Why are so many DAW devs based in Massachusetts?

[Numanoid]

Why are so many DAW devs based or originated in Germany?

Bitwig, Berlin
Live, Berlin
Cubase, Hamburg
Logic, Rellingen (Germany) before Apple bought them

+1

So DAWs are basically a case of Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft

I mean Germany and USA, that is where the HQ of the most well known and popular DAWs are based, for one reason or another...

[Hink]

Michael Dukakis, one of the persons behind the "Massachusetts miracle", what a shame he didn't win the Presidential election in '88

he was actually governor twice

[SODDI]

MIT (Massachussetts Institute of Technology) in Cambridge has a major computer music department and publishes the CMJ.

Possibly MIT grads.

[ZeePok]

 
And, with my addition, two of them (FL Studio and Mulab) originate in Belgium. That's quite an accomplishment too.

Maybe because Belgium was quite big in techno music.

[MarlaPodolski]

MIT. MIT. MIT. MIT ... but it's also a very cool place if you can afford it. I lived there for a year or so right after university. Very expensive unless you are happy to live in Jamaica area or newton or somewhere 20 miles out. I wasn't. Was a block or three from Berklee, Cars studio and even more important a good dozen of the finest restaurants of any style you could want. Met a guitarist every day somewhere out and about (most were not very good players -- money gets you enrolled in Berklee really, unlike Julliard and Eastman -- but a few guitarists I met were just incredible).

It's also an extreme liberal enclave, massive welfare state, low unemployment (need to be dead not to be employed), etc., etc. Weather not too bad. But going back to MIT, it's a powerhouse for releasing trained geniuses into the world including great programmers. That Scholz guitarist, leader of band Boston went there. We rented rehearsal space from him in the basement underneath his company. It's like, if you are sick of NYC, afraid of NYC or just can't deal with the even higher cost, on the East Coast it's Boston (unless to want to go to Philly and probably be shot, robbed and/or raped). Just the way it is East U.S.

[LawrenceF]

Some of it is maybe HQ location. Like (IIRC) PSL is located in Hamburg but incorporated in Ireland.

No idea why that is.

[MarlaPodolski]

Some of it is maybe HQ location. Like (IIRC) PSL is located in Hamburg but incorporated in Ireland.

No idea why that is.

Berlin is hot and hip for music, even though the style is more dark and somewhat sparser and, can I say, 'grim' especially of late. But a lot of very cool devs live 50 or 100km or more outside in little towns, come in for business. The ones in all aspects of music there all appear to be quite serious about their work and goals. Go to Hamburg if you want to be crazy in music and life and/or drunk a lot.

[ras.s]

To make a comparison, Massachusetts population is half of that of London, UK.

And how many major DAW companies have their HQ in London?: zilch.

UK in general: zilch

So that is one of the reasons it makes it noteworthy.

Tracktion at least originated from London, though now it's based in Seattle.


And didn't Studio One also originate from Germany? Presonus bought the Kristal Labs company and built it on their tech.

[ZeePok]

Some of it is maybe HQ location. Like (IIRC) PSL is located in Hamburg but incorporated in Ireland.

No idea why that is.

 
That's probably because of taxes.

[Robert Randolph]

Looking at some of the more known DAW's, I start to wonder why so many of them are based in Massachusetts?:
Pro Tools, Massachusetts
Sonar, Massachusetts
Digital Performer, Massachusetts
Logic, San Francisco/Cupertino, California
Studio One, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Reaper, New York
Bitwig, Berlin
Live, Berlin
Cubase, Hamburg
FL Studio, Gent (Belgium)
Reason, Stockholm

I may be off base, but I seem to remember that while their main offices are still located there, that much of Digital Performer and Pro Tools are 'farmed out' all over the globe. And in the case of anything Apple controlled, that it was bought and brought to Cupertino.

I think the greater observation would be look at how much really comes from Germany.

Pro Tools is outsourced, yes.

Digital Performer no.

[zvenx]

MIT. MIT. MIT. MIT ... but it's also a very cool place if you can afford it. I lived there for a year or so right after university. Very expensive unless you are happy to live in Jamaica area or newton or somewhere 20 miles out. I wasn't. Was a block or three from Berklee,......

interesting I lived a few blocks from berklee when I was doing my phd in that town.
Did you perchance live on Boylston or near Kenmore Square? ( I was there 88-92)

rsp

[Karma_tba]

MIT. MIT. MIT. MIT ... but it's also a very cool place if you can afford it. I lived there for a year or so right after university. Very expensive unless you are happy to live in Jamaica area or newton or somewhere 20 miles out. I wasn't. Was a block or three from Berklee, Cars studio and even more important a good dozen of the finest restaurants of any style you could want. Met a guitarist every day somewhere out and about (most were not very good players -- money gets you enrolled in Berklee really, unlike Julliard and Eastman -- but a few guitarists I met were just incredible).

