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Mike Derrick · 10th June 2008

I took 24 tracks of audio files from a ProT session and imported in a Nuendo session. Tried a mono sum for boths DAWs and a stereo sum. The result was that I couldn't hear a difference between the resulting stereo mixes or the mono mixes. Line them up ProT vs Nuendo side by side, invert the phase on one,....they cancel out to infinity. THEY ARE IDENTICAL.

The question is WHY should they sound different if you are of the belief that they DO sound different. If that were true,...somehow your printed audio file going into and through your DAW is not the same at the end of the signal path in the DAW,...which means your DAW is altering the sound of all your audio files. But this is clearly not true. If it were you would not be able to run an audio file through your DAW with everything at unity and have it come out identical to the source audio file. Try it with any old CD audio file.

There are some reasons why a DAW may happen to sound different, one is panning laws. If you panning laws in each platform differ from each other, then it is likely that a stereo mix will sound different. BUT all things being equal,...all DAWs will sum to infinity.

Also if you're listening to different DAW platforms on different converters, there is a chance for you to hear the same audio file ever so slightly differently.

Also it's darn easy to fool ourselves into thinking there are differences when we are hearing the exact same audio.

If you read through the 3D audio site's awesome daw-sum forum about the awesome daw-sum test, you'll realize that the conclusion of the matter was that the DAWs are all identical. I can't remember in which thread that gets realized and concluded, but it's there somewhere. I read through that whole forum at one point.

But you can do a test for yourself if you happen to have access to more than one DAW. Those of you who "think" there are differences should really conduct a test or two,..if you already haven't.

So no, it's not like different types of tapes or anything like that. It's math, and if it's wrong, so would your audio be wrong, and you'd hear it, without a doubt.

They all sound the same.

stike

10th June 2008	#30
Mike Derrick Gear addict Joined: Apr 2006 Location: near Vancouver, BC, Canada Posts: 485	I took 24 tracks of audio files from a ProT session and imported in a Nuendo session. Tried a mono sum for boths DAWs and a stereo sum. The result was that I couldn't hear a difference between the resulting stereo mixes or the mono mixes. Line them up ProT vs Nuendo side by side, invert the phase on one,....they cancel out to infinity. THEY ARE IDENTICAL. The question is WHY should they sound different if you are of the belief that they DO sound different. If that were true,...somehow your printed audio file going into and through your DAW is not the same at the end of the signal path in the DAW,...which means your DAW is altering the sound of all your audio files. But this is clearly not true. If it were you would not be able to run an audio file through your DAW with everything at unity and have it come out identical to the source audio file. Try it with any old CD audio file. There are some reasons why a DAW may happen to sound different, one is panning laws. If you panning laws in each platform differ from each other, then it is likely that a stereo mix will sound different. BUT all things being equal,...all DAWs will sum to infinity. Also if you're listening to different DAW platforms on different converters, there is a chance for you to hear the same audio file ever so slightly differently. Also it's darn easy to fool ourselves into thinking there are differences when we are hearing the exact same audio. If you read through the 3D audio site's awesome daw-sum forum about the awesome daw-sum test, you'll realize that the conclusion of the matter was that the DAWs are all identical. I can't remember in which thread that gets realized and concluded, but it's there somewhere. I read through that whole forum at one point. But you can do a test for yourself if you happen to have access to more than one DAW. Those of you who "think" there are differences should really conduct a test or two,..if you already haven't. So no, it's not like different types of tapes or anything like that. It's math, and if it's wrong, so would your audio be wrong, and you'd hear it, without a doubt. They all sound the same. stike __________________ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~