Question About Dither

[rockrev]

Ok, I've always read that you should only dither to 16 bit one time (best example, in the mastering stage). Now, if you're working with a PT session that's 16 bit, should you "save session in" and convert all of your session files to 24 bit? It seems that if your plug-ins are processing at 24+ bit, then you would naturally want to avoid as much "dithering down" as possible, right? Is this going too far? I've tried both ways and to be honest, I don't hear much (if any) difference.

Oh, and one other thing. For those of us with Waves Platinum (specifically the mastering plug-ins) - have you read where Waves suggests NOT using the dither if you are using 32bit floating point? That the dither on these plugs (see Linear EQ & MB) was designed for 48bit fixed and not host-based, 32bfp technology (see manuals).

Thanks,

rockrev

[Alluvion]

If I am understanding right, I think that once you record in 16 bit, it is 16 bit so there is no point in mixing up to 24 bit. etc.

but, if you record in 24 bit and using plug ins that are 24 bit and when you finally do your bounce, then do the bounce to 16 bit as I belive there is a place in options where you can have pro tools dither automatically. It's all about rounding the ends of the digits as opposed to just chopping them off. I read that the sound will be more open and less muddy if you keep it all in thie highest rate you have and dither only the final mix down. but, if you are going to get it mastered, you want to bounce it down to 24 bit. leave it as it is. then send that off to be mastered where they will use really high quality converters to make it 16 bit in the end. or you can use mastering software and do all your plugins and when done, convert to 16 bit. that is what I have read from a site on mastering and the problems they described in terms of recording in 16bit and using random 16 bit plug ins and 24 bit plug ins and dithering all of the place just makes the mix unclear and narrower.

hope that helps.

[Chris Cavell]

Your mixer in LE is 32 floating point regardless of session file bitdepth....so, resaving your session to convert the files to 24 isn't necessary, it'll just write zeroes to the least significant eight bits and eat up hard drive space. The signals through the mixer are 32 bit floating point regardless of file bitdepth. So, it is possible to get more than 16 bits at the output even though your files are all 16 bit. There is no need to convert the files to 24 bit, just bounce the 16 bit session to 24 bits.

[rockrev]

@ Chris

That sounds reasonable. Now, if bouncing to 24bit, do I need to insert a 24bit dither on the Master Fader (from what I understand, all signals are 32bit floating-point)? I think I recall reading that the Master Fader automatically dithers to 24bit, but 16bit requires insertion of a dither plug-in. Please clarify.

Thanks,

rockrev

[Chris Cavell]

I'm not positive whether or not the LE mix engine automatically dithers it's outputs like the TDM dithered mixer...

If it helps any, I generally don't apply dithering when bouncing to 24 bit files.