There is always a good reason. I don't like to be beta testing crap after it is released so I just wait it out until it is widely known as being stable. By then the price will have dropped as well.

Sonar 5 comes in two versions (on the same disc) 32-bit & 64-bit. The 64-bit version will only work if your OS is also 64-bit, however both versions have 64-bit internal processing so it might be worth going for it just for this.

I would not jump on anything that's not stable yet (unless you have no idea what to do with your money) :) . Wait a year or so. The bugs will be fixed, support will be greater and the systems will be stable... just my 2 cents

chris

More important is;

1. Do you have 64-BIT ASIO drivers for your soundcard.

2. Do you use UAD-1 or TC Powercore cards. which don't have 64-BIT drivers yet.

Do buy a 64-Bit machine to be 64-Bit ready, but buy it with 32-Bit Windows for now.

My best,

Guy Cefalu
Sonica Audio Labs

Thanks for the advice. That's kinda what I had in mind; why spend money on a 32 bit machine when I may want to upgrade to 64 bit later.

why spend money on a 32 bit machine when I may want to upgrade to 64 bit later.

Because in most cases you should only buy what you really need to use today and worry about what you need tommorow when tommorow comes around. Even if you buy hoping, praying and expecting to upgrade and use 64-bit in the near future, it will still have changed and you will still need to update something or even many things. I predict a painful transistion that further complicates and frustrates way more than it will benifit most users.

One bonus to 64 bit systems is being able to use up to 8Gigs of RAM. For a person who uses a lot of samplers or memory dependant plugins, that's a big deal.

in most cases you should only buy what you really need to use today and worry about what you need tommorow when tommorow comes around. Even if you buy hoping, praying and expecting to upgrade and use 64-bit in the near future, it will still have changed and you will still need to update something or even many things. I predict a painful transistion that further complicates and frustrates way more than it will benifit most users.

I have to agree here too. A few years ago I purchased this interface, http://www.lexiconpro.com/studio/index.asp the LDI-12T & ended up being stuck with this useless piece of hardware because at the time I purchased it, Microsoft had just released w2k (which I was'nt aware of any major O.S. changes) and that was the contributing factor in it being sold for so little. Apparently this was the industries turning point to Microsofts major NT upgrade. Did this affect me? Of course. Now I take my time & wait before I make that type of move again. I either check the reviews, see if someone owns one or do a little more in-dept research.

BTW, XP Pro x64 supports up to 128GB of ram and it's compatible w/ 32 bit apps. Actually, x64 looks identical to the 32 bit version of XP Pro.