Dither screwed up in WB 1.6
For all the posts about plugins not working and so on, what I've found is that you can't do anything in WB that would require a bounce or any kind of dither because that is broken. If you are putting files into WB and running plugins on them, then dithering (which you need to do for any kind of DSP), you are actually creating CDs of truncated 16 bits, I'm sorry to say.
I found this out because I wanted to hear what the different Powr algorithms sounded like, so I tried importing a -75dbFs 24 bit sine wave into WB and bouncing it with dither. Then reimporting it into Logic and putting enough gain on it to hear what's happening.
My experiments show that it turns into a nasty square wave or something similar when bounced.
Doesn't matter what the dither settings are.
I created a 16 bit dithered file of that same sine wave in Izotope RX using Mbit+ dither and burned it to a CD in WB directly without bouncing, then reimported it into Logic.
I heard a sine wave amidst a lot of noise. This is what it should sound like.
Did the same thing using Barbabatch. It's dither wasn't as good but it was basically the same thing.
Did the same thing with a bounce in WB, and it was corrupted. Night and Day. A buzzy wave with no noise at all. The dither doesn't work. It's just truncating the audio from what I can tell. I tried all the dither settings in the preferences I could find. They don't work.
In fact, even if you bounce a predithered file without doing anything else to it, it will get corrupted. Just the act of bouncing truncates the lowest bits.
You can't do mastering and you can't use plugins on files going to 16 bit without dithering.
The only way this software can be used is to import finished and dithered 16 bit files and not do ANYTHING to them. No bouncing of any kind. No plugins, no fades, no level adjustments. Nothing except ordering, spacing, and hitting the burn command.
Only under those conditions does it not corrupt the audio in the lowest bits.
Try my experiment if you don't believe it. You can create a low level sine wave with the test oscillator in Logic.
Hopefully this will get fixed.
I found this out because I wanted to hear what the different Powr algorithms sounded like, so I tried importing a -75dbFs 24 bit sine wave into WB and bouncing it with dither. Then reimporting it into Logic and putting enough gain on it to hear what's happening.
My experiments show that it turns into a nasty square wave or something similar when bounced.
Doesn't matter what the dither settings are.
I created a 16 bit dithered file of that same sine wave in Izotope RX using Mbit+ dither and burned it to a CD in WB directly without bouncing, then reimported it into Logic.
I heard a sine wave amidst a lot of noise. This is what it should sound like.
Did the same thing using Barbabatch. It's dither wasn't as good but it was basically the same thing.
Did the same thing with a bounce in WB, and it was corrupted. Night and Day. A buzzy wave with no noise at all. The dither doesn't work. It's just truncating the audio from what I can tell. I tried all the dither settings in the preferences I could find. They don't work.
In fact, even if you bounce a predithered file without doing anything else to it, it will get corrupted. Just the act of bouncing truncates the lowest bits.
You can't do mastering and you can't use plugins on files going to 16 bit without dithering.
The only way this software can be used is to import finished and dithered 16 bit files and not do ANYTHING to them. No bouncing of any kind. No plugins, no fades, no level adjustments. Nothing except ordering, spacing, and hitting the burn command.
Only under those conditions does it not corrupt the audio in the lowest bits.
Try my experiment if you don't believe it. You can create a low level sine wave with the test oscillator in Logic.
Hopefully this will get fixed.
MacPro 2.66 Quad, 11GB Ram, (3) WD Raptor SATA drives, Mac OS X (10.5.8), MOTU 896mk3, UAD-2 quad, (2) Unitor8s, MCcontrol/MCmix, KORE, Melodyne
