How DAWs work w/ Dave Rowland (Tracktion) | Ep 01

Dave Rowland, lead developer for Tracktion/Waveform, shares insights into building one of the industry's most sophisticated digital audio workstation (DAW) engines. Rowland's journey from studying Music Systems Engineering to working with Jules Storer (creator of JUCE) illustrates the complexity of modern audio software development. DAWs represent some of the most challenging software projects, requiring intricate data models, real-time audio processing, MIDI handling, third-party plugin integration, and sophisticated user interfaces, all working seamlessly together across hundreds of thousands of lines of code.

The Tracktion Engine, open-sourced in recent years, provides developers with a powerful framework that eliminates the need to build core DAW functionality from scratch, a process that typically takes two years or more. By offering high-level abstractions for complex tasks like audio file playback, time-stretching, MIDI sequencing, and plugin management, the engine allows developers to focus on user experience and interface design rather than low-level implementation details. The architecture uses a value tree-based data model (essentially live XML) that maintains thread safety by separating the UI, data model, and audio processing into independent but synchronized components. This separation ensures smooth audio playback while users interact with the interface.

Looking ahead, Rowland envisions exciting possibilities including browser-based DAWs through WebAssembly, React-based user interfaces, live coding workflows, and integration with emerging technologies like Jules' Soul language for immersive audio environments. The engine is particularly valuable for independent developers, small companies, educational institutions, and anyone wanting to create audio applications without the massive investment required to build an engine from scratch. Available on GitHub under GPL and commercial licenses, the Tracktion Engine represents a democratization of professional audio software development tools.

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Originally recorded on March 19th, 2019.

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