And So It Begins...
From the original Analog Industries archive. Some links and images from that era no longer resolve.
I have to say that I’m somewhat bemused by the people that are writing us asking about 64-bit versions of our products. It’s like a healthy portion of our customer base suddenly kited work from Hans Zimmer and must (MUST) run 10 sixteen-instrument instances of Kontakt 3.
One piece of advice: don’t believe the hype. The audio differences between 32-bit and 64-bit DAWs and plugins are unmeasurable, never mind audible. Period. Full stop. If you think your shit is gonna be twice as good because you’re running a longer word length, you’ve got another thing coming. The _only_ gain is with the amount of RAM the OS (and thus the DAW) can access, and this is only an issue currently if you’re running massive orchestral libraries.
We had a similar situation occur when Steinberg announced VST3. All the sudden, people were writing telling us they wouldn’t buy any more plug-ins unless they were VST3. Well, I hope those people are happy with the FabFilter line, because aside from about 60% of Cubase’s internal plug-ins, that’s all they’re getting.
In short, there are some outlying developers that either have the inclination, the time, or some other reason to jump on every new bandwagon that comes down the pike, but the industry as a whole tends to follow the lowest-common-denominator “does it work and are people using it” approach.
10 comments
We're finding out that Snow Leopard runs in 64-bit on some computers, even if you've booted into 32-bit mode. If I put Snow Leopard on my Mac Pro, the audio drivers will need to be 64-bit. I don't get a choice in the matter. But on another computer the 32-bit driver will work fine. I don't understand this 100%, so you should look into it more.
That said, I don't think any Mac audio apps are 64-bit yet. But you know that Logic Pro and Cubase will be soon.
Hopefully they will not be stupid enough to break every plug-in in existence. But you never know.
I've just typed and deleted three different vitriolic rants in response to synthetic's postings. I'll let it suffice to say that it's not in the best interest of the company to set aside development of Tattoo and turn our attention for a month or two to 64-bit development. It'll have to happen eventually, but now is not the time.
--Adam
In any case, I don't think you want to be the first developer to make 64-bit plugs. Let someone else ride that wave.
I'm sorry dude but you don't know what your talking about.
I have written music for 25 plus games (incl. splinter cell, quake,Prototype and many others) and while 64-bit isn't an issue for the average musician, working in 64-bit as a pro (and no, I'm not part of Zimmer's slave crew) is really now an important part of how I work. And no one ever said that 64 bit will make your music 'sound' better. The issue has always been memory. Maybe not for effects plug-ins (like AD products) but sure enough for samplers and romplers...
Yes, I boot up and use up to 8 instances of Kontakt. You know that VSI's like Absynth use samples right? I also have a large custom percussion lib that uses an immense amount of ram.
The ram constraint within 32-bit has just reached its limit. At least to me. And while its far from perfect (I need to run Jbridge for some plugs) having more then 3-4 gigs of ram accessible has not only IMPROVED my production flow, i have fewer crashes and overall it feels more robust and stable (We use PC's).
64-bit isn't perfect but to say 'don't believe the hype' is just a bit ignorant, imo.
I would like a 64-bit bitcrusher effect. I'm sure it would be much better than a 32-bit bitcrusher effect.
My posting isn't directed at you, saschad. You're a pro who actually uses gigantic sample libraries. I think my sarcastic comment at the beginning of the posting pretty much set the parameters vis-a-vis the point I was making, so there's no need to get defensive. Plenty of companies (in particular Ableton and Sonar) have said that 64-bit will make your music sound better, in any event.
That said, you can get defensive about this statement: what the fuck does "64-bit isn't perfect" mean? You can't just let that hang out there.
-CR
whats the 64 bit handclap situation?
:#
You win. There's no topping that.
-CR
whats the 64 bit handclap situation?
I think a better question is: What is the sound of one hand clapping in 64 bit?.
Ponder that grasshopper...
Hugo
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