Is dithering a must??

[doclegion]

whats the difference??
Whats it for??

 

[Metaltastic]

Only when going from 24-bit to 16-bit, it creates a very subtle layer of noise (incredibly soft) that's meant to drown out quantization conversion artifacts, and I remember in class we heard some comparisons and it does indeed do what it's supposed to. Almost certainly not noticeable in WHAM KABLAM BANG metal, but it's easy enough to do, so might as well I say! (especially since there's a dither thing built into the almighty Voxengo Elephant )

 

[brianhood]

Almost certainly not noticeable in WHAM KABLAM BANG metal, but it's easy enough to do, so might as well I say! (especially since there's a dither thing built into the almighty Voxengo Elephant )

yeah i have never been able to tell a difference in the bands i've recorded so far, but i just do it anyways since it's so easy to do.

I can imagine it's noticeable i softer music...

 

[JBroll]

If I recall correctly James Murphy had a most epic series of posts on dithering, but I don't remember how long ago that was.

Jeff

 

[joeymusicguy]

really important for your reverb / cymbal tails at the end of songs, or fade in's / out's

 

[gabriel g.]

also very important beacause your sequencer might work with 32bit (floating point) no matter in what definition you track your songs. I know that Cubase works that way.
So If you dont dither at the end you maybe gonna loose alot if you´re tracking too hot

 

[slashvanyoung]

IIRC some DAWs even do that automatically on downsampling... like Audition, if I'm not mistaken.

 

[MetalJonesy]

fades, verbs, quantizing, everything thats been mentioned, only when going from 24bit to 16bit, or dealing with 16bit

 

[dcb]

dithering vs truncating

your basically cutting away some of the room information, if you truncate from lets say 32 to 16 bits. the first 16 bits will then get "cut".
remember, the lower bits represent your room / ambience.
with dithering, you basicalley preserve depth in your mix.

as its not hard to do, you should always dither after you've done all fades.
the last thing you would do in a mastering chain is:
dither to 16 bit

 

[theRev]

dither to 16 bit

Exactly, how this step is achieved?

 

[AudioGeekZine]

Depends on the DAW, but in general, insert a dither plugin, or activate the dither function of your master limiter (like Ozone, or Waves L3) at the end of your mastering chain, file>export/render wav, 44.1 khz, 16 bit.


Some links on Dithering:
http://thewombforums.com/showthread.php?t=10912
http://thewombforums.com/showthread.php?t=8490&highlight=dither
http://www.izotope.com/support/center/index.php?x=&mod_id=2&id=129


If your mix is being sent out for mastering, don't do any dither, let the M. E. do it.

 

[dcb]

Exactly, how this step is achieved?

in cubase, insert the apogee uv 22 hr (after brickwall limiter) as the last plugin in your master bus >> this would be the last step before converting
to mp3 / wav 16 bit etc.

apogee dithering sounds much better then some other algorithms,
so i would go with that.

 

[MetalSound]

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/production-tips/326742-dithering-nonsense.html

 

[LydonB]

MBit+ ftw!

 

[schnarf2]

Read: http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/ozone/OzoneDitheringGuide.pdf

 

[Styvo]

The way i figure is,you've spent so much time on a given song,creating the seperation,ambience,depth and aural soundscape why not dither.
Generally as it's already been pointed out,you only dither when going from 24b to 16bit.......so after you've done all your mixing mastering etc, your final bounce should have a dither plug.It's all digital theory in that sense but makes perfect sense to do it.

 

[fade_2_black]

dithering vs truncating

your basically cutting away some of the room information, if you truncate from lets say 32 to 16 bits. the first 16 bits will then get "cut".
remember, the lower bits represent your room / ambience.
with dithering, you basicalley preserve depth in your mix.

as its not hard to do, you should always dither after you've done all fades.
the last thing you would do in a mastering chain is:
dither to 16 bit

+1, well put.