Do you dither?

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joninc
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Do you dither?

Post by joninc » Tue Oct 25, 2016 11:35 pm

I have read about dither and generally always applied it in my limiter plugin when exporting mastered tracks from 32 or 24 bit to 16. i understand the theory of what it does but i am not sure if I can really hear the difference at all between tracks with it applied and tracks without dithering.

can you?

How would you describe the difference?
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Post by vvv » Wed Oct 26, 2016 4:13 am

Do I dither?

Well, sometimes, mebbe, I'm not really sure, I could you know, it's a possibility ...
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Yes, but only when converting final 32bit(float) files to 16bit. I do it because the literature says it should be done, and the theory makes sense. To the extent I ever analyzed it, it was years ago and I recall it might have been audible at the end of long reverb-tail fade outs. It's one of those "best practices" things, I believe, where it may not always make an obvious audible difference, but in those situations that it does, not doing it would be missed.
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Post by joninc » Wed Oct 26, 2016 11:52 am

it's interesting - I have been doing a bunch of reading about it and it seems like it's really a non issue with contemporary rock/pop/dance/whatever productions as the levels are so low as to be undetectable and the dynamic range isn't huge.

With something sparse and acoustic or classical, with a much wider dynamic range, it may be noticeable at the quietest moments.
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Post by vvv » Wed Oct 26, 2016 12:59 pm

Have you ever heard a reverb-tail "ladder"?

That's one thing it's meant to address.

As well, I believe it makes digital black - where, say, you have a dead-stop mid song with a extra few beats before resuming - seem a little more organic; I may be wrong on this one, but it's what I think I hear.

But yeah, it works where there is very low signal level - that's its purpose.
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Nick Sevilla
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Post by Nick Sevilla » Wed Oct 26, 2016 5:19 pm

Usually I leave that to the Mastering engineer, or if no mastering is going to be done, as the absolute last step. and only for music which has a need to be reduced bitwise to 16 bits, for CD duplication.

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