64bit OS – worth the switch?

I’ve recently switched from my trusty old Windows XP 32 bit to the shiny Windows 7 64bit, since I wanted to take advantage of my RAM. Last time I checked, a lot of the software I was using (Yellow Tools, iZotope, Voxengo, ReaPlugs, TAL) was also compiled t work under 64 bit operating systems. So I took the jump.

From my personal view, we’re still in a stage of transition from 32 bit to 64 bit and as long as you’re not a major film music producer or involved in working with high quality images or film, you don’t even have to worry about all the hassle for now. Most software right now is still under 32bit, and I’m not talking about VSTs necessarily. You’d be amazed at how few 64bit video players there are.

Now don’t get me wrong. You don’t really need every application to work under a 64 bit OS natively. I think there’s a lot of confusion on the matter, so let me clarify. A 64 bit OS CAN run 32 bit applications. It’s just that those applications won’t be able to take advantage of all those resources that you have. I’m currently writing from Google Chrome, which I’m sure you know, doesn’t have an x64 version (neither does Opera or Firefox as yet). OpenOffice is also for x86. Again, they run just fine.

I never thought I’d be saying this, but Windows 7 is actually good. I can keep the visuals high with minimum RAM loss. It has two “Program Files” folders, which may be confusing, but it’s actually very nice and intuitive. One is for native x64 applications and one is for x86 applications, indicated by brackets. All of your 32bit applications will be automatically installed here (and you should install your 32bit VSTs here as well).

So you see, as an average consumer, you’ll do just fine. But because you’re working on a 64bit OS (64bit processor and a lot of RAM), that means you’re not just an “average” consumer. You probably work in a special field with specialized applications. I can only vouch for my field (in which I’m an amateur). There are three important things you must check before deciding you want to go this path:

1. Sound card drivers. This is simply self-explanatory. Make sure that you choose or have chosen a soundcard that was created by some very responsive people willing to support its customers with all the drivers and beta drivers possible (I usually look around to see if they’re at least trying to offer drivers for Linux/Mac). Choose wisely.

2. Main DAW. Since we all tend to have our secret weapons (and I’ll probably reveal some sooner or later) made by lesser known developers with buggy interfaces and poor documentation and only in 32bit mode, and since a 32bit host can’t handle 64bit plugins, you’re left with few choices: either a) use a 32bit host to be able to run everything nicely (although I don’t see the point of having a 64bit OS with lots of memory if your DAW can’t use it all) or b) use a 64bit host with some kind of bridging system (that is, until every developer you support releases native 64bit versions of his plugins).

I was pleasantly surprised to see that Reaper currently has an inbuilt bridging system that worked on some of the plugins that I feared I was going to miss (SynthEdit creations, mainly). From what I know, only Reaper and Sonar have this feature (somebody better correct me on this). For everyone else, there’s a nifty inexpensive tool called jBridge that works pretty well from what I’ve read, with a few exceptions of course.

Currently, there are almost 400 plugins that work natively under 64bit hosts. I’ve compiled a special search on KVR here.

I haven’t had any trouble resuming my activity after this switch. I haven’t noticed any improvement in any real sense. I’m just glad I can undertake larger projects.

That’s about it for now. Good luck!

Edit: there’s been a lot of confusion with these bits. There are some DAWs that have “64bit internal mixing engine”. Many people ask whether they need a 64bit operating system to benefit from this. The answer is no. The DAW’s  mixing engine has nothing to do with the operating system’s architecture aka you won’t get better sound simply by changing the OS. You’re better off switching the microphones or the preamps, I’ll give you that.