What is a good output path?

[mij sang]

Well thanks again guys. I did a lot of snow boarding with my son this weekend and now my head is clearer. I now need to make some financial decisions. Thanks for bringing me out of the clouds a bit (aprox 24 bit).
I'm just burning to record some good music and with your advise I can try to jump a few these technical hurdles.

[Scorpio253]

So you're not suppose to master the same session as your mix session? & is Dither a plug-in or?

[daeron80]

It's OK to do certain mastering tasks in your mix session. If you have enough CPU headroom, it's fine to do whatever overall EQ, multiband comp, brickwall, and so on, in the mix session. If your mix session is a different sample rate and a higher bit depth than your master mix will be, you want to be sure to convert the sample rate prior to bit rate reduction, so you have maximum resolution for use by the conversion algorithm. E.g., if you mix at 24-bit 48 kHz, with the goal being a CD master, you want to convert to 44.1 kHz before dithering down to 16-bit.

Dither is pseudo-random, low-level noise that prevents patterned truncation artifacts when the signal bit rate is reduced. E.g., when going from 24-bit tp 16-bit, if you don't dither, the last 8 bits will be crudely chopped off, creating rounding errors in audible (and ugly) patterns. Using dither as the last plug-in in the chain prior to bit reduction randomizes the errors, rendering them inaudible. The POWr dither plug-in that comes w PT is excellent. Type 1 for mono, Type 2 for stereo pop/rock, Type 3 for stereo classical/jazz, as a rule.