[DAW]Project bouncing out dithering question?

[kongwee]

I know that dithering is used to bounce out from 24bit to 16 bit. How you guys often use that and why?

 

[smurfpiss]

This should stir things up

Does Dither Really Matter? - http://www.ethanwiner.com/dither.html

 

[Cheez]

CDs only accept 16 bit. So when rendering a recording into CD, I always dither to 16-bit. But that's always the final step in mixdown, and only if I want to share the end product in a CD.

 

[grarrgrarr]

You need to dither if your dynamic range is very big, and you are using the dynamic range which is near the noise floor in your 24 bit project.

If you convert to 16 bit in this case, you will get your softest parts of the music having audible distortion because the your smaller numbers are being truncated heavily, and dithering can help you solve this.

However, dithering introduces random noise, and Noise Shaping is another technique which is commonly used when dithering to shift the noise floor up to a less audible spectrum.

If your music has really soft parts, (live recording of orchestral?) Its recommended to dither and noise shape when bouncing to 16 bit.

However if its normal music using compression to push the loudness limit, dithering would have little audible effect.

 

[smurfpiss]

If your music has really soft parts, (live recording of orchestral?) Its recommended to dither and noise shape when bouncing to 16 bit.

However if its normal music using compression to push the loudness limit, dithering would have little audible effect.

Couldn't have said it better.