Bit-shifting?

WaveLab
1

In all the provisions for gain adjustment on a file, is it possible to arrange a change in exact 2:1 (6.02… dB) steps? Specifically, shifting the values of the sample one bit position to the left or right, with the effect of increasing or decreasing the number of 0s in front of the first 1. keeping the values of all bits after that the same (except for underflow ). This is a ‘logical’ operation (Logical Shift Left, Logical Shift Right) that is present in most CPU instruction sets.

If it is not possible with present gain adjustment setting provisions, could it be added as an option? I admit this is mainly for ‘scientific’ rather than ‘musical’ purposes. This complements the often useful ‘BitMeter’ facility.

2

As you point out, this is more for ‘scientific’ purposes than ‘musical’ purposes. And even in the first case, is there any real interest?

3

I admitted ‘possibly not’. However, in what is currently provided, is it possible to adjust the gain by exactly 2 or 0.5, and if so, is there any subsequent dithering, as I believe is the usual practice after any multiplication operation on audio?

4

WaveLab operates on floating point samples, hence dithering needs to be done at the end of the audio chain, and it’s your responsability (by design, WaveLab won’t do it automatically).