[Ardour-Users] dither 32bit to 16bit

[plutek-infinity]

>Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:43:42 +0100
>From: =?UTF-8?B?SsO2cm4gTmV0dGluZ3NtZWllcg==?= <nettings at stackingdwarves.net>
>
>plutek-infinity wrote:
>>> Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:37:33 -0800 (PST)
>>> From: "Don Fredricks" <ardour at handsfull.net>
>>>
>>> plutek-infinity wrote:
>>>> is there a command-line equivalent which could batch-process the files ...?
>>> You might try sox. It automatically applies dither when reducing bit
>>> depth. You can turn off the automatic dither and apply a "dither effect"
>>> if you want more control.
>>>
>> 
>> hmmm.... lots of noise-shaped options in there. i'll have to do some listening tests!
>> i wonder if there are any web-published studies of these dithers...
>
>noise-shaped should be good enough. there are variants, but i doubt they
>differ much. any dither is better than none, and noise-shaped dither
>(or, to a somewhat lesser extent, triangular dither, for that matter)
>introduces less audible hiss. watch out, however: noise-shaped dithering
>should be the last processing step - if you intend to do more processing
>afterwards, the psycho-acoustic effect of the shaping might be lost...

thanks for the advice, Jorn! yes, i do all editing, mixing, processing, etc. at 32bit, with no dither, and only apply dither as the final step of mastering if i'm going to 16bit.

cheers!

-- 
.pltk.