[LAU] Dithering...should we dither about it?

[Monty Montgomery]

> actually, you *must* dither at every truncation step - if you don't, you
> will lose information _and_ introduce signal-dependent requantisation
> noise, which can never be removed again.
> so the best approach is to only reduce the wordlength once, at the very
> end of the chain, before going to CD.

This is a correct recommendation.

> some mastering people (bob katz among them) even go as far as demanding
> dither at every level control in the chain.

Strictly speaking, this does not save you (and by you, I mean Bob
Katz).  Further operations after dithering can 'break' the dither and
reintroduce distortion.  Then you have the worst of both worlds; the
distortion _and_ the added noise.

Working at 24 bit / 32 float, this is academic and won't hurt you in
any audible way.  It's too far below the audible floor to care about.

Monty