dithering midi tracks twice?

A

awilliams

New member
In transferring my midi tracks to audio tracks in Cubase 5 through the Export Audio function in the Master Mixer, I find I have to dither the midi tracks down to 16 bits in order to get successful audio tracks. Then when I do my final mixes, I also dither the final mix to 16 bits since all of my other non-midi audio tracks are 24 bit. It appears I might be losing fidelity of my midi tracks by dithering them twice in the long run.

Any other suggestions on how to get my midi tracks to audio tracks without having to dither to 16 bits? In the Export Audio window, I'm checking all the right boxes, but if I check the 24 bit box, no audio file will result.
 
I assume when you say MIDI tracks that you're talking about VST instrument tracks. I have Cubase 5 VST/32. I tried exporting a VST intrument track to a 24-bit WAV file and it worked ok. Are you saying that when you try to export to 24-bit that you get no file at all? Or a zero-length file? Or a file filled with silence? I'm not sure what the problem could be.
 
Yes, I'm referring to my VST instruments, the B4 and LM-4 Mk II. When I try to export them into 24 bit audio, it goes through the process and a file actually results, but it doesn't appear in the audio pool like it should and there's no track added like it should. I tried exporting them into 16 bit audio without dithering, and successful audio files resulted as 16 bit, so I don't have to dither. But still, only 16 bit audio.

Do you think I did something wrong at the installation stage for these VSTs? Is there a place where you give them 24 bit capability?
 
I tried exporting to a 24-bit file and I enabled the “Import into Pool” and “Import into Audio Track” checkboxes. It worked ok and the resulting 24-bit track was created. So I’m not sure what’s causing the problem in your case.

But it sounds like you can just work around it by manually importing the 24-bit file after you create it. Right?

Keep in mind what dither does. Dithering is not what enables you to go from 24-bit to 16-bit. Rather, the purpose of dithering is to preserve some of the dynamic range that 24-bit audio has when you do go from 24-bit to 16-bit. Without dithering, you are simply chopping off those 8 bits and then you don’t preserve some of the dynamic range of the original audio. It is almost always better to have dithering on whenever you reduce the bit width of audio. Of, course, the best option in your case will be to export the 24-bit file and then manually import it.
 
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