Also called: digital audio workstation
What is daw?
A digital audio workstation: the software you record, edit and mix in. Cubase, Logic Pro, Ableton Live, Pro Tools, FL Studio, Studio One, Reaper and Cakewalk are the ones most vocal sessions run on.
Every DAW keeps a timeline and a transport, and that shared concept is what lets a plugin display lyrics in sync regardless of which one you use.
Differences between hosts mostly show up in plugin scanning and window handling rather than in how the timeline behaves.
The moving marker showing the current position on a DAW timeline. Everything time-based in a session is measured against it, which is why a prompter that reads the playhead stays accurate through rewinds and loops.
The third-generation Virtual Studio Technology plugin format created by Steinberg. It is the standard way third-party instruments, effects and utilities load inside a DAW on Windows and macOS, using one shared plugin folder per system.
The play, stop, record, rewind and loop controls of a DAW, and the clock they drive. Plugins can read the transport state, which is how a lyrics display knows whether the song is running and where it is.