As mentioned, you'd want to dither to 16 at the last step.I don't think there's a difference, but what would you guys do?
I'm exporting my track to .wav to normalize it. Should I convert from a higher bit to 16 bit (and dithering) when I first export it to .wav or when exporting the second time to .wav after normalizing?
You should stay at 24bits until you create the consumer version that you will distribute. There is almost NEVER a reason to normalize. I don't even know why the normalize button exists.
As mentioned, you'd want to dither to 16 at the last step.
Initially, you can export the song at the native sample rate and bit depth of the mix session before doing any mastering/processing, although some ME's like to up-sample and work at 96Khz before dithering down to the target sample rate for distribution/streaming. gl
Here's a decent article on dither: What is dither? | EarLevel Engineering
You generally want to set your final level in the mastering session, so if you are using a brick wall limiter (best to use in place of the normalizer) which is very common, you can set the ceiling on the limiter at -.2dB full scale. You really don't want to hit zero.Hey man, correct me if I'm wrong.
If i mixed and mastered the track at (for example) -3dB (for headroom) and at the end of the master channel I locked the ceiling at (for example) -2dB. I should normalize the track to make the final product reach 0dB. No?
I don't think there's a difference, but what would you guys do?
I'm exporting my track to .wav to normalize it. Should I convert from a higher bit to 16 bit (and dithering) when I first export it to .wav or when exporting the second time to .wav after normalizing?