To dither or not to dither

[fatalforce]

Hey guys, I've always been curious about dithering when it comes to bouncing stems and what not. I found this article:
http://productionadvice.co.uk/when-to-dither/

I usually have PT option to dither selected when adding crossfades but typically don't when I have audio from 24 bit session to be brought back into a different 24 bit session.
What are some of your dithering habits? Do you follow the advice in this article? Lets hear your thoughts.

 

[Nimvi]

So far I've only dithered when going from 24 to 16 bits in the mastering stage. I never really gave it much thought beyond that. It does make sense that the article advices to pretty much always dither. I imagine you have to have headphones on full blast to hear that difference though? Can't remember ever being bothered by anything when listening to a 24 bit render of my work.

 

[abt]

Here's a stupid question, does it matter if you're only going for digital delivery only? You know mp3 etc?

 

[waltz mastering]

Anytime the word length is reduced you should dither.
32>24>16

You can convert 24 bit straight to Mp3 or AAC.

Dithers a pretty basic function of digital recording.

 

[captainboom]

Anytime the word length is reduced you should dither.
32>24>16

You can convert 24 bit straight to Mp3 or AAC.

Dithers a pretty basic function of digital recording.

Approved.
The quoted web site from the first post doesn't talk about the source at all. If you work at 24 bits and bounce at 24, I don't get the point of dithering.

 

[fatalforce]

Approved.
The quoted web site from the first post doesn't talk about the source at all. If you work at 24 bits and bounce at 24, I don't get the point of dithering.

they say something about truncation distortion.

You can convert 24 bit straight to Mp3 or AAC.

Dithers a pretty basic function of digital recording.

isn't mp3 a 16 bit only codec? You would be truncating the bit rate doing this?

 

[waltz mastering]

isn't mp3 a 16 bit only codec? You would be truncating the bit rate doing this?

With mp3 or AAC, we're talking lossy. Mp3 and AAC are crippled formats to start with.

Any benefits gained from bit reduction would be negligible due to the lossy encoding of MP3/AAC.

 

[Jon Warren]

Approved.
The quoted web site from the first post doesn't talk about the source at all. If you work at 24 bits and bounce at 24, I don't get the point of dithering.

In this case you do not need to dither. Only dither as the final step when creating a 16 bit master.