Topic: Waves dither setting for maximixing at 24 bit? -internal bit res/process related

[BC]

Damon's thread below made me remember something I was wondering about for a while.

If I use the ultramaximizer for boosting the levels of a quiet 24 bit master recording, but want my file to still be at 24 bit resolution, should I use dither?

So far I have not applied dither to create these 24 bit files, but I was thinking that if it is doing 32 bit internal processing maybe I should be dithering even to create a 24 bit file from a raw 24 bit file, since the software would be upsampling to 32 bit to do the processing. I searched the Waves instructions about this a bit, but did not find an answer to this. Any idea guys? If yes, I should be dithering, is there any preferred setting for this scenario?

FWIW For dithering my 24 bit masters to 16 bit for CD I use level 1 with ultra noise shaping. 

Thanks,
Ben


crossposted to tapers section over at oade too.

[MattD]

Yes! Just set the output level to 24-bit instead of 16-bit. Waves is a 32-bit plugin that uses 32-bit floating-point arithmetic to do the ditering calculation. I need to find the manual for this thing that tells what setting does what as far as type and noise shaping go.

Edit: You're right. I didn't read your post completely before replying. There's no "upsampling" going on, it's just doing the math in a larger "space" than 24-bit allows.