyo, Japan, 1985 June 20-21 (New York: Audio Engineering Society, 1986) |
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| T56 | 1981 | Dave Smith, Chet Wood, Ikutaro Kakehashi, Thomas Oberheim | Sequential Circuits, USA; Roland, Japan; Oberheim Electronics, USA | First public discussion on the Universal Synthesizer Interface that became the basis of the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI). Competitors’ software development started 1983 after the public presentation of MIDI | 1. http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/recording/digital.html
2. http://emusician.com/tutorials/electronic_century4 |
| T57 | 1982 | Sydney Alonso (hardware design), Cameron Jones, (software design) | New England Digital Corp., White River Junction, Vermont | The Synclavier II was capable of the ''Sample-To-Disk'' operation to be the first commercial sample recording system (using 16-bit 50Khz sampling) | 1. http://120years.net/machines/synclavier/index.html
2. http://www.500sound.com 3. http://members.tripod.com/kmi9000/kmi_multim.htm#kmi_digital |
| T58 | 1982 | Netherlands, Japan | First commercial CD and player releases | 1. Audio Engineering Society: Present and Future of Digital Audio. The Proceedings of the AES 3rd International Conference. Tokyo, Japan, 1985 June 20-21 (New York: Audio Engineering Society, 1986) | |
| T59 | 1983 | Acoustical Society of Japan | DASH standard for DAT was finally established (with first initiations already in 1978 and an ongoing progression up to 1987 where R-DAT finally was commercialized as well) leading to 48 or 44.1 kHz and 16-bit as standard, covering 2 to 48 channel professional fixed-head (S-DAT) signal formats at first | 1. Audio Engineering Society: Present and Future of Digital Audio. The Proceedings of the AES 3rd International Conference. Tokyo, Japan, 1985 June 20-21 (New York: Audio Engineering Society, 1986)
2. http://www.asj.gr.jp |
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| T60 | 1983 | Philips, Netherlands | Development of multiple-bit oversampling | 1. Roads, Curtis: The Computer Music Tutorial (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996) | |
| T61 | 1983 | F. Richard Moore | University of California San Diego (UCSD), Center for Music Experiment and Related Research (CME) | Design of a geometric model to simulate different reverb stages | 1. Roads, Curtis: The Computer Music Tutorial (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996)
2. http://music.ucsd.edu/people/people.php? cmd=fm_music_directory_detail&query_Full_Name= %20F.%20Richard%20Moore &query_Active_Status=Faculty |
| T62 | 1983 | Lippold Haken, Kurt Hebel | Experimental Music Studios, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois | Design of the Platypus user-microcodable DSP, one of the first programmable DSP systems invented especially for audio signal processing (fully established in 1984) | 1. Scaletti, Carla: Computer Music Languages, Kyma, and the Future. In: Computer Music Journal, Volume 26, Number 4, pp. 69–82 (Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2002)
2. http://emfinstitute.emf.org/exhibits/kyma.html |
| T63 | 1983 | Publison Systems, Bagnolet, France | First multieffect, multisampling outboard device based on DSP microchip technology was the Infernal Machine 90 from Publison | 1. http://pagesperso-orange.fr/..publison/_german/historique.htm | |
| T64 | 1983 | Neve Group of Companies (Neve), England; BBC Research Department, Kingswood Warren, England | Presentation of the Neve DSP-1 digital console prototype | 1. http://wiki.ibs.org.uk/audiocompendium/index.php?title=DSP-1 | |
| T65 | 1984 | Sydney Alonso (hardware design), Cameron Jones, (software design) | New England Digital Corp., White River Junction, Vermont | The Synclavier PSMT introduced on-board effects and extended hard disk recording abilities, being one of the first self-contained digital workstations | 1. http://120years.net/machines/synclavier/index.html
