I wanted to add ... if you want to be really anal about it, do a null test. That's how I tested it. Export a project without 64bit Engine, export the same project with 64bit Engine, make sure the 64bit Engine is off, import both exports back in to Sonar making sure it is set to import at original bit depth, and reverse the phase on one of the tracks. The difference you hear will be the difference between the 32bit Engine and the 64bit Engine.

Good luck! It's always fun doing these tests!

Edited for clarity.

psychobillybob, Are you in movies?  Psycho hillbillies and rednecks are pretty popular.  I am sure someone named "pyschobillybob" could get an acting job operating a run down gas station in the country outside cell phone range where cheerleaders stop before getting murdered with a pick-axe.  Or you could be the caretaker on a resort island where college girls go on spring break and there is only one boat a week out and the water is full of vampire zombie sharks and the electricity goes off all the time.

I have X1 Studio, and when I export to audio I have a check box to use the 64-bit engine. Will that go away in X2 Studio?

probably not

omtayslick


I noticed in the detailed comparison chart between X1 essential, studio, and producer that essential has a 32 bit mix engine, while studio and producer have a 64 bit mix engine.  How much real world difference is there between 32 and 64?

Any music being processed, or mixed, within your DAW comes down to a lot of number crunching on an internal, programming level.  There's an inherent limit to how much accuracy can be maintained between calculations, which means that there is always going to be some truncation or rounding of the numbers involved.  This ultimately translates back into the audio we hear, so the higher the accuracy the better the audio.  It stands to reason that a 64-bit audio engine is going to better than a 32-bit engine.

Whether you opt to go 64-bit or not depends on a few factors, in order of my priority:
1) can your system handle the additional processing
2) do you care about (or can you tell) the difference

If your system can handle it, then I'd recommend you use 64-bit and don't worry about the next question.  But if your system is struggling then either you switch to 32-bit if the audio difference is not important enough, or find other ways to gain back the resources you need to keep it at 64-bit.

I think for most general, consumer level projects, it's probably not a big enough deal to be worrying about,  But for high-end professional projects you may want to consider that second question a little more carefully (although I'm willing to bet that if you're doing a high-end pro project you are probably not wanting for system resources in your DAW).

As others have pointed out, the bit-depth of your audio engine is entirely a different matter as to whether you are running 32-bit or 64-bit (this boils down to how much memory your OS can address, which does help with pushing your system more with less noticeable impact).

And then there's the other point about what bit-rate to render your audio to, which is another matter albeit more closely tied to the main point of this thread.

i dont know whether im convinced about this null testing, wat it is, is trying to imagine why there would be a phase difference with two different files or projects processed at different resolutions, anyone mind elaborating on this for me ???

Just out of curiosity, because I haven't done it in so long ... I just did a quick null test on a 20 second snippit of a song I'm working on.

1 vocal with heavy reverb, 1 guitar with heavy phasing effect, 1 bass.

Exported w/64b, exported wo/64b, imported at original bit depth, reversed phase on one track, and nothing. Total silence which means on that particular project there was absolutely ZERO difference in sound quality between the 32bit Engine and the 64bit Engine. This will not be the case for every project though. It really is dependent on the effects used and how well they are coded. For example, I never hear a difference with the Sonitus Reverb when doing this test, but I almost always do when using Guitar Rig on the guitar track.

It's really going to depend on the effects used, but just because you enable the 64bit engine, it does not guarantee you're project is going to sound better any more than doing a project at 192kHz/24bit is going to guarantee a better sound over 44.1kHz/24bit.

Get the X1 Producer Demo ... do your own tests ... if you hear a significant difference then go for it! You're not going to hear a difference on dry vocals, dry guitar, and such. You're going to hear it in your effects because of how they are processed with the 64bit Engine on.

ive already got expanded bub, but i can appreciate the fact of time based effects coming into play !!! cheers

Chregg

i dont know whether im convinced about this null testing, wat it is, is trying to imagine why there would be a phase difference with two different files or projects processed at different resolutions, anyone mind elaborating on this for me ???

I can't answer that intelligently with details. All I can say is, doing null tests like this has always been the tell tale way to check for differences in files processed differently.

If you go by just your hearing, it's too subjective, position, distant, difference in monitors, all that changes sound without the sound source itself changing. Null tests show the difference 'in the box' so to speak. At least that's how it's always been explained to me.

Hopefully bitflipper, Ben, or Jim will chime in on this and explain it a 1,000 times better than I can.

I'm by no means saying there is no difference between 32bit and 64bit, there is, but only in a small amount of cases and it's dependent on the quality of the effects you use.

The other way to look at it is, yes, there are benefits sometimes, so if the OP's system can handle it, and he wants to spend the extra cash to bump up to a version of Sonar that offers the 64bit engine, then by all means go for it. It's not like he has to leave it on and tax his system. He can tick/untick it at the export stage.

bub i know you rendered one file with the 64 bit engine and one with it off, but what did you render the files as, one the the 64 bit engine turned on at 64 bit float wav, and the other a 32 bit float wav ??