Dither!!! What to use now?

[Jorg]

I just purchased the UAD-1 Precision Limiter and have to say I love it.
Im not sure yet if its better than the L2 but its definately different. So far I prefer it over the L2.

Now i just realised something: The Precision Limiter does not have any dithering options build in

So what should I best be doing now. The standalone IDR from Waves doesnt have any Noiseshaping options.
Shall I use a L2 in the chain just for dithering or are there any other options?

What do you guys use?

[mixerguy]

I use my (awesome) Rosettta 200 for hardware dither

[Jorg]

I wish I could afford more nice gear like that.
However Im looking for something in the software domain.

[m_gant]

By any chance you use Steinberg products like SX, or Wavelab with UV22hr as a included plug? That's a nice dither option. Perhaps you master outside your host, Sound Forge and Wlab both have built in dither options. I would be hesitant to put the L2 in the chain JUST for dithering.

[Jorg]

Yeh, I use Steinberg Cubase SX 3.
But that UV22 doesnt have the amount of options like the L2 neither.

Never really tried it tho. Is it quality wise up there with Waves Dither?

If I insert the L2 as the last in the chain and it doesnt limit AT ALL, just sits there for the dithering, that shouldnt effect the quality, or would it?

[lemix]

Jorg,
I might be off on this, but the Waves "IDR" is the actual dither algo of the L2.
Check if you have that installed..

[Jorg]

Originally Posted by lemix

Jorg,
I might be off on this, but the Waves "IDR" is the actual dither algo of the L2.
Check if you have that installed..

Yes, youre right. But as I mentioned before the standalone IDR doesnt offer any Noiseshaping options.
In the L2 you can choose different Noisshaping Types and with the IDR you can only choose the bit depth.

[Nerdyrocker]

I may be shot for this but I favor the POW-r dither (Pro Tools dither plug-in) over any other that I have heard. Especially compared to the IDR.

(side note, POW-r stands for Pshyco-acoustically Optimized Wordlength Reducer)
In case you're curious.

[Jorg]

ive already tried to find more info on that POW-R.
So far it seems i cant get that dither for cubase as a vst.

[dreamsongs]

The UV22hr is the same as the Rosetta uses. It should do you fine...

[Jorg]

Originally Posted by dreamsongs

The UV22hr is the same as the Rosetta uses. It should do you fine...

I will give that a try. Even tho it comes with SX I have to admit that I never REALLY tried it. Maybe cause i expected its free means its sh**.

If Im getting it right the normal mode will do for loud dense masters and low is for more acoustic and quiet material?

[Nerdyrocker]

In my humble opinion, you want to get your hands on a dither that offers a couple different types of noise shaping. Lets think dither for a minute. Dither is the process of adding low leve noise to audio in order to prevent what is called "low level quantization error." This is a type of digital distortion that occurs when signals reach very low levels approaching the noise floor. The dither is applied to prevent these errors from occuring. Of course, this is raising our noise floor by a couple dB but you have to think, this is all happening around -90dB or so.

The "noise shaping" of a dither does just that. It shapes or pushes the noise to a more suitable location. For instance, Type 3 Noise Shaping on the POW-r dither plug-in pushes the noise way towards the upper frequencies in order for the noise to have less of an effect on the audio program. This is great for wide stereo images and complex program material. Type 2 Noise Shaping (to my ears) is a hair better for mixes that are intense in the low end (hip-hop, R+B, some pop/rock). Type 1 Noise Shaping, I have the most success with when doing work in mono.

The regular DigiRack dither sucks. The dither in Digital Performer is better used as a full blown white noise generator it is soooooooo bad. The IDR...well...I dunno...it just sounds weird to me.

Truncating is fun for rough mixes (quick and dirty) but remember kids, you should ALWAYS dither. For example, the Pro Tools TDM mixer actually runs at 48 bits with an 8 bit accumulator. Even if you record audio files at 16 bit, the mixer is running much higher than that, meaning you should dither.

And that my friends are the keys to dither success by the Nerdyrocker.

Does this help? Tech specs are cool, but really, just use your ears and make sure the mixes coming out of your DAW sound like what they sounded like inside the DAW.

Make Music.

[Plec]

I'm not a fan of the UV22 dither... but that's just me. You can use the L2 just for dithering. When inserted without doing any processing it is bit-transparent.

[Ruudman]

I use either MBIT+ or POW-r, usually MBIT.
Now, if we only could lower the gain by 14 dBs....


ruudman

[Jorg]

Originally Posted by Plec

I'm not a fan of the UV22 dither... but that's just me. You can use the L2 just for dithering. When inserted without doing any processing it is bit-transparent.

Thanks, thats what I wanted to know.
Its a bit a shame that you need to put an ENTIRE L2 on the mixbus just for the dither since its not the most CPU frinedly plugin.