Mastering question

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Audiodog
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2012/06/04 23:24:39 (permalink)

Mastering question

Hey guys, I had a question regarding your mastering approaches. I want to stay within Sonar to master (I'm still using 8.5.3 because I just like it better than X1 and it is very stable) and I'm currently inserting Ozone 5 as the last plug in on my master buss. My question is in regards to dithering. I've only done this once, but I thought if I set my dithering to 'on' and set it up how I wanted in Ozone and then exported the audio leaving the dithering option set to 'none' in the Sonar export window page that comes up, that the final result would show up as 16 bits. But it comes up as 24 bits - which is my original bit depth I'm recording at. I'm just wanting to make sure I don't get redundant dithering from Sonar and Ozone. Just looking for some thoughts/ideas. Thanks, Audiodog
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    Beepster
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    Re:Mastering question 2012/06/04 23:38:06 (permalink)
    Well I think I see your problem. You don't have oppose able thumbs! :-D

    Other than that I have no idea what you're talking about. Is certain third party dithering somehow better? If so... couldn't you export to 24 bit and then load it into your third party software?

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    bluzdog
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    Re:Mastering question 2012/06/04 23:43:58 (permalink)
    If you have Ozone set up to dither then set Sonar to none and choose 16 bits in the export window. I think Sonar defaults to the project bit depth.

    Rocky
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    Kalle Rantaaho
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    Re:Mastering question 2012/06/05 03:40:43 (permalink)
    Maybe I'm misunderstanding your post, but dithering setting "on" or "none" does not affect the bit depth setting. You need to separately select the export bit depth, as bluzdog suggests.
    It is possible to export/convert from 24 bits to 16 bit without dithering, those two are not tied together.

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    bitflipper
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    Re:Mastering question 2012/06/05 11:21:18 (permalink)

    Make sure you have the bit depth set to 16 in both places: Ozone and SONAR. 

    You are correct in choosing "None" for dither in the export options in order to avoid dithering twice. 



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    js516
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    Re:Mastering question 2012/06/05 11:36:30 (permalink)
    I was under the impression that dithering is normally applied when reducing bit depth. If you choose to reduce the bit depth without dithering, the addition of dithering after bit depth reduction is pointless.

    The key is to add dithering, if needed, when you reduce bit depth.

    If you plan on mastering in 24bit and your recording is 24bit, then there is no need to dither. If you recorded in 24bit, and plan to master in 16bit, you would apply dithering (if needed) when you export the 24bit audio into 16bit. Once in 16bit you do not add dithering again.

    Joe Sera
     
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    mudgel
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    Re:Mastering question 2012/06/05 11:39:22 (permalink)
    As per bitflipper's post above;

    by setting SONAR and oZone to 16 bit and setting SONAR's export to not dither; the export file will be dithered by oZone.

    Mike V. (MUDGEL)

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    Audiodog
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    Re:Mastering question 2012/06/05 15:48:57 (permalink)
    Thanks Bitflipper and Mudgel, that was exactly what I was getting at. Probably could have asked that clearer.
    #8
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