Hi all,
 
I found the plugin upsampling feature a little confusing at first so I thought I would post what I've found so far in the hopes that a) it might help some people use this feature correctly, and b) I might learn more on the topic, too. If this is wrong or incomplete in any way, please let me know and I'll update the original post so it gets better over time.

A few basic considerations:

1) Upsampling plugins won't make it sound like you recorded at a higher sample rate
2) It might make your mixes sound better because some plugins sound better at higher sample rates, without the audio file size increase and disk performance hit of recording at a higher sample rate
3) Probably the biggest considerations when choosing between recording at a higher sample rate and just upsampling plugins are a) how your audio recording device sounds in each sample rate, b) what your PC is capable of, c) whether any of the soft synth instruments or plugins you use have inherent sample rate limitations that might come into play.

How Sonar implemented plugin upsampling:

Upsampling plugins in Sonar is done globally per plugin. So, for example, if you use two plugins in your mix, the Sonitus EQ and Compressor, you'll have to set each to upsample separately. But you don't have to set each instance of the plugin to do it. Just once for the EQ and once for the Compressor, and all Sonitus EQ and Compressor instances in any Sonar project you have open will be set to upsample IF you have upsampling turned on.

Setting up a project to utilize upsampling, step-by-step:

1) Review your plugins and synths and make sure any 32-bit plugins you are bridging in are set to load in jBridge. This will enable them to receive Sonar's upsampled audio, so the feature will be available. It is not available with the normal BitBridge. Once this is done, close any open projects and reopen them.
2) Review your plugins and synths and make sure you know which ones do/don't upsample already. There is no reason to have Sonar do extra work to upsample audio sent to plugins that already do it. This will hit your computer performance hard. Most UAD plugins upsample. Same with iZotope. I know Slate's Virtual Tape Machine does - not sure about their other plugins.
3) Open each plugin and synth in your mix (that you know doesn't already upsample) and click on the upper left corner. You'll see options to Restore, Move, Minimize, etc. The last two options should be Upsample on Render and Upsample on Playback. I tend to find I like to turn both of them on, because I have another option to toggle whether upsampling is turned on globally elsewhere.
4) Now, find the Sonar Control Bar (the menu at the top, find the Mix module that has the buttons to globally toggle Mute, Solo, bypass FX, etc.) There is a "2x" button there. This is what actually tells Sonar to turn upsampling on for all plugins that are configured to upsample. NOTE - the documentation on this is currently wrong. Click on "2x" so it highlights in blue turns ON upsampling. It does not bypass it as the documentation suggests. I've confirmed this with Cakewalk support.
5) Try comparing the sound with this turned on or off. I tend to find that the mids and highs feel a little smoother and less "bunched up" with upsampling turned on - like there is more room for everything to fit and it sounds more natural - but your mileage may vary.
6) You can then toggle upsampling on and off using the "2x" button, depending on what you want to hear and how your PC performs with it turned on. There isn't really a downside to leaving plugins set to use upsample, since you can just use the "2x" button to toggle it.
7) If you really want it on all the time but run into performance limits, try freezing tracks you feel are complete, while 2x is enabled (highlighted in blue.)
8) Be sure to check whether 2x is turned on (highlighted in blue) each time you choose to bounce content, and turn it on if desired.
9) Some plugins and synths don't operate well at higher sample rates. These may cause your project to crash. So far I have experienced this with Rapture (32-bit), and apparently the TTS synth is limited here, too.

Peace,

Tunes

A few days ago I was surprised because I seemed to hear a slight quality difference between my project played "live" and the same bounced to a track. Then I remembered that I had turned the upsampling on render on (for every plugin). Therefore I think that in some cases it can give some interesting results.
 
Some things I want to add about upsampling:
- I don't find it very easy to turn it on individually, for each plugin (once). I think there should be a global menu. Why not in the browser view, where you can see the list of plugins. You could have 2 checkboxes for each (play and render) and global checkboxes (check all / none).
- it's very good to have this 2x button, but I'm confused because the buttons have opposite logics. For example, "2x on" means that upsampling is disabled, but for the automation read (R!), the rule is the opposite ("on" = enabled)... Maybe the tooltip should be clearer ("Bypass upsampling").
- I searched a way to activate upsampling for the ProChannel modules, but I didn't find anything. Why?
 

You're right - the logic isn't very clear. With the global FX bypass, hovering over it says "Bypass all audio effects". This could be interpreted either way, but seems to be fairly clear that clicking on the button bypasses the FX. With upsampling it's "Enable/bypass plugin upsampling" - this is less clear about what having it highlighted or not actually means.

I really like the idea of a global menu that enables us to do it in one place. That would be awesome. Especially if it somehow referenced an online list of plugins that already upsample internally and noted this, greying out the option to have Sonar do it.

For reference, here is what Sonar's help has to say about upsampling:

http://www.cakewalk.com/D...mp;help=Mixing.26.html
 

And yeah, I don't see any way to do this with the ProChannel - question for the bakers: do the ProChannel modules already upsample? Or are they not capable of doing it?

Last thought for now - I question whether the documentation is correct. It states that "Upsampling is bypassed when the button is lit", just as you noted.

But on my PC I see a significant spike in CPU when the "2x" button for oversampling is not lit. That makes me think that having 2x lit means upsampling is turned on, not bypassed as noted. Why would my PC be working harder when not upsampling? That doesn't make any sense.

Any of the bakers care to weigh in?

Update from Cakewalk - their documentation on this is incorrect. It will be fixed shortly. I've updated the original post to reflect this information.


Thank you for contacting Cakewalk! Thanks for bringing this to our attention. It looks like the behavior wasn't described correctly in the documentation. The 2x button actually enables plug-in upsampling for plug-ins that have it enabled from the system menu at the top left of each plug-in; in other words, it's a two step process: Enable from the plug-in, then enable upsampling globally for any plug-ins that have it activated.


Even on our end it seems that there was some confusion on how this plug-in should behave, and the vagueness of the tooltip that appears when you mouse over the button,  so hopefully this will be cleared up shortly. We actually have a Help module in the works that will hopefully do a better job of letting you know how that button should respond when you click it.


If you have any further questions, please let me know!

Excellent job tunekicker! Thanks!

A truly AWESOME thread, well thought out postings, follow through and reporting in a positive and helpful manner...
 
How it should be done!
 
Thank you, tunekicker... I learned a lot, so did the bakers,  and looks like improvements are in the works!
 
Would love a global on/off but looks like it's better than it sounded in the initial post!
 
will set this up in my next session!

Thanks for the clarification.  I've been trying to use this and wasn't sure if I had it right.
I'll revisit it again to see what I missed.