Dithering why, when and how?

chieflogic

I record my tracks using Logic 8 in 24 bit with a sample rate of 44.1khz.
Do I need to use the dither function when I bounce my mixes at 16 Bit to burn them to CDs? And if so what are the best setting to use?

jtsuited

ok the number one thing to remember is that you want dithering to be the last stage in the process.

I recommend bouncing down to 24 bit wav. And then dither to 16 bit to put on to a CD.

PaulBrewer

chieflogic wrote: »

I record my tracks using Logic 8 in 24 bit with a sample rate of 44.1khz.
Do I need to use the dither function when I bounce my mixes at 16 Bit to burn them to CDs? And if so what are the best setting to use?

As dither is a variable (essentially low level noise added to the signal to 'smooth' over quantization error i.e the 'step' when moving from one bit to another) one uses the one that sounds best at the time on whatever music one is working on.

In my experience it really only comes into play on music with lots of low level info, say a slow piano piece with lots of 'quiet' in it. You won't be noticing a whole lot of difference in a Death Metal track.

I remember the first Dat player we got ( a Casio!) had ferocious Quantization noise in the days before anyone knew what Dither was. Of course we had no idea what the problem was and just, well, sort of ..... ignored it!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dither

teamdresch

Scope out the Dither post at this blog :

http://smassey.com/blog.html