X2 - Improvements to audio engine?

Yeah, I posted the first night it sounds better. Some can tell, and others can't ,and might make fun of. *L* I have pretty good monkey ears and listen to Sennheiser headphones. HD580 HD280 Pro

What you're describing sounds similar to what the Console Emulation does.  Though it would be obvious that it's in the PC strip.
 

As suspected ... just me. :)

... still -- it's odd ... I've got pretty good ears, and I'm hearing a difference ... yet, perhaps it may be an individual rig related matter (?) -- for silence speaks volumes.

You could "Do a null test with identical mixes from X1 and X2 and see if they cancel out..." but then everything depends on which version of Sonar you use to do the null test. The silence sounds slightly better in X2. :)

I am under the impression that X2 is a little bit more gapless than X1.

boredmonkey


*pressing boredmonkey joke button* Null test? I don't need no stinkin' null test. hehe J/K I've been having some X2 crashes with projects done in X1. I went ahead and did a clean Windows 7 64bit install to make sure it's not at my end. So I don't have X1 installed anymore to do a null test. Still having crashes which tells me Cakewalk needs Beta testers and stop having their first release the Beta test. I was very forgiving with X1 because it was a major overhaul, but this reeks.

So, you mus somewhere have the last export of an X1 project, right?


Open that project in X2 and do an export (no differently than you did in X1).


Now you have the contents of a null test without having to install X1.


Simples.

When something looks better (X2) it can easily have the psychological effect of sounding better. Now, add the awesome breverb instead of the old cakewalk standby for your reverbs and for sure you just improved the quality, no need to null. Now, cakewalk just needs to give us a super high quality filter (something like frohmage audio quality, but with some cool modulation and multifilter abilities like the now impossible to get Antares filter) and some crazy expensive Lexicon quality delay effects as pro channel built in effects and we have the ultimate studio in X3. By the way, are you DC offsetting those renders, otherwise your null will not be true.

Sounds like every other DAW to me, but I am definitely finding X2 to be more stable and performing much better than X1 was.

> I am under the impression that X2 is a little bit more gapless than X1.

+1 Same here. More things can be done during playback without dropout.

panup


I made a null test with X1 and X2. Result: 16 bit/44100 Hz mix was perfect silence. Audio Engines of X1 and X2 output do identical mixes.

I not sure I understand this null test thing. Wouldn't every setting have to be identical in each track?

So... if the default settings in X1 And X2 are different, you would hear something?

Exactly!    They also seem less "sharp", if that makes sense, as though they're somehow softer.
 

ProjectM


I agree with everyone saying the audio engine feels more gapless - I was thnking that when doing my first mix in X2. And with the improved workflow I say that I can probably work 20%-40% more efficient in X2 than X1.

Darn you Project I was just about to post it sounds 20 to 40% better. LOL

Actually you are not too far off!

Project this may sound weird but I agree with your math. I knew the new math would come in handy some day. 

There are some major updates/rewrites to the internals and engine that greatly improve realtime operations. The following areas were updated. 

1. Realtime synth triggering and timing. The mechanism to send realtime events to instruments was reworked to make MIDI timing buffer size independent. Synths can now be triggered with the same timing accuracy irrespective of the audio buffer size. 

2. Made the following operations fully asynchronous and seamless, minimizing interruptions in audio. (this makes gaps almost imperceptible). Many changes were made to make them more lightweight.

- Inserting virtual instruments, dragging to create new instruments from browser, also minor improvements for inserting audio plugins. 
- undo and redo of inserting effects and synths 
- Unloading and reloading virtual instruments in the rack. This operation can now be done during playback
- Quick Freeze and unfreeze no longer interrupt audio, so you can actually A/B the results during playback
- Changing loop points on the timeline doesn't require a gap
- Audio metronome no longer requires a gap to turn it on or off
- Preferences dialog can now be opened when browser or groove matrix preview is active (it will stop preview and automatically resume when you close the dialog)

3. Improvements for operations that require small interruptions in audio playback for re-synchronization. For these we now adopt a new "adaptive smoothing" technique to minimize the perceived effect of the operation. This kicks in whenever any perceivable interruption in audio is detected and subtly smooths out the transition. This makes many edit operations feel seamless now.  
     
4. Non linear playback engine rework. This component is responsible for all non linear playback of audio and MIDI including events triggered from the browser and Matrix.

Among hundreds of improvements, a big change was reworking the scheduler, making it synchronous with the audio engine. This makes triggered events from the matrix sample accurate and independent of the audio buffer size.

5. Previewing events in browser now caches the first 16 events and will avoid reloading them when triggered. This makes auditioning loops seamless.