What if You Don't Dither?

[a2n3d7y]

What if I don't dither my 48K/32bit-float stereo mix befor I save the final stereo master to a 44.1K/16bit wav.?

What if you don't dither?

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

The low-order bits get truncated and low-level signals (reverb tails, fades) don't sound as smooth........

 

[Track Rat]

Without dithering, everything past 16 bits is thrown away, which will sound poopy. Not to mention down sampling from 48k to 44.1k (if you don't re-sample, going from 48 to 44.1 will make the recording slow down significantly).

 

[bblackwood]

Without dithering, everything past 16 bits is thrown away, which will sound poopy.

That's everything below -96dBfs...

 

[Ethan Winer]

A2,

> What if you don't dither? <

I agree with Brad. What changes is all way below -90 dB.

So why even bother with dither at all? I sure don't.

--Ethan

 

[shackrock]

I can never really hear the difference...HA!

But, I let sonic foundry CD Architect do it for me - just go to "DITHER TO 16-BIT." ..it's an effect. Anyway, I suppose it works. HAHA

 

[dachay2tnr]

everything past 16 bits is thrown away, which will sound poopy.

Are you using poopy in its technical sense?

 

[lpdeluxe]

"poopy" in the technical definition of "what digital recordings sound like when they are downsampled to 16 bit without dithering." I think that's in the Rane lexicon.

 

[bblackwood]

"what digital recordings sound like when they are downsampled to 16 bit without dithering."

You downsample the sampling frequency (ie, 96kHz to 44.1 kHz), not the bit depth...

 

[Track Rat]

Are you using poopy in its technical sense?

Poopy sound is just one degree removed from sounding like ass. YMMV.

 

[lpdeluxe]

Excuuuuuuuuuuuse me! "...when 24 bit recordings are truncated to 16 bit without dithering." I probably copied it out of Rane's website wrong.