SAWStudio, a DAW entirely written in Assembly

[LordAdef]

Hi guys,

SAWStudio has been around for a looong time. Some years ago the project was sold but its developer, Bob Lentini, is still developing its creation.

SAWStudio was entirely written in Assembly and I thought I should share this with you (I´m not sure if it´s still fully Asm as of now).

I don´t own it, my DAW is and has always been Cubase. However, I´ve used to record in a studio that uses SAW and I can give a feedback on this (the owner actually knows Bob Lentini). It´s the only of its kind, most of DAWs are written in C++.

Well, how this asm made DAW compares to its C++ siblings?

- STABLE as bloody hell
- FAAAAAAAAAAAAST, the fastest ever made DAW in the planet
    => I mean... the thing is really realtime fast, fast, fast. You do things without nearly any halt
- "10 years ago", when my Cubase main exe was about 40mb, SAW Studio was 1.5mb?  Today I think SS is 6mb....
- It´s ugly as hell too....argh...

I guess SAW is a fantastic example of how well written professional asm CAN be well maintained, outperforms any C++ bloating OO trash in a blink of an eye.

Cheers
Alex

edit to add: Mr. Lentini is one of those against OOP. This lead him to go against the market when some plugin developers were changing protocols (WAVES company)

[jj2007]

So you are a musician, Alex?

I couldn't resist and googled SAWStudio vs Cubase - it seems "either love it or hate it"

[LordAdef]

So you are a musician, Alex?

I couldn't resist and googled SAWStudio vs Cubase - it seems "either love it or hate it"

I surely am! I said this in my "not a bot" introduction.
If you followed the Rio Olympic Games 2016, you listened to some of my music. I composed the main themes.

[jj2007]

If you followed the Rio Olympic Games 2016, you listened to some of my music. I composed the main themes.

Wow

I´m Brazilian and am 45. I am a music composer and music producer.

I am over 60, so my memory is not as good any more

[Siekmanski]

Hi Alex,

This is a very interesting.
Have you programmed music related progs in assembly ?
Although I'm not a music composer myself ( wish I could ) I like all the "Digital Signal Processing" techniques, such as FFT FIR compressors equalizers etc.

Can we expect you to start a DAW thread here on the forum ? 

[LordAdef]

I am over 60, so my memory is not as good any more

Hey JJ, I´m 45 and believe me... I might be worse than you 

I´ve got a background in Classical music. But soon when I realised I would be starving to death as a contemporary classical music composer, I quickly started to compose  music soundtracks and so forth. In short, that´s the story. Wife and son, can´t complaint at all.

[LordAdef]

Hi Alex,

This is a very interesting.
Have you programmed music related progs in assembly ?
Although I'm not a music composer myself ( wish I could ) I like all the "Digital Signal Processing" techniques, such as FFT FIR compressors equalizers etc.

Can we expect you to start a DAW thread here on the forum ? 

Hi Siekmanski, I know you! Well, I read so much of older threads that I feel familiar with many here, and their subjects. Your projects are fantastic! I´m not particularly into Radio as you are, but I´ve got some really interesting vintage gear at my studio. Two in special you would like. One is a Signal Corps microphone Compressor from the Korean war era. The other one is a US NAvy mic preamplifier from WWII used to track submarines.

I haven´t done anything audio related in Assembly. I wouldn´t have the expertise for that. But I did once made a prog based on algos that would compose music by itself (but not that horrible random stuff we usually find). In the end it was too big of a project and I had to leave it.

A DAW thread would be wonderful and digital audio is something I do on a daily basis. And by the way, I´m always available if anyone needs anything that I could do to help. Just let me know.

I have a full Pro Tools 10, and Cubase 9 with dozens of audio plugins (mainly VST).

DAW, here we go!

[Siekmanski]

Writing a DAW was always one the things of my to long to-do list. 
Many, many years ago ( 1987 ) a guy at my work told my he had a super computer that could create stereo music and realtime 3D graphics. ( I had a bleep, bleep monochroom Armstrad PC then )
He invited me at is home and showed me his Amiga. I couldn't believe what I saw and heard. 
He showed me some 3D demos interacting with the stereo music on the background.
Then he showed me the music program, which can load digitized music samples.
It was the Soundtracker written by Karsten Obarski ( maybe one of the first DAW's )
The next day I bought an Amiga and my assembly carreer started.

Edit: The Amiga Protracker 2.3 ( the successor to the soudtracker )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q_8VhUW6sk

[jj2007]

The next day I bought an Amiga and my assembly carreer started.

Ha
Long live the Atari ST, King of Midi

[Siekmanski]

Ha
Long live the Atari ST, King of Midi

One of the quotes from King of Midi link:
 Ironically, the main reason Ataris had a midi port in the first place, was to compensate for their lack of advanced audio hardware like the Amiga has.

 

[LordAdef]

Long live the Atari ST, King of Midi

I second that!

Talking about midi... One of the greatest protocols ever created! If you think about it, midi is still the same after all these years, unchanged and still modern.

Siekmanski, making a DAW was also one of my dreams! And still is...

If you ever intent to make a Masm32DAW Studio, let me know.

[jj2007]

One of the quotes from King of Midi link:
 Ironically, the main reason Ataris had a midi port in the first place, was to compensate for their lack of advanced audio hardware like the Amiga has.

In hindsight, the "war" between the Atari and Amiga fans was pretty ridiculous. In the end, both lost to boring M$ Windows

I used my Atari ST between 1986 and the late nineties, mainly for professional purposes, and with the monochrome monitor. At the time, it was definitely much better and faster than what Microsoft offered.

[Siekmanski]

Siekmanski, making a DAW was also one of my dreams! And still is...

If you ever intent to make a Masm32DAW Studio, let me know.

Maybe some day in the future, if I have finished my other projects.
If there are members interested in this topic, then we could start and write it together here on the forum as a sort of Share & Enjoy project.
Have already experimented with DirectSound, Asio, FFT, FIR and Midi in assembly.
But first things first.

Haha Jochen, the Amiga was unbeatable until Commodore died and the other PC's could take over the lead. 

Still have my Amiga500 and Amiga1200.

[hutch--]

I am still collecting MIDI files and among the mountain of junk, you do find some very good examples that convert to MP3 and then with further processing you end up with a reasonable piece of music that is completely free of copyright issues. Audacity has been very good here, MIDI files are free of normal sound recording noise so you can work on improving the sound. I am in debt to Alex here for a collection of his suggestions.

I found a collection of Fernando Sors guitar pieces that were far better then I expected, a lot of piano over a range of styles from baroque to jazz and I did find one very unusual piece of medieval music that sounds something like an organ. I don't know what to do with it yet but I will find a use for it over time.