Bounce all VST's to Audio

Hey,
 
In the current issue of EQ, there's an article about the recording of an album by a band called Groove Armada.
 
In the article, they explain that they found there to be a "massive improvement" in sound quality of VST instruments and effects if they were (in Sonar language) bounced to tracks prior to final mixdown.
 
Has anyone experimented with this in Sonar and found similiar or dis-similar results?
 
To me, it doesn't seem logical that it would make a difference in sound quality if the numbers are crunched now or later.
 
Nevertheless, I'm curious.
 
Any opinions?

I do a lot of this before a mix. I only have a single core 3 GHz cpu and yet I am able to create projects with vast numbers of tracks and my CPU meter is often no more than 5% or 10%. Yet I read people here having super i7 core machines running flat out to keep up with hundreds of soft synths and audio plugins. (and their cpu meters are nearly overloading) In my case the CPU is not doing much so maybe there is some truth in that statement. In a case where people have got their super computers running flat out maybe trying to keep up with all that may just effect sound quality. There could be jitter issues or clock issues or any number of things. Think of your poor cpu having to do billions of operations just to keep your music playing properly. By freezing, suddenly your cpu(s) are idle with nothing to do! Sort of reminds me of a V8 or a 4 cylinder crusing at 100 mph. One is relaxed another is not.


I like the way Sonar puts the synth (or plugin) into hibernation so to speak. I never have any problems unfreezing if I need to, the synth comes back, change the parts and re freeze. It is so fast too.

The reality is that at some point you have to stop changing the music and sign off on it so why not freeze it as well.

Also it is a great habit to get into in terms of exporting projects to other people or mixing things again much later or just having everything consolodated and frozen so it can be played back anywhere at anytime. I plan to upgrade to a very fast machine too but I am still planning to freeze everything first.  Your machine will never crash either when you do a lot of this.

In a case where people have got their super computers running flat out maybe trying to keep up with all that may just effect sound quality. There could be jitter issues or clock issues or any number of things. Think of your poor cpu having to do billions of operations just to keep your music playing properly. By freezing, suddenly your cpu(s) are idle with nothing to do! Sort of reminds me of a V8 or a 4 cylinder crusing at 100 mph. One is relaxed another is not.

 
A CPU is not an internal combustion engine. Processing more data faster does not compromise the quality of the output. Also bouncing and exporting audio is not a real-time process so no clocking is involved, and jitter is not possible. Barring a misbehaving plug-in or synth (which would misbehave the same in a single-track bounce as in a full mixdown or export), there should be no difference. And if there were a difference, I'm sure the exact cause could be easily tracked down and remedied, rather than attributing the "massive improvement" to some sort of unexplained alchemical magic.
 
 

Like Jeff, the only benefit i can see of bouncing VSTs is to lessen the CPU workload.
Actually, a second would be to simply clean up your workspace, getting the clutter out of your track view and fx bin.

I tend to do it for the reasons of just having a full set of audio files that can be easily exported or even remixed at a much later stage when some of your instruments or plugins may not be present.

I'm all for that, and tend to do that as well... mostly out of the habit of working with hardware synths.