Hey Everybody,
 
Can someone point me to some tips or a guide for choosing which plugins I should consider for using Platinum's upsampling. I've seen some conversation about that here before with Craig in particular. Searched the forum and the cake documentation and to see if I could find some rules or guidelines. No luck.
 
Thanks in advance

If it sounds better, upsample it :)
 
My experience is that virtual instruments with lots of harmonics, amp sims with lots of distortion/high-gain settings, and dynamics processors with extremely fast rise times benefit the most. Here's a demo of the most dramatic example I could find about upsampling and waveforms with ultra-fast rise times.
 

 

Thank you very much for responding Mr. Anderton! I thought I was reading posts a while back where you and others were discussing some plugs like maybe compression that would be best to not upsample. Like I mentioned, I searched for those posts and struck out trying to find them.  I've used upsampling several times and in general thought it was a smoother better sounding mix. But not knowing if I was creating phasing or other problems,  I ended up backing off from this feature. Overall, I really like the idea of upsampling and want to use it - properly.


Looking for more insight.

afaik upsampling can result in a higher latency, that is if the tool you're using increases the latency at a higher sample rate.....for most of them it's hard to find out the latency they produce per sample rate, but Waves fe have this specified on the website.
Some plugins and (perhaps instrument too, I don't know) actually produce lower latency at higher sample rate.
And the CPU use usually increases with upsampling.
Other than those 2, don't know about any down sides to upsampling.

Upsample on playback is more of a convenience feature. The main goal is to be able to render the upsampled audio so you have the benefits of higher sample rates in lower sample rate projects. So if done this way and you render, there's no hit on the CPU...it's just audio.

A big 'Yes' for up-sampling on render. The key is to check each plugin or vi to see if the performance is actually better.
Not all plugins benefit, sometimes the results can be worse so you really need to check. When they do you should a hear an improved sonic audio quality in your mixes.
 

Thanks Sheanes. When I did use the 2x oversampling it was on rendering only so I didn't have the latency or cpu laboring. I guess another thing that added to my worry was that we have the option to choose which plugs. My thoughts are in terms of rendering only, if there are no bad side effects, why not just have a option to render all plugs at 2x? Stated another way, since we get to/have to choose which plugs get oversampling, there must be a solid reason to choose some and not others. Or maybe I worry too much.

It would be nice if Sonar included a "suggestion list" for common brands, like they auto-categorize many VSTs now. Tbh I can't be bothered A/Bing the 900-or-so plugs I use. Even if it takes just 2 minutes per plug (and it wouldn't) that's way more time than I'd want to spend.

musicroom
Thanks Sheanes. When I did use the 2x oversampling it was on rendering only so I didn't have the latency or cpu laboring. I guess another thing that added to my worry was that we have the option to choose which plugs. My thoughts are in terms of rendering only, if there are no bad side effects, why not just have a option to render all plugs at 2x? Stated another way, since we get to/have to choose which plugs get oversampling, there must be a solid reason to choose some and not others. Or maybe I worry too much.

You worry too much 
 
The biggest issue is it takes longer to render, bounce, export, etc. if upsamping is enabled. When I bounce down a final mix with upsample on render enabled, it definitely takes longer (and I'm upsampling only those plugs where it makes a difference).
 
Also whether something sounds "better" or "worse" is subjective. Some people like the thick, semi-muffled quality that foldover distortion adds to a sound. During a workshop I played a Z3TA+ 2 patch with and without upsampling. There was no question the upsampled version was more accurate, transparent, and cleaner, but about half the audience preferred the "grungier" sound. 

Hi Dave,
If your upsampling doubles the latency of that tool, your music will be affected by it (in my opinion)...even if you have it set to offline render.
There is a 'latency compensation' in Sonar that uses the latency that the tool reports to Sonar and alligns all your tracks/busses so everything stays in sync / correct on the timeline.
In my opinion / my ears, this is not undoing/deleting the latency unfortunately, but it's just alligning it.
There are other opinions/ears out there...
 
Personally if I had a synth part that needed upsampling, and it's something like a stringpad, or simular...I would freeze that track.
That iic will bypass the Sonar latency compensation, and leave the latency just in that stringpad.
Again, this is just what I'd do, I don't claim any truth etc.
 
I thought the upsampling is another great thng we learned from Anderton sharing this with us.
Learned a lot from him and always like his posts/vids etc.