Dithering

S

Sonic Valley

New member
Hi guys. I work in 32bit floating in a PC enviroment. Just before a CD burn I use Waves UltraMaximizer to dither down to 16bit. Is these a decent way to dither down? Can anyone offer their techniques, suggestions and tools for dithering? Cheers!
 
Was listening to Harvey Gerst in the chatroom last night and I believe he said he dithered to 16 bit before doing his editing.....Id also like to hear comments for/against this....
 
Waves recommend that you dither and apply noise
shaping as the absolute last step in all processing.

By the way, Waves has a great reference manual
for all of their plug ins. They not only provide the
tools, but they teach you how to use them. It
was a major selling point as far as my purchase of the
software was concerned. All of the plug in reference
manuals and set up guides are available for download
(pdf) at their website

Sonic Valley... Waves utilizes the 24bit fixed point
processing which is the equilavent to 32 bit floating
point although there seems to be an ongoing argument
as to which is better. At the higher end 24 bit becomes
48 bit fixed (TDM version for mac) and 64 bit floating.
 
Gidge said:
Was listening to Harvey Gerst in the chatroom last night and I believe he said he dithered to 16 bit before doing his editing.....Id also like to hear comments for/against this....
Click to expand...
You sure about that Gidge??? That goes against the advice of Bob Katz!

Yikes!!!!!!! What do we do when the top pros don't agree??????????
HELP - THE SKY IS FALLING!!!!! :D :D

Bruce
 
Dither BEFORE dithering?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

No way jose!

Dithering to 16 bits is the very LAST thing you do.

The reasons are many, and a look around http://www.digido.com will give you the insight as to why.

I can POSSIBLY see using dither while working with 24 bit files ONLY to 24 bits again, but this is excessive as your ear will not hear quantinization errors in the lower bits used when working with 24 bit files.

Ed
 
I would almost bet the farm that he said he does it before...maybe I misunderstood but thats why Im asking now....
 
absolute last thing you do - always - and this is one of those things where you could really state that, if an engineer says dither before ................ nuts.

Also, Sonic - you work in either 16 or 24 bit, not in 32 bit floating. The latter refers to your processing only.
 
Ummm, maybe not.

What if you want to use a digital compressor at a high bit rate before you go to your recording device?

You dither

What if you have samples at a higher bit rate than you are currently recording?

You dither.

What if you have a pre that has built in converter with a higher bit rate than your recording device?

You dither.

What if you want to send out of your DAW to an external digital processor that has a lower bit rate than you are currently using?

You dither.

Dither ALWAYS sound better than truncation. There are millions of reasons to dither before the sub master.

Tom Cram
dbx Senior Technical Support
(801) 568-7530
tcram@dbxpro.com
 
Tom, of cause there are, all the things you stated are totally correct, I could add a whole list of cases where you need to dither in order to arrive at the bit-rate you are working in, nobody would dispute that.
That, however, was not the point - which was "dithering down before editing" FROM the bit-rate you are working in to 16 bit.
 
Yeah, I'm with ya...

I just wanted to make sure Sonic Valley didn't get the impression that you NEVER dither except at the end. The thread was kind of heading in that direction.

Tom Cram
dbx Senior Technical Support
(801) 568-7530
tcram@dbxpro.com
 
What is a dither?

How do I use one?

Is this sold at Kmart?

Can it aid in poor sexual experiences?

Does a dither cure any sicknesses?

What color can I get a dither in?

How much does it weigh?

Do I have to feed a dither?
 
A dither is identified as a shaking of the limbs just prior to an orgasm. In other words, keep yer legs straight when you burn yes stuff to a CD
 
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