Before you all get too excited....
I think you need to read a little bit deeper into this.
http://www.digido.com has some stuff about "supposed" 32 bit processing. Smoke and mirrors!
Basically, it comes down to this. 32 bit FLOATING POINT processing (pretty much the way Windows applications work...
) equals 24 bit FIXED processing.
Manufactures like to throw around big numbers, and the 32 bit thing is the latest marketing scam they are using.
Many, many, many plug in's, editors, mixers, etc...for PC use 32 bit Floating Point processing, and some of the ones that only claim 24 bit are 24 bit Fixed.
When we start talking about these 32 bit files that can be recorded, this don't make sense. The resolution is still only going to be at the very best whatever the highest resolution of your A/D/A converters are. If you are using a 24 bit soundcard (which most only have at best 21 or 22 actual bits of resolution, IF that....) you can save that file to some weird scheme made up by the manufacture, but the reality is that at best, it will be 24 bits in real life.
I have seen no 32 bit Fixed processing in computer app's or plugs yet. I HAVE seen double sampling rate processing, which is supposed to be like doubling the Fixed bits, but who can be sure.
About the only way you can get higher internal bit processing is to have a DSP chip integreted in the computer that provides this kind of power. Sonic Solutions has this, and I believe the newer ProTools has this, and I would have to check the info I have, but I believe Sadie provides this too. All of these systems are not only software, but a hardware box that provides powerfull real time DSP that a computer cannot provide because of the current restriction of 32 bit floating point internal processing. The other way to get more Fixed DSP is to have digital processors, external types, like Weiss digital eq's and compressors, or even the hardware version of
the Waves L1 Ultramaximizer that have chip sets in them that provide for this. I think I seen where the L1 is 48 bit fixed! It would just plain offer better processing with this kind of power compared to it's PC plugin counterpart that is restricted to the equivelent of 24 bit fixed processing. There are digital processors that reputed to have as high as 72 bit fixed processing, and their price shows for it!
Anyway. I suppose that this is "improvement" for Cubase, but it is not exactly what they lead you to believe it is. Did you know that you can save a 32 bit file in Goldwave? (www.goldwave.com). This editor has been around for a while....
Cool Edit Pro has a 32 bit mode thingy that appears to be the model Cubase is copying, or at least trying something similar.
Anyway, with any software/hardware that is digital, it is important to know what it's Fixed processing power is. A lot of stuff out their right now IS 24 bit Fixed, and the stuff that is 32 Floating Point isn't a bit better (no excuse for the "bit" of pun here....
)
Sorry to rain on the picnic. Just wanted to clear up some finer points. Really though, you will have a very difficult time finding facts about REAL processing power of most software. With hardware, usually you can find that little "floating point" thing, but the reality is that it's actual DSP is no better then the bit depth of the A/D/A converters. This is much like when Panasonic came out with their first digital mixer, they claimed that it was 24 bit! In reality, it only provided 24 bit internal processing, and it would still only accept a 16 bit word. So it was a 16 bit capatible mixer, not a 24 bit. Imagine the surprise of some of the owners of that console when they tried to feed a 24 bit bit stream to that console and found that it didn't work!
Ed