Topic: Why dither to 16bit?

[Evil Taper]

There's all kinds of talk about dithering from 24bit down to 16bit in the air now.  I guess I'm not understanding the reason to dither when there's easier methods.  If you have a program like Soundforge 5 you can just resample the 24bit to 16bit without a reshaping of the sound or anything.  The output files look and sound identical as far as I can tell.  So, what's the advantage of "reshaping" the sound of your recording when down sampling it?

[Gordon]

you can not/do not  resample from 24b to 16b.  that would be dither.  you resample from 96 to 44.1.  big difference.

[Evil Taper]

So using the 24>16bit function on soundforge is actually doing a dither?  In wavelab there are alot of different options for dithering and all kinds of options for reshaping and what not....when would you actually want to do that?

[Burnt]

you can not/do not  resample from 24b to 16b.  that would be dither.  you resample from 96 to 44.1.  big difference.

Gordon's right.

Dithering is when you change the Bit Rate (ie 24>16).

Re-sampling is when you cahnge the Sampling Rate (ie 96>44.1 or 48>44.1, etc.)

[Burnt]

So using the 24>16bit function on soundforge is actually doing a dither?  In wavelab there are alot of different options for dithering and all kinds of options for reshaping and what not....when would you actually want to do that?

You'd want to dither down to 16 bits if you want to put the show on a regular audio cd that will play in any cd player.  I do have wavelab but mostly use soundforge so not sure what different options you are specifically talking about?

[Evil Taper]

My bad.  So why would you want to use a dither that changes the sound of the recording?

[Gordon]

My bad.  So why would you want to use a dither that changes the sound of the recording?

if it's 24 bit show and I want to burn a regular cd then I dither.

[Evil Taper]

Exactly, but why use one that "reshapes" the sound or colors it at all?

[Burnt]

My bad.  So why would you want to use a dither that changes the sound of the recording?

Because a 24 bit recording WILL NOT play on a regular cd player, that's why.

To listen to a 24 bit recording you can do it on your computer only if you have a compatible 24 bit soundcard which most people do not have.  If you happen to have a DVD player that will play the DVD-A format (an audio DVD) which most don't you can burn a DVD at 24 bits to listen to.  But you also need some VERY EXPENSIVE software to be able to burn 24 bit DVD-A discs.

[Burnt]

Exactly, but why use one that "reshapes" the sound or colors it at all?

As far as I know you can't just change the bit rate without changing the sound at all, that's why you'd dither.  You have no choice in the matter if your final destination is 16 bit cd's.

[Gordon]

I burn dvd's of the 24 bit shows I get.  but if I want to listen in the car I dither and burn a 16 bit.  tons of seeds are started as 24 but then dithered and seeded to the mass's.  it doesn't sound worse.  just not as good

[Evil Taper]

can you compress 24bit files or not?  I noticed that FLAC is only compatable with 16-bit sources.

[Burnt]

can you compress 24bit files or not?  I noticed that FLAC is only compatable with 16-bit sources.

Not sure which version it started with but you can totally FLAC 24/96 files.  I have 3 King Crimson shows on my Hard-drive right now like that.

[Evil Taper]

i may be due for an update here then

[Gordon]

can you compress 24bit files or not?  I noticed that FLAC is only compatable with 16-bit sources.

no it's not. flac can do 24 bit.  shn can not do 24