Advantages of a 64 bit DAW?

I've been hearing many people complain and get out right mad because brand X doesn't have 64bit drivers. I'm just looking for knowledge as to what a 64bit OS is going to do for me. Are things going to be able to be processed fasted? Obviously more RAM can be implemented, but I'm just curious to understand more in-depth what it will really bring to the table. I'm more than happy with WinXP32, and don't plan on moving anywhere until I have to, maybe more to the fact that I make music for personal reasons and have no motive to trying to "make it". I have a grat set-up for what I do, and built a DAW just shy of a year ago with a core2duo(E6600) 2g of RAM and so on, and this will do more than I will probably ever throw at it. I'm only looking for information here, as I don't know really anything about 64bit OS's, so even feeding my cranium with simple facts about the 64bit world would really help. Please anything and everything will help, as my thirst for this knowledge has been unquenched, and I know many here are either using a 64bit OS or have knowledge of using one. Thanks in advance.

A 64-bit OS will allow 64-bit programs to access gobs and gobs of RAM. That's about it.

The term "64-bit" describes the amount of space used to store a number. With more space, you can store a bigger number. Every piece of data in memory has an address. As you get more memory, it takes a bigger number to store the address of each location in memory. That's why a 64-bit operating system can use so much memory - each address (which is a number) is stored in a big 64-bit space.

Now a 64-bit space doesn't have to be used to store a giant number. It could, instead, be used to store a very precise representation of a decimal number. For instance "2.141" is more precise than "2.14". This is what Sonar's 64-bit mix engine is doing. When it does math, it has lots of space to store very precise numbers. Because it can be so precise, it minimizes error that happens when you do math in a space with a fixed length. Remember those fractions that repeat forever, like 3.33333333... ? A 64-bit space can store a much more precise representation of that number than a 32-bit space. In theory, a 64-bit mix engine sounds better than a 32-bit mix engine because it reduces the severity of "rounding errors." When you zoom in on a digital photo, you eventually get to the individual pixels. But a higher resolution photo (more megapixels) lets you zoom in further because there are more pixels there. That's the same principle with the 64-bit mix engine.

Now, hopefully it makes sense why Sonar can run its 64-bit mix engine on a 32-bit operating system. It can do this because it's not trying to access memory (through the operating system) with really big addresses.

But it can also provide performance improvements as well, assuming the software is written to take advantage of it, since it can work on data 64 bits at a time using native CPU operations, instead of having to fake them in software in multiple separate 32 bit operations. Even if it's just actually working on 32 bits at a time, highly tuned core processing algorithms can still be faster by moving data into and out of registers in 64 bit chunks. And if it's working on 64 bit chunks the improvements can be non-trivial.

But, yeh, the abiltiy to put 16GB into a machine and use it all is a big, big advantage. To be able to load a full BFD drumset into memory and run it from there would be really nice and would get rid of the need for BFD to beat the heck out of a hard drive in order to try to stay ahead of the curve and load sample data in time for it to be needed.

The downside is that a lot of plugins don't come in 64 bit versions, so you aren't getting any advantage with those (and they are the primary reason you have a DAW to process that audio data.) So they have to be run in a 32 bit compatbility adapter.

I found these pages enlightening:
http://www.cakewalk.com/x64/
http://techreport.com/articles.x/8131/1

Some of the conclusions/observations in the techreport article have to be taken alongside the date of the article, though: March 23rd, 2005. But, it's otherwise a good article.

Read some of the linked articles from the Cakewalk page as well.

The memory capabilities alone are enough for me to quit waiting for Microsoft and Windows vendors to actually get their acts together. This conversation is about to be 3 years old. Old hat to me, at this point, so I"m one of the people who's getting fed up with it, and a bit heated.

I NEED the ability to address more memory with my audio productions (fair amount of samplers going on) and video work (video is HUGE... much larger than audio files).

And, I'll have it, sometime this month (hopefully... fingers crossed).
I'm not waiting anymore.

Take care,
- zevo

Thank everyone for the replies, and immazevo, I don't blame you, it seems with all the synth/samplers getting so powerful and demanding so much more CPU and RAM, that for some it's a necessity to go this route. I don't need that kind of RAM as I am pleased with what I have, but in your situation you can't stay with a 32bit OS if it's holding your creative mind back. I can feel your frustration, if I wasn't able to use my DAW to let out what I want the way I portray it, it would be hell knowing I have it in me, but no way to let it out. Constipation sucks Thank you droody and wishus for the posts as well, I don't need a 64bit system myself, but can clearly see why many do, and good luck immazevo, I hope it all comes together for you soon.