[ddots-l] Re: Question on bouncing and dithering
- From: Chris Smart <chris_s@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 04 Sep 2010 10:57:18 -0400
At 08:33 AM 9/4/2010, you wrote:
When bouncing all tracks of a project to a single stereo track, is
the sound quality supposed to be diminished?
No, not unless you are resampling at the same time to a low
sampling rate, or dithering to a lower bit depth.
Encoding to a low bitrate mp3 file will also degrade sound quality.
Now, here is my next question:
Could this be due to dithering? I understand dithering to be a
process necessary in order to convert a 24 bit audio track or file
down to a 16 bit version. I see that there is a dithering option
when you select the bounce to track option. Is dithering
necessary when you are just bouncing to a single stereo track?
Yes it is, otherwise, without dithering, you will just be tossing
away the least significant 8 bits of each sample of audio.
Dithering shouldn't noticeably reduce sound quality as it affects
things near the threshold of our hearing, i.e. -90dB or lower. You
might notice something in the very ambient quiet details of a
project, but that's about it, and only if you have your monitors or
headphones really cranked up.
I am thinking that it would not be necessary yet as I am still
planning to do a little more processing before exporting it to a
wave or MP3.
Dithering will be necessary once I export that stereo track to
wave or MP3.
Dithering is only necessary when you are going from 24 to 16 bits,
not really at other times. It should happen last in the process so
that any other processing happens at 24-bits.
I want to know if, when bouncing to a single track, I should just
select no dithering.
If you are keeping things at 24-bit at that point, no dithering. If
you are changing to 16-bit at that point, you want dithering turned on.
Chris
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