[Matt_G]

Absolutly right, but we are strung between two opposite views, the quest for technical perfection on one side, and the quest for audio musicality on the other.

I don't believe this is true, firstly I'm not saying there shouldn't be a stereo dithered mixer unless it's not implemented properly. I'm a firm believer in the theory of the dithered mixer, in that any wordlength reduction should be dithered to prevent quantization distortion. The dither used in the 'stereo dithered mixer' is the TPDF variety & is not meant to add any colour to the sound. Because you hear the dithered mixer as adding 'air' or a 'musical' character, is probably more to do it preventing quantization distortion, which keeps your audio cleaner & truer to the original source. Quantization distortion on the other hand does not sound musical or add anything beneficial to the source material, in fact if it happens often enough it makes your audio sound veiled, flat & 2 dimensional. This is what I am arguing about with regards to the plug-in bus only operating at 24bits wide, it allows plugins to introduce quantization distortion which can quickly build up, I also believe that this can affect the results of the stereo dithered mixer.

There is many ways to colour sound in a musical way, plug-ins or outboard. Generally speaking, the most musical distortion & colour comes from valves, transformers or tape (the real stuff sounds far better then any of the digital emulations). I don't believe the DAW should contribute to 'the sound' of a project perse. The whole point of digital is to capture the analog source as true to the source as possible without taking the quality of the signal downhill. This starts with the quality of your converters, the precision & sample rate used to capture the source signal & how the DAW handles the audio from start to finish.

I have come to listen to both sides : sometimes they agree, sometimes, they are right alternatively. So taking sides is difficult.

The same can be said about analog vs digital. There is no clear winner, you use whatever sounds best for the project you are working on. Sometimes it's best to leave a project all digital other times all analog & a lot of the time a combination of digital & analog works best. But again when it comes to digital I don't want it messing with the sound I've worked so hard to create in the analog realm. I like to have control of what colour I add, I want my DAW to be clean & bit transparent to preserve the sonic fidelity of the audio through the entire path. If I want an airy top I'll add as much as I need using my Sontec 432. If I want 3rd order harmonics I might use the Cranesong HEDD or an ATR half inch. Do you see my point? If you record a heavily distorted guitar through an Orange AC30 amp do you want the DAW to change the colour or character of that signal after it's been recorded if it sounds exactly how you want coming from the source? This signal isn't pure it's distorted in a musical way from the amp, so we just need Pro Tools to capture the sound from the source as accurately & transparently as possible without adding any colour of it's own. I hope this makes sense... Bit transparency doesn't equal cold & lifeless audio it means it sounds as close to the analog source as possible which should match the depth, width & tone of the source.

Technical perfection is not really useful unless some real audible progress is made.
I think that for many of us, the present level of the hd dithered mixer is ok... until prooved wrong ;-)

If everyone had this mentality, we would never progress, thankfully there are some visionaries that strive for perfection. DSD is a good example of someone striving to achieve new heights in sonic fidelity. Of course if you are content to use your Pro Tools HD system for 20 years then that's great. Those of us who believe the finer details count will continue to strive for better sounding solutions. As a mastering engineer this is my job & probably why I am so finatical about the small things & why people trust me to handle their audio. I believe the small things do matter, it can mean the difference between a great record & a world class record.

Matt