subsekt

So as I was checking my Facebook earlier, I noticed a post from Synthtopia about a new freeware synth. My interest was knocked when I read 'the ideal choice for modern dance, EDM, or trance styles’, but I figured I'd check out what the synth was packing feature wise anyway. First thing I noticed on the page though was that it's 32 Bit only. It's beyond me why in 2016 there are still plugins being developed that only run on 32 bit. Or maybe I'm the odd cunt here that actually enjoys using all the ram my laptop has and not being stuck to 4g only (correct me if my piss poor technology knowledge is wrong there). Fair play if people still use a 32 bit system, but I guess I just find it a bit odd to only develop 32 bit compatible plugins these days.

When I switched to a Windows based system and Ableton a few years back, I made the choice to go 64 bit and at that time the only plugin I owned which wasn't compatible was Sonic Charge Synplant (great synth). Luckily a few month later a 64 bit version was released. Is it that different to code a plugin in 64 bit?

https://jstuff.wordpress.com/jbridge/

It's a bit annoying to set up with 32 and 64 bit folders but other than that it's generally stable for me.

There's a lot of older plugins that have been "abandoned" and obviously not updated to 64 bit. I'm not a software expert but I think doing a 64 bit version requires major re-coding and a lot of plugin developers don't have the resources.

Jbridge is the answer.

...i still don't get the actual real-world benefits of 64bit and i'm afraid nobody else does which is because the majority sticks with 32...

dubdub: exactly that. For no groundbreaking benefits.

Are most people still using 32 then? Don't get me wrong, I hear no difference at all with 64 bit. I just seem to remember reading that running at 32 bit could only use up to 4g of ram. Either way, I lost nothing making the switch to 64 bit apart from a load of freeware that I never really used.

As for that Jbridge thing, I tried to use it to get Synplant to run before the 64 bit update was released. I never did get the thing to work though. I just put it down to it not liking Windows 8 o something.

Win7 here and every plugin I have tried work's fine with Jbridge but the freeware synth Firebird from Tone2 that is totally fucked up. Which is to bad cause that little gem can make some crazy sounds.

My system is 64 but i still use a ton of 32 bit via jbridge

Wiu wrote:Are most people still using 32 then? Don't get me wrong, I hear no difference at all with 64 bit. I just seem to remember reading that running at 32 bit could only use up to 4g of ram. Either way, I lost nothing making the switch to 64 bit apart from a load of freeware that I never really used.

There is absolutely no difference in audio quality between them. 64-bit allows access to more memory, that's it. I think some of the tools like synthedit may not allow you to create 64-bit plugins, hence the lack of updates from some developers- but don't quote me on that.

Anyway, I'm running 32-bit Ableton, a decision I made for 2 reasons:-

1) I had multiple 32-bit only synths and didn't want to bridge them for stability reasons.
2) I didn't ever think I'd have a plugin that needs that amount of RAM.

This was something I decided a good few years ago now and will possibly change as I have a new desktop machine I want to move my setup across to when I have time. Reason number 1 has become less of an issue, number 2 still seems unlikely, but you never know...

rktic wrote:...i still don't get the actual real-world benefits of 64bit and i'm afraid nobody else does which is because the majority sticks with 32...

Some monster orchestral libraries would benefit, that kind of thing.

I was using 64 bit for a while for the RAM reasons, but then I found I would just end up overloading my CPU or SD at the same points where my 32 bit projects would start to reach their limits...

I've never had a project go anywhere near the ~4GB RAM limit at 32-bit. You get about 1 minute for every 10mb with a 16-bit WAV, that's a lot of audio even when you double the resolution. Even adding the overhead of the application itself isn't getting you there.

You're right to notice that your CPU is far likelier to become a bottleneck.

ram gets more of an issue when dealing with 24 bit audio

Interesting stuff. Cheers for clearing some of that stuff up chaps

Switched to 64bit a while back... lost a few old out of production plugins what can you do...


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I have a 64bit system with 32bit daw and plugs. It's been that way for 7 years now. I'm not quite sure now (possibly because my PC can only take 4gb ram ) but everything works just fine. Why change it?