dither in mastering chain

[davecg321]

I'm mastering on my stereo bus within any given project, so 24 bit (not using to many plugins)

should I put the dither plugin after my limiter and set this to 16 bit, as well as exporting to 16 bit?

tah

 

[Farview]

For archive purposes, you should mix to 24 bit, without any processing.

Then,put the mixes in a separate session and do the mastering. At that point, add the dithering and mix out at 16 bit.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

Yep, one way or another dither->truncate should be the last processes applied to the audio.

 

[davecg321]

Yep, one way or another dither->truncate should be the last processes applied to the audio.

Let's say I am exporting my unmastered mix in 24bit. Should I still apply a 24bit dither on the stereo buss?

or is this done at the mastering stage dither set to 16bit...?

 

[bouldersoundguy]

Let's say I am exporting my unmastered mix in 24bit. Should I still apply a 24bit dither on the stereo buss?

or is this done at the mastering stage dither set to 16bit...?

Just do it in mastering when going to 16 bit.

 

[RFR]

What exactly is dither? I see it on the protools plugin "Maxim". Can't tell a difference with it turned on or off.

 

[jimmys69]

Enjoy THIS.

 

[RFR]

Thanks, I'll watch it. I suspect it's a 'everything you wanted to know about dither but were afraid to ask' video.

 

[jimmys69]

Thanks, I'll watch it. I suspect it's a 'everything you wanted to know about dither but were afraid to ask' video.

Yeah, kind of. Worse it is 'G' rated. G meaning 'geek'! But yeah, it kinda explains the why and how.

 

[Pinky]

Enjoy THIS.

Good explanation and demonstration.

 

[YellowDwarf]

Not to hijack the thread, but is there a difference between hitting the "dither this" button and "save as" 16-bit wav?

 

[Steenamaroo]

Unless your daw automatically applies dither, yes.
I'm guessing the video explains that?

 

[YellowDwarf]

What do you mean by daw?

That's a good question.

 

[Steenamaroo]

That's a good question.

Is it?
I didn't ask it......

 

[Pinky]

Most DAWs and music software (like Soundforge) dither during the conversion process from say 24 to 16 bit. I looked into this a while back wondering the same thing. It's assumed you want proper dithering, because why would you *not*? Just because the dithering option exists (elsewhere as an option) doesn't mean the software isn't doing it for you.

Yellowdwarf, dither this would mean "apply dither to this file" without a bitrate conversion, while converting to 16 bit (from whatever the file's native bitrate is) would likely imply dithering as part of the conversion process as I explained (and hopefully understand correctly) above.

 

[YellowDwarf]

Very clearly explained, thanks.