What does 64-bit provide, and is it worth the hassle?

try running the installer in compatsbility mode for windows 7. 32 bit windows addresses less memory for one thing.multithreading is faster. google it - the online docs are pretty thorough.

There have always been issues with the Pentagon-Plugin and 64bit.
I think the workaround was to start Sonar with administrator privileges. I have no idea how and if you can manage that with Win8.

I'm thinking of starting all over and going back to 32-bit

that's what I kind of think too, and somewhat more...
 

, but honestly, I don't know what I'll be losing. Can someone explain that to me. Is it faster speed, more pristine clarity to the audio, or what?

 
Given that you can solve the installation-issues, you need to make sure that all your plugins/softsynth/... are available in 64-bit. Otherwise Sonar will need to process them(BitBridge) which will soak up a lot of performance,.. speaking: it won't run as smoothly as it would in a 32-bit enviroment, where there's no need for conversion!
Unfortunately not all plugins are available in 64bit. Pentagon will never be.. and the UAD-plugins are still not available in 64bit,. with the latest UAD-update they wont even work with Sonar!

In my experience, it just works

In my experience, it just doesn't work! At least not out of the box.
 
I am one of the guys where the glass is always half empty,.. so I am afraid that you need to figure out for yourself if you're up to 64-bit. Looking at your signature I'd guess that you are better off with WinXP-32bit(and actually Sonar 8.5.3(that has always been a real good combination for me)).
 
 
 

Frank Haas


Unfortunately not all plugins are available in 64bit. Pentagon will never be..).
 
 
 

Explain then, why I have a working version of 64 bit version of Pentagon on my system? 
I have been running 64 bit Sonar since the release of 8.5 in the fall of 2009, three years ago, so its hardly the bleeding edge anymore.
 
The few plugins I had that did not work have been replaced with something better. Between Bitbridge and JBridge most issues are solvable. The main issue is 32 bit DXi and if you really need to there are some possible solutions to bridging them too.
 
I am with Jonesey - I would never go back to 32 bit. I do not have his 32GB RAM but I do have 12GB RAM and can run many Kontakt instruments, Superior Drummer and a bunch of othe VSTi and VST  in a project without a hicup or ever having to freeze a track.
 
But i will let the Windows 8 dust settle a little before I tread that path.

I knew that this would happen, lol..

I can live without them

I have a couple of thousand dollar worth 32bit plugins(UAD).. I can't live without them!
besides that you guys should just admit that there are problems with some plugins.
What is the use of RAM and INSTANCES when you can't use all your plugins or if it soaks performance.. not worth to mention ?
I wanted to mention "J-Bridge",.. I just said "out of the box",.. yes, there are WORKAROUNDS ! they cost money..
 
I wasn't aware that Pentagon is available as 64-bit,.. wondering that there have been issues with the preset-management and pentagon(yes,.. there is a workaround),.. and still someone cared to optimise it for 64-bit ? wow.. congrats if thats true.
(There is a difference in "making it work in 64bit" and "64-bit" btw)
 
I am just a bit frustrated and angry at the whole 64-bit situation and the ongoing 64-bit hype.. it's still not all good!
 
Mark has a Q6600/4GB RAM, how much does he benefit from 64 bit ? besides having to replace plugins with something better ? he can as well leave his DAW how it is and go on with making music.

[ - sorry.

Bob Bone

[<font]Never mind - sorry.

Bob Bone 

Thanks - I was just posting some stuff I found through a quick search - I have no knowledge of this issue or any possible solutions - just posted that so the OP could review and maybe figure out something. 

I edited out the prior postings I put forth.   

I had debated even posting that stuff, and I am thinking that if I had more of my brain working when I woke up this morning, I would have probably not even gotten involved.

More coffee 
Bob Bone

Keeping the dxshell stuff alive ain't bad. It works with some of the Dx stuff available through the custom install process. The basic 64bit install process installs a few Dx Synths and effects. The installer is failing and that is the issue. BTW, good morning.

You can buy a nice quad-core AMD Phenom II 965 black edition CPU, and get a free motherboard with it, and 16 GB or memory for a total cost of less than $200 these days.

64-bit processing with lots of memory if cheap and easy to get these days, and WELL worth it.  Windows 7 x64 can address 192 GB of memory.  My computer has 32 GB of memory on it and I NEVER have to worry about any memory issues no matter how many synths and tracks I have in a project.

Bob Bone

Frank Haas


I have a couple of thousand dollar worth 32bit plugins(UAD).. I can't live without them!
.

A good enough reason to stay on 32 bit.
 
I am fortunate that most of my plugins have been acquired in the last three years and taking a long temrm view 64 bit compatibility as always been a high priority when making a selection.
 
I now only have two 32 bit plug ins that I use regularly and I know 64 bit versions are in beta test.

I'm thinking of starting all over and going back to 32-bit, but honestly, I don't know what I'll be losing.

Your computer will only be able to use a little over 3GB of your 4GB of memory. There is no reason to do that. If you want to use 32-bit Sonar, just install that. It will run along with the 64-bit version. 


As for your error message: where did you get that plug-in? It doesn't sound like a Cakewalk plug. 


Errors during installation: 
C:Program Files/Cakewalk/Shared Plugins/Multivoicechorusflanger.dll  Unable to register the DLL/OCX: RegSvr32 failed with exit code Ox3. 

OK, before I reinstall everything, I've put a tech support request into Cakewalk, and we'll see what happens. Would really like to stay with 64-bit since there's a chance I'll upgrade my RAM.
Thanks for all the help.

to original question... coupled with hardware benefits, i find the soft synths in 64bit sound way better than 32bit equivalent and a very good reason to upgrade. I bought diva 64 bit yesterday and am completely flabbergasted at how good it sounds. It does my juno 106 a it better than my juno 106 does, which i never expected it would even get close to. 64 bit is a no brainer tbh.

I saw a lot of posts about the expansion of available RAM for 64-bit users, but I didn't see anyone bring up the fact that native 64-bit code gets to use a much bigger and more efficient register set (and additional instructions) within x86-64 CPUs compared to the old i386 register set and it's 32-bit-max small set of registers. Properly used these newer, larger, and more numerous registers can prevent many unnecessary memory accesses outside the CPU complex. I've noticed this bring a lot of headroom to my Sonar use on the same systems (using 64-bit OS + 64-bit Sonar vs. 32). This is why I've always tried getting to 64-bit as soon as possible, but have just done so in the last few years due to a lot of the 32-bit plug in issues a lot of us have been dealing with. I tried XP-64 several years ago and that did show the performance boost, but the incompatibilities were too numerous for me at that time.

But yeah, definitely worth the move now if you are using modern hardware and can deal with some incompatibilities that are reducing as time goes on. 

64-bit is important to me because I use a lot of virtual instruments (orch libraries, etc) so the ability to address all 12 GB of memory I have installed is a big deal.

For some people, this would not matter much.

I did have a bit of a struggle getting some 32-bit plugs to work at first, but all is well now.