“People Felt Empowered To Build Something New”: How German Technology Shaped Dance Music

Chances are, you’re making music on a DAW or with plugins born in Germany. How did the country come to dominate the software used in electronic music production?

Cubase is German. So is Live. Even Logic Pro and Studio One began in Germany before being bought out by American companies. And it’s not just DAWs, either. Cornerstone plugins like Reaktor and Kontakt from Native Instruments or Zebra and Hive from u-he, too. What gives?

In the same way that Japan emerged as arguably the leader in hardware – synthesizers, drum machines and DJ gear – in the 1980s, Germany rose to prominence as the software center of the music production world in the 1990s and 2000s. How did this one European country come to play such a big part in the creation of the music production software that we use to make dance music?

The story begins in Berlin, and with music.

“It Was Very Anarchic And Very Wild”

“Before the tech came the music,” Heiko Hoffmann, director of artist relations at Beatport, told Wired in 2019. Although Beatport is an American company, it has a branch in Berlin, the center for software development in Germany. He was speaking about techno, of course, which plays a very large part in this story. However, to fully understand how Detroit-created techno made such a big impression in Germany, we need to understand how synthesizer music happened in Germany.

In the late 1960s, the generation born after the end of World War II came of age. Rejecting both the schlager pop of their own country and the rock ’n’ roll being blasted out of US army jeeps, they instead created new styles of music, often incorporating electronic sounds through primitive synthesizers. Kraftwerk came out of this loose scene, as did Tangerine Dream, whose hypnotic, sequencer-driven sound would come to be called the Berlin School.

“Berlin is the birthplace of the ‘Berliner Schule’,” Non Eric of the Synth Museum Berlin told us, “with its main act Tangerine Dream.” This embracing of synthesizers and electronic sounds primed the pump for the later, wider acceptance of dance music. “In the ‘90s,” Non Eric explained, “the techno movement in Berlin created new awareness for electronic sounds and synthesizers.”

the techno movement in Berlin created new awareness for electronic sounds and synthesizers

After The Fall

The rise in popularity of techno in Berlin was directly connected to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the sudden availability of cheap rents in the now undesirable east side of the city. “The fall itself created a new era of German music, namely electronic dance music (also known as techno),” wrote Nyah Estevez in their paper, From Debris to Party Beats: How The Fall of The Berlin Wall Shaped Techno Music. “Both East and West Germans created an entire political movement and social scene through techno as a result of reunification.”

“Back then, it was anarchic. It was very anarchic and very wild,” remembered Christian Kleine of Ableton, who’s been with the company since the beginning. “You had the explosion of music in itself and the whole DIY spirit. You had Tresor as the connection to Detroit, where Detroit DJs came into Berlin. There was this connection. And then you had the foundation of the Love Parade (as) another connection. Berlin was in those days a cheap party city. And this music was the soundtrack to that.”

This new musical movement, born from seeds planted in the electronic music of the post-war years, exploded into the mainstream in the 1990s after reunification. This, along with the accompanying change in culture and the influx of artists to Berlin, set the stage for Germany to become a software powerhouse. “You saw, especially in Germany and Berlin at the time, that this was not like an underground movement,” explained Christian. “Everybody embraced it to some degree. (And) it definitely spawned an interest from developers to also do something in this domain.”

“Berlin played a factor here because you had the reunification where Berlin was a divided city,” Christian said. “And then after the reunification, it was a little desert thing for culture, but also the rents were cheap. And if you had an interest in doing culture, you could delve into that without worrying too much that the rent was too high. So I think that all of that plays a role here.”

Christian was quick to assert that it wasn’t the only factor, though. “I think the bigger role was really the technology on a larger scale, like Apple computers being available. Suddenly, between ’97 and ’99, real-time audio was possible on computers on an affordable scale.”

Suddenly, between ’97 and ’99, real-time audio was possible on computers on an affordable scale

Music Meets Engineering

As music inspired software engineers in the 1990s, so also did it spur on developments in hardware electronic instruments in the 1970s, with both Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream working with boutique manufacturers to create the instruments and devices that they needed. Tangerine Dream was particularly involved with Wolfgang Palm and the development of his groundbreaking PPG Wave. By the end of the 1980s, Palm was pioneering the use of software to emulate hardware synthesizers, albeit in proprietary hardware. Although his Realizer never made it to production, its DAW-like, all-in-one format hinted at where the German software industry was heading.

“Germany took a leading position in the development of computers and information technology, especially in the ‘80s and ‘90s,” explained Daniel Richter, Senior Brand Marketing Manager at Native Instruments. “This development continued in the musical instrument industry.”

“While it wasn’t exclusively a German phenomenon, the broader music landscape was undergoing a period of rapid transformation,” Philipp Kopp, Senior Director of Customer Service at Native Instruments, said. “Electronic music was exploding, pushing the boundaries of sound and composition. Simultaneously, computing power was increasing at an accelerated pace, opening up entirely new possibilities for digital audio. This combination – particularly in Berlin, which became a key hub for this global movement – fueled a wave of innovation, where individuals, not just established companies, began experimenting with software to democratize music creation.”

