dither and bit rate conversion w/L2+soundforge

[mancalledaerodynamics]

I'm a little confused on how to go about this in the correct way. I have A 24 bit mixdown, ready to be premastered so I can burn it. I use soundforge, apply any effects and fades - then process with the L2. Do I use the 16 bit dither option, or 24? I'm assuming I use the 16 bit dither because that's my target bit depth - please correct me if I am wrong. Now here's where I get fuzzy. At first I ignorantly thought the L2 converts the bit depth, but of course it only applys dither. So after dithering with the L2, Do I just convert the bit depth in sound forge and save? Someone told me that you have to apply dither and convert bit depth at the same time - but in soundforge you process the audio, and I only know how to use one process at a time. To clarify I amrocessing my 24 bit file with the L2, using the 16 bit dither with noise shaping - then I convert the bit rate to 16 with soundforge - then I save and burn. Is this properly dithering and converting? Thanks for your help in advance. I searched the many threads on this subject - but none of them were using my exact setup. Everyone seems to be able to play through a dithering plugin and convert bit depth at the same time - I'd like to know if applying the l2 first then converting immediately afterwards with SF will give the same results...

 

[Track Rat]

Dither is digital noise that's inserted when doing a bit depth conversion from a higher rate (20 or 24 bits) down to 16. This is done so the last bits over 16 won't be truncated or chopped off (making fades and reverb tails end abruptly). I do all my bit reductions in soundforge only. There's a function just for it there. I use triangular noise shaping and it sounds pretty good to me. This is the VERY last thing I do to a tune before burning it to a disc (all fades and any processing should be done at 24 bits).

 

[mancalledaerodynamics]

yeah, I guess what I'm wondering is, If I can use the L2 dithering(supposed to be better), then Use sound forge's bit depth converter with the dithering turned off? Would this be the same thing essentially? And in the L2, they give you an option of 16 or 24 bit quantisation/dither. If I'm going from 24 to 16, I'm not sure which one applies...

 

[LooneyTunez]

You want to use the L2 as the last thing in your chain, set to 16 bits. Once it is processed, your 24 bit file will actually only contain 16 bit information. You can then just save it as a 16 bit file. I think this what you've been doing all along, and it appears you are doing it correctly.