Part 1 of this series mentioned how Pro Tools originates as a project out of UC Berkeley and became a consumer product around 1991. Let’s acknowledge why digital multitrack recording is important. First of all it helped resolve the obvious limitations of tape. The conversation during the 1990s was, “Sure tape sounds great but now you can have theoretically endless dubbing options with digital recordings. Record ten takes, twenty, or even one hundred!” This was a sales and marketing sentiment. It was discussed in music production circles. The novelty of “endless” takes. Select the best recording. You’re no longer influenced by the hassle tape presents.
Multitrack recording became the sales position of music software and the creative angle. Since Pro Tools tried to solve perceived problems of tape recording, it’s solutions defined the experience of the software. It’s solutions were in response to mainstream music production concepts. This is why the multitrack paradigm became as significant as it is. It not only existed as a common production concept in recording studios before the digital era—record one performer, then another, then mix it together—but it continued as a paradigm during the digital era.
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