To: Noel B: DAW (SONAR) Architecture...Block Diagram

[Sure hope Noel's around this weekend]…

Noel Borthwick…

(& DonM, UnderTow, DaveClark, aj, altima_boy_2001, et al)…

1) Back in May, there was a DonM thread running entitled: "The Ultimate Bit Depth Post", in which a flow chart of sorts was assembled to show resolution/signal flow thru SONAR's various code sections. I ran across it the other day; & as some of you may know…I've been attempting to gain my own understanding of SONAR's internal > output architecture. Based on a reply in Don's thread from Noel B…I decided put my own Block Diagram together:

[Note that I didn't include resolution in the drawing, since we have 64-Bit DP FP from end to end anyway (& the output inquiry will come later.)]

So…Noel…based on what you (or anyone) knows (or can tell me) regarding native DAW Architectures (& specifically SONAR in this case)…how does this look:




2) As part of that discussion (& also part of my own recent thread), UnderTow & others were also talking about SONAR's output to the DAC. The device drivers to my audio interface (Lynx Aurora8/AES16) can receive a "32-Bit (integer) container w/ 24-Bit data". If Noel could tell me exactly what SONAR sends out to the Lynx in this case, I would be eternally grateful. Is it a 24-Bit word with padded zeros as UnderTow suggests…or is there more to it? (& if it is a padded signal…why???...since the very next hardware stage is the DAC, which can only receive 24-Bit integer…i.e., why the need for empty data w/ no hdwe. processing occurring at that point?)

Thanks much,


mark4man

Dell Dimension 8250 / Windows XP
Intel 850E Motherboard/Chipset
Intel P4 2.53GHz CPU (512 KB L2 Cache, 533 MHz FSB)
1024 MB PC1066 RDRAM
Maxtor DiamondMax 9+ 80GB Secondary HD / Single Volume (Audio Data)
Lynx Studio Aurora 8 / AES16
Universal Audio UAD-1 DSP Powered Plug-In System
KRK Rockit RP-8 Studio Reference Monitors
SONAR5.0.2
WaveLab 5