tacman7

Bristol_Jonesey

Strangely, I used Powr3 recently, and when I imported it into CD Architect, CDA reported "possible digital clipping at hh:mm:sss".

I would think that would need to be run through a limiter before dither.

It is run through a limiter before dither

konradh


I use the Powr3 thing only because that is what I have heard recommended.  I've never had a problem.

Birstol_Jonesy: supposedly the down-side to Powr3 is that it is a huge CPU hit.  Maybe your error was caused by processor overload, which I guess could happen if you had lots of plugs and effects in your mix.  Not sure if that makes sense--just a thought.

With my CPU?

Doesn't seem likely, but thanks for the thought. I've certainly exported more complex mixes than this one without error, but again, I always used Triangular dither.

What if you didn't dither at all?  I generally don't.  The last thing in my master chain is either FGX or ProL.

You only need to dither if you're changing bit rates - 24 down to 16 is the most common scenario.

If you don't need to dither and you do, is any harm done?

yorolpal


What if you didn't dither at all?  I generally don't.  The last thing in my master chain is either FGX or ProL.

Are you sending these out to be mastered? If so then send the 24b source files un-dithered.

If you're mastering these yourself either use the plugins with dithering capabilities or use X1's dither options.
Don't dither them down more than once.

If you don't need to dither and you do, is any harm done?

Not really. A small amount of noise is added, but it's way down in the least-significant bits and will pretty much disappear when you subsequently truncate to a lower bit depth.

yorolpal


What if you didn't dither at all?  I generally don't.  The last thing in my master chain is either FGX or ProL.

You're most likely to hear it if at all during fades where a noticeable stepping may become apparent.

Just dither as the last process you ever do to the file when reducing bit depth, Sonar's triangular algo is fine, and call it a day.  It really deserves no more attention than that IMO.

The Sonar manual (PDF file) has a description of each of the dithering types and what it is best for. 

daveny5


The Sonar manual (PDF file) has a description of each of the dithering types and what it is best for. 

Where's John with this helpful information?