Hi Guys!  Brand new to the forum here, but I have been doing the home studio thing on and off for quite a long time. Ive been a cakewalk user since back in the day, but got away from the recording thing for a while.  Thankfully I'm back to it and just recently bought Sonar Platinum and have some general questions that I haven't quite been able to find answers to yet, and I hope you guys can help.
 
Concerning dithering...  I understand how and why to use,  but here is where my confusion lies.   I'm trying to think of the best way to form this question, and really its the dithering plugins that confuse me more than anything.  Let me use an example
 
Lets assume I've been working on a project with everything recorded at 24 bit, 44.1.  I mixdown still at 24/44.1. No mastering has been done yet, no plugins at all on my master buss at this point, and no dithering applied because I'm not doing any kind of conversion.  I've simply just created a stereo mix down of my project in prep for mastering.
 
I then take that 24 bit, 44.1 stereo mixdown and import it into a brand new session where I can master it.  My project would simply have that one stereo track(that is of course still 24 bit/44.1), going to the master buss where I apply all of my mastering plugins.  When it is time to export, the software asks me what sample rate I want to use and if I want to dither.  I select 16 bit, 44.1 and at that point I add dithering through the DAW when exporting.
 
The paragraph above is how I normally approached things, but there are all these dithering plugins out there nowadays that seem to be highly recommended.  Unfortunately they seem to have complicated the issue for me lol.  My question is...  how do they work?  Does the plugin itself actually convert the audio to 16 bit while in use and applying dithering?  I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around what the plugin is actually doing if the source is still 24 bit and it doesnt get converted until exporting out of the DAW....  unless of course the plugin itself converts to 16 bit in realtime.  Does that make sense what I'm trying to ask?  It just would seem to me that when you ask the DAW to mixdown the file, it is going to apply all the plugins in use in the master buss(including dithering if you use a dithering plugin)......but the audio isnt converted yet is it?  I wouldnt think it would convert until it was being exported/saved, and that means the dithering applied before the conversion and not during the conversion.
 
Thanks for dealing with my long winded question!
 

First, I wouldn't worry too much about it unless you're doing classical music or acoustic music with a lot of dynamics. Second, when you export, what you exported from doesn't change. Dithering is typically added as part of the conversion to 16 bits.
 
You may find this article I wrote helpful in de-mystifying what dithering is, and how it works. Unfortunately the link to the audio example is broken, I'll fix it as soon as I find the original files.

I appreciate the response, and yes this does help!  After reading your article you linked and then reading some instructions on some of the plugins you included in the article...  I think I had the order of events mixed up.
 
I was assuming that the process of dithering was occurring at the exact same time that the bit dept was being reduced.  Sort of like.....as things are being truncated and a rounding error pops up....the software notes the rounding error and says 'add noise here' basically.
 
Reading more though it sounds like they just add general noise into the bottom 8 bits before the conversion, and then once the bottom 8 bits are truncated, the noise thats present helps mask the artifacts.
 
Thats why I was having a hard time wrapping my head around it cause I was thinking to myself....  how can a plugin correct something that hasnt happened yet.  If that makes sense

Plugins don't do dithering, that's why you'll only see it in the export function in Sonar For example, you can't buy a dithering plugin to add that function to a program that doesn't provide the feature.

Dithering can also be done by some 3rd party stand alone programs.

Some plugins do dither. Not dithering on its own per se but includes it as part of the plugin. One is PSP Xenon which is  a fantastic limiter.  The dithering section is very last in the process and can be switched in or not. The limiter can also be switched out and just the dithering enabled. But it costs $250 for the privilege. I would not go this route unless you are after an excellent limiter. 
 
I use it because it essentially better than most limiters around and then I don't have to tell the DAW to dither at all, Just leave it alone. And let Xenon do it instead.
 
 

I should have been more specific and said that there is no dithering plugin. But yes there are several plugins that dither as part of their overall set of features.

Waves limiters do it too.

yeah, i've used wavearts finalplug for years until recently picking up ozone advanced in the sales, although i also have voxengo elephant it doesn't get so much use (i think the gui is less attractive than the others)

Anderton
First, I wouldn't worry too much about it unless you're doing classical music or acoustic music with a lot of dynamics. Second, when you export, what you exported from doesn't change. Dithering is typically added as part of the conversion to 16 bits.

 
Good Day all,
 
So, not to worry about dithering something twice? or dithering at all? It seems your article says dont do it twice.
 
So I was wondering same as OP, when using OZONE 7 as a plugin, as last in signal chain, with its dithering option enabled, should I then not apply dithering in Sonar export options? and/or is one way better than the other?
Actually what may not be clear in Ozone is if this option it is just for auditioning how it will sound with dithering applied, or if it will actually be applying it to export, since when exporting out of Ozone it will also ask again whether to apply dithering, so not clear if already using dithering options enabled within Ozone, should I then be declining dithering in export options? (I guess Im reaching out to Ozone users in this case?)
 
Cheers   

Ozone dithers. 
 
https://www.izotope.com/content/izotope/en/search.html?q=dithering+guide  Here is Izotope's Dithering Guide.