Steinberg: Born Out Of Frustration

Before we can talk about the 1990s, though, we need to back up and talk about the 1980s. Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, when Germany was still two countries, a software company was born out of frustration.

When asked why music production software found its first footing in Germany, Non Eric answered, “The development was mainly fueled by the musicians Manfred Rürup and Karl Steinberg in Hamburg.” A project born out of frustration with one of the world’s first MIDI sequencers, Jellinghaus for the Commodore 64, the two started Steinberg in order to create a better sequencer. “Karl Steinberg used a DIY approach to create the software initially only for the use for their own studio work,” Non Eric, who started working as marketing manager at Steinberg in 1988, continued. “And the rainy weather in Hamburg may have also been a factor.”

Rainy weather aside, the resulting sequencer for the Commodore 64 would eventually get a proper release in 1984 under the name Steinberg Research Interface. It was 1989, however, the same year that saw the fall of the Wall, that the company started by two musicians would release Cubase for the Atari ST computer. 

At first just a MIDI sequencer, Cubase would grow by leaps and bounds, adding digital audio recording in 1992 and making the jump to Windows and Mac computers as interest compounded. In 1996, the company created Virtual Studio Technology, effectively inventing the plugin, and three years later developed VSTi and the first soft synth plugin, Model-E.

Germany had already revolutionized music production software – and things were only getting started.

Germany had already revolutionized music production software – and things were only getting started

In 1996, another German musician/engineer, Stephan Schmitt, started a new company to release the software synthesizer that he had been tinkering away on. “Schmitt already had experience as a programmer and builder of audio consoles,” said Daniel of NI. “He was able to write emulations of hardware components on native-based computers.” That software was called Generator. Released in 1998, it was one of the first fully modular synthesizers to run on a conventional personal computer. You probably know it by its later name: Reaktor.

“Reunification definitely brought a feeling of new freedom to Germany,” said Philipp K. “In the tech and creative worlds, this meant people were trying new things and starting their own projects. For Native Instruments, this spirit was a big deal. This passion helped them launch their early software, Generator. They were part of a time when people felt empowered to build something new.”

One aspect of that spirit was realized in the community aspect of Reaktor. The software famously lets users create their own instruments within its modular framework and share these online, many for free. This is reflective of the larger Berlin culture in the 1990s. “Reaktor embodies the collaborative and innovative spirit that defined Berlin’s tech scene at this time,” said Daniel. “This ethos prioritized accessibility and affordability over profit, reflecting the open-source ideals of the hacker and programmer community.”

“The Reaktor community definitely had a huge impact,” echoed Philipp K. “It let people who weren’t coders create their own synths and share them with the world, even before social media. This ability to share and collaborate really helped Reaktor grow.”

Native Instruments would continue to innovate, and another product from Stephan Schmitt, a little plugin called Kontakt, would eventually be adopted by the world at large. 

Another product from Stephan Schmitt, a little plugin called Kontakt, would eventually be adopted by the world at large

Ableton Live: New Workflows

Not long after Stephan Schmitt and his team released Generator, another group of musician/engineers banded together to create a new music workflow, this time aimed at performance more so than production.

Ableton founders Gerhard Behles and Robert Henke of the group Monolake had a problem, and they needed a solution. “Robert, Gerhard, myself, we were all performing musicians. And because we were on stages with computers, with hardware products and so on, MPCs in this case, it was clear that you need to utilize the computer for something really useful. There was just no universal solution to this problem.”

The solution they came up with, of course, was Live. As the name suggests, it was originally intended for live performance use – almost as an instrument itself. “The workflows are catered towards live musicians who are on stage with a computer,” said Christian. “The computer acts then as an instrument rather than as a technical tool.” 

There was no intention to create just another DAW. “The interaction of computers with the human was much more interesting to us,” Christian emphasized. “It was really not the idea to bring another DAW to the market, which is based on traditional values. New workflows were to us our main interest.”

Live continued to improve based on input from users and did eventually evolve into more of a traditional DAW. It has retained its original live performance aspect, though, with controllers like Ableton’s own Push bringing this into the hardware world.

Germany continues to remain at the forefront of music production software, with Steinberg, Native Instruments and Ableton all still very much in play. Newer companies founded by former employees like Bitwig, Forever 89 and u-he, are leading the charge for a new generation. But Germany’s influence on music production software continues to expand. As with Kontakt, this is no longer a ‘German’ piece of software but a global one. This global influence also extends beyond software, with Superbooth now the event of the year for synthesizer and Eurorack manufacturers (and of course, the Eurorack format was invented by a German company, Doepfer).

Many of the developers spoke of the democratization of music production as one of their goals in the early days. That has, without a doubt, been achieved, with more people making music now than ever before. Where it all goes from here, however, remains to be seen.

“We live in interesting times nowadays,” summed up Christian. “We are very curious how it will evolve from here, that’s for sure. Music technology continues to grow. It’s unclear what role AI will inherit (but) we are interested in that technology.”

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