Do I need to dither?

Chris Parsons · 30th August 2006

So I've done some live performence recording with a very "consumer" interface that only does 16bit. The question is, for some reason when I export out of Wavelab the files are tagged as 32 bit files. What I then do is just re-save them as 16 bit. I don't think I need to dither as there was no inforamtion past 16 bits in the first place but i'm just checking.

Thanks!

Ged Leitch · 30th August 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Parsons

So I've done some live performence recording with a very "consumer" interface that only does 16bit. The question is, for some reason when I export out of Wavelab the files are tagged as 32 bit files. What I then do is just re-save them as 16 bit. I don't think I need to dither as there was no inforamtion past 16 bits in the first place but i'm just checking.

Thanks!

If your doing any processing in wavelab then you'll need to dither down to 16 bit.

dementedchord · 31st August 2006

do you have to dither??? no.... will it sound better??? depending on how you recorded it probably

cerberus · 31st August 2006

dither would only add noise in this particular case. wavelab can estimate the signal's bit depth within the file; so you could check that if there were any question. also the tobybear bitviewer vst (free/shareware) can measure a signal's bit depth in real time.

jeff dinces

T.RayBullard · 31st August 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by cerberus

dither would only add noise in this particular case. wavelab can estimate the signal's bit depth within the file; so you could check that if there were any question. also the tobybear bitviewer vst (free/shareware) can measure a signal's bit depth in real time.

jeff dinces

wavelab has a bitmeter too.

T.RayBullard · 31st August 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Parsons

So I've done some live performence recording with a very "consumer" interface that only does 16bit. The question is, for some reason when I export out of Wavelab the files are tagged as 32 bit files. What I then do is just re-save them as 16 bit. I don't think I need to dither as there was no inforamtion past 16 bits in the first place but i'm just checking.

Thanks!

the default within wavelab is 32 bit float..however you can change that in the preferences menu.

Chris Parsons · 1st September 2006

yeah nothing was under 16 on the bit meter. I exported out of a montage for the first time and I don't really knwo why this happened.

30th August 2006	#1
Chris Parsons Lives for gear Join Date: May 2003 Location: Santa Cruz, CA Posts: 707 Thread Starter	Do I need to dither? So I've done some live performence recording with a very "consumer" interface that only does 16bit. The question is, for some reason when I export out of Wavelab the files are tagged as 32 bit files. What I then do is just re-save them as 16 bit. I don't think I need to dither as there was no inforamtion past 16 bits in the first place but i'm just checking. Thanks! __________________ ****A proud user of 44.1/24**** http://www.pforeststudio.com

31st August 2006	#3
dementedchord Lives for gear Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 885	$.02 do you have to dither??? no.... will it sound better??? depending on how you recorded it probably

31st August 2006	#4
cerberus Gear maniac Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: the one after 909 Posts: 215	dither would only add noise in this particular case. wavelab can estimate the signal's bit depth within the file; so you could check that if there were any question. also the tobybear bitviewer vst (free/shareware) can measure a signal's bit depth in real time. jeff dinces __________________ cerberus audio services

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1st September 2006	#7
Chris Parsons Lives for gear Join Date: May 2003 Location: Santa Cruz, CA Posts: 707 Thread Starter	yeah nothing was under 16 on the bit meter. I exported out of a montage for the first time and I don't really knwo why this happened.