dither in mastering chain

  • Thread starter Thread starter davecg321
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davecg321

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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
 
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.
 
Yep, one way or another dither->truncate should be the last processes applied to the audio.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
Yep, one way or another dither->truncate should be the last processes applied to the audio.
Click to expand...

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...?
 
davecg321 said:
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...?
Click to expand...

Just do it in mastering when going to 16 bit.
 
What exactly is dither? I see it on the protools plugin "Maxim". Can't tell a difference with it turned on or off.
 
Thanks, I'll watch it. I suspect it's a 'everything you wanted to know about dither but were afraid to ask' video.
:D
 
RFR said:
Thanks, I'll watch it. I suspect it's a 'everything you wanted to know about dither but were afraid to ask' video.
:D
Click to expand...

Yeah, kind of. Worse it is 'G' rated. G meaning 'geek'! But yeah, it kinda explains the why and how. :)
 
Not to hijack the thread, but is there a difference between hitting the "dither this" button and "save as" 16-bit wav?
 
Unless your daw automatically applies dither, yes.
I'm guessing the video explains that?
 
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.
 
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