I heard floating-point processing was better. Why does the RPM use fixed-point?
We all know how important the right tool is to the timely and efficient completion of any project. That is why Rane’s engineers have chosen a fixed-point digital signal processor solution for the RPM series of products. Fixed-point has many advantages over floating point in audio applications, but is clearly superior because it’s not restricted to 24 bit precision. Due to limitations of the state of the art, when double precision is required for more complex calculations such as low frequency filters and dynamics processors the only choice is the fixed-point implementation. The double precision 48-bit capabilitiy of the fixed-point processors Rane uses offers higher resolution and greater accuracy than the single precision 24-bit* limitation of currently available floating point processors. *Current floating-point processors commonly used in audio products provide a total of 32 bits. Only 24 of those are used for audio processing. The remaining 8 bits are used to determine the “window”
