Dithering and Sonar 6

[::XeS::]

Hi
The new Sonar 6 have different type of dithering available.

From the manual:

SONAR Producer offers five kinds of dithering:

Rectangular: essentially white noise, no noise shaping. Advantages: least CPU-intensive, lowest signal-to-noise ratio, preferable to shaped dither when successive dithering can occur (e.g. bouncing, freezing). Disadvantages: suffers from intermodulation distortion, higher perceived loudness than Pow-r dither.

Triangular: higher level than rectangular, no noise shaping. Advantages: low CPU-intensive dither, superior to Rectangular as it does not suffer from modulation noise effects. Preferable to shaped (Pow-r) dither when successive dithering can occur (e.g. bouncing, freezing). Disadvantages: higher perceived loudness than Pow-r dither.

Pow-r 1: noise-shaped dither. Advantages: less CPU-intensive than Pow-r types 2 and 3, lower perceived loudness than Rectangular or Triangular. Disadvantages: less noise shaping than Pow-r types 2 and 3, not recommended for operations where dither will be applied successively (e.g. bounce and freeze).

Pow-r 2: noise-shaped dither. Advantages: lowest perceived loudness, highest quality settings, recommended for audio export. Disadvantages: highest CPU-intensive settings, not recommended for operations where dither will be applied successively (e.g. bounce and freeze).

Pow-r 3: same as Pow-r 2 except most CPU-intensive and transparent of all choices.

What do you think? Wich is the best method for a final stage? Do you have preferences?

 

[Wadi]

I dont even know whats the purpose of dithering is. I've read up alot on this topic, but I still dont get it.

 

[wishtheend]

From what I thought, you only want to dither when mixing down to 16-bit for a CD. So I assume it would be done only in the mastering stage. I really doubt something being CPU intensive on a 2-track file is that big of a deal, so I'd go for the highest quality or in this case the Pow-r 3.

 

[scorpio01169]

From what I thought, you only want to dither when mixing down to 16-bit for a CD. So I assume it would be done only in the mastering stage. I really doubt something being CPU intensive on a 2-track file is that big of a deal, so I'd go for the highest quality or in this case the Pow-r 3.

well first off...no one that i know of sends a song or an album to be mixed at the mastering stage,assuming if thats what you mean by it being done at the mastering stage, so you dither at the mixing to two track or bouncing to two track stage.

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

WTF ??? Dithering is the VERY last thing you must do, so if you send your songs to be mastered, don't do it !

 

[Ben Johnson]

Dither is the adding of low level white noise to a digital signal to compensate for noise caused by quantization errors.

It sounds counter-intuitive, but it works!

 

[::XeS::]

I know dithering is the last thing to do...so, which is the best method for you?
Pow r3 I think..