As the 80's progressed we saw 3 computers become the leading marque's: The Commodore 64, the first Macintosh PC's, and the Atari ST - For noobs it's mebbe hard to understand but Atari became THE leader back than - Mac's were rubbish and Microsoft Windows on IBM PC's didn't exist! - Atari ruled the earth in those days and a handful of sequencer programmes emerged as the main contenders for computer sequencing: DR. So, at the time of the early 80's we had a couple of hugely expensive playable sampler systems a handful of sample/digital-audio editing softwares and a further handful of sequencer programmes.
Sampling in the way we understand it today means some sort of system or machine which can capture sounds and then play them back in the form of a keyboard pitch system and this sort of tehnology in the early 80's existed only in the esoteric and incredibly expensive early sampler/playback systems such as the Synclavier & Fairlight systems hugely expensive monster machines which began development in the mid/late 70's and could only be afforded by the wealthy & famous.Įarly stereo audio editors and sample programmes therefore tended to be used for studio editing and transfer jobs rather than by musicians although they did lay the seeds of digital software audio manipulation. Up to this point 'sampling' was a mystical beast which existed only in more expensive sampling-delay units which offered no more functionality than a simple capture and trigger facility. The other potential upside for such programmes was the graphical interface onscreen which initialy could be more visualy freindly that the often cryptic & usualy size-restricted LCD or LED display of hardware units.Ĭoming hot on the heals of commonly available host sequencers were the sampler/sample-editor and/or stereo-editing software prgrammes which began to appear in the early 80's offering an alternative to traditional tape & razor-blade stereo editing. If you already had the host computer a sequencer programme could be more affordable than a hardware sequencer stand-alone unit. These early sequencer programmes were pattern based sequencers and frankly whilst exciting to use because they were new technology they didn't really offer any advantages over hardware sequencers except perhaps when it came to cost. One of these was the sequencer programme which loaded into the host computer (whether an Atari, Amiga, BBC Acorn, Sinclair, etc).
PC software if a huge subject in itself and examining this product section for dance music creation reveals many specific examples of techniques which PC software makes very easy or at least possible with some pratice.īack in the early days when hardware sequencers ruled the earth, the early PC music softwares were limited to two types.
PC Software For Dance & Home Studio - An Overview