Re: [linux-audio-dev] 64 bit float or integer

[Steve Harris]

On Sat, May 19, 2001 at 11:44:20AM -0400, Karl MacMillan wrote:
> On Sat, 19 May 2001, Remco Poelstra wrote:
> 
> > Hi,
> >
> > Just a (simple) question: Does it make any differences in audio quality,
> > whether a program is implemented with 64 bit float or 64 bit integer?
> >
> 
> Yes - floating point numbers have _greatly_ increased dynamic range.

Agreed, the short answer is that floats are better on intel, but there are
better alternatives on other architectures.

You do have to be careful when converting back to int from float, as
soundcard_buffer[i] = (int)(plugin_buffer[i] * 32768.0f) won't do what you
want, its incedibly slow too, but thats another story.

- Steve