Dithering

When mixing down to a stereo file, do you use the Pow-r 3 dithering?  I was told recently there are some harmonic errors created with this algorithm, and to consider using Pow-r 2.  So now when I don't like what I hear in my stereo file, I don't know if it's the quality of my work (likely) or the dithering (less likely).

MorganT


When mixing down to a stereo file, do you use the Pow-r 3 dithering?  I was told recently there are some harmonic errors created with this algorithm, and to consider using Pow-r 2.  So now when I don't like what I hear in my stereo file, I don't know if it's the quality of my work (likely) or the dithering (less likely).

Hi,where did you hear about the algorithm errors?


If I hear weirdness,I always blame my vibrato,or my new obsession to get "everything louder,than everything else".
Bob

I like POW-r3 for Rock and Metal genres
I like POW-r2 for Rap, hip hop, Electronic, Trance, Reggae and Country genrea
I like POW r-1 for Classical and Easy listening music genres

Cj

Not surprised - you should be recording @ 24 bit and only dithering down to 16 bit as the very last step.

If you're recording @ 16 bit and dithering down afterwards, you are seriously degrading your signal.

Bobguitkillerleft -- In Scott Garrigus' guide he states Pow-r 3 is the "most accurate" processing, but to use Pow-r 2 or 1 if it "overtaxes" your PC.  I felt I was hearing some harmonic distortion in a vocal when exported to stereo track that I was not hearing while monitoring the mix.  Am certain it was not an overload on processing power, so I tried triangular dithering to go to the other extreme, and it seemed to disappear.  I asked a friend about it, he said he recalled reading "somewhere" that this algorithm can induce some mild harmonic distortions at times, but wasn't sure.  I'm pretty sure now it was some of my effects / loudness...

Interesting that you all are noticing different impact of dithering on different styles of music.  I'll give that a whirl.

I generally record at 48k/24 bit.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you record at 44.1/16 bit you don't need dithering, as that is used to adapt bit size to 16 bit?

Yep - if it's 16 bit, all you need to do is export it with dithering set to "none"

That's just Sonar's internal math engine - it has nothing to do with what bit depth you record at.

Duh ,, I knew that, Mine is set at 24 bit. How are we supposed to keep this stuff straight? 64 bit OS, 32 bit rendering , 24 bit audio that has to be rendered to 16 bit because the rest of the world is 15 years behind in audio quality.