24/96 wav to 16/44 FLAC - what does dithering/SRC?

WaveLab
1

Hello,

I am using WL7 for vinyl restoration and my end product after each session is a series of 24/96 wav files representing the processed tracks from the LP transferred.

Currently - I listen to these files in high res FLAC format so I have the Batch converter set up with a FLAC preset that takes the 24/96 wavs and bulk converts them to a 24/96 FLAC file.

BUT - if I wanted smaller files or 16/44.1 files to burn to CD, I see I could convert these to a 16/44.1 FLAC file using Batch Convertor…simply a case of creating a FLAC preset, adjusting the resolution and sample rate.

But what exactly is WL7 doing regarding dithering? Is there internal dithering happening? Is there no dithering at all? Or are the resulting files just being hacked down to the lower resolution and sample rate with no specific “treatment” whatsoever?

In the vinyl restore world - dithering to the 16 bit and down sampling to 44.1 is a huge topic and almost always involves the izoTope algorithms for best results…yet here in WL7 - I see no evidence of what (if anything) is actually doing any work to provide any dithering - and I am assuming now that none of this is occurring. And if that is the case - just what kind of file quality am I getting?

I want the highest quality conversion for this step but would like to know what is exactly happening in WL when I apply a 16/44 FLAC preset to a 24/96 source file.

Cheers,

VP

2

By principle, WaveLab does not apply dithering or any other process; this is up to you to select this.

3

PG,

But say - I didn’t select anything - and just ran a few 24/96 files thru a 16/44.1 FLAC conversion - what will WL7 do to the resulting files? Make them sound bad? Create 16/96 wavs or what?

Also - could I insert a dither plugin into my FLAC batch preset and if so - when will the dithering be applied? Prior to the conversion to the 16/44 wav or when?

VP

4

Ho< do you convert from 96k to 44.1? From WaveLab 7.1, you get a warning + advice if you try to do it at the stage of the file output. The proper way is to use this plugin chain:
Crystal Resampler plugin, followed by a Limiter such as Peak Master, and last a Dithering plugin.

5

Thanks PG. I will give it a shot.

VP