When can we stop making 32-bit plugins?

[shidostrife]

I have insufficient motivation to move on from 32 bits. No big sample libraries, nothing that I'm missing out on. I know the 64-bit version of Maschine is somewhat more CPU efficient than 32, but in practice I don't run into problems.

When I upgrade my computer I might switch to 64 bits. The list of plugins I use has shrunk a lot over the last year, and having to reinstall stuff anyway would make it a good time to do that. But until then -- and it may still be years away -- I would simply not buy anything that was released only in 64 bits.

I was wondering about this myself. I shifted to 100% 64-bit after cubase 9, but it also coincide with me buying a new laptop.

To other 32-bit user who's comfortable with your current setup, if your computer ever irrepairably break down and you need to replace and reinstall everything, will you switch to 64-bit like foosnark and I?

[cron]

I have insufficient motivation to move on from 32 bits. No big sample libraries, nothing that I'm missing out on. I know the 64-bit version of Maschine is somewhat more CPU efficient than 32, but in practice I don't run into problems.

When I upgrade my computer I might switch to 64 bits. The list of plugins I use has shrunk a lot over the last year, and having to reinstall stuff anyway would make it a good time to do that. But until then -- and it may still be years away -- I would simply not buy anything that was released only in 64 bits.

I was wondering about this myself. I shifted to 100% 64-bit after cubase 9, but it also coincide with me buying a new laptop.

To other 32-bit user who's comfortable with your current setup, if your computer ever irrepairably break down and you need to replace and reinstall everything, will you switch to 64-bit like foosnark and I?

Yep. It's only being arsed to reinstall/reauth everything that's stopping me. I thought I'd use a ton of my old 32 bit plugs when first set up this machine about 4 years back so I stuck with 32 bit. As it stands, there's only xoxos' stuff I still use in 32 bit world (ironically, the stuff where reinstalling is as easy as dragging and dropping my xoxos dlls folder).

[mcbpete]

As it stands, there's only xoxos' stuff I still use in 32 bit world (ironically, the stuff where reinstalling is as easy as dragging and dropping my xoxos dlls folder).

I would really love him to change his view on just making 32bit plugins as his stuff is awesome and would hate it to fade into obscurity as more and more people go 64bit-land

[fmr]

In terms of the 32/64 bit argument, I don't think people will feel nostalgic about the "32-bit sound" because there isn't such thing really. Old samplers and vinyl have a personality that people can actually hear and feel nostalgic about.

We are discussing 32-bit/64-bit "COMPUTATION". It has nothing to do with the sound, just with the way Operating Systems and programs work.

32-bit vs 64-bit AUDIO is something different. You usually have nowadays programs working with audio internally in 32-bit float, while working as 64-bit applications in a 64-bit Operating System.

[mcbpete]

We are discussing 32-bit/64-bit "COMPUTATION". It has nothing to do with the sound, just with the way Operating Systems and programs work.

Yeah I'm wondering how many voters/posters in this thread are unaware of this quite significant point !

[A_SN]

Yeah I'm wondering how many voters/posters in this thread are unaware of this quite significant point !

Layzer made it clear enough that he conflated the two, really makes you wonder how many people who use plugins think it has anything to do with bit depth. This is almost troubling.

[zzz00m]

There is only one 32-bit plugin I feel that I must have, which is Tone2 Firebird 2. When it hit end of life, it was released as freeware, never to be upgraded again. https://www.tone2.com/firebird2.html

But I love the sounds you can get out of this! It has a unique sonic character that I have not run across in any other synth.

Other than that, I stick with 64-bit now... good thing that my main DAW does the bridging thingy!

[Mutant]

I am amazed at how few people even know about a set of the BEST FREEWARE EFFECT PLUGINS IN THE WORLD...
Which is 32bit only.

[aciddose]

I've never seen someone carrying a rotary mobile phone.

