Members motord Posted January 9, 2007 Members Share Posted January 9, 2007 Hi. I'm going to be doing a budget mastering job on some of my own stuff soon, and I would like to be sure I use dither properly. I'm planning on bouncing the mixes in PT to stereo 24 bit, 48 K files, then mastering in PT with waves and other plugs. I'll use the L1 last in the chain, and convert the files to 16 bit, 441K upon bouncing from the mastering session. My question is, should I set the L1's "quantize" control to 16 bits, because that's where the file is headed, or 24 bit, because that's the word length of the pre-master? What difference does it make? I assume I should set it to 24 bit. Am I correct? I just read the chapter on dithering from Bab Katz's "Mastering Audio" book, but I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the concept. Thanks alot to any and all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members motord Posted January 9, 2007 Author Members Share Posted January 9, 2007 Ok - I need to revise my question. I dug out my L1 manual (what a concept), and it says to set the quantization to 16 bit for a track that will end up on a CD. My real question is this: If the L1 is effectively changing the bit depth of my file from 24 to 16 bit at the output, what is happening when I tell PT to "convert after bounce" to 16 bits? Is this a redundant process? Confused. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author MikeRivers Posted January 9, 2007 CMS Author Share Posted January 9, 2007 Originally posted by motord My real question is this: If the L1 is effectively changing the bit depth of my file from 24 to 16 bit at the output, what is happening when I tell PT to "convert after bounce" to 16 bits?Is this a redundant process? Yes. Reducing the word length to 16 bits should be the last thing you do and it should only be done once. You can do it with ProTools' convesion (do they use Apogee UV22 in the version you have?) or use the L1, but not both. You can agonize over which one sounds better, or if you really want to overdo it, which one sounds better on each song. But unless you'll be manufacturing the CDs yourself, you might as well send the 24-bit files to the mastering/manufacturing plant and let them do the dirty work. They might be better equipped than you for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted January 10, 2007 Members Share Posted January 10, 2007 Mike Rivers' answer: +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members motord Posted January 10, 2007 Author Members Share Posted January 10, 2007 Thank you both. So the digi conversion only applies dither if you insert the dither plugin into the session? I'm concerned that it's dithering without my knowledge when I select a 16 bit file for the bounce. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted January 10, 2007 Members Share Posted January 10, 2007 Not to worry, it's only applying dither if you place that on the plug-in. I also agree with Mike's answer, FWIW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members motord Posted January 10, 2007 Author Members Share Posted January 10, 2007 Thanks again, everyone. I will proceed without fear of the dreaded double-dither. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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