maybe the easiest (and maybe the dumbest) question on this forum: conversion to Win 10

[sizemore0409]

Hi, All; I've been holding off converting to Windows 10 until I hear definitively from some of my fellow music producers the answer to this question. All my music-production machines run Win XP and Win 7. I have been producing music for many years; so I have plugins that I love, some of them quite old 32-bit. All of them work on Win XP; most of them work on Win 7. What would I expect if (when) I do the inevitable conversion to Win 10? Would I suddenly (and forever) lose the ability to use many of my favorite older plugins?

thanks!

[Functional]

Nah, you'll be still able to use 32-bit plugins as you normally would. I mean, some of them might have compability issues with Windows 10 per se, but it's not solely because of the bit architecture. In fact, if your Win XP or Win 7.1 is 64bit, in that regard it'll be exactly like Windows 10. Or you could just use Windows 10 32-bit, though it's beyond me why anyone would these days.

With that being said, your final obstacle will eventually just be the fact that DAW's are dropping their support for 32bit-plugins. Meaning that, if you updated with your DAW, you'll eventually need something like jBridge to use those 32bit plugins. For example Cubase dropped some updates ago 32-bit support.

In the long run, I'd say you want to ditch your 32bit plugins altogether. If you can replace any of them with another plugin, you probably should just do that. A lot of the old 32bit only plugins that I can imagine are terrible by todays standards. As in, they don't really sound that good and they don't really pack that much feature-wise. Something like Vanguard by reFX for example: while back in the days it seemed amazing, now it's just a barebones subtractive synth.

[yellowmix]

I'm on Windows 10 and I'm down to one 32-bit plugin that has no reasonable replacement or 64-bit version. I transitioned to 64-bit through Windows 8. And I didn't need a 3rd party bridge since Reaper does that automatically. I replaced most of them with 64-bit versions, and over time with newer plugins that are simply better. Will you miss familiar stuff? Will sentimentality get in the way? Maybe. But you'll get over it. The new stuff is just too good.

Windows 7 was 10 years ago, and XP nearly 20. Think about that. The advances in DSP in the past two decades is tremendous. The additional instruction sets in the past 20 years of CPUs that plugins now take advantage of make a huge difference, especially in heavier plugins like reverbs and spectral processing. The standardization of graphics is also a huge factor, which enables nicer and less resource-heavy user interfaces. Plugin development has matured and coding is more optimized in general. The development community building on two decades of previous work means you'll get the same functionality as older plugins, but with more options and better workflows.

[GaryG]

In the long run, I'd say you want to ditch your 32bit plugins altogether. If you can replace any of them with another plugin, you probably should just do that. A lot of the old 32bit only plugins that I can imagine are terrible by todays standards. As in, they don't really sound that good and they don't really pack that much feature-wise.

I'd generally agree with this. I use Reaper which bridges 32bit plugs very well on the whole so wasn't too concerned when I went 64bit. However, I soon found that there weren't actually too many old plugs I couldn't easily replace. I think NastyDLA is about the only 32bit'er I still haven't found a replacement for yet.

Of course you can always run a 32bit version of your DAW (if available) though then you can't run plugs that only have 64bit versions.

[Googly Smythe]

...
I think NastyDLA is about the only 32bit'er I still haven't found a replacement for yet.
...

I wish Herbert/TDR would get behind a paid 64bit version of this (similar to what happened with Limiter6).

[Functional]

I'd generally agree with this. I use Reaper which bridges 32bit plugs very well on the whole so wasn't too concerned when I went 64bit. However, I soon found that there weren't actually too many old plugs I couldn't easily replace. I think NastyDLA is about the only 32bit'er I still haven't found a replacement for yet.

I mean there's the aspect that you would have to buy the replacement plugins if they aren't free + it kinda does suck if you can't keep your old projects up. But even if so, it's an inevitable reality no matter what; the more projects you create meanwhile using old 32bit plugs, the more projects you will add up to the list of "projects that can't be recovered exactly as they were", so you're still just making matters worse by holding on to the 32bit ones

[SoundPorn]

No this doesn't suck at all, if you have a ton of old projects that are unfinished with 10 year old plugins then this will be the best thing that ever happened to you it will give you that kick in the xss to actually finish them. Or just render the dxm tracks, export the stems and be done with the plugins.

I'd generally agree with this. I use Reaper which bridges 32bit plugs very well on the whole so wasn't too concerned when I went 64bit. However, I soon found that there weren't actually too many old plugs I couldn't easily replace. I think NastyDLA is about the only 32bit'er I still haven't found a replacement for yet.

I mean there's the aspect that you would have to buy the replacement plugins if they aren't free + it kinda does suck if you can't keep your old projects up. But even if so, it's an inevitable reality no matter what; the more projects you create meanwhile using old 32bit plugs, the more projects you will add up to the list of "projects that can't be recovered exactly as they were", so you're still just making matters worse by holding on to the 32bit ones

[Functional]

No this doesn't suck at all, if you have a ton of old projects that are unfinished with 10 year old plugins then this will be the best thing that ever happened to you it will give you that kick in the xss to actually finish them. Or just render the dxm tracks, export the stems and be done with the plugins.

What about projects that are finished but you want to keep them intact. Because that is what I was thinking.