Nor have I witnessed such a person using it to carry on a conversation at the bus stop/sidewalk out front of a Starbucks with a coffee in the other hand.

[Ingonator]

Since a while besides very few exceptions i am almost only using 64-bit hosts and plugins here at Windows 10 64-bit. My two main hosts are Live 9 and Cubase Pro 9 where Cubase no longer supports 32-bit (and no longer has a bridge) and Live 9 never had a built-in bridge.

There are a few 32-bit plugins that i still like tio use from tioe to time which includes e.g. Augur, DNR WaveDesigner and SQ8L (also as an editor for my ESQ-1 i still got here).
I got Bitwig 2 that could use both 64-bit and 32-bit and i used those pülugins there.
I had also used the free SAVIhiost or 32-bit VSTHost to use those plugins as a Standalone software.

Anyway to make a long story short i finally started testing te latest demo version of jBridge for Windows within Live 9.7.5 64-bit and at a first look the 32-bit plugins mentioned above seem to run proeprly. As jBridge is quite cheap i might finally buy it.
While i will still mostly stay with 64-bit plugins (i'll always use this where available) this would be a nice way to use old 32-bit plugins in my main hosts.

Not sure if i would buy a new plugin that is 32-bit only. At the moment my guess would be no. On the other hand I have no problem with new plugins that are 64-bit only.

[MillerSam]

I use the Sound Radix 32 Lives for my old plugins and works nicely For me it's a good decision to move to 64 bit. We have modern machines so why not using the power of it And honestly, most important plugins are available in 64 bit today

There are many great free plugins available in 64 bit
http://www.synthanatomy.com/2017/10/my- ... s-for.html

[A_SN]

There is only one 32-bit plugin I feel that I must have, which is Tone2 Firebird 2. When it hit end of life, it was released as freeware, never to be upgraded again.

See, this is what annoys me. Cool, it's free, but it would have been much better if anyone had volunteered to the dev to make a 64-bit version. It's better to have an updated version for sale than a technologically obsolete version for free, isn't it? And people should do that now and not in 20 years when devs will tell you "oh yeah I lost the source code in a hard drive crash back when we still had hard drives, too bad lol".

Speaking of which I wouldn't mind if I could find someone to help me make Mac builds, the whole signing/disk image thing is driving me nuts. "Freelance compilation expert" should be an actual thing.

[zerocrossing]

When I went to the 64 bit for Falcon, I did notice that things in general seemed to work a bit better and more smoothly. My imagination? Maybe. But here we are. I jBridged the one plugin that I needed and moved on. I’d pay for a 64 bit version of that plugin, but no one seems interested in taking my money. (Möbius, and there’s nothing really like it) I do see that the tail is kind of wagging the dog, but Live’s abandoning 32 bit and I imagine at some point most DAWs will. This is a real problem with technology. If you start to rely on something that’s a bit esoteric, you can one day find yourself S.O.O.L. I wish developers would just make their stuff open source when they decide they’re done with it, so that others may continue.

[overhishead]

software becomes obsolete in moments anyway, so developers should just make their stuff open source after the sales disappear.

[aciddose]

Would you still pay $299 for something if you saw that 90% of the source-code was a copy-paste job from 1989?

If people could get/use/repurpose the original software for anything they wanted, the authors would need to justify paying another 100% for the 10% of new code they added. Unfortunately, customers would expect to pay 10% not realizing that the original code from 1973 or whatever was probably never fairly funded, even to date.

The entire software industry relies upon you having absolutely no idea how the software was made, what it was made from or how it works. Software is a black-box to the user, and all the author needs most of the time is a little window dressing and a fancy GUI to impress the user.

If users start to strip away the GUIs and actually examine just the black-box and what results it has, suddenly there is a lot more questioning of exactly how much that is actually worth. If customers learn how the inner workings are put together and exactly how they work, they start to build their own and end up like me: I've never purchased a single plug-in.