mastering 16bit recordings

[robertnat]

hi there, i´d like to know if a 16 bit song could be mastered to make it sound professioal and also be of a quality that is playable on radio? am i wasting my time or is the quality of a cd really depends on a pair of good ears?

 

[masteringhouse]

hi there, i´d like to know if a 16 bit song could be mastered to make it sound professioal and also be of a quality that is playable on radio? am i wasting my time or is the quality of a cd really depends on a pair of good ears?

It would have less to do with 16 bit and more to do with the quality of the original recording. When mastering the original 16 bit will be converted to 24 bit, processed, and then dithered and converted to 16 bit again. The processing at 24 bit is used to help reduce the effects quantization error, processing at 16 bit will make the final sound grainier than processing at 24.

 

[teainthesahara]

It would have less to do with 16 bit and more to do with the quality of the original recording. When mastering the original 16 bit will be converted to 24 bit, processed, and then dithered and converted to 16 bit again. The processing at 24 bit is used to help reduce the effects quantization error, processing at 16 bit will make the final sound grainier than processing at 24.

Hey Masteringhouse,

What do you do specifically to acheive the change it bit depth when going from 16 to 24? For example, in wavelab, you can just 'save as', and select a new bit depth. When dithering down back to 16, what program do you use for that (assuming your using software)?

 

[Massive Master]

Most of the decent software is working in 32-bit floating point no matter what the bit-depth of the file.

 

[masteringhouse]

Hey Masteringhouse,

What do you do specifically to acheive the change it bit depth when going from 16 to 24? For example, in wavelab, you can just 'save as', and select a new bit depth. When dithering down back to 16, what program do you use for that (assuming your using software)?

In my case I'm importing the file to Pro Tools, most software has the ability to import or export to a larger bit depth so it should be a big issue.

For dithering, I use a variety of software. Each dither has it's own subtle difference in sound. Usually I use POW-r for the final CD , Waves IDR when going from 48 bit to 24 bit files from Pro Tools, as well as dither from my external Weiss gear when routing.