Ozone dithering problems

[Michael Allan Cumming]

I'm trying to dither down my 24/48 track to a 160 bitrate mp3 and am getting some nasty noise.

I have Ozone as the last plugin for my Master Out in Cubase and there is no clipping in the meter.

I assumed that have the limiter as the last device in Ozone's "graph" would elimiate the risk of clipping.

I've tried lowering the volume a touch and I've experimented with various dithering options but I always have a crackle from time to time.

Should I try exporting to wave THEN converting to mp3 ? I'm just concerned that path will lead to poor quality.

[C00kie]

Should I try exporting to wave THEN converting to mp3 ? I'm just concerned that path will lead to poor quality.

Yep, that's what I would do. Or skip the dithering, it's useless for MP3. Measure with a micrometer, set a mark with chalk, and chop it with an axe.

NB: a 160bps MP3 has poor quality compared to the original anyhow

[kylen]

... but I always have a crackle from time to time.

If you are using the Ozone dynamics processors and the attack time is set too fast I've had this happen also - slowing it down to 10-20ms seems to get rid of it for me. Depends what you're doing with it too I think.

I usually use a 16bit wave file as a source for mp3 that has already been dithered - the minimum stream speed for me is 192kbps usually the highest ones like 254 or 320bps (no stereo field collapse or any of that other mumbo jumbo).

[lfm]

I may be the soundcard that is playing a trick on you. Or the hosting software.

I had a M Audio Audiophile and running Ozone as an insert on a single mixdown stereo track and using nTrack at the time.

Different times the resulting wave had plenty of room left, and the other time it was squashed and hardly left 100% level. It depended on the level on the track when I played it. It looked cool in Ozone as well.

nTrack obviously did not show the actuall level out then(even with this option checked that output meters should do this).

So check if your output is peak or r.m.s value also.

I would make a resulting wave first, then do the mp3-converting on this wave only. Then you know where your problem is.

Do it in steps with a proper mixdown first, then the mastering to wave, then just convert this if it looked ok.

Check also the settings for meters in Ozone whether peak, and if ackumulated or realtime and a peak hold so you can see it.

But input/output meters in Ozone is a puzzle. I don't quite trust them.

Now running Sonar it has a proper output meter in the very last stage.

[Michael Allan Cumming]

Thanks so much everyone.

I suppose 24/48 to mp3 was a tad ambitious.