Audible difference between DAWs?

Discussion in 'Mixing and Mastering' started by Ted Smithton, Nov 21, 2017.

  1. taskforce

    taskforce Audiosexual

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    Is it hard to comprehend that different DAWs calculate slightly differently near silence and max peak values? The more channels you submit to render, the more prone to this "behavior" is any DAW.
    Do this simple test. Grab 20 tracks @ 0 db peak and import them all in your DAW. Then see how much you have to lower the master volume until you reach the "no red,0 db" zone. No need to export anything.
    Then open these same 20 tracks in another DAW and compare how much you have to lower the volume to reach 0db on your master with no apparent clipping. You may find that you have a 0.1 to 0.3 db difference on the master fader, from to DAW to DAW. And this is what the summing algorithm is. Internal resolution of the various algos that process the multitrack audio to stereo plays a significant part in this difference. And while this difference maybe passable it is not the same.
    Cheers
     
    Last edited: Nov 22, 2017
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  2. Lambchop

    Lambchop Banned

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    So you're saying Live's Old School Roads is not the same as FL Keys? Who knew :\
     
  3. notapro

    notapro Noisemaker

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    well the only thing a summing algorithm does is add stuff together. theres no room for differences there.
     
  4. Lambchop

    Lambchop Banned

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    Just curious, are you familiar with how 32-bit float math works inside a DAW? There's no such thing as a track clipping inside a DAW, not until you export it (as int).
    edit:
     
    Last edited: Nov 22, 2017
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  5. notapro

    notapro Noisemaker

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    atleast one sane person on this forum
     
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  6. erwinor

    erwinor Member

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    Tell us please how you ,sane persons, do null tests?
     
  7. notapro

    notapro Noisemaker

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    by summing the same files in multiple daws, then importing them into another daw, then nulling them.
     
  8. Lambchop

    Lambchop Banned

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    Page 3 of this thread; watch vid clips (~30 secs each)
     
  9. erwinor

    erwinor Member

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    I knew it.......this is how you should do it.Of course it doesn't matter which DAWs you are using.
     

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  10. Lambchop

    Lambchop Banned

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    ...
     
  11. erwinor

    erwinor Member

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    [QUOTE="
    Lambchop said:
    inb4: "but if you do 40 different calculations in a row, on 40 different calculators": same deal.
    [/QUOTE]
     

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  12. Lambchop

    Lambchop Banned

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    ^
    My work here is done.
    [​IMG]
     
  13. taskforce

    taskforce Audiosexual

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    @Lambchop You really want to take this to junior level ? Alright i'll play... There is a light indicator next to your master fader that lights red when your volume exceeds 0 db. What exactly do you think this is stuck there for? Cosmetic purposes?
    You can claim there is no audible difference with digital clipping in modern daws, whole websites do the same based on a theoretical perfect math. Which in practice is nearly never perfect. I gave you the simplest real world example i could. Try for yourself dude. I'm done talking, no offense of course, none taken none intended :). Cheers
     
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  14. SOKRVT

    SOKRVT Kapellmeister

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    So, should i switch to Cubase 9.5 ? Will it make my 808's much thumpier?
     
  15. erwinor

    erwinor Member

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    At last......thank you.... go and play with your koala or Teddy bear.
     
  16. erwinor

    erwinor Member

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    no it will not....thats not the point.
     
  17. SOKRVT

    SOKRVT Kapellmeister

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    Was being sarcastic..
    Whoever claims they can hear differences between DAWs is delusional (Same people probably belive the Earth is flat and aliens live among us and we're in the Matrix)
     
  18. erwinor

    erwinor Member

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    Well.....I am not a flat Earther.....aliens do exist but I don't know if they live among us.... there is something I ve heard about Matrix ,don't care but............Daws do sound different and I can hear it no matter what null tests are showing.
    Am I delusional??...for some people yes ..I don't care either.
     
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  19. SOKRVT

    SOKRVT Kapellmeister

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    Can't argue with that logic
     
  20. Lambchop

    Lambchop Banned

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    Whelp, I spoke too soon. My work here is not done. Clearly.
    Looks like we'll have to.

    Curious fact #1:

    Math, used inside your DAW, is 32-bit float. Here's what our grownup friends at Wikipedia have to say about 32-bit float math:
    [​IMG]
    That's an awfully big number! Even compared to another big number, 16-bit int (2^16, or 65,536).
    Bonus question: How many orders of magnitude?

    Curious fact#2
    If the meters in your DAW were calibrated to show 3.4 * 10^38 as 0dB, two bad things would happen:
    1. The meters would NEVER go into the red (clipping), because, unlike God, who can do just about anything, our DAWs can't make a bigger number than they, themselves, could make. Due to the [grownup] principle called non-contradiction.
    So we might as well not have any red pixels.
    2. The meters might as well not be there -- they'd appear to be at -~infdB all the time.

    That would not be nice.

    So the grownups who make DAWs decided to make our meters useful -- to show us relative levels.
    If I record myself on insert #1, and my handler, Miz Lewis on #2, and both meters are bopping around the same value? Well, that means we're about as loud as each other. Feel free to push these meters hard into the red, as I did in the video clip -- when 32-bit float is transcoded to 24 (or 16, as in the vid) INTEGER data, there's no clipping. As you can see in the screencap vid.

    Magic!

    Caveat: When you export your project as an 16 or 24-bit int, make sure the meter on the track being rendered doesn't go into the red. Unlike floating point, int files do clip.
    And that's what I did. Not only that, I even wrote about it & made screencaps. And posted them here.
    Nice?
     
    Last edited: Nov 22, 2017
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