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The telharmonium is considered the first electrical instrument. It sounded like an organ, but was a failure due to its ridiculous price and size. -
Magnetic tape, invented by Fritz Pfleumer, was a new way to record and playback sound by imprinting patterns with magnetic particles. In the 1930s and 1940s, this invention was enhanced and used to play audio and songs.
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Invented in the early 1930s, the Rhythmicon was a machine that could create complex rhythmic patterns and polyrhythms. It was essentially a metronome that could create more complex patterns. One description compared its sound to a reed organ. It is often considered the world's first drum machine.
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The Moog Modular System was invented in 1964 and allowed people to create and record music. It used voltage and had a wide variety of options to produce sound, such as oscillators, filters and buttons that could change pitch, volume and timbre. It was used in songs like "Because" by the Beatles and "Switched-On Bach" by Wendy Carlos.
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The first DAW is often considered to be the Soundstream Digital Editing System. It allowed you to use techniques such as crossfading, where one part becomes quieter and another becomes louder in order to create a transition. It was still limited given the quality of computers back then, and had a short lifespan as Soundstream ceased operations. Regardless, it laid the foundation for more advanced DAWs to come.