2. http://www.500sound.com 3. http://members.tripod.com/kmi9000/kmi_multim.htm#kmi_digital |
| T66 | 1984 | AMS Neve, Lancashire, England | AudioFile, a hard disk based digital recording, editing and playback system introduced synchronization of sound and picture. It was controlled by a host computer | 1. http://www.ams-neve.com/about-us/History/The80s/80s.aspx | |
| T67 | 1984 | George Lucas (founder), James A. Moorer (lead designer) | Lucasfilm, Sprocket Systems, DroidWorks, San Rafael, California | The SoundDroid/EditDroid software system pioneered non-linear editing for video and sound in combination, it featured DSP processing and a graphical displayed horizontal timeline as well (custom build) | 1. http://www.editorsguild.com/v2/magazine/archives/0106/features_article01.htm
2. http://www.studiodaily.com/main/news/5660.html |
| T68 | 1984 | Jean-François Allouis | Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM), Paris, France | The Syter system, consisting of a real-time sound processor, a host computer and a disc for storing sounds, made it possible to generate, modify and transform sounds, in real time, and visualized on screen (succeeding the 4X in terms of compactness and ergonomics) | http://www.furious.com/Perfect/ohm/inagrm.html
http://www.ina.fr/entreprise/activites/recherches-musicales/historique.html |
| T69 | 1984 | Manfred Rürup (co-founder), Karl Steinberg (founder, programmer) | Steinberg Research GmbH, Hamburg, Germany | Pro-16 was the first graphical oriented MIDI sequencer with a horizontal timeline (a predecessor to modern DAW software concepts) | http://www.steinberg.net/de/company/steinberg_company_history.html
http://www.tweakheadz.com/vintage_sequencers.html |
| T70 | 1985 | Douglas Scott | Princeton University, Computer Science Department, SoundLab, Princeton, New Jersey | The ‘Place’ and ‘Move’ programs, written in Fortran, were simulating virtual placement of audio sources (native) | 1. http://member.sn7.de/niklas/mt/zelli-reale_und_virtuelle_raeume_ in_der_computermusik.pdf
2. http://bijanzelli.spymac.com |
| T71 | 1985 | Doremi Labs, Burbank, California | Doremi Labs' DAWN workstation was one of the first 8-track digital audio workstations on the market | 1. http://www.doremilabs.com/about.html
2. http://www.doremilabs.com/news/Press/PressNuggetAudio.htm |
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| T72 | 1985 | Adrian Freed | IRCAM | MacMix, the first stand-alone interactive sound editing, processing and mixing system for Apple PC, was developed | 1. http://cnmat.berkeley.edu/people/adrian_freed
2. http://emusician.com/tutorials/electronic_century4/index1.html |
| T73 | 1985 | Peter Gotcher, Evan Brooks (founders) | Digidrum (Digidesign), Santa Cruz, California | Sound Designer for the Emulator II sampler was one of the first graphical sound editors running on an Apple PC (succeeding high budget systems like the Synclavier and the Fairlight CMI). It featured non-destructive editing for the first time | 1. http://www.emulatorarchive.com/SampleDesign/SDSoundDesigner/sdsounddesigner.html
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digidesign |
| T74 | 1985 | Roy Smith, Robert Hoke (founders) | Turtle Beach Systems, New York | An early graphical editing software, called "Vision", connected the Ensoniq Mirage sampler to a (non-Apple) PC | 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle_Beach_Systems
2. http://homepages.tesco.net/~david.barraclough/ensoniq/ensoniq.htm |
| T75 | 1986 | Carla Scaletti | Kyma, an object-oriented programming language for analog circuit simulation, score representation, rule-based composition and direct manipulation of waveforms, was one of the first real-time (on the Platypus system in 1987) and multifunctional DAWs | 1. http://www.symbolicsound.com/cgi-bin/bin/view/Products/WhatIsKyma
2. http://member.sn7.de/niklas/mt/Milani&Scaletti-Interview.pdf 3. http://member.sn7.de/niklas/mt/Scaletti-Computer_Music_Languages.pdf |
