DITHER?

Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 7:41 pm

Hello all,

My CD was tracked at home (Protools LE) then mixed & mastered at a local commercial facility.

I want to self-produce MP3's (from the CD) using Portools LE. I intend to import the 16-bit AIFF files from the CD into Protools, then bounce them down as MP3's. The importing process should convert the 16-bit AIFF files into 24-bit WAV files for use in Protools. I understand that the conversion isn't the best option but it is what I have readily available.

The final destination of these MP3's will be for use in production libraries where I will not know if they intend to do any futher processing to the files.

As I understand it, any time we go down from 24-bit to anything lower, we dither.

I have...
Power Dither.
Waves IDR Dither.
Digirack Dither (from Protools).

Any suggestions for choice of Dither or should I avoid Dithering all together in this situation?

Thanks,

ENW

P.S.
My degree is in music. Sometimes this recording stuff makes my head hurt.

Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 10:23 pm

Quote:

The final destination of these MP3's will be for use in production libraries where I will not know if they intend to do any futher processing to the files.

I wouldn't mess with more dither if the output file is gonna be an MP3 (if you don't hear any digital artifacts, why bother?), and I would hope that nobody would do any further processing to your MP3's - that would not only be redundant but detrimental at some point.

If 'they' decide to do any further processing to an MP3, let them figure it out.
Your CD is done, right? What more do you want?

Why not just use a free or shareware MP3 converter?

Moderator Joined: Sep 12, 2002 Posts: 1850 Location: NYC

Better yet, import the files from the CD into a 16 bit session and then export them to mp3. Easy Peasy.

Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 8:23 am

Import to a 16-bit session then export to MP3? I like that. It's a simple solution.

I'll keep my ears open for any digital weirdness as well. Thanks very much.

Happy New Year,

ENW

Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 11:04 am

Geez, you could just load the disc into iTunes and have it do the whole thing in three clicks.

Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 12:58 pm

iTunes: Another good solution that I overlooked.

Thanks,

ENW

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