Shamless plug here but when I come across these type of threads, I find the people that might be interested in what I do. I am writing a book all about plug-ins and the DAW technology called "Plug-in Power: the Complete DSP Reference Guide" coming out this fall/winter.
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http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1592009530/qid =1125588731/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-6411458-44262 18?v=glance&s=books&n=507846>
I happened upon this thread doing research on pan law among other things and will have much information on this and other topics that come to the surface of the boards all the time. Hopefully my efforts will consolidate much of this information and will be helpful to one and all wishing to improve their DAW audio results.
To add to the topic at hand, an earlier post described the PT bit depth chain and was accurate for the TDM systems. The plugins are connected by 24-bit busses and the mix buss is a custom scaled 48-bit systems that is reduced to 24 bit for output to the master plugins and analog converters. This is as per Bobby Lombardi, who handles plug-in design for Digi. I am double-checking all my info for the book as I go along...
PT LE is a native app and runs internally at 32-floating point until final output which MUST be reduced to 24 bit fixed point in order to be converted to analog! This is something that gets confused often. 32-bit floating point files cannot be directly played back via analog converters. Something must quantize the file to 24-bit fixed point in order to work.
Both fixed point and floating point math involves some errors during typical mixing. These errors crop up at different times and with different effects. I'm sure those differences will be debated as long as possible out here on the boards. Both systems are capable of tremendous work and if understood, can be maximized for each systems potential while avoiding any weaknesses.
The question I would like to add is unless you are using dynamic or moving pans in your mix, do you think that the pan law will truly effect the outcome? I believe it won't. If a sound is panned in one spot, you will adjust your level accordingly regardless of the pan law setting.
Now, importing and exporting between DAW's that have differing pan laws will surely change the sound, but if the pan law does not change, how does that affect the mix for non-moving sound sources?
-ashley shepherd