Dither Question

[Joshua Wickman]

Kinda a odd question.

If i bounce a track but I'm recording that track in protools instead of using the bounce feature and my session is 24 bit, if i use dither does the protools session revert that bounced track/recorded track back to 24 bit?

 

[Skinny Viking]

dude I feel like you just gave a synopsis of the movie "Inception" with that question

 

[BLUElightCory]

You're applying dither (noise) to the 24 bit file. The file will remain 24 bit until you export it as a 16 bit file (at which point PT will quantize it down to 16 bits). Someone correct me if I'm wrong?

 

[Joshua Wickman]

I just want to record my bounces in my session and then get to 16 bits without just chopping them off when i export region.

Should i run dither on the master aux still even though it stays 24 bit?

 

[lolzgreg]

Dither is used when you are moving down bitrates.

 

[chrisrivalry]

so are you staying in 24 bits for the whole mix? I'm a little confused why you would export your bounces at 16, usually you want to keep it at 24 the whole time and then export the final at 16 with dither. I don't know why I'm saying this, you're like my god damn idol hahaha

 

[Ascendant]

I agree with what ^ said, if you can keep the files at 24 bit through the whole process then you don't have to dither until mastering. Dithering is adding a tiny bit of noise to the signal when you change the bit rate to prevent distortion.

 

[slayercannibalsuffohead]

I read an article in a recording magazine, cant remember which one, that when bouncing down to 16 bit 44.1, that pro tools automatically applies dither! (It was something that eeeked the author). So there is no need to apply it in the master chain.

 

[Skinny Viking]

^ I think its in the preferences, you can choose a dither to automatically apply

 

[Joshua Wickman]

so are you staying in 24 bits for the whole mix? I'm a little confused why you would export your bounces at 16, usually you want to keep it at 24 the whole time and then export the final at 16 with dither. I don't know why I'm saying this, you're like my god damn idol hahaha

Yes, but i'm running my mastering on my mix in the session. When i use outboard gear as a insert on my master and try and bounce, Protools skips and just fucks up the bounce. So my fix is recording the 2buss to a new track in the session and then just exporting that as the bounced track. Problem is i don't know if it is just chopping off those bits, or how i would apply dither as i'm not using the bounce feature at all.

I know some other Protools Engineers do this and maybe they can steer me in the right direction. Also glad you like my work and that really means a lot!

 

[guitarguru777]

Turn it off before bouncing?

 

[Joshua Wickman]

I'm using outboard gear for mastering. No way to turn it off unless i recorded the 2buss to a new track, then deleted my inserts/plugins or the 2 buss as a whole, then I would bounce the audio track i just recorded. So I would have bounce each song twice in real time. FUCK THAT!

 

[Joshua Wickman]

I read an article in a recording magazine, cant remember which one, that when bouncing down to 16 bit 44.1, that pro tools automatically applies dither! (It was something that eeeked the author). So there is no need to apply it in the master chain.

I'm not using the bounce feature though through Protools. I record my 2buss to a track in the session and then use the option Export Region As File.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

http://avid.custkb.com/avid/app/sel...munity10=368&ssdFilter_SearchKeyWord=&Hilite=

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

If you're just recording the mixdown into a new track in ProTools, the audio will be 24bit if the session is 24bit. If you apply a dither plugin in that process, it adds the dither noise but does not change the bit depth of the audio. Record the mixdown without dithering and when you need to export the file in 16bits, add a dither plugin in the last insert of the track and use the bounce feature.

 

[Skinny Viking]

^ I'm guessing it means version 7.3 or higher

so there IS an automatic dither applied if you don't specify one

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

^ I'm guessing it means version 7.3 or higher

so there IS an automatic dither applied if you don't specify one

The page refers here: http://avid.custkb.com/avid/app/sel...munity10=368&ssdFilter_SearchKeyWord=&Hilite=

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

This gets asked really often, so let's settle this once and for all This is a straight quote from Pro Tools 9 Reference Guide:

Bounce to Disk and Dither
Bouncing to disk does not apply dither when re- ducing bit depth. To apply dither when bounc- ing to disk, you should insert a dither plug-in as the last processor in the signal path on a Master Fader assigned to the bounce source audio out- put path.
Using a dither plug-in on a Master Fader is pref- erable to an Auxiliary Input because Master Fader inserts are post-fader. As a post-fader in- sert, the dither plug-in can process changes in Master Fader level.
If you do not use a dither plug-in on your bounce source path, and you choose to convert to a lower resolution during or after bouncing to disk, the resulting file will be converted by trun- cation.

 

[Skinny Viking]

The page refers here: http://avid.custkb.com/avid/app/sel...munity10=368&ssdFilter_SearchKeyWord=&Hilite=

ahhh ok cool

thanks Jarkko

 

[chrisrivalry]

Off topic, but it appears that the problem may have been solved, you guys actually notice when dither is on?