Whats the best format to referance a mix?

[Chris Jahn]

I use logic, but im sure most recording programs offer the option to burn a mix, so perhaps somone can help me out.

I have had a problem with my mixes when i listen to them in other systems, now this is most likely due to a sub par mix, but i want what im listening to represent my "true" mix (good or bad) as close as possible.

Logic offers a straight burn, dithering, dithering 1, dithering 2, and dithering 3. and of course i can send it to i tunes or the like and burn it from there.

Now i know that when i go to cd, i going to lose info cuz im going from 24 to 16, and i some cases 96 to 16. But of the options presented to me, what the best true way to listen to a bounced cd mix?

 

[Ethan Winer]

Chris,

Your problems have nothing to do with CD burning or dithering. It's much simpler than that. The real problem is your room. You're probably sitting in a deep bass null, or maybe a big peak. So what you hear is influenced wrongly by your room. Look here for a real eye-opener:

http://www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html

--Ethan

 

[deshead]

Ethan's right (of course )

Now i know that when i go to cd, i going to lose info cuz im going from 24 to 16, and i some cases 96 to 16. But of the options presented to me, what the best true way to listen to a bounced cd mix?

In the vast majority of cases, dithering will be inaudible. It's basically low-level noise, so you only hear it when the audio level is really low, like at the tail end of fade-outs. (Read Izotope's great dithering guide for details: http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/ozone/guides.html.) So unless it's a CD of really quiet songs, you won't hear any difference between the 4 methods you have available to you.

Why not burn a CD with all 4 on it, and check? If you can't hear a difference, then you'll know it doesn't matter.


(And FWIW, "96" is the sample rate, not the bit depth. So you go from 96 to 44.1.)