Dithering - Wavelab 4

[LooneyTunez]

Hopefully someone can clear something up for me, as this has got me a little confused.

Let's say I have 24bit file in Wavelab, and I want to dither it to 16bit, (we can skip all the different noise shaping processes, as that's not the issue) so I can put it on CD or whatever.

Now I understand the how the 'Dithering Pane' is supposed to work...I select the dithering method, and playback or rendering is supposed to be at whatever bitrate I've chosen. The thing that confuses me, is that if I go through that process, and 'Render' as 16bit, the properties of the files still seem to be 24bit, as indicated by the 'Information' dialog.

So, the question is: Is Wavelab just reporting it as a 24bit file (because it's reading the info from the original file), and saving as 16bits will be fine...or is the file in fact not 16bits, and by saving as a 16bit file I'm actually truncating the 24bit file?

Any insight would be aprreciated!

Thanks,

Jay

 

[knownuttin]

I think you answered your own question. That is, I think because I don't know if you're right. My assumption is that until you either save the newly rendered file, or preferably save it with a new file name to indicate its new wordlength, WL continues to read from the original file.

Disclaimer: Please note my screen name, and take this with copious doses of salt.
-kent

 

[dachay2tnr]

After you dither to 16 bits in Wavelab, what you have is a 16 bit file in a 24 bit wrapper. It is still a 24 bit file, but only has 16 bits of meaningful information. At this point you need to truncate the file by changing the audio properties to 16 bits. Then you can either "Save As" to create a new 16 bit file, or you can just "Save" if you have no more need for the 24 bit file.