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| T76 | 1986 | Mitsubishi, Japan | First commercial reel-to-reel digital tape recorder, encoding in 20 bits at a 96 kHz sampling frequency | 1. Roads, Curtis: The Computer Music Tutorial (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996) | |
| T77 | 1986 | dbx, Inc., Sandy, Utah | The first commercial delta-sigma modulation A/D D/A converter, the dbx Model 700 Digital Audio Processor, was brought to market. It used the CPDM technique for conversion | 1. http://stereophile.com/digitalsourcereviews/180/index7.html
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dbx_Model_700_Digital_Audio_Processor 3. http://aroundcny.com/technofile/texts/dbx700recorder86.html |
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| T78 | 1986 | Miller Puckette | IRCAM | Max, a modular real-time control software for the 4X synthesizer, led to the further development of interactive graphical programming languages | 1. http://emfinstitute.emf.org/exhibits/max2.html
2. http://crca.ucsd.edu/~msp |
| T79 | 1986 | David Zicarelli, John Offenhartz, Antony Widoff, Joel Chadabe | Intelligent Computer Music Systems, Albany, New York | M was the first real-time software for interactive composition with the results of interaction synthesized instantaneous | 1. http://www.cycling74.com/twiki/bin/view/FAQs/MtheHistory
2. http://eamusic.dartmouth.edu/~wowem/electronmedia/music/eamhistory.html 3. http://emfinstitute.emf.org/exhibits/m.html |
| T80 | 1987 | Silicon Valley, California | Advent of second generation DSP chips, like the Motorola DSP56001, providing 24-bit fixed-point processing abilities | 1. http://member.sn7.de/niklas/mt/bier-dspevolution.pdf
2. Roads, Curtis: The Computer Music Tutorial (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996) |
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| T81 | 1987 | Lyndsay Williams | Cambridge, England | First soundcard developed for a DOS based Personal Computer (for the PC1 from Olivetti Computers), followed by the AdLib from Ad Lib Inc. in the same year and by Creative Labs’ SoundBlaster in 1988 | 1. http://member.sn7.de/niklas/mt/williams-soundcardhistory.ppt
2. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/jun/21/guardianweeklytechnologysection.it |
| T82 | 1987 | James A. Moorer | Sonic Solutions, Novato, California | The NoNOISE restoration system, hosted on a Motorola–powered SUN 1 (the first UNIX workstation), was one of the first native restoration software tools on the market | 1. http://www.sonicstudio.com/company/about.html
2. http://www.rogernichols.com/EQ/EQ_95-07t.html |
| T83 | 1988 | Digidesign, Santa Cruz, California | Sound Designer Universal, in addition with the Sound Tools I I/O card, was the first hard disk recording software on an Apple PC, using the Apple’s standard hardware as well as the Digidesign NuBus DSP card. SD Universal is the predecessor of the ProTools family | 1. http://www.emulatorarchive.com/SampleDesign/SDSoundDesigner/sdsounddesigner.html
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digidesign |
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| T84 | 1989 | Julius O. Smith (software designer), David A. Jaffe (composer), Lee Boynton (software engineer) | CCRMA | Development of the Music Kit software system, using the hardware of the NeXT computer, which would be the first PC with a build-in DSP chip for music production (sound processing) | 1. http://ccrma.stanford.edu/guides/planetccrma/Some.html |
| T85 | 1990 | Dave Oppenheim, David Willenbrink | Opcode Systems, Menlo Park, California | StudioVision, first product integrating MIDI sequencing, digital audio editing and recording on a personal computer (Macintosh), followed by Steinberg’s Cubase Audio in 1991 (and for Windows in 1992) | 1. http://mixonline.com/TECnology-Hall-of-Fame/1990_opcode_sequencer
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opcode_Systems |
| T86 | 1990 | MTU | Microeditor, first audio editing software running under Microsoft Windows, which featured non-destructive, random access editing and enhanced automation capabilities | 1. http://www.mtu.com/support/mtuaudioproducts2.htm | |
