Let us know about the utility of those (excellent) tools for:
* a four part acapella group
* a traditional western european orchestra
* someone who wants a recording of the call to prayer
* anyone who needs to make a recording of anything at all?
The original purpose of DAWs like ProTools was recording, editing and mixing. Composition and instrumental performance crept in later. Even if that aspect were to be completely replaced by hardware (possible, but unlikely), it would leave the original DAW functionality just as in in demand.
Yes, that'd be a microphone setup per singer, probably, or at least two channels of audio.
>* a traditional western european orchestra
Yes, tons more channels ..
>* someone who wants a recording of the call to prayer
Only one channel needed really, but could be multiple if warranted.
>* anyone who needs to make a recording of anything at all?
As a professional designer of recording devices, I can tell where you are going - not that you might have missed the notion that there is literally no reason that a DAW-like instrument cannot be multi-channel capable - but also that portability to any environment is key.
Physicality is the new frontier for digital capture.
Recording/editing/mixing no longer belong in the workstation.
Portable instrument-like DAW's, with extraordinary new and interesting interfaces to accomplish those goals you've set (although they are all basically the same thing), are already on the market.
For example, the 1010Music Bluebox, alone, can be applied to any of those scenarios. Just add microphones (and USB powerbank...)
Incidentally, PaulDavis: acknowledging your position as the originator/BDFL of the ARDOUR workstation software, I mean no disrespect for your stature and point of view -- just that I believe era of the DAW-less approach is upon us, and there is a rather large opportunity for device-makers, such as me, and software-makers, such as you, to align ourselves...
The workstation is dead. The kids want portability, reliability, and power. This can all be done on non-standard operating systems, in a bespoke case, for fun and profit.
I think it is awesome that these "DAW-less" tools are showing up and getting good. There's a lot to be said for them in many contexts.
However, I don't think that they are going to eliminate the current concept of "a fairly big piece of software running on a relatively general purpose computer that is used for recording, editing and mixing".
* a four part acapella group
* a traditional western european orchestra
* someone who wants a recording of the call to prayer
* anyone who needs to make a recording of anything at all?
The original purpose of DAWs like ProTools was recording, editing and mixing. Composition and instrumental performance crept in later. Even if that aspect were to be completely replaced by hardware (possible, but unlikely), it would leave the original DAW functionality just as in in demand.