It's also an extreme liberal enclave, massive welfare state, low unemployment (need to be dead not to be employed), etc., etc. Weather not too bad. But going back to MIT, it's a powerhouse for releasing trained geniuses into the world including great programmers. That Scholz guitarist, leader of band Boston went there. We rented rehearsal space from him in the basement underneath his company. It's like, if you are sick of NYC, afraid of NYC or just can't deal with the even higher cost, on the East Coast it's Boston (unless to want to go to Philly and probably be shot, robbed and/or raped). Just the way it is East U.S.

Jamaica??....I think you mean Jamaica Plain! J.P. is gangs and guns. As far as Newton not sure where you got the idea it's inexpensive...it's upper middle class and not cheap. Also it is quite accessible to Boston and the surrounding areas by public transit(10 minutes to downtown Boston). One thing I've always hated about Boston is tourists and students. They make everything overpriced and the students(from out of state) treat Mass like their private playground. Maybe the BeeGee's could tell you about Mass, ( they wrote a song about it).

[LawrenceF]

This is an interesting discussion, imo anyway.

It might come more into focus if we widen the scope a bit though, and not limit it to only daws. That is to say while I take the word of the person who says no daws are made in London (I have no personal clue, but it sounds right), I wonder what that might look like globally if the scope was expanded to all kinds of professional software.

It may be that certain nations or wider geographic ranges lean a bit more towards music software than other things, no clue.

The MIT thing makes sense though, given how (arguably) some of the smartest software engineers on the planet probably come from there and go to Nasa and everywhere else I would guess.

My personal feeling about that, short of a person creating his or her own music company, is that the top 10% of MIT software engineers would likely mostly be seeing their talents going to waste working on daws.

[Hink]

MIT. MIT. MIT. MIT ... but it's also a very cool place if you can afford it. I lived there for a year or so right after university. Very expensive unless you are happy to live in Jamaica area or newton or somewhere 20 miles out. I wasn't. Was a block or three from Berklee, Cars studio and even more important a good dozen of the finest restaurants of any style you could want. Met a guitarist every day somewhere out and about (most were not very good players -- money gets you enrolled in Berklee really, unlike Julliard and Eastman -- but a few guitarists I met were just incredible).

It's also an extreme liberal enclave, massive welfare state, low unemployment (need to be dead not to be employed), etc., etc. Weather not too bad. But going back to MIT, it's a powerhouse for releasing trained geniuses into the world including great programmers. That Scholz guitarist, leader of band Boston went there. We rented rehearsal space from him in the basement underneath his company. It's like, if you are sick of NYC, afraid of NYC or just can't deal with the even higher cost, on the East Coast it's Boston (unless to want to go to Philly and probably be shot, robbed and/or raped). Just the way it is East U.S.

first about 5 or 6 years ago MIT announced that if your family made under 75k tuition was free. Second when you rented the rehearsal space, that was across the street from Alewife correct? That space was owned actually by a man named Jack G. (big guy)...did you know him? I worked with him at the music store in Davis Sq (action music was the name, long since gone)

[Karma_tba]

This is an interesting discussion, imo anyway.

It might come more into focus if we widen the scope a bit though, and not limit it to only daws. That is to say while I take the word of the person who says no daws are made in London (I have no personal clue, but it sounds right), I wonder what that might look like globally if the scope was expanded to all kinds of professional software.

It may be that certain nations or wider geographic ranges lean a bit more towards music software than other things, no clue.

The MIT thing makes sense though, given how (arguably) some of the smartest software engineers on the planet probably come from there and go to Nasa and everywhere else I would guess.

My personal feeling about that, short of a person creating his or her own music company, is that the top 10% of MIT software engineers would likely mostly be seeing their talents going to waste working on daws.

You're right about MIT....Berklee is the so-called place for music...but more for performing artists then devs. I also think Berklee is over rated. It has no real campus ,and the place is a dump. As far as Tom Scholz(sp) coming out of MIT that is ancient history and his band(Boston) were a one hit wonder.