Am I right in thinking That if my project is all recorded in 24 bit,and I am now going to export to wav 24 bit to bring files in for mastering, I do not use any dithering. Is this correct? And part 2 of question, where all di I look di see if project is in all 24 bit as  I just notuiced that when I go to utilities, change audio format, it says 16 bit with dither checked there. did I blow it?

When you have the project open you can see the setting for the record bit-depth in the transport control.  Both the sample rate and the record bit-depth are shown there, just under the Now Time, and just to the left of the song's tempo.

I have thus far always exported to 16-bit, so I am no expert on the export settings, sorry.

Bob Bone

Yes to no dither. Project>Audio Files.. will tell you bit depth of audio files used.

Only reduce bit-depth when absolutely necessary.
Only apply dither when reducing bit-depth.
If you'll be doing more processing (mastering/etc - post export), always export at 24Bit (or 32Bit Float).
You don't want to "master" at 16Bit resolution... as this introduces more rounding-error which can make the audio sound "fuzzy/buzzy" for lack of a better term.

If you'll be using Sonar's dither, I'd recommend one of the Pow-r algorithms.
I prefer Pow-r algorithm 1.
Much smoother results than the default triangular dither...

Yes, as others have said, you've got the right export settings if you're planning to master your audio outside of SONAR.

After the 24-bit audio has been mastered, you'll need to do a bit-depth conversion down to 16-bit if you plan to release on audio CD. And in that case, you'll need to use dithering when converting down to 16-bit.

Scott

--
Scott R. Garrigus - http://garrigus.com - SONAR X2 Power! - http://garrigus.com/?SonarX2Power
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series: http://garrigus.com/?PowerBooks
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar ProAudioTutor video tutorial series: http://garrigus.com/?ProAudioTutor
* Publisher of the DigiFreq free music technology newsletter: http://digifreq.com/?DigiFreq
* Publisher of the NewTechReview free consumer technology newsletter: http://newtechreview.com/?NewTechReview

Dither and bit depth conversion is done in the mastering stage, so let him do that. You do not need to do any kind of conversions before the mastering stage ads the master will be dithered to 16 bit when you receive it.
 
The only conversion that is doen before the masteirgn stage is converting it to a 32bit float and the mastering engineer will do this, if his programs allows
 
Cj

Thanks all this is very helpful

Jim Roseberry


Only reduce bit-depth when absolutely necessary.
Only apply dither when reducing bit-depth.
If you'll be doing more processing (mastering/etc - post export), always export at 24Bit (or 32Bit Float).
You don't want to "master" at 16Bit resolution... as this introduces more rounding-error which can make the audio sound "fuzzy/buzzy" for lack of a better term.

If you'll be using Sonar's dither, I'd recommend one of the Pow-r algorithms.
I prefer Pow-r algorithm 1.
Much smoother results than the default triangular dither...

+1 to everything! The Pow-r algorithms are much better. I like the 3rd one. I like the dither in Ozone 5 too.