Bit Rates

[laj35]

Hello there,

So I've been producing in my basement(s) for a few years now, have been using Cubase and Wavelab to do all recording/post-production and have learned to get my tunes sounding farily slick and robust, by no means any sort of "pro" level byt I am happy with the progression. That said one avenue I've really overlooke is using higher bit rates. I've tried a couple of times and noticed little of a difference, though I monitor with headphones. Anybody have a good overview of the advantages and maybe even how dithering works. Many thanks ahead of time.

laj

 

[crankz1]

It's actually bit depth when talking about the converters of your soundcard.
Bit rate would be in terms of audio encoding for mp3, wma and such.
In both instances ... the higher the number the better the quality, though I have yet to see a converter with a bit depth over 24 bits.
Dithering comes into play when ever you are working with bit depths over 16 bits and the finished product is going to be in the form of an audio CD.
Some good info on dithering can be had here. It's based on Izotope's Ozone plugin, but it a good read.