dithering questions

[dropblacksky]

Did you not save the reprinted 24 bit mix? Giving the mastering engineer the highest bit depth and resolution possible is always a good idea. He is likely to have much higher quality tools to prepare your final product, and if he's using digital processing in the chain, 24 bits is going to yield better results. Dithering should be the absolute last thing that is done to your file, post all processing.

It's not the end of the world and a professional mastering engineer can still give you good results, but if there is any feasible way to get a 24 bit mix to him then I would make the extra effort.

[visioncreation]

im the other half of dzara's band...

question. is it possible to re-pad the stereo file by loading the 16 bit aiff into logic and then exporting that file at 24 bit? this might be a stupid question, but then again im not too familiar with dithering process.

what is the result of a mix reprinted through an apogee rosetta at 24bit/44.1, exported at 16 bit, reloaded into logic and exported at 24bit?

[alfonso]

Originally Posted by visioncreation

im the other half of dzara's band...

question. is it possible to re-pad the stereo file by loading the 16 bit aiff into logic and then exporting that file at 24 bit? this might be a stupid question, but then again im not too familiar with dithering process.

what is the result of a mix reprinted through an apogee rosetta at 24bit/44.1, exported at 16 bit, reloaded into logic and exported at 24bit?

You won't get any benefit from it. Once you've exported at 16 bits you've lost the higher depth.

Sorry but where is the file corresponding to the "reprinted" 24 bits track you exported? It must be in the project's folder, that is the file you need....

Just to make clear what dithering is, it's some very low level noise that is added to the track to mask the nasty effects or, as they say "to round errors" coming from the truncation of bits when you go from 24 to 16 bits. This has to be done as the very last process before the 16 bits export, after the "mastering" phase.

All the digital processing has much better accuracy if performed on an higher bit depth so you should keep it until the end.

Also, if you added dithering, which is noise, it could have been added during the 16bits export, and then you apply compression which is something very typical of mastering, this noise will be probably raised quite a bit and it won't be nice.

If you didn't delete your files you already have what you need, every recorded track in a daw means there is a file somewhere in the HD.