- Does Dithering Matter In Audio Production? | Production Expert
If you plan to get your mix mastered somewhere else or do the mastering yourself in a separate project then I recommend that you bounce to In this Quick Tip, I'm using Logic Pro to demonstrate the dithering process. Once you've completed your mastering chain and you're happy with the way. Dithering is a crucial part of the mastering process. FREE MASTERCLASS: How to quit your day job & work on music full-time.
Dithering Options - Logic Pro - Logic Pro Help.Logic Pro 9 dither chain - Apple Community
By Gorwel , November 4, in Logic Pro. I'm just starting to mix 'in the box' although I'm bouncing in real time as I have outboard inserted on some tracks. Not sure if this has different implications for dithering than online bouncing as, obviously, the outboard will be generating its own noise. I assume that, for mastering, bouncing to bit is best? Is that right? If so, no need to worry about dithering I guess. If the mastering person can't accept bit files, is it good practice to dither down to 24?
I read on one post that the algorithms in Logic were really for bit dithering. Remember that your interface is using bit fixed on the output and input converter. So when you use outboard gear, that's what you get. Still seems to make sense to retain bit if possible? The Logic mixer is bit float. People like that because you can have things in the red in the mixer and not distort. But I don't know about certain 3rd party plugins like Waves who mimic the hardware versions if the input of the plugin is suitable for slamming it with loudness.
I'm really just asking about retaining maximum resolution in the bounced file and, particularly, whether it's considered good practice to dither down to 24 bit. My new Logic Pro Book is out! You'd be wasting 1. Even 24 bits is more than what you need to keep a full resolution audio file.
Short of giving you a whole course on digital audio, the best example I can give you is:. Not sure that analogy works because bit processing allows for greater precision? It's clearly rounded to get to Whether or not rounding errors are relevant is what's contentious? No analogy is perfect, but the idea here is that while the bit processing is useful for processing mathematical calculations , it's not useful for digital audio file delivery.
Remember that 24 bits yields dB of dynamic range. Does you final mix have anywhere near that kind of dynamic range? Most likely not. I wouldn't get too caught up in technicalities as the slightest issues in mixing WAY outweighs any differences in dithering options. Chances are you may have plugins in that mix that aren't running at full quality that could be causing greater differences to the ultimate quality of the mix you send, so when looking at such fine margins your time is better spent elsewhere on more significant elements IMO.
So, with that in mind, It's just too much of a rabbits hole to fall down for it to make any worthwhile time investment in. And you'd have to have a super perfect mix or hitting wide dynamics for it to have a real world effect.
By the time it goes through mastering and compressed on to the final media, really, it's just trivial. So my advice - just send what they request. In terms of outboard, i would also prefer to bounce them into stems before exporting also. Gives you more control on the final mix and ability to recall without setting the hardware up again.
If a mastering engineer doesn't know how to deal with a 32bit FP file, well than that will be your problem right there. If he's a decent mastering engineer it won't be an issue and he will probably even prefer it.
If you do come to dithering yourself, take a bit of time to audition Logic's several options to find what you think might be the best. Try jacking up the volume playing some of the ultra quiet areas, like the reverb tail at the end of a song and see if you can tell the difference. I think that's where it would be most noticeable. It might be hard to tell a difference though. You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Paste as plain text instead. Only 75 emoji are allowed. Display as a link instead. Clear editor. Upload or insert images from URL. By mq93 , 11 hours ago in Logic Pro. By joshj , 1 hour ago in Logic Pro. By Ananna , 2 hours ago in Logic Pro. Click here! Dithering Options. Share More sharing options Followers 1.
Reply to this topic Start new topic. Recommended Posts. Gorwel Posted November 4, Posted November 4, I can see that this has been discussed on other threads but still a bit confused. Logic Pro X Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options AFAIK there's no interface with bit converters. Or maybe there is already for a lot of money. Dithering in Logic is mainly when you go down to 16 bit.
Yep, that's right about the convertors! Thanks for reminding me. I don't have anything in the red. I'm working at a reference of dB.
Gorwel Posted November 5, Posted November 5, Hopefully, the mastering will be OK with David Nahmani Posted November 6, Posted November 6, Don't dither if you're going to send your file for mastering. Sending an undithered 24 bit file is perfectly acceptable, a 32 bit floating point file is most likely overkill. Gorwel Posted November 6, You're welcome.
And BTW these are all questions you should ask your mastering engineer directly as well to hear his opinion. I've just done that too. Also, I've just realised that Logic allows adding dither whilst copying files. So, it's no great job to bounce at 32 and then make copies at 24? I need to type more clearly! What I meant was: 1. Make a bit copy of the resulting file with or without dither offline. Does that make sense? Why the 2 step process? Bounce to 24 bit in real time and skip the bouncing to 32 bit floating point.
To retain the 32? Though I can see that you think that this is 'overkill'. It seems odd to reduce resolution unnecessarily if processing is happening at 32? I'm essentially picking up on the useful discussion here, wondering if anyone had further thoughts a few months later. As David stated previously, key is what your mastering engineer wants. Posted November 10, Join the conversation You can post now and register later. Reply to this topic Insert image from URL.
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