stereo bounce in DP 4.6

[fabtranzer]

Dear All,

What s the best way to bounce a 24/44.1 full session to a 'mastering ready' stereo mix ?
Do you just do a 'bounce to disk', or has someone else noticed a difference in quality when routing all the tracks to a stereo bus linked to a record enabled stereo track wich records the mix in real time ?

Do you guys use the mastering tools in DP ?
What are the steps to dither down to a 16 bits CD playable mix ?
What about the 64bits option in the wave export menu option ? How and why do you guys use that ?

Thanks a lot for all your inputs.

Best regards
Fab

[Kubi]

What s the best way to bounce a 24/44.1 full session to a 'mastering ready' stereo mix ?
Do you just do a 'bounce to disk', or has someone else noticed a difference in quality when routing all the tracks to a stereo bus linked to a record enabled stereo track wich records the mix in real time ?

I use Bounce to Disk, keeping the full 24/44.1 resolution. Have not noticed any difference bewteen bounce and record, and technically there shouldn't be one anyway.

Do you guys use the mastering tools in DP ?

No. If I have to self-master (i.e. for pre-releases or demos) I use Waves L3 for limiting and EQ, and if necessary Sonalksis Compression. For commercial releases and if I can at all afford it, I use a professional mastering house.

What are the steps to dither down to a 16 bits CD playable mix ?

Since you want to dither once, and only once, I usually export my 24/44.1 mix into Peak, or into a DP session, set up my entire mastering chain, including EQ, compression, limiting, followed by dither at the very end (i usually use IDR by Waves, some people prefer the BIAS Peak dither; you can use the DP dither plug, too) and when all is to my liking, I bounce to a 16/44.1 file and check "do not import".

I usually have my DP dither (under the Audio menu) turned OFF. If I understand it right, it only kicks in if you export from the soundbite window at lesser resolutions, but since I like to always know when I'm dithering I just keep it off and insert my own preferred dither when I need it.