Karyn
Craig,  How will your piezo amp sim cope with my Dark Tiger?

Try it and find out  Unfortunately my Dark Fire isn't here at the moment so I can't test. My FBX already has EQ in it to deal with the piezo sound, so it's not a good test. But I would suspect you'll find the amps helps.

Here is my Platinum experience, so far...
 
I installed Platinum yesterday, and the first thing I noticed is how much better (in terms of tonality, resolution, clarity) a project file originally built in X1 Producer sounds. ...and I'm referring specifically to simple playback - no additional mixing, equalization or effects applied. I'm saying simple playback sounds better in an apples-to-apples comparison than playing back the same file in X1.

I don't claim to have golden ears, but these improvements I'm hearing are not subtle. They're quite obvious.

Is anyone else hearing this, or could this be some kind of placebo effect I'm experiencing ?

That sounds pretty much impossible.  Digital waveforms are just digital, and plugins are simply software routines.  How could playback change?

I agree with Greg. I do believe in the placebo effect though.  However it is possible that in some plugin or other area CW did do something that has improved something. That is highly unlikely though. Its far more likely that if you hear a difference its because its a placebo difference, one due to it being new.  
 
 

John
I agree with Greg. I do believe in the placebo effect though.  However it is possible that in some plugin or other area CW did do something that has improved something. That is highly unlikely though. Its far more likely that if you hear a difference its because its a placebo difference, one due to it being new. 

Well, that's why I raised that possibility (placebo effect). But "impossible" ?  ...no, not impossible. After all, this was effectively an A/B test of one version against another, and who knows what changes, if any, have occurred between X1 and Platinum, such as the audio engine, and how it processes the audio and math. I'm sure those changes would be proprietary, and Cakewalk would be reluctant to discuss or disclose, but it does make me curious.


With all else being equal, it's hard to argue with the results of an A/B test.

I hesitate to rule out anything. I learned that when I set out to prove that playing back at 96 kHz didn't make an audible difference anyone could tell reliably. But in the process, I found that recording at 96 kHz could make a huge difference when working inside the box. 
 
Who knows? My favorite story is when Eric Johnson said some effect sounded better with a particular battery and was laughed at. "Volts are volts, what an idiot ha ha." However...the internal impedance of a battery can vary significantly. If he was using an effect with poor power supply rejection, then using an alkaline or carbon-zinc battery could make an audible difference.
 
Also, your hearing changes over the course of a day. Your ears are more acute at night because the lack of natural light causes a lower degree of visual stimulus. So if you listened to an X1 project in the morning and an X3 project at night, the X3 one would likely sound better - because it actually would sound better.
 
We know much less about how the ear/brain combination works than we think...

Thanks for your response, Craig.
That's interesting about your hearing being more acute in the evening than earlier in the day. I'd never heard anything about that before now.
So, would you characterize it as things sounding 'better' in the evening, or 'more accurate' ?   ...or both ?  
 

tickertape
Thanks for your response, Craig.
That's interesting about your hearing being more acute in the evening than earlier in the day. I'd never heard anything about that before now.
So, would you characterize it as things sounding 'better' in the evening, or 'more accurate' ?   ...or both ?  
 

 
This article is one of the better-researched ones I've seen dealing with this topic.
 
 
 

Anderton

Also, your hearing changes over the course of a day. Your ears are more acute at night because the lack of natural light causes a lower degree of visual stimulus. So if you listened to an X1 project in the morning and an X3 project at night, the X3 one would likely sound better - because it actually would sound better.
 
We know much less about how the ear/brain combination works than we think...

I also recommend beer.. Everything sounds great after that (except Coldplay).

I'm afraid my Platinum installation was less that flawless. 
 
First AD2 refused to download any new kits or kit pieces.  I'm stuck with the same three I had in X3 producer;
The console emulator and CA2 Leveling amp are both giving load errors,  and;
Any effect chain using the TH2 producer effect crashes with a message that "This effect is only available in Sonar X2 and above."
And that's just in the first 20 minutes of use.
 
  I did use the fancy new management console to install - maybe that was a mistake?