| T87 | 1990 | Hugues Vinet | GRM | GRM Tools was one of the first stand-alone, real-time audio processing software available for PC | 1. http://www.ina.fr/entreprise/activites/recherches-musicales/historique.html
2. http://www.grmtools.org/grm.html |
| T88 | 1991 | Eric Lindemann | IRCAM | Completion of the Computer Music Station (ISPW), a platform for digital audio processing, which featured interactive real-time music production on a fully programmable DSP system (second after the Kyma/Platypus system) | 1. http://www.ircam.fr/62.html?&L=1
2. http://member.sn7.de/niklas/mt/Lippe-Real_Time_Computer_Music.pdf |
| T89 | 1991 | Turtle Beach Systems, New York | The 56K Digital Recording was a DSP-accelerated recording software with a graphical interface. It worked in combination with a DAT recorder and was one of the first DAWs available for IBM 286-, 386-, or 486-compatible computers | 1. ftp://ftp.voyetra.com/pub/tbs/56k/5109999.txt
2. http://www.gearwire.com/media/gg-em-may92-turtlebeach56k-huge.jpg |
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| T90 | 1992 | Digidesign | Invention of the Digidesign Audio Engine (DAE), one of the first API standards for audio processing to pass by OS software layer down to dedicated hardware. First ProTools (V2.0) version brought to market, using DAE | 1. http://www.emulatorarchive.com/SampleDesign/SDSoundDesigner/sdsounddesigner.html | |
| T91 | 1992 | Gilad Keren, Meir Shaashua (founders) | Waves Ltd., Tel-Aviv, Israel, Knoxville, Tennessee | The first audio plug-in (for SD II), the Q10 paragraphic equalizer, was brought to market. It featured a graphical interface as well as automatic DSP calculation | 1. http://waves.com/Content.aspx?id=358 |
| T92 | 1994 | Barry Henderson (founder) | iZ Technology Corporation, New Westminster | RADAR I, the first 24-track hard disk digital audio recorder (outboard, stand-alone), was brought to market | 1. http://www.izcorp.com/about.php
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_recorder |
| T93 | 1995 | Intel Corp., Santa Clara, California | Implementation of Native Signal Processing (NSP) on Pentium PCs (MMX systems) | 1. http://member.sn7.de/niklas/mt/Intel-NSP.pdf
2. http://www.intel.com |
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| T94 | 1996 | Experimental digital recordings were made at 24 bits and 96 kHz | 1. http://www.aes.org/aeshc/docs/audio.history.timeline.html | ||
| T95 | 1996 | Tom Erbe | Soundhack, La Jolla, California | The Soundhack stand-alone bundle used native audio processing on PCs, it was released as one of the first VST plug-ins later on | 1. Dodge, Charles & Jerse, Thomas A.: Computer Music. Synthesis, Composition and Performance (New York: Schirmer, 1997)
2. http://www.soundhack.com |
| T96 | 1996 | Karl Steinberg | Steinberg Soft- und Hardware GmbH, Hamburg, Germany | Invention of the Virtual Studio Technology (VST) plug-in formats. The Cubase VST software DAW pioneers native real-time processing on a PC (with latency still) | 1. http://www.steinberg.net/de/company/steinberg_company_history.html
2. http://www.wernerkracht.com |
| T97 | 1997 | Steinberg Soft- und Hardware GmbH, Hamburg, Germany | Release of the ASIO API standard to pass by OS software layer. It offered real-time (with latency still) audio processing (native, no dedicated hardware required) | 1. http://www.steinberg.net/de/company/steinberg_company_history.html
2. http://www.wernerkracht.com |
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| T98 | 1999 | Apple Inc., Los Altos, California | The PowerPC 7400 (G4) series enabled real-time vector processing via AltiVec technology (used for digital audio effects), special hardware accelerators were not required | 1. http://www.cs.ucsc.edu/~mslater/papers/VectorProcessingG4.pdf | |
| T99 | 2001 | Audio Ease, Utrecht, Netherlands. | Altiverb was released as the first convolution reverb plug-in | 1. http://www.audioease.com/Pages/Press/AVWindowsPress.html |