The following controls are located in the
Control | Description |
Bit depth | Choose a setting to specify the number of bits that should be used to store each sample. |
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Dither | This control allows you to specify the randomness of the dither (generated noise) used to mask quantization |
| distortion resulting from conversion to a lower bit depth. You can select from several shapes, each roughly |
| describing the pattern that would be produced if you plotted a graph with the dither amplitude on the |
| and the probability of the dither values on the |
| As is frequently the case when working with audio, experimentation with dither values yields the best results; |
| however, keep the following information in mind: |
| • Half Rectangular Eliminates distortion resulting from conversion to a lower bit depth, but the noise level is |
| more likely to be dependent on the signal. This setting uses a maximum dither noise amplitude of 0.5 LSB |
| (least significant bit). |
| • Rectangular Identical to Half Rectangular, but with a maximum dither noise amplitude of 1 LSB (least |
| significant bit). |
| • Triangular Eliminates distortion products as well as any noise floor modulation, but results in a slightly higher |
| noise level. The option typically works well in conjunction with noise shaping. |
| • Highpass Triangular Behaves like triangular dither, but shifts its noise into higher frequencies. This is typically |
| the best option when used in conjunction with noise shaping. |
| • Gaussian Does not perform as well as Rectangular and Triangular dither, but may be suitable for certain |
| audio. |
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Noise shaping | Determines the aural positioning of quantization noise. Using this control, you can shift the noise into audio |
| registers that are less perceptible to human hearing. This lowers the perceived noise floor and creates the |
| illusion of cleaner audio. |
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| Equal loudness contour noise shaping attempts to push the noise under an equal |
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More | Click this button to view additional options that you can use to adjust your data window selection. For more |
| information, see Adjusting the data window selection on page 174. |
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Noise shaping dangers
Noise shaping places quantization noise near the audio’s Nyquist frequency, a value equal to
•A file with a sample rate of 44.1 kHz has a Nyquist frequency of 22.05 kHz (at the high end of human hearing). Applying noise shaping to this file results in audio perceived to be cleaner than it actually is.
•A file with a sample rate of 22 kHz has a Nyquist frequency of 11 kHz (well within the sensitive range of human hearing). Applying noise shaping to this file results in audio that is perceived to be noisier than it actually is. Ironically, this defeats the entire purpose of the Noise shape control.
For this reason, we do not recommend using noise shaping on files with sample rates less than 44.1 kHz.
PROCESSING AUDIO 177