|
HD and LE operate a little differently. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong about any of the following statements. Especially where I say (I think).
HD is 48-bit fixed internal and LE is 32-bit float. Nuendo is also 32-bit float, as I think all native daws except for the new Sonar are. HD ( I think) applies some kind of dithering scheme on it's main busses while LE does not. HD's insert busses are 24-bits (I think) while LE operates 32-bit float throughout. This being the actual bus not "inside the plug" but the buss before and after a slot.
I'm sure HD and LE's internal plugin architechture(s) (inside the actual plugin) aren't the same word length. Well, not sure but "I think".
Regardless, inputting the exact same audio track into 48-bit fixed HD and a 32-bit float LE cannot (after twisting an identical knob in an identical way) produce mathematically identical results. They still MAY be close enough to audibly null though, leaving remnants so far down you'd never hear it on an null test. Note I said "may" because you'd have to actually do it to see. As far as sounding "better or worse", that's subjective I suppose.
Differences (if any) in the sound of summing can be realistically evaluated since LE allows digital output. You could exit HD and LE digitally and use the same DA converter set to see if there is an audible difference in summing. You'd have to use an LE system that accepts external clocking to clock each daw to the same master clock to eliminate that variable.
I think any difference you might hear loading the same session into both HD and LE (assuming the I/O and clocking were identical) would _partly_ be due to the differences in the internal math. What percentage? I don't know.
It would be interesting to see if a "faders and pans only" PT mix summed in LE and HD would cancel each other out.
Lawrence
|