ROOKIE QUES: Cannot hear Dither Benefit

[Hopeless and Reckless]

I am trying to figure out why my mixdowns to AIFF and on to CD sound so bassy and compressed. I recorded in 24 bit and created a master fader which I applied Dither to and then bounced all of the tracks to AIFF stereo interleaved in 16 bit.

I understand you need to apply dither when going from 24 to 16. However, should I only bounce the master to the AIFF format or do something else. Is that why the Dither effect is largely missing? Or is it pretty difficult to hear? Please help!

Christian

[PlugInJunky]

I have heard from friends in the industry that most people on a blinded listening test used POWr 1,2,3 and No dithering. Most of the mastering engineers said they prefered the latter. I use POWr Dither type 3. Honestly I don't hear a damn thing. But whatever, if you mix sounds compressed and bassey it has nothing to do with dithering...Dithering doesn't add that much color to a mix. And converting to AIFF doesnt either. Make sure your not over compressing somewhere in the signal flow. But Its really hard to hear what your hearing with out more details on the method you used to mix....if you can give more info...I can help a little bit...

-jorge

[Hopeless and Reckless]

Thanks! I thought I was going crazy...

I am running a simple test to fix this situation using 6 channels with no plug-ins. The mix sounds fine and I am using flat response head phones. Maybe it's the systems I am playing the CD on. The thing is that it's tough to get a feel for what it is ultimately going to sound like if the bounced tracks sound so radically different.

Is bouncing the right way to get onto a CD, assuming I bounce to AIFF and burn it to a CD using iTunes?

Thanks for your help!

[pk_hat]

Originally posted by Hopeless and Reckless:
The mix sounds fine and I am using flat response head phones. Maybe it's the systems I am playing the CD on.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Um....you're mixing on headphones? I think there lays your answer. Whether they're "flat" or not, my advice would be to start mixing with monitors.

[Duardo]

If dither's working well, you won't hear it at all. It's not an "effect".

-Duardo