Amycolatopsis sp. ATCC 39116 catabolizes ferulic acid by the non-oxidative deacetylation and beta-oxidation pathways to produce vanillin and vanillic acid, respectively. In submerged culture, vanillin productivity decreased more than 8-fold, when ferulic, p-coumaric, and caffeic acids were employed in pre-cultures of the microorganism in order to activate the ferulic acid catabolic pathways, resulting in a carbon redistribution since vanillic acid and guaiacol productivities increased more than 5-fold compared with control. In contrast, in surface culture, the effects of ferulic and sinapic acids in pre-cultures were totally opposite to those of the submerged culture, directing the carbon distribution into vanillin formation. In surface culture, more than 30% of ferulic acid can be used as carbon source for other metabolic processes, such as ATP regeneration. In this way, the intracellular ATP concentration remained constant during the biotransformation process by surface culture (100 mu g ATP/mg protein), demonstrating a high energetic state, which can maintain active the non-oxidative deacetylation pathway. In contrast, in submerged culture, it decreased 3.15-fold at the end of the biotransformation compared with the initial content, showing a low energetic state, while the NAD(+)/NADH ratio (23.15) increased 1.81-fold. It seems that in submerged culture, low energetic and high oxidative states are the physiological conditions that can redirect the ferulic catabolism into beta-oxidative pathway and/or vanillin oxidation to produce vanillic acid.