I have to carefully disagree here and also want to raise awareness to some possible issues.
I did some tests myself due to this thread (all null tests done within SpectraLayers), and found that there are indeed differences , although most of them are at very low volume (below -150dB), so I wouldn’t consider them a problem at all.
What caught my attention more, were some somewhat regular spikes/pops/clicks, that reminded me of another issue a few years ago in SpectraLayers 7/8: Strange clicks after editing.
So I did multiple tests with Unmix > Song, Components and Levels at different sample rates and always the same spectral view settings (FFT Size 2048 samples; FFT Window Hann; Resolution x3; Refinement 0%; Amplitude Min -210 dB to Max -18 dB).
The source file was always the same (a lossy OGG Vorbis file, about 93 seconds duration, stereo, 44100 Hz, decoded in SpectraLayers as 32 bit float), sample rate conversion was done in SpectraLayers.
Frequency is always displayed linear at full range, the waveform is zoomed to about -57dB / -60dB.
Unmix Song
Not sure if there even is a realistic use case for 32kHz, but here are the most artifacts, especially in high frequencies (maybe due to sample rate conversion?). Going to 44.1kHz there are only 2 short paired spikes, with a consistent repetition. The spikes peak around the -60dB mark.
Going to 48kHz and above the unmixed result is basically perfect (ignoring the very low residual noise).
Unmix Components
With increasing sample rate you can guess a strange pattern with increasing amount of spikes. Peaks up to around -20dB.
Unmix Levels
Level threshold for the process was set to -75dB. Pretty consistent pattern of artifacts. Doubling the sample rate doubles the spikes. Peaks around -57dB.
Yes, these peaks are overall not that loud and will most likely not be noticed in a mix. Still, I can hear them when isolated via null test pretty clearly (when there is mainly lower frequency). Probably OK from a musical standpoint, not ideal from a scientific standpoint (to get back to the original post). Maybe other settings for the spectral view will result in better processing.
So unless I’m the only one getting these artifacts, there is still room for improvements.
Windows 11 Pro 23H2 | SpectraLayers Pro 10.0.50 Standalone with active GPU acceleration | AMD Ryzen 5900X | RTX 3080