Question For Digidesign

[Pro Toolian]

Here is my situation:

I have read that the Bounce to Disk feature in ProTools LE causes a loss in sound quality.
I am not going to say it does or it doesn't. I don't want to argue that. All I want to know is how to mixdown to two tracks recording in real time.

Here are the issues:

I have to get a 16 bit stereo file that I can burn on CD. I am recording everthing at 24 bits in Pro tools and I have the Waves L1+
Ultramaximizer plug-in on my master fader. I have the dither set and I have the L1 set to dither it to 16 bits however, If I bus the output
of my master fader to a new stereo track, won't it record it at 24 bits anyway because Protools records only at 24 or 16, not both?

So I will end up with a 24 bit audio file anyway right and that will get truncated on CD right? How can I record the dithered 16 bit output of the L1
at 16 bits in Pro Tools? Do I convert the file later? Wouldn't that truncate a 24 bit file?

Please help me.....I want to know how to record my final mixdown in realtime, within ProTools and end up with my final 16 bit stereo file,
dithered from 24 bit audio tracks in my mix that I can load into Toast and burn onto CD. I want to avoid Bounce to Disk.

Thanks for your help. I am so confused right now.

[Ben Jenssen]

The L1+ works like this:
It dithers down to 16 bits and leaves the last eight bit as zeros.
In a "normal" bounce, you see that its "converting files" after the bounce is finished. This is only truncating, removing the last eight bits, the zeros.
So, the 24 bit files you get on the stereo track you record to CAN just be truncated, provided the L1+ is the last plug in the chain.