KVR Audio

ATS · Post by **ATS** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 9:46 pm

I am comparing two sonar editions and one has this and one doesn't but what is it? POW-r dithering

agincourtdb · Post by **agincourtdb** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 10:04 pm

ATS wrote:I am comparing two sonar editions and one has this and one seisn't but what is it? POW-r dithering

http://www.mil-media.com/docs/articles/powr.shtml

jupiter8 · Post by **jupiter8** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 10:07 pm

Dithering is used when you go from one bitdepth to another. For example making a 16 bit file for a cd.
This particular dither is supposedly very good.

ATS · Post by **ATS** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 10:13 pm

thanks you all. I don't understand using different bit depths, any info on that?

bleebsen · Post by **bleebsen** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 10:16 pm

check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCM

it basically means how fine the digital "steps" are which are used to represent the analogue waveform. More bits mean higher resolution.

ATS · Post by **ATS** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 10:19 pm

bleebsen wrote:check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCM

Kinda basic knowledge for digital musicians...

thanks but that definition is too complicated for me.

bleebsen · Post by **bleebsen** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 10:21 pm

That's what I thought too after actually reading the article... I edited my post trying to be a little more helpfull..

ATS · Post by **ATS** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 10:28 pm

bleebsen wrote:That's what I thought too after actually reading the article... I edited my post trying to be a little more helpfull..

I read some of it and was like WHA??? lol

but like how do you say record music then have to dither it? I think it is like a higher bit depth or something then you have to take it back to 16 bit??!?!

bleebsen · Post by **bleebsen** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 10:28 pm

and a short try to explain dither:

When you convert the signal between different resolutions ("bit depths") mathemagical rouding errors occur. These sound pretty nasty. So dithering basically applies a special kind of "nice" noise to mask the nasty noise.

"POW-r" is just a certain commercial brandname for dithering.

RTaylor · Post by **RTaylor** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 1:27 am

ATS wrote:but like how do you say record music then have to dither it? I think it is like a higher bit depth or something then you have to take it back to 16 bit??!?!

You'll get much better results {working} at higher resolutions and... you get as many tries as you want to write your 24 bit original out to a cd standard file. :}

IIRs · Post by **IIRs** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 1:47 am

A simple rule to remember: always do everything at 24 bit.

The only time you need to add dither noise is when you go down to 16 bit for CD: dither noise magically* reduces the distortion of low level signals caused by lowering the resolution to 16-bit, but has a downside.. it is noise and it is audible (just about!). The better types of dither can produce noise that still has the magical benefits, but doesn't sound as obvious (noise shaping).

Every time you save a file at 16 bit resolution then, you will be either adding dither noise or truncation distortion (which is much worse), so it is important to only do this once.. and don't change the file again afterwards, not even a simple volume change!

* ok its not magic, its clever statistics.

what is POW-r dithering