Hello everyone,
I’m doing a batch export.
The project has over 50 channel tracks.
Is there a difference in quality if I export in realtime or not? In studio set up the option 32 or 64 bit is on 64.
Also I’m running c12 on pc win 10 with a decent processor 5900x.
Any advice would be great!
Olivier
There should not be any difference between regular and real-time exports. So normally you’ll stick to regular and not real-time. Unless you have outboard gear or any other specific reason to do real-time.
However, you can always export a small section each way and then do a null test and of course a listen test. Just to satisfy your curiosity.
Hi Phil,
I don’t use outboard gear. Can you please explain how realtime would be useful in a scenario where I’d be using outboard gear ?
Just for the purpose of learning something new. Lol.
Also when running a few plug ins I always had the impression that realtime can be better.
Well with outboard gear you obviously can’t physically do a normal Offline render. You need to actually play the signal through the outboard equipment. So the only option in that scenario is real-time.
Offline works in such a way that the render is done using the power of your machine for example. So if you have a decent processor etc. You should find offline faster and more reliable. The machine can take its time when it gets to a particularly complex part of the render and then go full on in simpler parts. (I’m explaining this in as simple fashion as I can without being too technical).
But as mentioned, If you feel you have better results using one method or the other. Try a blind listen test. And a null test. (You can look up how to do the null test.)
Tldr. Unless you have outboard gear, use Offline Export.
I don’t think a blind listen test needs any explanation but just in case:
I 've done a null test a couple of years ago and they did cancel each other, so no real life quality difference.
Not always the case in reality. But nevertheless I think the question has been answered.
Cheers.
Yep, question has been answered (well). Just one tangential thought: There are plugins that are non-deterministic, i.e. they use random number generators in their processing (which, technically, would be deterministic if they’re PRNGs re-salted with the same init value for every run, but that’s splitting technical hairs).
But in practice you’ll get (slightly) different renders every time you run an export (real-time or not) with those sorts of plugins, so it’s something to look out for.
What do you mean?
This is part of understanding how a null test works for sure.
Point being that, even taking into account randomness of some plugins and instruments, there have been reports of failed null tests when comparing real-time and offline exports.
Many of this will never be seen, because it would require you to null test every single mix, not just once in a blue moon. But there have been cases.