kevinwal
I do not use dithering at all until rendering the master. I record in 24 bit and render the final wav file at 24 bit, so there's no dithering at all in Sonar. I bring the wav file into Izotope Ozone 7 standalone for "mastering" (in quotes because I'm just figuring out what the heck that means) and  I render the final product at 16 bits. It's then and only then that I use MBIT+ dithering.
 
I don't know if Sonar uses dithering when freezing or bouncing behind the scenes though, I haven't seen that in the manual yet. There may be some going on that I can't see or control somewhere. Dithering once is what the manual recommends, and that makes sense to me; I can't see any point in repeatedly adding noise to a track when the sample bit length isn't changing. And I can use every little advantage I can get at this point.

There is no dither involved in freezing.
When bouncing to Track, dither is provided as an option in the Bounce dialog.
 

Bristol_Jonesey

stxx
Only dither if your taking your files to 44.1/16 CD and franky.... I can't tell the difference.   I use POWR-3 cause I read somewhere its the best

To  be more precise, only dither when you are doing a downward bit reduction.

Yes... that is my (limited) understanding of it as well.
 
Going upward (like 16 to 24) doesn't matter because no information is being removed.
 
The 16bit file isn't going to have anything useful "added" to it or rearranged in a helpful manner when converted to 24 bit... thus making "dithering" pointless and perhaps causing more harm than good (if it does anything at all... which I do not know whether it would or not but I'd imagine it depends on the program incurring the dithering).
 
However this seems like the type of thing BITflipper (lulz) or other such epicly intelligent forumites could really define for us.
 
Then again... the OP didn't want "history" or details so maybe that would be inappropriate... and these types of sciency threads do seem to go off into wackadoodle territory rather quickly too so IDK.
 
I'm just a Beeps (who has currently had a few barley pops) so I should probably be ignored.
 
*burp*

jpetersen

carl
The op said he didn't want the history or why to use it, just which type you used.

... and why.

That was in response to Pragi.
 
And as stated only dither once & last if going down to a lower bit rate.
 
 

I'm aware of the bs and truth, just interested in what you use and why.

Thank you much, leaned a bit here

Responses 8 and 15 basically contradict each other. I wonder which is correct?

fret_man
Responses 8 and 15 basically contradict each other. I wonder which is correct?

everybody has an opinion mine is it really doesn't matter. dither smooths out quantization distortion from truncation with regards to the original signal by randomizing the quantization and in return adds a constant noise level to the signal. the different dithers just use noise with different probability density functions. makes for good white papers and marketing sound bites. imho humans don't hear that well anymore. :-) if you can hear the difference then use it to your advantage. i use ozone's MBIT+ algorithm.

I've tracked/mixed/produced/mastered a lot of classical works where the music has "space" and decaying tails, and as a result also had a lot of test subjects for audio minutiae like bit resolution, 44.1 vs 96, different dither types, etc. Under those circumstances, I found some people can reliably hear the benefits of dither; most can't. Some people can't hear dither at first but after hearing what it does to the music "under the microscope" and then A-Bing music over time, they "learn" to recognize its effects.
 
Hearing the effects of dither requires a trained ear and a quiet listening environment. So the way I see it, I do dithering for the benefit of those who can hear it. (Similarly, the general public can't discriminate pitch as well as musicians but you try to have an instrument that's really in tune anyway, for the benefit of those who are sensitive to tuning discrepancies.)
 
This is the background for answering the OP. I'll take audio and reduce it to around -85 dB to -90 dB or so, which is a realistic floor for real-world D/A converters used in consumer CD players. How you reduce it matters. You can't reduce it in Sonar by normalization or gain changes, because the audio engine is too good and still gives good resolution at those low levels.
 
You'll hear the buzziness because the least significant bits are essentially switching instead of responding smoothly to level changes. Apply different dithers, and you'll definitely hear a difference. Choose the one that sounds best for the material at hand. For example what might sound good with an orchestra might not sound right with a solo nylon-string guitar.
 
OTOH of you're recording dance music and everything sits in the top 6 dB of dynamic range, you can use any dither and you won't hear a difference, nor will you hear a difference if you don't use any dither at all. Dither is basically context-sensitive. You can have guidelines, but I'm not sure you can have rules.

Then of course there's the old joke: "Do you dither?" "Well, yes and no...sometimes, sometimes not...actually I'm not sure, maybe I do, maybe I don't...should I?" 

fret_man
Responses 8 and 15 basically contradict each other. I wonder which is correct?

How so? I don't see that they are contradictory in any way.