It includes a similar TPDF dither algorithm to some of the more heavyweight offerings, but without additional bells and whistles. This is a Power PC-only VST plug-in that will run in Audioease's VST Wrapper on Mac G4s and G5s. If you're after a freebie, you could give MDA's Dither a try. Again, we'll look at this in a moment, but until MOTU clear this up, or actually re-configure DP to behave as the manual suggests, it's best to ignore it and stick with this column instead! The otherwise commendable DP5 manual (and other DP manuals before it) is a little short on dither detail, and contains a mistake which can lead to much confusion. Dither & DPĪs a digital audio workstation capable of recording and playing audio at 24- and 16-bit resolution (and with 32-bit processing resolution) DP needs to be able to dither: and it can, in several different ways, all of which we'll look at in a moment. For this reason (amongst others), it's always worthwhile recording at 24-bit resolution in DP, even if your final goal is distribution of your work on 16-bit CD. It does this by adding an element of randomness into the resulting digital signal which we perceive as very low-level noise, and which not only 'masks' the distortions caused by the drop in resolution but actually manages the seemingly impossible trick of extending dynamic range in the lower-resolution format beyond theoretical limits. What?ĭither is a process, then, that aims to preserve the sonic attributes of a high-resolution recording when it's converted to a lower resolution, like the 24-bit to 16-bit bounce just mentioned. You'll still end up with a playable, recognisable 16-bit file, but one which doesn't sound as good as it could or should, and quite possibly has acquired some grainy distortion, particularly on low-level signals. If the bounce is done without dither, the last eight digits of every 24-bit sample is simply discarded, along with all the precious and subtle audio information they contained. The need for dither arises when you reduce the resolution of a digital recording, the most common situation being when you're working on a 24-bit DP project and need to make a 16-bit bounce of it, ready for burning to CD. That said, it's important to know about it and how Digital Performer (or Audiodesk, for that matter) applies it. It's inextricably tied up with the maths that lie behind digital systems, so that puts plenty of people off from the start! It also has the whiff of high-end hi-fi hogwash about it - like those £500 kettle leads. So here it is: the SOS Digital Performer dither primer.ĭither is one of the trickiest concepts that we digital audio users ever have to get our heads round. If you're serious about digital audio you need to know about dither - both what it is and when to use it. Here an iZotope Ozone 3 plug-in running on a Master Fader Track is shown applying MBIT dither to a classical multitrack mix. Needless to say, it's not possible to disable this from inside Preview.Dither is a de rigeur process when making a 16-bit copy of a sequence recorded at 24-bit. In addition, it might be the reason for some huge (say, 40k x 20k) panos initially loading (with screen resolution) but, then, increasingly getting blocked in some seconds by non-transparent blocks like in the following screenshots (displaying a 40k x 20k pano):Īfter 13 seconds - and, after this, the entire surface gets increasingly more hidden I really don't need this feature - it's pretty distracting when all I want is to quickly check out my shots. The case is the same in Yosemite (OS X 10.10 as of the current (second) public beta). This, in general, results in the images' being divided into 4 quarters and updating (in most cases, slightly enhancing the contrast) these image quarters,one after the other, after the initial loading. After upgrading to Mavericks (OS X 10.9(.4)), I've noticed the stock Preview app has some kind of automatic image enhancement going on when simply presenting images.
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