On Fri, 2005-10-14 at 21:00 +0200, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Then I also fail to see why it's bad for overflows to ocurr in fixed point. > Those signals (above 0dB FS) would clip on the hardware anyway, and are > expected to do so, since they were either badly recorded or amplified. >
In a hardware scenario you would typically have a chain of; gain (16bit), channel-fader, group-fader, master-fader (16bit) Once sorted out, you will multiply all the virtual faders before applying the result to the signal. So far all is well. There is only a single fixed mutiply of the signal. In the hardware scenario we also have an "insert" jack for external fx. The fx-chain will have its own gain and out levels for each element in the chain, and this is where the problem arises. There is no way for us to know the internals of the arbitrary plug-ins. Floats to the rescue: By converting the signal from int to float, we will gain a seemingly *almost infinite dynamic range*. Is this important then? Yes, because the intermediate results in the chain can very easily be out of bounds, while the final result is well-behaved and within bounds. Practical examples? Oh yes, electric guitarists will chain just about as much as they can afford (only joking ...) But yes, I do quite a few "room in a room" simulations where one reverb is feeding the next reverb. It is surprising how the buildup of the first can resonate and distort the second. mvh // Jens M Andreasen > Greetings, Dimitri > --