32bit Float to 24bit fixed?

I’ve been using Nuendo for over 5 years. I just realized that I’ve been truncating from 32-bit within the program to my 24-bit converters (2x) RME 8 i/o and Tango 24). Nowhere in the manual or website did anyone warn that the program doesn’t handle this correctly. I hardly ever mix in the box. I send 24 channels out to an analog mixing console almost exclusively. To me it just sounds better. I am aware from reading Nika’s paper that there are two separate issues concerning float-point dithering. With that said, the only one that concerns me is how Nuendo doesn’t give me the right tools to dither the outputs prior to DA conversion. They really need to add more dithering options to address this issue.

I recently applied dither plugins to my final output buses in Nuendo (post fader) following information I read from Bob Katz and Nika (24-bits of triangular dither, no shaping, and 2-bits of dither). Myself and many others have heard huge differences in the way the audio sounds coming through the mixing board: more dynamic, better separation, more alive and less harsh, etc... The best plugin out of the bunch was the Izotope Ozone, all other functions were turned off except the DC offset was turned on prior to dithering (it seemed to make it even better). The only problem is using 12 of the Ozone plugs in Nuendo eats up a lot of processing. I’m using a 3 gig P4 and a gig of RAM.

My questions are:

Could you guys recommend any dithering plugins that you’ve found to be efficient and also sound good for this purpose?

What are your opinions on the sound quality of Nuendo as opposed to Samplitude for my way of working? Personally, I found Samplitude to sound very, very good and also gave me excellent tools for handling the output dither to my 24-bit converters. Nuendo also sounded nice with the dither on the outputs & very flat & annoying with it off, the sound that I’ve been fighting with for years and didn’t know it.

I would especially like to thank Nika for sharing his time & knowledge with the rest of us along with Bob Katz and others who have helped me over the years.

Thank You,
Kevin Hogan
http://www.khstudio.us/

PS. THIS THREAD IS NOT ABOUT FLOAT BEING BETTER THAN FIXED POINT!
A lot of us use float-point and would just like to get the best out of our system as possible. Any advise on how to do so better is very much appreciated.