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64-bit DAWs and Samplers Updated: February 18 2008 Keywords: 64-bit DAW, sampler, 64-bit, 64bit
This article documents my personal experience and research while working with using 64-bit Operating Systems (in this case, Windows XP x64) in digital audio workstations. Feedback is greatly appreciated – let me know your experiences too! People have approached the relatively new and experimental frontier of 64-bit in two general categories:
Results may be different on XP x64 versus Vista 64. This article reflects experiences with XP x64. Many manufacturers are not “supporting” XP x64, and are developing their 64-bit support in favor of Vista 64-bit. In the long run, this may be good, but currently many people who are turning to 64-bit for audio purposes highly favor XP x64 because of its simplicity and stability. Vista has much more overhead in the operating system which ultimately uses more memory, CPU cycles, and disk access time. It is also more difficult to tweak Vista for audio.
It can be tough to find working drivers. I say this because some manufacturers claim to have drivers or beta drivers, but they don’t function properly. From personal experience, 64-bit drivers for audio interfaces will either work, or won’t work at all. If you’re considering getting into 64-bit, it’s a good idea to search Google and find out across review sites and forums what people’s experiences are with your particular audio hardware. As I mentioned above, a manufacturer may claim to have 64-bit drivers but the cold reality is that they may not be working properly yet. There is limited availability of software that has been coded to take advantage of what a 64-bit environment has to offer. Cakewalk Sonar has had native 64-bit support for some time now, which will let users see a remarkable increase in the number of plugins they can load. The honeymoon stops a little short at this point, however, because third party plug-ins and virtual instruments are mostly 32-bit currently. Sonar will allow 32-bit plugins to be used transparently as you would normally load them, but with some drawbacks. Their BitBridge technology loads all 32-bit components into a single process, which still retains the 32-bit memory limitation. In addition, this feature adds one additional buffer of latency which can be rather significant for those wanting to employ Sonar for real-time sampling purposes. More developers are jumping onto the 64-bit bandwagon because they are realizing there is a market for it, and that there are very significant advantages to the end-user to enable
There are a number of options for using 64-bit machines as dedicated samplers (aka, “Giga” boxes) Gigastudio 4 (Expected Q2 of 2008) may simplify the concept of 64-bit sampling, and not only for GIGA sample users. It’s allure is that it will be able to access all of your system RAM, as well as load VSTi instruments, making it an all-in-one solution. It is yet unclear whether Gigastudio 4 on 64-bit will have the same architecture as Sonar in regards to how it deals with 32-bit VSTi components. If 32-bit instruments are loaded all into a single process, you will still be stuck with the 2GB memory limitation for all the 32-bit instruments combined. (See below on enabling 4GB addressing for 32-bit apps) If each instrument is orphaned to its own process, then each would be capped at 2GB and thus offer far more freedom memory-wise. Sonar 7 may be an expensive route for the task, but many people are using it as a VST host on outboard sampler PCs. Cakewalk ships 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Sonar on the same DVD, and you are free to use either version, with subtle differences:
In an ironic twist, most people on 64-bit hardware are using the 32-bit version of Sonar because a lot of instruments are still 32-bit, and because Sonar 64 increases the latency. As more VSTi’s become 64-bit, then it would be more advantageous to use Sonar 64 to take advantage of more RAM. Sonar 32 will not load 64-bit VSTi’s. Steinberg V-Stack & FX-Max FX-Teleport operate at the same efficiency as they do on 32-bit, but still being 32-bit applications, their total memory is still capped at 2GB regardless of how much system RAM you have installed. As such, they also cannot load 64-bit VSTi’s. Their addressable memory can be easily expanded to 4GB. See below. MIDIoverLAN CP 3 works well on 64-bit for transporting MIDI over a network. Newly engineered samplers, such as East West’s PLAY sampler (http://namm.harmony-central.com/WNAMM07/Content/EastWest/PR/PLAY.html) that is bundled with their new sample libraries, boasts the ability to take advantage of 64-bit fully.
There’s a number of techniques to get the most out of large amounts of RAM. Until better solutions arrive, users wanting to take advantage of more than 4GB of RAM need to arrive at some compromises. No current single solution can occupy more than 4GB of RAM with 32-bit VSTi’s. As detailed above, Sonar may be 64-bit native but is still limited to the 32-bit memory cap when loading 32-bit VSTi’s.
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