do software upgrades also improve sound quality?

[maskedman72]

i was talking to a sweetwater rep last night and we got talking about ptle and he was saying how the sound quality on pt le v6.9 surpasses all previous versions of ptle. is this true?

i thought the upgrades were for improved features,but not to improve sound quality(i assume improvements in sound quality would be in the hardwhare and conversion area of the interface). he was saying that it has to do with improved algorhythams or something.

can anyone expand on this?

i just cant see a software upgrade improving the sound quality,but mabyee i am an idiot.

[Third Eye Studios]

My favorite sounding PT version was 6.4 cs3, that one ruled!!!


I'm not sure either???

[bigbubbaj]

6.7 was a major engine rewrite If i heard correctly.

Rail?

[maskedman72]

6.7 was a major engine rewrite If i heard correctly.

Rail?

so it could be possable to improve the sound quality through a software update?

[j old school]

i'm no expert, but i think that software will not make a difference in the quality of the individual audio file that is captured - where software can make a difference is in summing up multiple audio tracks into a stereo mix (or 5.1 or whatever your format is), so it might make a difference in your final mixdown. This is why some folks send the individual outputs of each track to a high quality mixer for mixdown instead of mixing in ptle. like i said, i'm no expert, so someone please correct me if this is incorrect.

[maskedman72]

can anyone else elaborate?

[hotstuff]

Hi there!
Im no expert but I guess that if an update includes a new and better mixbuss and if the bounce processing is of a higher order then yes it will improve the quality of the final product.
I wouldnt be surprised that mixing down to a digital recorder doesn´t yeald better results, or even bussing the master mixdown channel to a stereo track and recording it... hey im going to try this, ill post soon about the experiment.

[Joz]

Software does make a difference in sound quality. It's more noticeble in multitrack. Mix the same session on to different systems with the same monitors/convertors etc.(ie. PT, Nuendo) no plugins, then put the faders at the same spot in both DAWS, and it does sound slightly different. The more tracks the better.

Joz

[maskedman72]

right now i am at version 6.4.

so if i upgrade to v6.9 the mixes i did in 6.4 will now sound better when i open and play them in 6.9?

[Calvin]

I would be absolutely amazed if you could do a blind listening test of a burned 6.4 mix and a 6.9 mix and actually tell which one was which on a consistant basis. If you really want to get deep into the physics behind the mix engine go take a look at www.3daudioinc.com's forum and check out the awesome dawsum thread. The did a scientific testing of all of the major audio programs and had some interesting results. I'm not going to give it away to you because I learned more than I thought I would by digging through that website.