Advantages of a 64 bit DAW?

A 64-bit OS will allow 64-bit programs to access gobs and gobs of RAM. That's about it.

The term "64-bit" describes the amount of space used to store a number. With more space, you can store a bigger number. Every piece of data in memory has an address. As you get more memory, it takes a bigger number to store the address of each location in memory. That's why a 64-bit operating system can use so much memory - each address (which is a number) is stored in a big 64-bit space.

Now a 64-bit space doesn't have to be used to store a giant number. It could, instead, be used to store a very precise representation of a decimal number. For instance "2.141" is more precise than "2.14". This is what Sonar's 64-bit mix engine is doing. When it does math, it has lots of space to store very precise numbers. Because it can be so precise, it minimizes error that happens when you do math in a space with a fixed length. Remember those fractions that repeat forever, like 3.33333333... ? A 64-bit space can store a much more precise representation of that number than a 32-bit space. In theory, a 64-bit mix engine sounds better than a 32-bit mix engine because it reduces the severity of "rounding errors." When you zoom in on a digital photo, you eventually get to the individual pixels. But a higher resolution photo (more megapixels) lets you zoom in further because there are more pixels there. That's the same principle with the 64-bit mix engine.

Now, hopefully it makes sense why Sonar can run its 64-bit mix engine on a 32-bit operating system. It can do this because it's not trying to access memory (through the operating system) with really big addresses.

I found these pages enlightening:
http://www.cakewalk.com/x64/
http://techreport.com/articles.x/8131/1

Some of the conclusions/observations in the techreport article have to be taken alongside the date of the article, though: March 23rd, 2005. But, it's otherwise a good article.

Read some of the linked articles from the Cakewalk page as well.

The memory capabilities alone are enough for me to quit waiting for Microsoft and Windows vendors to actually get their acts together. This conversation is about to be 3 years old. Old hat to me, at this point, so I"m one of the people who's getting fed up with it, and a bit heated.

I NEED the ability to address more memory with my audio productions (fair amount of samplers going on) and video work (video is HUGE... much larger than audio files).

And, I'll have it, sometime this month (hopefully... fingers crossed).
I'm not waiting anymore.

Take care,
- zevo