03-19-2017, 11:19 PM
When talking about free plugins, many people have asked me why I don't recommend (or even seem to dislike) certain "obvious" freebies like the Variety of Sound plugs etc. The reason is of course that they're 32 bit (x86) only. I know that this might seem trivial to a lot of people -- the most common counterargument I've seen is "but I'm on an 32 bit system and they work fine", the second most common is "they run fine on my x64 system using an x86 host". Right. But...
The problem is, 32 bit systems are going the way of the dodo and it's been a long time coming. Even though I personally didn't move to x64 until 2010, I got my first x64-capable processor as early as 2005 (and it wasn't even a fancy bleeding edge one) so the hardware has been there for a loooong time. The big and final transition to x64 will be happening within the next few years and the sooner you manage to phase out as much of your 32 bit stuff as possible, the less problems you will face when that change finally comes. Right now Windows and its plethora of DAW's and other software has a pretty robust way of dealing with non x64-stuff, for backwards compatibility. We can't expect that to last forever (especially not with the unpredictable dynamic model of Windows 10). Yes, there's a 32 bit version of Windows 10 as well (for now), but I think that one's aimed more at ARM processors and platforms where you wouldn't normally want to run a full-fledged DAW anyway.
So basically... x86 offers NOTHING over x64 and there is NO reason not to start thinking about finding x64 alternatives to whatever x86 plugins you're still using regularly. Sounds a bit alarmist, but just saying. Unless you plan on staying with your Core 2 Duo/2GB/Win XP machine indefinitely... start planning ahead or be prepared for a major shock the day that you find yourself having to move to a new machine.
Just a heads up.
The problem is, 32 bit systems are going the way of the dodo and it's been a long time coming. Even though I personally didn't move to x64 until 2010, I got my first x64-capable processor as early as 2005 (and it wasn't even a fancy bleeding edge one) so the hardware has been there for a loooong time. The big and final transition to x64 will be happening within the next few years and the sooner you manage to phase out as much of your 32 bit stuff as possible, the less problems you will face when that change finally comes. Right now Windows and its plethora of DAW's and other software has a pretty robust way of dealing with non x64-stuff, for backwards compatibility. We can't expect that to last forever (especially not with the unpredictable dynamic model of Windows 10). Yes, there's a 32 bit version of Windows 10 as well (for now), but I think that one's aimed more at ARM processors and platforms where you wouldn't normally want to run a full-fledged DAW anyway.
So basically... x86 offers NOTHING over x64 and there is NO reason not to start thinking about finding x64 alternatives to whatever x86 plugins you're still using regularly. Sounds a bit alarmist, but just saying. Unless you plan on staying with your Core 2 Duo/2GB/Win XP machine indefinitely... start planning ahead or be prepared for a major shock the day that you find yourself having to move to a new machine.
Just a heads up.