i know nothing about dithering

[aetucker1]

i record everything ITB with pro tools at 24/48 and I want to bounce to disk at 16/44.1 so i can burn a CD. What is the best solution to dither and sample rate convert ITB with Pro Tools? I have searched all over and i haven't really found a cut and dry answer to this. my main questions are does PT dither on the bounce by itself? if it does and I want to use L2 to dither, how do i make PT not dither. Do i just have to put a dither plug on the master and have PT do the sample rate conversion? some step by step instructions would be wonderful...i am running PT LE 6.9. thanks so much in advance.

allen

[ShamansDream]

Read THIS guide

No PTLE does not dither on Bounce. You can use the L2 dither option or you can put one of the RTAS plugins after the dither. Many rave about the POW-R Dither included with PTLE.

ProTools LE does have a built in dither, but that is used when you are importing/exporting files that are the wrong bitrate.

[aetucker1]

holy dithering book batman!!! thanks for the link.

[theblue1]

Just remember: dithering is adding very small amounts of noise (random or shaped) to help cover the audible effects of alias error produced by either sample rate conversion or word length (bit) reduction. IOW, adding a very tiny amount of noise can help mask the negative effects of conversion from one sample rate to another (ie, from 96 or 88.2 kHz to 44.1 kHz) or from one word length (bit depth) to a short one (ie, going from 24 bit to 16 bit.)

Dithering is usually handled by whatever software is doing the SRC or bit depth reduction -- but you likely will have varying options as to the type of dither that is added.


[Unfornately, some people have fallen into the sloppy habit of using "dither" as a synonym for "sampe rate conversion" or "bit depth reduction." It's neither.]

[Bob Olhsson]

Originally Posted by theblue1

...dithering is adding very small amounts of noise (random or shaped) to help cover the audible effects of alias error produced by either sample rate conversion or word length (bit) reduction...

Dither prevents truncation distortion. It adds around 3 dB of noise however that's better than the 15 dB or so of noise that would be needed to hide the distortion that's always created when you don't dither.

[theblue1]

Thanks for the correction, Bob! I was being a bit sloppy, I'm afraid.


As pennance, I followed the link above and went through the explainer on dithering.

[bloodstone]

I find dithering seems to add undesireable artifacts to the high end. I've tried many different types (Type I & II, UV22HR, MBIT+) and noise shaping settings.