I've got a VST tape simulator in my Wavelab CD creation program, which gives me what I want to hear in that respect - but I usually use a dithering function before I bounce the master in ProTools as an RTAS. Can I put the tape simulator after the dither like that, and not mess up the dithering, or should the dither be the last thing happening? (In other words should I be using a VST dither here?) Or does it really matter?
Dither is always the absolute final process before bit-depth reduction. Any change to the amplitude afterwards will tend to either undo what the Dither is trying to do, or unnecessarily amplify the Dither noise, or both.
You hadn't ought to be doing the bit depth reduction until you're completely done and ready to press - whether you're going to CD or mp3 or vinyl or whatever.
