Editing Digital audio (section)

===Recording===
{{Main|Digital recording}}
[[File:Reel to reel Hitachi I (1972).JPG|thumb|upright|Analog [[reel-to-reel tape recorder]]]]
[[File:Sony PCM-7030 of DR 20111102a-crop.jpg|thumb|Sony professional [[digital audio tape]] (DAT) recorder PCM-7030]]
[[File:REAPER_Digital_Audio_Workstation.jpg|thumb|[[Digital audio workstation]]]]

PCM was used in [[telecommunications]] applications long before its first use in commercial broadcast and recording. Commercial digital recording was pioneered in Japan by [[NHK]] and [[Nippon Columbia]] and their [[Denon]] brand, in the 1960s. The first commercial digital recordings were released in 1971.<ref name="Fine"/>

The [[BBC]] also began to experiment with digital audio in the 1960s. By the early 1970s, it had developed a 2-channel recorder, and in 1972 it deployed a digital audio transmission system that linked their broadcast center to their remote transmitters.<ref name="Fine">{{cite journal |url=http://www.aes.org/aeshc/pdf/fine_dawn-of-digital.pdf |access-date=2010-05-02 |journal=ARSC Journal |year=2008 |editor=Barry R. Ashpole |first=Thomas |last=Fine |title=The Dawn of Commercial Digital Recording}}</ref>

The first 16-bit PCM recording in the [[United States]] was made by [[Thomas Stockham]] at the [[Santa Fe Opera]] in 1976, on a [[Soundstream]] recorder. An improved version of the Soundstream system was used to produce several classical recordings by [[Telarc]] in 1978. The [[3M]] digital [[multitrack recorder]] in development at the time was based on BBC technology. The first all-digital album recorded on this machine was [[Ry Cooder]]'s ''[[Bop till You Drop]]'' in 1979. British record label [[Decca Records|Decca]] began development of its own 2-track digital audio recorders in 1978 and released the first European digital recording in 1979.<ref name="Fine"/>

Popular professional digital multitrack recorders produced by Sony/Studer ([[Digital Audio Stationary Head|DASH]]) and Mitsubishi ([[ProDigi]]) in the early 1980s helped to bring about digital recording's acceptance by the major record companies.  Machines for these formats had their own transports built-in as well, using [[reel-to-reel]] tape in either 1/4", 1/2", or 1" widths, with the audio data being recorded to the tape using a multi-track stationary tape head. [[PCM adaptor]]s allowed for stereo digital audio recording on a conventional NTSC or PAL [[video tape recorder]].

The 1982 introduction of the CD by [[Philips]] and [[Sony]] popularized digital audio with consumers.<ref name="Fine"/>

[[ADAT]] became available in the early 1990s, which allowed eight-track [[44,100 Hz|44.1]] or [[48,000 Hz|48&nbsp;kHz]] recording on S-VHS cassettes, and [[DTRS]] performed a similar function with Hi8 tapes.

Formats like ProDigi and DASH were referred to as '''SDAT''' (stationary-head digital audio tape) formats, as opposed to formats like the PCM adaptor-based systems and [[Digital Audio Tape]] (DAT), which were referred to as '''RDAT''' (rotating-head digital audio tape) formats,  due to their helical-scan process of recording.

Like the DAT cassette, ProDigi and DASH machines also accommodated the obligatory 44.1&nbsp;kHz sampling rate, but also 48&nbsp;kHz on all machines, and eventually a 96&nbsp;kHz sampling rate.  They overcame the problems that made typical analog recorders unable to meet the bandwidth (frequency range) demands of digital recording by a combination of higher tape speeds, narrower head gaps used in combination with metal-formulation tapes, and the spreading of data across multiple parallel tracks.

Unlike analog systems, modern [[digital audio workstation]]s and [[audio interface]]s allow as many channels in as many different sampling rates as the computer can effectively run at a single time. [[Avid Audio]] and [[Steinberg]] released the first digital audio workstation software programs in 1989.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Reuter |first=Anders |date=2022-03-15 |title=Who let the DAWs Out? The Digital in a New Generation of the Digital Audio Workstation |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03007766.2021.1972701 |journal=Popular Music and Society |language=en |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=113–128 |doi=10.1080/03007766.2021.1972701 |s2cid=242779244 |issn=0300-7766|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Digital audio workstations make multitrack recording and mixing much easier for large projects which would otherwise be difficult with analog equipment.
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