Thanks to all of you for your inputs!
I'm happy that my ears are probably OK, because, as I said, I wasn't able to hear any difference between mixes done on different DAWs.
Just to verify I get it right, 48bit = double precision, which means a greater dynamic range?



On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 2:25 PM, Dale Powell <dj_kaza@hotmail.com> wrote:
Agree on the whole that summing is summing is summing. Most DAWs these days will use floating point (either 32bit or double precision) and A+B=C no matter what.

There may be dithering at the end but you are talking a single bit possible difference between renders at points, which I don't believe anybody is going to hear. I personally find claims that one dither algorythm sounds better than another, especially at 24bits, can be nothing but salesman talk.

Now how the DAW loads and converts your samples (eg mixing 44.1kHz and 48kHz samples within the same project, or using a different project same rate to all your samples) or if you are using an internal sampler to play at different frequencies, does make a difference.  For example compare Cubic vs Sinc (SinX/X) Interpolation and you very well might start to hear differences (there are more methods but these are a couple of the most common.) You may also find that one software uses Cubic on play and Sinc on rendering (as cubic is less processor intensive) and thus there are subtle difference between them whereas another may use Sinc at all times. While a lot of people disregard this as it's not part of the summing itself I argue it is part of the audio engine.

But every time I have ever come across the X sounds great, Y sounds pants claims by people and then requests for examples to illustrate this they have either never materialised or the protagonist has ended up backing down from their claim. Especially on the rendered waveforms, due to the fact I mentioned above of some DAWs only using the better quality interpolation at that point.

As mentioned the characteristics of the internal effects and DSPs used are going to have a lot more affect on your sound than any of this ever will!

On the whole any differences that do exist are so small I really wouldn't worry about them.

Dale.



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