User Manual

WAVELAB
10 – 232 Master Section
When should I apply dithering?
The basic rule-of-thumb is that you should dither when moving to a lower
bit resolution. One obvious instance of this is when converting an audio
file to a lower resolution (e.g. preparing a 24-bit file for mastering to CD,
which uses 16-bit format).
However, even if you’re playing back or rendering a 16-bit file to the same
resolution, you need to dither if you’re using any real-time processing
whatsoever in WaveLab! The reason for this is that WaveLab works with
an internal resolution of 32-bit (floating point), for supreme audio quality.
This means that as soon as you perform any kind of real-time processing,
the audio data will be treated at this high resolution instead of the original
16 bits, thus making dithering necessary.
Examples of real-time processing include level adjustments, any effects,
mixing of two or more clips in a Montage, etc. In fact, the only time when
a 16-bit file will be played back at 16-bit resolution is if you play it without
any fades or effects, and with the Master Faders set to 0.00 (no level ad-
justment – Master level indicator turned off).
• To make sure whether you need to dither or not, use the Bit Meter to check
the actual resolution of your audio signals.
The Bit Meter is described in the section “Bit Meter” on page 170.
Selecting a dithering algorithm
To select and activate a dithering algorithm, click on the arrow button next
to the plug-in slot in the Dithering pane, and select one of the options from
the pop-up menu that appears. The default options are “Intern” (Wave-
Lab’s internal dithering algorithm), “UV22” and “UV22HR” (dithering algo-
rithms developed by Apogee). However, you can also add other plug-ins
to this list, see “Adding other plug-ins to the Dithering pane” on page 235
• When you select any of the “UV22” options, a special control panel appears.
This is where you make the UV22 dithering settings (see “UV22HR Dither-
ing” on page 234).
This is handled in the same way as regular effect control panels – you can hide or show it by
right-clicking on the slot, bypass it in the control panel, etc. The same is true if you select any
plug-in other than the “Intern” option. For the internal dithering, the controls in the Dithering
pane are used, as described below.
Once you have selected a dithering algorithm, dithering is active (as indi-
cated by the red indicator for the Dithering pane). It will apply to all play-
back (through the Master Section) or rendering.
• To turn off dithering completely, right click in the slot and select “Remove”
from the pop-up menu that appears.
This is the same as selecting “None” from the effect selection pop-up menu.