Does 32-bit float need dither??

That is a new one for me. Dither is always needed when going from a higher bit depth to a lower one.

pdarg


I was converting a 32 bit floating point audio file in WaveLab yesterday - and the message there seemed to indicate that dither is not necessary when converting 32 bit float to 16 bit.
 
Is this correct?

Is it because Wavelab is applying dither internally as a matter of course when converting from floating point?

In which case you'd be applying dither twice by doing it manually as well.

I'm not au fait with Wavelab but if it is telling you it isn't necessary then that could be a good reason why.

Hopefully a knowledgeable Wavelab user will chime in on this.