Samples for MD do you dither it before transfer?

sps · 2014-05-15T10:31:08.000Z

Hi,

I now MD accept samples 4-48khz and convert to mono during transfering it to SDS via C6. MD accept 24 bit too, but will play it at 12bit.
If you had 16bit or 24bit samples do you dither it to 12bit before transfer it?
So the package size is smaller and it doesn´waste to much space on the +drive.
The effect for the sound may be negligible because that the audible quantization errors occur mostly at the lower amplitude levels.
So its only a positive effect for space in memory?

Cause i´m a lazy and not a patient guy I don´t do anything at all my samples i throw on MD and thats it.

the_dreammer · 2014-05-15T12:45:33.000Z

When I did “the sessions around the house” … It was just samples I dumped into my machinedrum… worked fine… but I did run out of diskspace/memory quickly.

If I put more effort in it… I would have used less space… and I think next time I try this workflow for something… I put more single cycle wav’s in it… Gives enough synth-power to create a nice background layer for your beats to swim in… (think of bass and bleepy fx) …

t · 2014-05-15T13:01:29.000Z

Unless you’re using samples with quiet sections, I don’t think there’s a huge need to do any dithering at all.

The goal of dithering is to mask audible quantization errors that can result from going down in bit depth, but you’ll only ever hear these when the dynamic range is very low, which hardly ever is the case with your average sample.

husc · 2014-05-15T13:11:27.000Z

I try to convert to 16bit if necessary and always make it mono before I send it!

I have a +drive so if I really need free space to I can just switch sampleslots for another 2,5MB (I use the RAM machines a lot in projects).

Veets · 2014-05-15T20:05:58.000Z

I never dither either. My understanding is that converting down to 12 bit does not help b/c it will up-convert it back to 16 bit. However cutting the sample rate down to lower than 44.1 kHz does help. For a lot of samples, dropping the sample rate doesn’t cause you much loss at those super high-octaves anyway.