mixing, mastering dithering

greg54

New member
I'm confused about mixing and dithering. When I'm done mixing a song, I export it. Then I import it to master it. I record in 24-bit. So when I'm done mastering, I'm told I'm supposed to make it 16-bit. I don't understand dithering. The dither option says triangular, as well as a couple of other choices. But people have mentioned POW-R. I'm lost. I do not understand it.

And then I watched a video that says instead of exporting it when mixed, Bounce it. I would appreciate help understanding all of this.

Greg
 
The choice of bit rate depends on where you will be "delivering" your song. CD quality is 16 bit 44.1khz. Youtube and soundcloud general use lower bit rate compressed files such as MP3. Different folks have different ways of working so there are several ways of doing this, such as bouncing an interleaved stereo file with dither to a lower bitrate, bouncing a two track or interleaved stereo file in 24 bit without dither for archiving and mastering and reducing sample rate at a later time or in a standalone/separate session where you import the 24 bit file , tweak it, apply dither and bounce down to lower bit rate are a couple of ways folks work. The different dither options can sound different so it's a good idea to try different types to see what sounds best for a particular song. Here are several forum links to help you get a handle on the subject of dither https://homerecording.com/bbs/search.php?searchid=1671551
 
The most basic way to put it it that in order to reduce a 24-bit recording to 16-bit, something has to happen to the extra bits. Oh lord, I wish I could explain this better.

Someone please interject layman's terms how this works. I just am not the one to do it.
 
This is a pretty good video IMO.

YouTube

The main point I've read is that dithering is only done once when reducing bit depth, i.e., at the mastering stage to produce specific outputs.

Now, it's true your DAW is operating on 32-bit float data, so if you produce your final mix for mastering at 24-bit I suppose that does beg the question, but my understanding is that it should never be done then.
 
Thanks, keith.rogers!

My question is, After I master, I have several options on dithering: triangular, rectangle, pow-r 1, pow-r 2, pow-r 3. If the project is currently 24-bit and want to reduce it to 16-bit, which one do I choose? I don't understand any of the options.

Greg
 
Thanks, keith.rogers!

My question is, After I master, I have several options on dithering: triangular, rectangle, pow-r 1, pow-r 2, pow-r 3. If the project is currently 24-bit and want to reduce it to 16-bit, which one do I choose? I don't understand any of the options.
Yah, well, take the default or try some of the others if anything sticks out after you've given the 16-bit a good listen, is all I can offer. I've got Ozone and when I do my "pseudo" master for any 16-bit or MP3 bounce, I just click the "dither 16-bit" radio button and ignore everything else. I'd need a much better listening environment and ears I suspect to hear the difference.

It's possible there's some info online about types of music or content one or the other of those might be better for. There's always Google!
 
You would be surprised how little info there is about dithering on the internet. It says what dithering is, about the noise. But all the other info about triangular, pow-r, etc - I found nothing.

So you use Ozone 8? I may have to try that.

Thanks!
Greg
 
Take a look at the manual for the L3 here Download Manuals | Waves, it explains dither pretty well. The different options are the "shape" of the noise that is added when dithering to increase signal to noise ratio when down sampling. The shape of the noise can increase clarity but may introduce clicks pops with some "program material". Most devs recommend using each shape and listening to the result to find what works best for a given project as the content is what is going to determine which works best. The Ozone manual is pretty good too.
 
... The shape of the noise can increase clarity but may introduce clicks pops with some "program material". ....
I've noticed that problem myself. I was just looking at an audio file that I thought had some clicks in it I wanted to remove in iZotope's RX (standalone) but that had been dithered (in Ozone). Since RX lets you select dithering on output, I thought I'd go back and re-bounce without the dither on in Ozone. Couldn't find the clicks after that! it's made me realize I have a lot to learn about this, if nothing else, I need to listen more critically to the un-dithered mix to recognize when dithering adds something I can hear and don't like. I've always assumed it was inaudible to my old ears!
 
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