TECHNICAL QUESTION

[Pete Weaver]

Hey gang,

This is a confusing question but I'll do my
best to explain. I am posting this question
for both the TDM users and the PTLE users.

The goal is . . . to burn a 16 bit cd of my
24 bit mix using some semblance of quality
dithering.

When I put the Waves L1 Ultramaximizer on my
master fader, and choose 16 bit dither type 1
I am lead to understand that my mix is being
dithered down to 16 bits.
However . . . suppose I am bouncing to disk?
Pro Tools applies it's own 16 bit dither when
bouncing to disk with a target of 16 bits.

So . . . am I to understand that my mix has
been dithered twice? Is the L1's dither over-
riding the Pro Tools dither?

Am I hashing my mix by unknowingly applying
16 bit dithering twice?

How would one know this? I have poured over
L1 manual and the Pro Tools manual and neither
one explains how to handle this scenario.

Does waves expect that people won't use the
L1 in a bounce to disk scenario?

Thanks in advance for the help.

[Mark Haliday]

Bounce to disc will *not* dither to 16 bits (see reference manual)
It will *truncate* to 16 bit so you must dither before. L1 is perfectly ok


[img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[s2n]

If you have a TDM system, try the bundled POW-r dithering plugin using the "noise shaping 3" curve. It's amazing...far superior to L1's dithering algorithm.

[l anthony johnson]

Some of this has been stated, but just so it's clear and since I remember having to answer these and other dither questions for myself.....

L1 gives you a file that is 16 properly dithered bits from 24. If you need to bounce to disc, PT then creates a 24 bit file but since the L1 is in place, the last 8 bits will be 0. So when PT truncates the bounce to 16, nothing is lost.

and while L1 is good, POWr is just a bit better.

[Doctor Digital]

Anyone know how Digi's dithering compares to Apogee's UV22 in Mastertools?

Thanx